Tracking the customer journey beyond the last click has long been a key goal for marketers. In the first of a two part article, Matt Swan, Client Strategist at Affiliate Window, offers an in-depth guide to tracking the influence of all digital touch points involved in a sale.
One of the main benefits of operating an online business is that everything is trackable and as an online supplier we’re able to help monitor performance and analyse the findings in great detail. As a network, we have access to a significant amount of data including the cross channel path to conversion and each of the digital touch points involved in a sale, or the customer specific data – telling us what was bought, who bought it and the value of that customer over a prolonged period of time.
This two part article is going to case study the findings from one of the largest brands within the telecoms sector. This first part focuses on the client’s cross channel data and how valuable the affiliate channel can be beyond simply being the last click.
Affiliate networks are able to see the interactions across the performance channel. They can determine how many affiliate touch points were involved, the promotional category they fall within and also who were the individual affiliates involved. They are able to see the typical user journey and answer the questions that are commonly asked such as “do cashback sites just overwrite content sites?”
Where it really gets interesting however is to see how the channel fits in with the other online touch points within a customer journey. This can only be achieved when the advertiser is open to sharing their cross channel data.
One of our key clients within the telecoms sector was open to this data sharing and it presents some interesting findings.
Firstly it enabled us to understand where the affiliate channel was involved in a customer journey prior to the last click. Essentially where the affiliate channel assisted within a sale but it was another outlet that eventually converted the sale. The graph below indicates that the affiliate channel was involved in 25% more sales than it is given credit for on a last click basis. This proves that it does in fact offer value beyond purely converting the sale. The channel has demonstrated its ability to be an influencer as well as a converter. This is an important concept to challenge as often the affiliate channel is maligned as simply a goal-hanging sale converter.
We have been able to break down both sections of this chart further so we are able to analyse the channels that have assisted the affiliate prior to conversion (the 75%) and also the channels that were assisted by an affiliate’s involvement.
Focussing on the 75% where the affiliate channel won the sale on a last click basis, 35% of these sales only had one affiliate click. These were single click sales which also points to these sales being incremental, e.g. if it wasn’t for the involvement of this affiliate the sale may not have occurred. The affiliate channel is beginning to be questioned on the incrementality of sales that it delivers, and this statistic is indicative that it can be a highly incremental channel for advertisers. A further 33% of sales had multiple affiliate referrers, but only the affiliate channel was involved – again pointing to incrementality within the channel. The remaining 32% of sales had another channel involved before the affiliate converted the customer.
Breaking down this 32% further, the majority of sales (49%) was assisted by a PPC click and a further 33% was assisted by SEO. The remainder was helped by display. It is important to note that display has only been based on clicks and has not included impressions. As display is traditionally a branding exercise rather than an acquisition channel, it is not too surprising to see that display involvement is fairly minimal.
We can then look at it from the other perspective. What channels are being assisted by the affiliate channel? Of the 25% (where the affiliate channel is involved but not last click) SEO is the last click on the majority of occasions (57%) followed by PPC (26%) while display is again fairly minimal.
While it is interesting to look at the affiliate channel as a whole, breaking this down by affiliate promotional type gives us an indication of how each is involved at different stages of the customer journey.
For each type, we are able to see where they are the only click, where there are multiple clicks but the affiliate won the sale and where the affiliate type was involved but the sale was awarded to another channel.
The affiliate type that regularly gets questioned on incrementality is cashback sites. From the data we have seen for this advertiser, it is evident that cashback sites deliver the most sales where they are the only click present.
Cashback is the only affiliate type that gains more in multichannel sales than it loses. This is not too surprising considering that the business model is primed to close.
What is maybe more surprising is when we look at voucher code sites. Again these are primed to close sales but of all the promotional types, they lose out the most on multi-channel sales.
We are able to break this down further and look into the channels they are typically overwritten by. On the majority of instances it is another affiliate – typically another voucher code affiliate where the consumer is comparing offers across the various voucher code affiliates. SEO also overwrites voucher codes 36% of the time.
Price comparison and content sites also feature more earlier on in the path to conversion, adding value beyond being purely last click. This advertiser has been able to use this data to understand the sites that are adding value and look into alternative payment metrics such as tenancy deals/higher commissions for the sales they win on a last click basis.
As well as looking at this on a promotional type basis, it is important to look at individual affiliates within each promotional category as their audiences can differ greatly despite being in the same promotional category.
To be able to look at this data in such granular detail has required a significant amount of data sharing. With the end goal being to optimise the customer journey and attribute spend into the appropriate channels, advertisers that are open to data sharing can reap the benefits of this analysis.
By Matt Swan
Client Strategist
Affiliate Window
www.affiliatewindow.com
Matt Swan is a Client Strategist at leading global affiliate network, Affiliate Window. He works with advertisers to offer strategic advice to optimise campaigns. He also contributes to new business pitches and is an active member of the IAB AMC. Matt is a regular guest blogger on E-Consultancy and the A4U amongst other titles.
