• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 18, 2010

Microsoft recently released two reports that help advertisers focus on moving past attributing the sale to the last click, because as we know, research proves that ads that consumers see impact the decision long before they make the purchase.

As part of Microsoft Atlas Advertiser Suite, the company introduced Conversion Window Analysis, and Conversion Funnel Analysis in the Advanced Analytics Pack, a suite of about 12 reports that help answer fundamental questions of marketers, including frequency capping, daypart targeting, optimal frequency to show converters, and creative optimization.

Conversion Window Analysis, in combination with Engagement Mapping, gives advertisers and publishers credit for impacting a consumer well beyond the average 14-day window. Conversion Funnel Analysis identifies the publishers and the stages in the sales funnel.

For many years, advertisers have run the Time to Convert Analysis, but the challenge has been to determine the amount of consideration time to give from the time when a consumer engages with the brand to when they actually commit an action and buy something. That question has eluded advertisers for years. "Most take an educated guess on the window of time," says Morris Martin, senior marketing research manager, adding that the reports for advertisers typically take about five days to run. "This report empowers advertisers to answer that fundamental question in a quantifiable way for advertisers."

Martin suggests marketers should take a first step by quantifying all available data. Especially in paid search, advertisers often have a huge amount of keywords, but typically the highest-performing keywords represent the brand advertiser's name. This has the highest click-through rate and costs the least.

The analysis reports and tools help marketers understand the many keywords that actually impact consumers, as well as the ads and the links they click on that lead to the final conversion. By using the analysis, advertisers can quantify the data and get a more complete view on the complete funnel.