• by Aaron Reinitz , March 3, 2009

Let's start by saying nothing new, and borrow a popular exposition from industry trade news and opinion. Many media planners, ordinarily accustomed to evaluating campaigns based upon brand metrics, are finding their clients increasingly interested in results linked directly to sales. And, some account leads and AEs are considering shifting budgets from traditional media into more measurable online efforts.

That means folks with varying levels of experience in online direct response are being held accountable for conversion metrics, and could potentially struggle with effective execution. For example, when managing an online direct response oriented campaign, some rely on click-through rates and cost per acquisition. While effective as broad indicators, on their own they sometimes over-simplify a direct response campaign, and do a poor job of answering the question "Why?" The following is a guide to implementing tools that gauge measures of intention, help media planners explain their results and guide the process of smarter optimization.

But first, the fine print: Not all sites and purchase engines are the same. There are dozens of site-side variables that need to be evaluated when working out a post-click tracking strategy with a client. These include security and data sensitivity, in-house vs. outsourced IT management, associated time and financial costs of implementing site changes and overall technology flexibility/compatibility on behalf of all parties involved.

Sometimes, it may be more realistic to pick and choose from the following recommendations to find the right fit for your client, goals, and budget. Most importantly, these recommendations are not guaranteed to provide results. Ultimately, it's about getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time.

That said, it all starts with clicks, cookies and cough drops. Upon clicking, users are identified as having clicked on a specific ad by being cookied, in other words, tagged. When dealing with clients of a traditional background, I've found this metaphor helpful: A neighborhood pharmacy places a promotional Advertisement in the local paper, "Readers of the Post Gazette, get half off Cough Drops today!" The page on which the ad ran that day happened to have had particularly runny ink. Those who saw the ad, perhaps touched it before turning the page, and unknowingly got a hint of ink smeared on their shirt sleeve. The rest of the day, that ink will remain on their sleeve, and will identify them as having seen and touched the pharmacy's ad. They have been cookied. All of the indicators (conversions) in the following scenario look for the ink on the users' sleeve, and only measures those who touched the ad as "correlated."

Once a banner click has taken place, the first measurement of intent you should be paying attention to is a landing page conversion. This is a key determinant of the percentage of your clickers are qualified to be on your client's site. It is measured by placing a conversion pixel, light code generated by your ad server, on the landing page itself. In our pharmacy metaphor, your conversion pixel is a person standing at the front entrance with a little notepad and a pen, watching the people who arrive with ink on their sleeves. People who open the door are clicks, people who open the door and step into the building are landing page conversions. There's a difference.

Sites providing a lot of clicks, but fewer landing page conversions, need to be evaluated right away, as this is a very strong initial indicator of quality of traffic. Additionally, it can act as a red flag for technical difficulties.

It is important at this point to discuss the landing page. Now that your qualified user has arrived, this is your only shot to make a first impression. As a media planner, it's helpful to have an opinion of the landing page rooted in experience and data. Controlled cohesiveness between the media environment, the banner creative, and the landing page are strong indicators of later success. Image, copy, colors, style, and ultimately, making good on the call to action, will keep users on the path to conversion. For example, our Pharmacy needs to have a big sign that is visible upon entrance stating "Half Price Cough Drops! Please see Pharmacist." The person knows right away they're in the right place, and, where they need to go from here.

The next step in the process is measuring purchase intent. If your client is selling something online, purchase intent is defined as a user clicking from the landing page and entering purchase engine/e-commerce engine. The best way to measure this is by working with your client's site developers to create a purchase intent interstitial, a light redirect page that is embedded with a unique conversion pixel. Returning to our metaphor, you have a second person with a note pad, this time standing in the store, counting the people with ink on their sleeves as they approach the counter of the pharmacy. The clicker has opened the door, walked in the pharmacy, seen the promotional sign, and are heading to the counter for their discount cough drops. Each one of them count as a purchase intent conversion.

Next, you need to measure your sales conversions, this is where CPA comes in. Sales conversions are accounted for by placing another conversion pixel on a purchase confirmation page. In other words, this pixel fires once the sale is complete. In our pharmacy, it's like being able to count the number of receipts your cash register printed for sales driven by people with ink on their sleeves. CPA would be total cost of the newspaper ads divided by the number of "ink sleeve" receipts.

Lastly, it is important to compare your intention rate to your sales conversion rate: What is happening in line and at the register? How is the user experience in the purchase engine? Is everything functioning the way it should be? Do they have the user's size, color, destination, flavor, shipping, and preferred price point? Did the user feel secure? Could they find the "checkout" button? Benchmarking, and later analyzing, the drop-off between intention rate and conversion rate will speak volumes about the purchase experience. Additionally, it may lead to a conversation about deeper site analytics.

In conclusion, combining the data collected in the above scenario provides analysis to support the general indicators of campaign success. The inclusion of intention metrics in campaign analysis enhances DR strategies by adding consumer insight to ROI. By doing this, you can propel your campaigns to a new level by optimizing at every step of the purchase decision process. Without this data, and by only concentrating on the final action, a purchase, marketers may achieve good results, but rarely will achieve great results. And, if things aren't working, you have little idea why (at least from a media perspective). And worse yet, without in depth analysis, you risk only optimizing to those individuals that were likely to purchase your product on their own, and could ignore the great mass of individuals that may need an extra nudge. In the end, the right combination of cookies, clicks and conversions will help you better make decisions to please your clients.