Offline Conversion Tracking and SEM

I recently read a great article on Clickz.com dealing with the latest data on online consumer search and offline buying habits. A company called ComScore recently conducted studies for Yahoo, Google, and Performics/Doubleclick.

ComScore's March 2006 study found that 63 percent of people that were influenced by conducting online research made their respective purchases offline. In another study Shop.org found that 22 percent of all offline purchases were influenced by online research.

This data isn't a new shocking development or anything of that sort, but it does provide online marketers with a current look into the buying habits of consumers that use the online world to become informed on products and/or prices.

Whether you are an internet marketer like myself, or running small business this presents a major problem. How do I track the effectiveness of my online marketing campaign and ad buying if the majority of my results will be produced in the brick and mortar world?

I’m sorry to say there is no one definitive answer to resolve this problem. The type of product or industry you are primarily promoting will have some effect on the percent of offline purchase you will receive from your online promotion. There is no magic number you can multiply to your online sales and determine your offline ones.

Don’t worry I won’t leave you without some possible solutions to this problem. Here are a couple different methods you can use to determine the ROI of your online marketing efforts towards offline sales:


·Customer tagging: Look at purchases, then marry the online cookie with the offline customer number or credit card data.

.Offer codes: Unique offer codes can be provided for searchers to redeem via phone or in stores.

·Unique pricing: Unique online pricing can also become a tracking code of its own, so when a person requests that price, she must have seen the search landing page.

·Trackable phone numbers: Phone sales can be routed through a tracking system similar to the VoiceXML (define) systems used for pay-per-call systems. This is great for expensive or complex purchases.

·In-store surveys: Survey your customers.

·Anecdotal data: Ask your sales associates if people show up with printouts from the Web site.



These methods are not perfect, but they will definitely help obtain a reasonable idea how your online campaign is going in respect towards offline conversions. There will be improved data tracking solutions in the future as the internet continues its trend toward eventually being the most influential form of marketing.