Thinking Beyond the Shopping Cart

By Kevin Lee, ClickZ, Mar 13, 2009

The economic recession is the perfect time for retailers engaged in paid search marketing to think beyond the "thank you" page when establishing metrics to optimize campaigns. If you're a retailer and only consider revenue generated at the instant of the sale, you may be missing huge optimization opportunities.

Many marketers think online retailers have it easy because they collect revenue data online. Online shopping carts are the primary way that customers order, so these shopping cart pages -- and the resulting revenue -- are often the only means by which campaigns are optimized. The most common way that a shopping cart-based campaign is optimized is based on a return on ad spending (ROAS) ratio. This optimization metric and ratio works well if retailers:

• Have a consistent profit margin across products.
• Prefer to focus purely on the immediate measurable results of the campaign, thus ignoring:
  
•  Lost cookies: Tracking is generally accomplished via a piece of code called a cookie. A significant percentage of cookies are lost due to cookie blocking programs and cookie deletion. Conversions may therefore be occurring that aren't tracked. Estimates are that from between 10 to 30 percent of cookies are lost over a period of a single month.
  
• Lagged conversions: Cookies have expiration periods and conversions sometimes occur after a cookie's expiration. Does this matter to you?
  
• Cross-computer use: Some buyers research on one computer and then consummate the purchase on a different computer, for example work versus home computer.
  
• Influencers and designated searchers: Some households or workplaces have a designated searcher. Sometimes this designated searcher uses one computer to locate a particular product. After searching and finding the requested product, the link to that product can be e-mailed or sent by instant message to the requestor, who subsequently makes the purchase. Cookie tracking isn't possible in this scenario. So, what fudge factor should you use to reflect influencers?
  
• Brand lift or influence: Not every customer is ready to buy today, or even this week. Some marketers prefer to include lift in branding metrics as a success factor. Considered measuring or factoring in brand lift.
  

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