Re: Conversions driven by Offline Media?

From: Miki Dzugan <mdzugan_at_markneting.com>
Date: Fri 16 May 2003 08:14:07 -0500

Jens Jokschat wrote

>Suppose a client states its URL on TV spots as well as magazines. Say we
>simultaneously run an online campaign linking to the same site. The
>inevitable question will pop up--which media contributed, and to what
>extent, to overall conversions? To make things more challenging, the client
>also has a phone number on its website. Visitors call in and convert on the
>phone, if they don't want to buy online. So adserver tracking alone won't
>do. Has there been research/experience on the issue to what extent a TV or
>magazine campaign can drive online conversions?
>
>P.S. Ok, using different URLs for different media would solve the problem,
>but is suboptimal for branding the main URL.

Jens, while I don't have exact numbers, we have had excellent
experience with offline advertising driving traffic and sales.
The two tactics that worked best were cable TV ads for a unique
product that drove both call in and Web site sales. In that
case we knew that the sales were coming from the ad because
there were no other mentions of the Web site, not even search
engines. For that product, online sales actually exceeded the
800 number orders.

The other instance that we were able to track through unique
URL was actually a sponsorship of "Writer's Almanac" on NPR by
a used book seller. The sponsorship was responsible for half
of the sales with search engine promotion and referrer links
being responsible for the other half. In this case there was
no phone option.

As for an alternative to unique URLs, you can rely on customers
reporting where the heard about you or include promotional
codes in your URL.

The way the promo code would work is to create a special
discount and say in the ad, "To receive your discount go to
www.your-url.com/1234/
where 1234 is the discount code unique to your tv or printed
ad. You use the discount code to track the source. Or you
can advertise the basic url and request the discount code in
the order form. This can work on the phone, too, if the
operators are trained to ask for a discount code and enter it
with the order information.

Miki Dzugan

www.markneting.com




Received on Fri May 16 2003 - 08:14:07 CDT