Mobile devices have changed consumer behavior so dramatically that marketers now must think and measure across multiple devices. This theme resonated with those who attended our Google Partners Connect event on Feb. 8.

Being a Google partner means that Clicks and Clients is recognized by Google as an agency that consistently grows in knowledge and expertise. Google Partners also meet minimum Adwords spend requirements for paid advertising accounts. Working with a Google Partner agency means that the agency has exclusive insight into a community that has special access to events, regular updates and information.

Google unveiled some of those updates Wednesday, as well as insights into consumer purchase behavior that have been previously unseen. Because Google has billions of subscribers signed into multiple apps on a myriad of devices, they can confidently measure how consumers move from consideration to purchase with multiple search terms, platforms and devices. Marketers at the event were eager to learn how they can translate these insights into their own business.

 

Googlers Jeff Montgomery and Kevin Cho discussed the importance of different devices and channels when it comes to tracking the user and their path to purchase.  There were three key points they discussed when it comes to measurement:

  1. Measure across screens. Many times users will start their interaction with a company on their mobile device or tablet, and then end up making a purchase from their desktop. This really encourages advertisers to use their mobile experience to engage customers right away to keep them coming back later. They pointed out a study they conducted in 2016 that showed 75% of adults start on one device and finish on another. Google has the technology to track many users throughout different screens. They pointed out that while there is no way to accurately track this data, many users can be tracked while they are logged in to Google products such as Youtube, Gmail and other services with 100% accuracy. Google also uses algorithms to track cross device conversions and this data is about 95% accurate.
  2. Measure across channels. Google discussed the importance of cross channel attribution. If it takes a user three visits to your site before they make a purchase, cross channel attribution allows you to assign a value to each step in the process. Typical tracking setups attribute all of the credit to the last click that got the user to purchase. In many cases, a user will search multiple keywords or areas before they make a purchase decision. This is especially true in high consideration and high ticket item products such as surgery, vehicles and major home improvements. Cross channel attribution can allow you to gain a better understanding of a user on their path to purchase. Google also discussed the value of data driven attribution and how Adwords can compare the clicks and data in your campaigns to determine which ads brought in the highest conversions, or began the path to purchase. Data driven attribution requires quite a bit of data to drive these decisions, so it is only available for certain advertisers. The Adwords account must have had at least 20,000 clicks and at least 800 conversion actions within a 30 day period in order to qualify.
  3. Don’t Forget Mobile Calls. Google predicted that 73 billion calls will be generated by mobile search in 2018. This highlights the importance of call extensions and tracking calls from ads. It was also really great that Google pointed out some ways to track in store traffic from your online efforts. The Google store visits tool can use an algorithm in some cases to estimate how many customers entered a store as a result of seeing an ad within a 30 day period. Google continually updates this algorithm to ensure they are using the best data and technology to try and gain the most accurate insights.

 

One of the most important aspects of measurement is that advertisers and business owners align business objectives and goals and build campaigns to measure their impact. As a Google Premier Partner, we would love to help you gain further insights into the right strategy for your digital marketing campaigns and how to measure success among them.

 

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