Know Your Return On Investment For Online Marketing.
You have allocated budget into digital marketing. This could be SEM, SEO, Social Media, and more. Despite feeling good that you can see your marketing plan in action, how does one know it is working and bring a return on investment (ROI)? Thankfully, there are tracking mechanisms and tools available to help you gauge your marketing ROI. Tracking equips the customer and marketing company handling the clients’ program with knowledge of what is working, what is not working, and how much revenue each marketing source is bringing in. The result of having proper tracking setup then viewed and reported on helps both the client and marketing agency handling such advertising the power of knowing ROI.
eCommerce Tracking & ROI:
For the person that has an eCommerce website, it is vital to track sales and associated revenue back to the marketing source. Major marketing platforms such as Google Ads PPC, Microsoft Ads, Facebook, and so on have specific tracking code one can copy and paste on a website. Nonpaid platforms such as doing SEO need to be done through placing Google Analytics codes on the website and then setting up goals. Each instance is a bit different to get set up, but the concept is still the same in that one will be able to track sales and associated revenue from each marketing medium.
For instance, in a month, I spent $10,000.00 on Google Ads, $3,000.00 on Facebook marketing, and $1,500.00 for SEO. My total spend all in for marketing is $14,500.00. The important question now is, what was my return on investment? Due to the fact I have eCommerce tracking properly setup and now know firsthand how many sales were made and what the total revenue was. During a monthly meeting with my marketing company, we are reviewing reports and notice that I had $40,000.00 in sales for Google Ads, $7,000.00 for Facebook, and $6,000.00 for related to SEO. I know I have invested $14,500.00 to make $53,000.00. That is a 3.66 to 1 return on marketing investment. There are a lot of factors that contribute to how ROI is measured, but this will give one a general idea on how to track eCommerce marketing ROI.
Website Form Leads Tracking & ROI:
Depending on the type of business a person has, website contact lead forms can play a major role in potential customers contacting you for a product or service. Again, there are tracking mechanisms available to know how many website contact form leads a client is getting from specific marketing sources. Once again, this is done by placing the code on a website provided by Google Ads, Facebook, etc., and doing the same for Google Analytics along with setting up goals. This tracking measure how many website contact form leads derived from each marketing platform.
On the clients contact us form, there is a section one must fill out that says, “where did you find us.” The person (Jon Smith) that submitted the lead selected Facebook ad. When Jon comes into the store to meet the manager to discuss purchasing the product, it is uncovered that the customer who ended up making a purchase is the same person from the website contact form. In the managers’ internal system, she associates this new sale of “X” amount back to the lead source of Facebook Ads advertising. Over the month, there are 15 sales combined from Google Ads, Facebook, and SEO marketing totaling $30,000.00. In this case, the client has spent, for instance, $6,000.00 on their marketing and therefore has an ROI of 5 to 1.
Phone Call Tracking & ROI:
Business get calls all the time! Part of the calls a business gets is phone call leads that come directly from their marketing efforts. There are various call tracking companies out there that one can sign up for and is relatively easy to set up and manage. To do this, usually, a line of JAVA script code is provided from the call tracking company and is placed on the business’ website. From there, a unique number is assigned to swap the original number on a business’s website that is specific and different from each lead source. For example, if one is doing Facebook and Google Ads marketing only, then only two tracking numbers would be needed. Only when a user clicks on a Google PPC ad or paid Facebook ad (etc.) and goes to the website will the business’s phone number swap to this unique number. Once the number is called, it automatically routes to the real store number. Most call tracking systems provide great information such caller ID, a time called, what marketing source the call came from, and can even record the phone call if the business chooses to do so.
At the end of the month, it is found that a business received 50 unique phone calls from Google Ads, paid Facebook advertising, and organic SEO traffic of Google and Bing. Through listening matching up the caller ID to orders received over the phone, or from users coming into the store, it is determined that revenue made was $20,000.00 and spent $4,000.00 on marketing efforts. In this case, the ROI would be 5-1.
Walk-In Tracking & ROI:
Depending on the type of business, walk-in traffic is important to track when determining ROI. Walk-ins could be people that saw the storefront across the street while in their cars. Or, it could also be people that walked into a stores’ business as a result of online marketing. Let’s say over a month; 1,200 people came into the store (walk-ins). Out of that, 400 made a purchase. Next, out of the 400 walk-ins, through internal tracking at the register, 200 of them were associated with digital marketing mediums such as Google Ads, Facebook, and Google organic/SEO. The sales from these walk-ins totaled $30,000.00, and marketing investment was $5,000.00. That is a 6 t o1 return.
When Combining All Of The ROI Tracking Techniques Above:
As illustrated above, knowing your ROI is important. Although there is a bit of extra work involved to get tracking setup, it is well worth it because the businesses’ management/ownership will know if their marketing investment is working or not. Without knowing your ROI objectively, it is like driving in the middle of nowhere without GPS – you do not know where you are headed. Knowing your return on investment takes away subjectively and instead, bases important marketing decisions on objectivity.
