by Roger Sikes, emfluence SEM Specialist
Online marketing is full of perks. One of the biggest benefits is the ability to track results so accurately. We can measure exactly how effective our online marketing campaign was at driving online sales. But what about the influence it has on offline sales? Of course we know it happens. But we can’t always measure the exact results, especially since in many cases a retailer’s products can be purchased both online and offline.
Enter RevTrax, a company that offers a marketing analytics platform, who recently released a 2-year study that focused on the offline impact of paid search.
The study tracked purchases converted from a paid search ad. Each user that clicked the ad arrived at a landing page with a barcode and online coupon code unique to their visit. The coupon was used in-store, and the specific code told the researchers which ad they clicked online to receive it.
The conclusion of the study? For every $1 of ecommerce revenue driven by the ads, retailers saw another $6 from offline sales. Pretty great, right?
So, what can we take away from this?
For starters, just because the results of this study showed that PPC drove a large amount of revenue offline, it doesn’t mean that is true for everyone. While it’s safe to say there is an offline benefit to your online marketing efforts, it may not happen at a $6 offline to every $1 online kind of pace.
Maybe your online sales from PPC aren’t where you want them to be, but it’s entirely possible that your PPC campaign is driving more revenue than you initially thought. If you have physical locations where your product is sold, make sure that site visitors can easily find their nearest location from your PPC landing page. Also, track how many people use a search engine to find a store. That won’t tell you how much revenue your store got, but it can give you an idea of how many people visited your store because of your paid ad presence. There’s value in that.
A simple way to determine the influence your PPC strategy has on your offline sales: Conduct your own research and ask your customers. When they visit your business, tempt them with a freebie or some sort of discount for answering a few questions.
- Do you use search engines to find more information on our products/services?
- How often do you visit our business/shop for our product?
- On average, how much do you spend at [business/product name] on each visit?
Remember, keep it short. The key data is going to be whether they use search engines while doing product research, the frequency they visit, and how much they usually spend. From there you can begin to understand the value your PPC campaign has in regards to your offline sales. Chances are, the value is there!
Still not sure of the value in online marketing for offline sales? Check out this blog post by fellow emfluencer, Carolyn Anderson.
