On the right track? Alan Reeves of Click Consult on the problem of tracking

The ‘worst’ because so many advertisers are still wasting money through poor tracking. I find that many businesses still only use very basic online conversion tracking, typically AdWords Conversion Tracking with Google Analytics Goals or Analytics Ecommerce

Tracking. While this is an improvement on what I used to find seven to ten years ago, when businesses would often be satisfied with visits and clicks, the improvement in technology - and therefore the potential to track and use campaign data - has seen a quantum leap in comparison.

Optimum tracking requires investment

We now have the ability to track so much more than ever before. Some marketers have a finely tuned attribution model based on average customer lifetime values, calculated from a combination of offline and online data. This type of visibility takes investment not only in terms of technology, but also in resource and training; after all, your decisions are only as good as the data you are basing them on.

For example, an eCommerce business that takes orders over the phone is reliant on its call handlers to accurately input call data either via a CRM like Salesforce or through the phone handset using call tracking software like ResponseTap.

Stop thinking about the perfect solution

I believe it is this investment in time and resource that stops many businesses from improving their campaign tracking. There is a middle ground though. We need to stop thinking about the perfect tracking solution and start implementing a better tracking solution.

Aiming to fully close the feedback loop across all sources is fine but you can start to improve your tracking today and work toward this ideal.

My advice would be to create a measurement plan covering every way a customer or prospect can get in touch with you, prioritise which of these are relevant KPIs for your campaigns then, based on these priorities, you can investigate either how to track or how to improve tracking of each metric. Keep in mind that the goal is to improve your campaigns, so you want to be tracking meaningful data that improves decision making.

This is an excerpt of an article from Click Consult’s latest search supplement ‘Personalising Search Marketing’. The remainder of the article, including simple steps to improve your tracking activity, can be can downloaded with the full supplement for free here.

Alan Reeves is director of search at Click Consult.