Yesterday, we got an early preview of the first case study Google
will publish on the use of estimated cross-device conversions in
AdWords. It features 1-800-Flowers and also addresses the company’s use
of click-to-call.
When Google first announced the release
of estimated cross-device conversions in October, it seemed to be
received with a collective shrug. Much like the view-through conversion
metric, several marketers I spoke with at the time were skeptical of its
worth. Yet, there are many, such as the 1-800-Flowers team, who have embraced the new insights as a positive move toward giving marketers a more holistic view of their AdWords contribution.
This morning, I spoke with Amit Shah, Vice President of Online,
Mobile and Social for 1-800-Flowers about the case study findings and
how he and his team have use the cross-device data to inform their
marketing efforts. 1-800-Flowers was part of the beta test and began
looking at cross-device conversion estimates in July 2013.
First the stats: When looking at estimated cross-device conversions,
1-800-Flowers saw the overall conversion contribution from AdWords rise 7
percent when counting orders that started on one device and ended on
another. The contribution from mobile devices increased by 4 percent
when looking at conversions that started with a mobile click.
It’s probably not too surprising that click-to-call has worked well
for the company. After all, the very name 1-800-Flowers was explicitly
designed to drive phone orders when the company was founded over 20
years ago. Shah says that 8 to 10 percent of AdWords revenue now comes
through click-to-call on mobile devices.
I asked Shah the obvious question about whether he viewed this new
data with skepticism. He said that while tends to take a skeptical view
of attribution systems in general (and obviously understand that Google
is the one running the auction), the amount of data Google gives it an
unparalleled view of the world. ” Whenever Google introduces measurement
tools, I tend to take it pretty seriously because of their volume. This
is the start of what I think mobile has been lacking,” he says.
“The Users Are The Winners”
“Mobile is where the users are moving,” says Shah. “The users are the
winners with this data availability because marketers will think more
about the mobile experience than they do now. This is a fundamental
change because it’s the user that is being taken into account now.”
To those who still have their doubts about using the cross-device
data to inform their marketing decisions, Shah says, “We have moved on
from the ROI discussion to ROMI, return on marginal investment. What we
now use internally allows me to ask the question, where should I be
investing my marginal dollars for the most efficacy. We always kind of
knew that our customers were moving to mobile, and we have been moving
that way for five years, but we weren’t able to [fully understand the
behavior].
Shah says they are also seeing tablet behavior beginning to morph to a
hybrid of that seen on phones and desktops, with customers using
click-to-call on some of the newer Android tablets. iPad users, however,
still demonstrate typical tablet content consumption behaviors.
Product listing ads have been competitive in the flower delivery
market from day one it seems. Shah says PLAs continue to be a very
important part of the mix. “We see them evolving both in how Google is
testing the display of the ads as well as the algorithm.” They haven’t
seen the same traction from mobile PLAs as non-mobile yet, but believe
that will change and that the image-based ad units are being well
received by users on mobile.
With the insights Shah and his team have gleaned by looking at
cross-device conversions, he says they are asking themselves more
questions about the mobile experiences they are giving prospective
customers. “We are very deeply of the view that we want to run our
marketing from a very user centric lens. We ask, do we have a real view
of how customers are searching for when they are sending a gift to their
loved ones? Are we part of that process? With cross-device conversions,
we have better insight into whether we are really getting our message
to our customers by each medium.
“Now with this data, what marketers should really ask themselves is,
if customers are starting their journey on mobile and we’re not
providing a good experience, were are under serving our audience.”