Can you successfully measure offline conversions from online marketing?

 

 

If only life was simple. If customers were more helpful, they’d restrict their buying habits to a single channel. They’d either go into a shop, or they’d buy online. They definitely wouldn’t go into a shop and then buy online to get a better deal. Or go online to research a product and then buy it in a shop. Or go online, head for the nearest store, and then see a better deal advertised by a competitor on the back of a bus. You get the picture.

 

If life was simple, we’d know that a customer - call her Jane - searched for ‘best deal new iPad’, clicked through to a ‘best deals on a new iPad’ website landing page, and bought an iPad.

 

But what if Jane researches her new iPad online, but doesn’t buy it? What if she wants to go into a store, pick it up, feel how heavy it is, or compare it side-by-side with a new netbook?

 

The inconvenient truth is that most customers hop across a number of channels before they make a final purchase decision. We know that the majority of online purchases start with a search (anywhere up to 90%, depending on whose figures you believe). But that’s not the whole story. At a recent presentation I heard from Yahoo!, a search expert said that as many as 63% of people will research a product online and then buy it offline. Online campaigns - whether led by search, display advertising or social media - are influencing people to go into shops and buy. To complicate matters further, around eight per cent (again, from Yahoo!’s figures) of searches that lead to an online sale are prompted by TV advertising.