Tracking the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in the online store
In this article I would like to talk about how to track the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns. And we are talking about online advertising campaigns (context, banners, e-mails, etc.).
Let's say you create an advertising campaign in Yandex Direct. Put on the account 10,000 rubles. and wait for an increase in the number of orders. But among other things, it is also necessary to track the results. In this case, it is necessary to count how many visitors who have come to our website through an advertising link have made an order.
It would seem that nothing is easier. We solved this task as follows: a special “signal” was added to a link to our site in an advertisement, i.e. some additional parameter that is needed in order to fix it on the side of the site and understand that the client came from this advertisement. Suppose we advertise a page with new kitchen tables, the address of the page mysite.ru/tables. We add to the address something like this mysite.ru/tables?source=direct and thus, using the source parameter, we can determine where the client came from. In this case, as an example, I assigned the value “direct” to this parameter, hinting that our hypothetical client came from Yandex Direct. In practice, of course, it is more expedient to indicate there more informative text, for example, an indication of a specific advertising campaign (? Source = tables_8_mart - advertising campaign - discounts on tables in honor of March 8).
And it seems like everything works well. The client came to the site via this link. The script caught the source parameter (in case there is such a parameter), i.e. I learned where a man came from. Recorded this data in the session. And then if a person left an order, he entered this data from the session to the order (for example, in the database in the table of orders for the order they created an additional field source), thereby linking the order to a specific advertising campaign. As a result, at the end of the advertising campaign, we can safely climb into the database of orders and see if there are any orders that have the ID of a particular action in the source (for example, our tabkes_8_mart). We counted the number of these orders and understood how much this advertising campaign brought us.
All this is quite simple. But there is one problem: how to deal with those customers who came to the site through an advertising link, did not buy anything, and then returned and placed an order? Return to the client can already for a direct link or find us through a search engine. Those. not the fact that when you re-visit the site in the URL will be the source parameter. But statistics says that buyers usually make a purchase not in the first visit to the site, but after some time, up to several days. He needs to think, look at prices on other sites, compare, etc. Those. it takes time.
How to deal with such visitors? How to track them? Naturally, any web programmer will say that it is necessary to use the cookie mechanism. If in a nutshell, then the client who came to the site using the advertising link should be noted, but not in the session, but in the cookie and then when he visits the site again, watch his cookie and, if they have information about the source, fix it in the order (if he made an order). It seems to be nothing complicated here. And it is this moment that we are now trying to implement in our store. Those. before that, we recorded visitors only when they first visited the site via an advertising link. Now they decided to add work with cookies in order to record their repeated visits. But immediately faced with several controversial situations. I will describe them below:
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Situation One : The client came through an advertising link of the form mysite.ru/tables? Source = ..., placed an order and left the site. In this case, everything is simple. We have fixed the order with a reference to it source. This situation is not controversial. It's all clear.
Situation two : The client came through an advertising link of the form mysite.ru/tables?source = ..., placed an order, left the site, then after some time returned to the site (for example, by a direct link without the source parameter) and place an order again. How to be in this case? Does the second order (and all subsequent ones) be recorded in the account of this advertising campaign? Those. to bind all his orders to the source? After all, the situation is hypothetically possible: the client went to the site via an advertising link, bought a phone, then placed an order for another case (i.e., for some reason, he did not do it in one order, because either he didn’t figure out how to work with a basket, or just a day later I realized that he still needed a cover, or, say, the phone was available and the cover was in preorder, so it was impossible to arrange them in one order, in short there could be many situations). It turns out that he has two orders and, in fact, the merit of both these orders is the very advertising link there. But there may be another situation: a person came through an advertising link, placed the first order for a phone (that is, the first order was 100% - this was due to the advertising campaign), and then, for example, a month later I decided to buy a cover. I remembered our site, found it on the Internet, went in, bought it. And here is the question - is the second order worth considering the merit of an advertising campaign on which he came to us for the first time or not? After all, if you argue this way, then it turns out that then for life all customer orders are to be credited with this very advertising campaign? Hardly! To be honest, we have decided for ourselves how to interpret this situation correctly. We agree that it is necessary to define a certain term. Say, from the moment a person came to our website through an advertising link and within 30 days, all orders during this period should be considered the merit of an advertising campaign and mark them with reference to the source (for example, tables_8_mart).
Situation three : The client came through an advertising link of the form mysite.ru/tables?source = ..., left the site without leaving orders, then returned via another link of the type mysite.ru/tables?source=… (for example, the first time it came by the link from the direct, and the second time from the link from the mailing list) and placed an order. I believe that in this case we fix the issued order with reference to the second source, i.e. to an advertising campaign from the list.
Situation Four : The client came through an advertising link of the form mysite.ru/tables?source = ..., left the site without leaving orders, then returned through "long", for example, after six months. To perceive this client as a “returnee” precisely for the very advertisement for which he came to us for the first time or as a new client. Or as a “returnee” but in a general sense, without being tied to the advertising campaign on which he came for the first time?
So far, we have these four questions, these four situations. And at the moment they do not allow us to write any algorithm. Actually, in the comments I would like to hear a couple of opinions on this issue. Can someone tell me some guidance on the proper organization of tracking such clients and advertising campaigns. I have, frankly, something travel to google on this topic, has not yet succeeded. Therefore, you have to rely on your conclusions and reasoning. But I am afraid that they may be erroneous and that in fact there are more controversial situations than I have described.
Let's say you create an advertising campaign in Yandex Direct. Put on the account 10,000 rubles. and wait for an increase in the number of orders. But among other things, it is also necessary to track the results. In this case, it is necessary to count how many visitors who have come to our website through an advertising link have made an order.
It would seem that nothing is easier. We solved this task as follows: a special “signal” was added to a link to our site in an advertisement, i.e. some additional parameter that is needed in order to fix it on the side of the site and understand that the client came from this advertisement. Suppose we advertise a page with new kitchen tables, the address of the page mysite.ru/tables. We add to the address something like this mysite.ru/tables?source=direct and thus, using the source parameter, we can determine where the client came from. In this case, as an example, I assigned the value “direct” to this parameter, hinting that our hypothetical client came from Yandex Direct. In practice, of course, it is more expedient to indicate there more informative text, for example, an indication of a specific advertising campaign (? Source = tables_8_mart - advertising campaign - discounts on tables in honor of March 8).
And it seems like everything works well. The client came to the site via this link. The script caught the source parameter (in case there is such a parameter), i.e. I learned where a man came from. Recorded this data in the session. And then if a person left an order, he entered this data from the session to the order (for example, in the database in the table of orders for the order they created an additional field source), thereby linking the order to a specific advertising campaign. As a result, at the end of the advertising campaign, we can safely climb into the database of orders and see if there are any orders that have the ID of a particular action in the source (for example, our tabkes_8_mart). We counted the number of these orders and understood how much this advertising campaign brought us.
All this is quite simple. But there is one problem: how to deal with those customers who came to the site through an advertising link, did not buy anything, and then returned and placed an order? Return to the client can already for a direct link or find us through a search engine. Those. not the fact that when you re-visit the site in the URL will be the source parameter. But statistics says that buyers usually make a purchase not in the first visit to the site, but after some time, up to several days. He needs to think, look at prices on other sites, compare, etc. Those. it takes time.
How to deal with such visitors? How to track them? Naturally, any web programmer will say that it is necessary to use the cookie mechanism. If in a nutshell, then the client who came to the site using the advertising link should be noted, but not in the session, but in the cookie and then when he visits the site again, watch his cookie and, if they have information about the source, fix it in the order (if he made an order). It seems to be nothing complicated here. And it is this moment that we are now trying to implement in our store. Those. before that, we recorded visitors only when they first visited the site via an advertising link. Now they decided to add work with cookies in order to record their repeated visits. But immediately faced with several controversial situations. I will describe them below:
')
Situation One : The client came through an advertising link of the form mysite.ru/tables? Source = ..., placed an order and left the site. In this case, everything is simple. We have fixed the order with a reference to it source. This situation is not controversial. It's all clear.
Situation two : The client came through an advertising link of the form mysite.ru/tables?source = ..., placed an order, left the site, then after some time returned to the site (for example, by a direct link without the source parameter) and place an order again. How to be in this case? Does the second order (and all subsequent ones) be recorded in the account of this advertising campaign? Those. to bind all his orders to the source? After all, the situation is hypothetically possible: the client went to the site via an advertising link, bought a phone, then placed an order for another case (i.e., for some reason, he did not do it in one order, because either he didn’t figure out how to work with a basket, or just a day later I realized that he still needed a cover, or, say, the phone was available and the cover was in preorder, so it was impossible to arrange them in one order, in short there could be many situations). It turns out that he has two orders and, in fact, the merit of both these orders is the very advertising link there. But there may be another situation: a person came through an advertising link, placed the first order for a phone (that is, the first order was 100% - this was due to the advertising campaign), and then, for example, a month later I decided to buy a cover. I remembered our site, found it on the Internet, went in, bought it. And here is the question - is the second order worth considering the merit of an advertising campaign on which he came to us for the first time or not? After all, if you argue this way, then it turns out that then for life all customer orders are to be credited with this very advertising campaign? Hardly! To be honest, we have decided for ourselves how to interpret this situation correctly. We agree that it is necessary to define a certain term. Say, from the moment a person came to our website through an advertising link and within 30 days, all orders during this period should be considered the merit of an advertising campaign and mark them with reference to the source (for example, tables_8_mart).
Situation three : The client came through an advertising link of the form mysite.ru/tables?source = ..., left the site without leaving orders, then returned via another link of the type mysite.ru/tables?source=… (for example, the first time it came by the link from the direct, and the second time from the link from the mailing list) and placed an order. I believe that in this case we fix the issued order with reference to the second source, i.e. to an advertising campaign from the list.
Situation Four : The client came through an advertising link of the form mysite.ru/tables?source = ..., left the site without leaving orders, then returned through "long", for example, after six months. To perceive this client as a “returnee” precisely for the very advertisement for which he came to us for the first time or as a new client. Or as a “returnee” but in a general sense, without being tied to the advertising campaign on which he came for the first time?
So far, we have these four questions, these four situations. And at the moment they do not allow us to write any algorithm. Actually, in the comments I would like to hear a couple of opinions on this issue. Can someone tell me some guidance on the proper organization of tracking such clients and advertising campaigns. I have, frankly, something travel to google on this topic, has not yet succeeded. Therefore, you have to rely on your conclusions and reasoning. But I am afraid that they may be erroneous and that in fact there are more controversial situations than I have described.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/179635/
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