Digital advertising is all about gauging campaign performance, measuring results based on relevant parameters, and optimizing ads for maximum ROI. Using Google Analytics data, MatchCraft can provide both conversion attribution and conversion-based optimization to our reseller and agency clients.
Google Analytics & the Need for It
Google’s free analytics tool offers an in-depth view into the way people are engaging with a website. It also provides details about online sales and conversions via Goals.
Google Analytics is a great resource as it:
- Helps our reseller and agency clients understand the impact of their advertisers’ ad spends.
- Enables campaign managers to track the behavior of users interacting with their ads.
- Provides a detailed view of website traffic and user flow.
- Determines user queries & online interactions that lead them to a merchant’s website.
All-in-all an essential tool for anyone looking to evaluate the efficacy of their online presence. And in true MatchCraft fashion, we have taken something already great and made it even better.
Google Analytics XÂ adVantage
Customers often visit a merchant website via multiple traffic sources before converting. A conversion attribution model establishes a method for assigning credit to the various clicks that lead to a sale or conversion.
The default attribution model used by Google Analytics, last-click attribution, doesn’t always provide a complete picture of the impact of paid clicks, making it challenging for our reseller and agency clients to show an advertiser the impact of their ad spend.
To alleviate this issue, MatchCraft offers 2 types of analytics to the users of our adVantage platform – Enhanced Analytics & Standard Analytics.
Standard Analytics provides ”Last Non-Direct Click” default attribution. This model ignores traffic from users who went directly to the site and assigns 100% of the conversion value to only the last channel the customer clicked through. It can be used in conjunction with the auto-tagging feature in Google Ads.
Enhanced Analytics offers an alternative attribution model that better serves our reseller and agency clients by more accurately reflecting the value of each ad dollar spent and in-turn helping improve campaign performance. It not only captures the “Last Non-Direct Click” included with Standard Analytics but also, assigns credit when a click on an ad assists in the conversion; it provides “Last Ad Click” conversion attribution. When using Standard Analytics, the most recent paid click (Last Ad Click) may not receive any credit for the conversion.
How It Works
adVantage relies on UTM parameters (Google Ads auto-tagging must be disabled) that are automatically added to the URLs in campaigns managed by adVantage. This enables adVantage to track and measure data from multiple publishers and channels.
By using UTM parameters and the data available through Enhanced Analytics, adVantage is able to more effectively implement MatchCraft’s proprietary conversion-based optimization.
(Note: Conversions are defined as any combination of phone calls, site activity, transactions and goal completions including “Last Ad Click” attribution available through Enhanced Analytics.)
Analytics reporting in adVantage
MatchCraft offers detailed reports on Google Analytics goals and the number of website visits generated by paid advertising, in both the adVantage platform and our white-labeled Merchant Center along with printable PDF reports.
Benefits of adVantage’s Enhanced Analytics
- More Accurate Reporting – adVantage’s Enhanced Analytics enables our reseller and agency clients to show their merchants a more accurate view of the benefits of paid advertising, by providing “Last Ad Click” attribution as opposed to the standard “Last Non-Direct Click”.
- Cross Publisher Data Processing – adVantage processes the data pulled via Enhanced Analytics not just for campaigns running on Google but also across all other publishers – Bing, Facebook & Instagram. This is made possible by adVantage’s use of its auto-generated UTM tagging rather than auto-tagging. Thus, Conversion-Based Optimization comes full circle in our ability to optimize bids across publishers.
Enhanced Analytics is yet another example of MatchCraft’s dedication to providing the most advanced digital advertising tools to our reseller and agency clients, so they can help their local advertisers succeed.