This article is part 1 of the four part series.

Tracking Offline Conversion Rate

In B2C marketing, it is not the CTR (Click Through Rate) that counts; it is the CR (Conversion Rate) x CTR that matters. As in several SES sessions, presenters have emphasized this point. In B2B case, most of the time, the sales does not complete on the Web site, therefore, the conversion rate cannot be tracked by looking at the Web analytics data.

When the conversion, or closing of sales, is done offline, offline conversion rate should be tracked to close the marketing-sales loop, and the B2B online marketing should be optimized for offline conversion. To track the offline conversion, CRM system is a natural place to do that.

To track the conversion accurately, each keyword ad campaign is given a unique campaign ID. Visitors going into respective landing pages will carry that unique ID. Leads from form fill or registration can go through a lead scoring screening, if there is a marketing automation system that captures these Web generated leads. Leads passed the lead scoring screening can then go into CRM system as marketing qualified leads (still carrying the campaign ID information). This is now sitting at the top of the sales (leads) funnel. For each unique campaign ID, the percentage of these marketing qualified leads that turn into sales is the offline CR (Conversion Rate). The dashboard in CRM can display that information to give a quick view of the offline conversion performance.

B2B SEM

In this year's SES, the term SEM has been largely replaced by the term PPC. Both terms mean the same thing – paid search as opposed to SEO, the natural search. For B2B SEM, identify top demand keywords based not on how much they drive the form fill but on how well they drive the offline conversions (e.g. opportunities, pipeline, or closed deals).

Categorize the campaign goals into ROI, pipeline, sales, revenue, LTV (Life Time Value) and place keywords into each category. Because each category has different goals, the measuring metrics are also different. By putting keywords into different categories, the performance measurements of these keywords are more accurately reflect their roles.

Case Study: SEM program in Mexico

Problem: The SEM results under-perform other countries. Campaigns are optimized for form completes. Offline data are not integrated.

Solution: change bidding strategy to optimize for offline metrics, create ROI based bidding rules, identify underperforming keywords, create clear reports to show keyword performance, automate bidding and optimization process.

Results: 6 times improvement in ROI, deal size increased dramatically, outperforms other countries in the region, identified multiple keywords taking up 10+% of spend but driving no returns.

Takeaways: Track leads by creating unique campaign IDs, capture with the form, and monitor in CRM dashboard; integrate all data sources into one bidding solution; build bidding strategies based on goals.