Magazines.com matches sales with Google, Overture search campaigns
Magazines.com has improved its ability to track Google and Overture Internet search marketing campaigns with a new site analytics tool, matching campaign cost with generated sales, the purveyor of 1,400 magazine titles tells Internet Retailer. "Before, it was hard to tie specific ad campaigns to specific magazines," says marketing manager Joe Blackmon. "Now we can see instantly which magazines are selling, tied to particular marketing campaigns."
Magazines.com recently implemented a web-based Campaign Data Synchronization tool from Fireclick Inc., which provides the tool as part of its Netflame web analysis service. Magazines is already using the tool to track the results of Internet search marketing campaigns through Overture Services and Google Inc.’s AdWords services, in which it pays Google and Overture for search results tied to particular key words. "We see pretty good information on which key words are performing," he Blackmon says.
Matthew Berk, a New York-based consultant who specializes in web site technology, says Fireclick’s system is a cut above most others available on the market in its ability to show costs related to search campaigns down to key words as well as related generated retail sales. He adds, however, that ClickTracks has also been known to offer a similar service.
In the past, Magazines.com used an in-house system that could produce only partial information, such as how many site hits it received from overall marketing campaigns. The FireClick system lets him see far more detail down to the results of individual key words, letting him view on a web page hosted by Fireclick the relation between the cost of Google or Overture key words and the resulting sales generated on Magazines.com.
Blackmon says Magazines.com expects to expand use of the Fireclick program to also cover e-mail and other advertising campaigns.
Berk adds that analytics firms WebTrends, Omniture and WebSideStory also offer systems that show sales generated by marketing campaigns and key words, but lack the ability to also show related costs of key words. But as paid Internet search becomes more and more a crucial part of marketing campaigns, he adds, analytics technology providers will continue to develop their offerings to keep up with services provided directly by Google, Yahoo and other search firms. He adds that future analytics applications will track more customer shopping behavior related to marketing campaigns in addition to campaign-related retail sales and costs.
"Site analytic firms need to protect their position as the sytem of record, because you can sales conversion tools directly from the paid search firms like Google and Yahoo," Berk says. "It’s becoming a bit of a market tug of war."
Fireclick also recently introduced within its Netflame service the Fireclick Reporter, which is designed to let web site managers create and distribute site analysis reports using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet application. "When installed on a PC along with Microsoft Excel, the Fireclick Reporter can retrieve real time and historical data from the Netflame network and populate a spreadsheet with desired information, automatically generating associated charts and graphs," Fireclick says. "The resulting report can be saved, used for further analysis, and distributed with ease like any spreadsheet via e-mail or the Web."
"It just makes life easier," said Stacey Howe, marketing manager for footwear company PUMA AG, which has been using a prototype of the Fireclick Reporter for several months. "The Fireclick Reporter makes it much easier for me to compile data tracking our campaign effectiveness on many different Web properties. With a couple of clicks it’s done and we can move on to making the important decisions about what to do to improve the results."
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