One area of marketing that remains strong despite the economic downturn is search marketing. However, as our recent “Unlocking the B2B Web Analytics Black Box” study revealed, there are still major challenges to measuring search marketing success for B2B. The biggest one: conversion attribution. “Last click” tools just don’t provide the full story.
Watch my recent interview with WebProNews to learn more about understanding web analytics and the best tools to measure success for B2B.
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B2B Online Marketing, B2B Search Marketing, B2B Web Analytics | Tagged: conversion tracking, ppc, search marketing ROI, web analytics | 
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Posted by Ben Hanna
Following a very successful beta test with over 70 participants, we’ve now made Business.com Conversion Tracking available free to all Business.com advertisers.
Business.com Conversion Tracking is now available to all advertisers within the Business.com Account Management System
The most exciting aspect of this launch is we’re now offering a simple, free solution to the “last click” attribution problem I wrote about in our study of B2B web analytics market share. In short, the problem is that B2B advertisers who rely on web analytics solutions which attribute 100% of campaign ROI to the last click before conversion get an overly simplistic, and inaccurate, view of the contribution made by different online marketing campaigns to overall results. And its a problem that’s getting worse as the B2B sales cycle lengthens and business buyers interact with more online advertising before finally purchasing, registering for a free trial, signing-up for an event or otherwise converting. This conversion attribution issue was the second hottest topic (behind Twitter) when I spoke at Mediapost’s recent Search Insider Summit – there’s solid recognition among top brands and agencies that conversion attribution is a problem and that “last click” tools don’t provide the full story.
In essence, Business.com Conversion Tracking punches a hole in the black box of “last click” web analytics, allowing Business.com advertisers to easily see how their Business.com campaigns and keywords are performing to support campaign optimization. We designed Business.com Conversion Tracking to be both extremely easy to implement – 44% of B2B web sites don’t even use web analytics today, and a major reason for this is the complexity of implementing many of the solutions available today – and to work as a complement to existing “last click” or more full-featured web analytics tools. The specific benefits vary by the type of web analytics solution, if any, a company uses today:
For the 44% of B2B web sites without web analytics today (yes, scary, but its true), Business.com Conversion Tracking offers both clear return-on-investment (ROI) metrics for their Business.com advertising and a very simple 3-step process to implement conversion tracking.
For those companies using “last click” web analytics tools like Google Analytics, Urchin Software by Google, Nedstat or others, Business.com Conversion Tracking uncovers data often not available, or incomplete, in these web analytics tools. This includes the ability to monitor the true impact of Business.com campaigns on registrations, quote requests, purchases or other transactions.
Advanced web analytics solutions like Omniture, WebTrends and Coremetrics enable B2B online advertisers to track the influence of multiple campaigns throughout the business buying process on eventual conversions. As we saw during the beta, Business.com Conversion Tracking is still very appealing to companies using these more advanced solutions because it takes literally just a few minutes to implement, saves time by making campaign ROI metrics conveniently available within the Business.com account management system and offers a useful check against third-party systems.
To learn more, visit the Business.com Conversion Tracking FAQ page or see the Business.com Conversion Tracking announcement.
No Comments » | B2B Web Analytics, Business.com News | Tagged: conversion tracking, ppc, search marketing ROI, web analytics | Permalink
Posted by Ben Hanna
Ever wondered what the web analytics market share is for B2B web sites?
We just completed a VERY extensive study of over 27,000 B2B web sites and the third-party web analytics programs in use on those sites. You can get the complete study here – http://www.business.com/info/b2b_web_analytics.asp. This research was made possible by a wonderful Firefox plug-in, WASP (Web Analytics Solution Profiler) from immeria.
In addition to the most current, comprehensive assessment of B2B web analytics market share, the key findings are:
44% of B2B web sites studied used no web analytics or, less likely, used a custom, in-house solution – pretty difficult to optimize B2B online marketing campaigns in a recession (or anytime!) if you don’t have any data
43% of B2B web sites used a web analytics program showing only “last click” data which attributes a conversion to the last trackable link clicked before conversion. This only provides a peek at the end of the business buying funnel
Just 6% used a web analytics program that allows users to see the influence of multiple online marketing campaigns with which a business buyer interacts on conversions
The whitepaper also includes recommended solutions for optimizing B2B online marketing campaigns in a recession.
Have a look and let us know what you think!
3 Comments | B2B Web Analytics, Business.com News | Tagged: conversion tracking, web analytics | Permalink
Posted by Ben Hanna
In response to an increasing number of requests from Business.com advertisers, today we launched the beta release of Business.com Conversion Tracking. The new tool is especially critical for recession marketing because business-to-business (B2B) marketers are forced to deal with lengthening sales cycles, reduced budgets and staff cut-backs, and the need to keep leads flowing into the business at a lower cost.
As we heard from our advertisers, and found in our recent B2B web analytics study of over 27,000 B2B web sites, 93% of web sites don’t provide the data necessary to optimize online marketing campaigns - only 7% use a web analytics program that enables them to see multiple campaigns that influenced that conversion over time. The most popular B2B web analytics programs only show the impact of the “last click” preceding a purchase or other conversion. The “last click” method ignores the impact of online marketing campaigns and keywords that influence prospects in the early and middle stages of the buying process.
I like to use the analogy that campaign ROI data ”last click” analytics programs provide is akin to saying that a new car purchase is 100% the result of the salesperson’s skill. Of course, salesperson skill matters, but its not the entire story and simply improving salesperson training won’t sell more cars. When a car buyer steps into a dealership today, they’ve already researched the purchase online, read related car review publications, talked with their friends and may even have seen an ad in the local newspaper about a sale on the car they want which leads them to visit the dealership ready to buy. Like new car sales, business buying is slowing down, and B2B marketers are not well served by assuming 100% of the credit should go only to the last action the buyer takes prior to purchase.
Business.com Conversion Tracking solves this problem for Business.com advertisers using either no web analytics program or a “last click”-type program. By creating and placing a simple tracking script on their web site, Business.com advertisers are able to see a count of all prospects who clicked on their Business.com listing(s) and eventually converted into a lead or customer. Business.com Conversion Tracking allows B2B marketers to easily track as many as six common B2B conversion types: viewing an important web page; registration for content or an event; a contact request;, a quote request; or a purchase (completed transactions or specific revenue/order size).
In our B2B web analytics study, we also found that:
· Overall, 44% of the B2B web sites surveyed do not track web site activity or use a custom, in-house solution.
· The remaining 49% use a third-party web analytics program which either only provides basic web site traffic data or utilizes the “last click” method.
The Business.com Conversion Tracking beta is currently open to a limited number of current Business.com advertisers. Interested direct advertisers or agencies should contact their Account Manager for more information or visit: http://www.business.com/trackingbeta.asp.
For more details on the study methodology, findings and web analytics program market share among B2B companies, visit http://www.business.com/info/b2b_web_analytics.asp to download a copy of the report “Unlocking the B2B Web Analytics Black Box.”.
No Comments » | B2B Search Marketing, B2B Web Analytics, Business.com News | Tagged: conversion tracking, web analytics | Permalink
Posted by Ben Hanna
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