The online shopping experience differs from industry to industry, but no matter the field, marketers must understand the sales cycle and how various channels affect conversion rates. The processes that go into buying expensive tech products will likely require different steps than what goes into purchasing summer apparel, and Google wants to provide web marketers with tools to help them understand this funnel more clearly.
The search engine released “The Customer Journey to Online Purchases” analytics tool, which gives marketers insight into various elements that impact campaigns. Because the customer journey has grown increasingly complex, and 47 percent of total online revenue comes from purchases made in more than one day, marketers need tools to show them the paths people take to conversion. Marketing channels influence buyers at different points, and brands that understand when to use custom content versus video content to drive sales can target prospects at the perfect times online. More, the tool shows users whether a channel plays an “assist” or “last interaction” role.
Marketers can use the Customer Journey tool to develop internet marketing strategies focused on consumer behavior. Through analytics reporting, brands can see when their prospects engage with blog content in the sales cycle, and tailor tone and language to reflect that position in the purchasing process. If customers typically turn to blogs after they’ve performed product research elsewhere, content writers know to publish media with some assumed reader knowledge of the industry, the offer and the benefit of the item.
Google notes tech purchases that take 28 days or more often generate three times the revenue of tech transactions that happen in a 24-hour span.
While most online purchases occur within a day of research or with a single interaction, higher priced sales take time to cultivate and nurture. Google notes tech purchases that take 28 days or more often generate three times the revenue of tech transactions that happen in a 24-hour span. Therefore, the value of nurturing online relationships with strategic content placement can significantly impact revenue.
The Customer Journey tool should help marketers gain clearer understandings of how their target market engages with new-media and when in the conversion cycle they turn to paid ads compared to web content. Stringing these patterns together can help companies develop smarter marketing programs that speed up conversions, and with 43 percent of B2Bs citing a slower sales cycle, having new tools to leverage may help brands balance their checkbooks.
