Case Study: Google is the Strongest Marketing Channel

The table below is real data from a client of ours. I just can’t say who the client is. There are nine months of measures. All metrics have been calculated. 

Channel Groupings

The channels included in each grouping include:

• Google: Organic Search, Paid Search, Remarketing, and Display

• Social: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Yelp, YouTube, and Twitter

• Tradeshows: Three industry-related shows locally in Calgary

• Traditional: Billboards, Signage, Radio, Brochures, and Transit Shelters

Measures, Metrics and ROMI

Questions Related to the Table

Look at the table and ask yourself these questions (I’ll answer from my point of view later in this post).

Which channel grouping:

1. Has been invested in the most for marketing (row 1)?

2. Generated the most impressions (row 2)?

3. Generated the most visits (row 5)?

4. Generated the most sales (row 14)?

5. Has the lowest cost per visit (row 6)?

6. Has the highest conversion rate to a sale (row 13)?

7. Has the lowest cost per sale (row 15)?

8. Generated the most revenue (row 16)?

9. Has the strongest return on marketing investment (ROMI) (row 17)?

10. Generated the most revenue per sale (row 18)?

My Answers

Here are my answers when I look at the numbers:

1. Invested: Traditional by a long shot

2. Impressions: Traditional by a long shot

3. Visits: Google by a long shot

4. Sales: Traditional

5. Cost per Visit: Google by a long shot

6. Conversion to a Sale: Google by a hair

7. Cost per Sale: Traditional by a long shot

8. Revenue: Google

9. ROMI: Tradeshows by a hair

10. Revenue per Sale: Google

Optimizing Investments

Now that we understand the numbers, I have a few more questions for you to consider (again I’ll give my answers below).

Which channel grouping: 

1. Would you drop?

2. Would you increase investment?

3. Would you decrease investment?

4. Is maxed out?

5. Is the most profitable?

My Answers

1. Drop: You might have answered Social but the investment in Social channels is so low compared to the other channels that it merits further testing. 

2. Increase: Social for sure. Google potentially. Invest more in both.

3. Decrease: Most likely Traditional because that is where the bulk of investments are made, especially radio (but then I’m not a radio guy so maybe that is why)

4. Maxed: This is a trick question because you can’t tell from the numbers. However, the answer is that the company is going to all tradeshows that they possibly can so they are unable to invest any more in this channel.

5. Profitable: This is another trick question because you can’t tell from the numbers. We are only tracking revenues, not profits. This is an area that we could look into but we haven’t at this stage. 

Conclusion

These are my concluding thoughts:

• Measure progress and successes

• Calculate the metrics (ratios). Use Revenue Catalyst.

• Be sure to spend enough on potential channels to give them a thorough chance

• Google is a very strong channel (at least for this client)

• Don’t miss out on sales generated from good old-fashioned traditional ads

• Be sure you use a mix of channels