The Value of the Assist

Google Adwords Search Funnel Day 1 Review & Reactions

Included Below:

• Key Features & Charts
• The Google Assist
• New Keyword Discovery
• Bid Competition Lessening
• Content Network Integration

It’s only natural that we would eventually have the opportunity to review a more complete attribution modeling. OMMA reports that that average searcher conducts 3.3 searches per session as an average and an average 74 searches per month. Yet, as any data junkie can attest, the principle of 80-20 is very much alive and well on the Internuts. That is, 20% of our keywords are providing 80% of our conversions. Call it instinct, trust, or Omniture, but most of us have known for quite some time that it’s simply not possible that last click tracking can tell us the whole story. There’s no chance that people simply rise out of a slumber and think to search for a brand or product SKU number.

Search Funnel Key Features & Charts

Path Length& Time Lag: Can be used to illustrate how many impressions or clicks are necessary to balance information asymmetry. These charts can be actionable in a number of ways. For example; if your impressions are FAR outweighing the amount of clicks it takes to get a conversion, you may need to review your ad headlines.

Assist Clicks & Impressions: This is really the meat and potatoes of this release because it finally opens up attributive data once thought to be a figment of marketer’s imaginations. Google teased us in 09 with a view-through patch, but this takes us a step closer to a live engagement map aligning last click metrics with assist points so that our keyword bid strategy can become more artistic.

GOOGLE Supply’s the Assist

In comes the mighty Google on a day when most people are discussing the iPad. Under the radar, Google released a reporting patch called ‘Search Funnels’. If you’re not familiar, Search Funnel snapshots allow you to not only see last click conversions, but also give a first click analysis and path analysis. For the first time you can see the string of paid search impressions and clicks that brought a user to convert on your site, amongst other things.

What It Means For the Future

Though it is a relatively innocuous reporting tool, the ramifications of Search Funnel Reporting are huge. Broad match search will now serve as a greater resource for discovering more distant levels of paid search influence. Paid search marketers will have the opportunity to discover only marginally relevant keywords that have a chain of influence factor without driving a last click conversion. This will mean that you could use Adwords as less of a primary direct marketing channel and implement prospecting standards. Keyword sets could be isolated based on their ability to fill the top of the funnel and drive later interest.

Competition Dispersion

Keywords are one of the most expensive buys you can make on the web; More so than display ads, SEO, or sponsored blogging. It’s not uncommon these days to see double digit CPCs for ‘must-have’ keywords. With the ability to see a greater extent of attributive keywords to conversions, there will be a vaster dispersing of keyword competition. Ad dollars can be spent more evenly in places that were otherwise unknown as resources.

Channel Integration

Adding search funnel capability was a major step in drawing in a full integrative marketing system, which is undoubtedly the core goal for Google Analytics. It’s a free service that longs to be thought of in the same regard as the more robust and exteriorly capable tracking and reporting platforms. This launch was pushed forth without an integration of the content network sourcing. Because everything seems to be sourced from the same legacy code, it’s a bit confusing why this release doesn’t have any content integration. Hopefully this is just a starting point and later features/channels will be amended.

As any of history’s greatest point guards will tell you, in the game of basketball you can win a game without ever scoring a single point. The same now holds true for a successful keyword. Long live the assist and the future of the search funnel.