http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cz4yHOKE5j8

There are effectively six different approaches.

First Click:

This is where the first interaction gets all the credit. In the above example, Google AdWords would get 100% of the sales value attributed to it.

Last Click

As this is the easiest to use, it is the most commonly used method. The entire sales/conversion value is attributed to the final click. In the above example, organic would be attributed with 100% of the value.

Linear

The linear approach gives all channels that assisted in the conversion an equal share of the value. In the above example, AdWords, Remarketing and organic would split the value equally between them.

Position Based

Position based is whereby varying percentages are allocated to a channel depending on where in the sales cycle it featured. For example, the first and last interaction could be given 40% each while the interactions in between these could be allocated the remaining 20%. The rationale here is that the interactions that create awareness and actually close sales are more valuable than those channels that do assist but don’t create the initial awareness or close the sale.

Time Decay

Time decay assigns greater value to interactions, the closer they are in time to the sale taking place.

Custom

Customs is whereby the site owner customises the attribution tool to a model bespoke for their business.

So which one to use?

It is difficult to overstate the importance of getting this right. For instance, if you take the example above where a user clicked on an AdWords ad, then saw several remarketing adverts before finally searching organically to close the sale, if last click attribution is used, then organic will get 100% of the value assigned to it. As the organic visit was effectively navigational, assigning 100% to it clearly makes no sense. If the last click approach is taken, one could decide to scale back AdWords and remarketing and scale up SEO work. The end result would be to actually reduce ROI. A more appropriate model would be a custom model that allocates a percentage to AdWords and a percentage to remarketing with organic getting no percentage as this was purely a navigational interaction, not a response to a marketing spend. Getting the model right means that the channels that are delivering the sales get the credit and so intelligent budget allocation decisions are made.

The reason this appears is because I have linked my personal Google+ account to DPFOC’s website thereby letting Google know that I am the author of the pages on our website. So, why bother doing this? Well first off, the presence of the image increases click through rates on your listing.  However, a quote former Google chief Eric Schmidt highlights just how important authorship is to Google:

“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.” – Eric Schmidt, Google Executive Chairman

What he is saying is that those companies that maintain anonymous websites with no apparent author will become irrelevant as Google rewards those sites of which it can readily identify the author. If we take the DPFOC site for example. I am the author. I write at least once per week on subjects relating to online marketing. I am steadily growing the number of circles to which I am added. Over time, Google will assign an author rank to me which is effectively a measure of how worth listening to I am. The more people who engage with my posts on Google+ and the more circles to which I get added, the greater my author rank and as such the better DPFOC’s site will rank as it leverages my credibility in the online marketing space.

So, if you are still saying “we don’t bother with Google+” maybe you should think again!

Something to think about when you choose to “like” a brand!

The fact is Facebook fans spend more on brands they “like.”  Their findings revealed that fans are 18% more satisfied with their brands  compared to non-friends and 11% more likely than non-friends to continue using the brand.

The article is very interesting:  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/much-facebook-friend-worth-174-17-134305887.html

DPFOC has a full team of Social Media experts that work hard daily to create strong compelling content.  This content then gets pushed out through various social media channels to generate more “likes” and “friends” for their business and as this article says- create more revenue and quality links.  We can also set up social media contests for any business to generate more “likes” and “friends.”

A well rounded Online Marketing campaign should never exclude a strong social media presence.  Give us a call if you have any questions on how we can enhance your companies social presence.

Why does your business deserve the call?

At DPFOC we have been striving to create a website that practices everything we preach. In doing so we’ve been able to create a website that delivers an incredibly low bounce rate, strong conversions and more leads than ever before. This has taken time but has been well worth the effort.

If you are spending money to drive 1000 people per month to your site and 50% of them “bounce off” within seconds, could you do better? If you could make some small changes and as a result generate 40 inquires per month instead of 20 would the investment be worth it?

I speak with companies daily that want to drive traffic to a site that quite frankly doesn’t convert. I see sites with no contact details on the home page, some have text that is difficult to read. Often sites are not mobile friendly eliminating roughly half of the traffic immediately. Does your site display properly on different browsers? People want to see the person behind the company, every site should have a meet the team page. Client testimonials should be easily located and sites must have a well maintained company blog.

There are hundreds and hundreds of companies all chasing the same keywords that you are and right now. If your site does nothing to convince those who visit it that you are reputable, cost effective &, professional at what you do you are wasting the traffic you have.

We can help you take your website from good to great, just give us a call.

Businesses that fail to define KPIs and that don’t have the processes in place to allocate sales to a particular channel cannot expect to perform at optimal levels.

Now, more than ever, the raw data to facilitate the attribution of sales to particular channels is available. However, “without dedicated staff to collect and manage all campaign/resource data” the data never becomes knowledge. DPFOC’s tracking / active budget management service is about turning the data into knowledge.

The dilemma for SEO companies everywhere is that up to now, this technique worked very well and I could point out some high profile websites still ranking in very competitive niches partly because of paid links that they have purchased. So, if you don’t use such techniques, you lose out to those that do. But if you do use them, you never really sleep that well as you’re waiting for the day, which may or may not come, when Google figures out what you’re up to and hits you with a penalty.

I guess Cyrus Shepard puts it best when he says that if you have medium to long term goals for your business, you really need to play by the rules. However, this may mean literally years of sitting quietly watching others outrank you, in the hope that Google will finally catch up to them. Cyrus talks of future proofed SEO which essentially means playing by the rules and one has to laud the intention. However, can small businesses afford years in the wilderness waiting for Google to get around to the black hat merchants? Can’t beat ‘em join ‘em or hang tough and hope that all black hat merchants will ultimately have their Interflora moment?