Search Marketing: Can Leaving Out the Cookies Spoil Your Conversion Rate?
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 4, 2008 | Share This
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I had an interesting conversation recently with Reprise Media’s Media Coordinator Mark Rosenberg. In all of the talk this week about Google’s new Chrome browser and earlier in the Summer about Microsoft’s new IE 8 neither of us have seen a whole heckuva lot of examination into how the privacy modes on these new browsers will affect search marketing.
When you are aiming for a quick response from your target user this is not a big deal. It’s easy enough to see if a user clicks through a search ad to end up at your landing page. What gets tricky, as Mark pointed out, is when we are looking at segments that have longer purchase cycles.
A good example of this would be an electronics retailer. Often a consumer will click through an electronics retailer’s search ad to check out the product selection and then go elsewhere to do a comparison of features and price, and sometimes even offline to see the product in person. As much time as a month or more could go by before the user circles back around to the retailer they found initially through that search ad to make their purchase.
When they click through the search ad initially and go to the landing page, a cookie is sent to their browser so that they can be recognized when they return with credit card in hand. In privacy mode, cookies are turned off, so for a longer interaction cycle it can be difficult if not impossible to know that the user who is making the purchase is the same user who clicked through the search ad a month ago.
“So what?” you might ask. Either way a transaction occurred on the retailer’s website thanks, in part, to the search ad. The problem is that we have no way of linking the two events and to determine the effectiveness of a search campaign aimed at converting that click to the purchase. As search marketers it’s in our interest to get the credit for the work we’ve done, but the client loses out in this scenario too – their ability to take advantage of search marketing’s superior measurement capability is diminished. It becomes harder to see the effectiveness of their campaign.
Thankfully the reality is that few people clear the cookies out of their browsers on a regular basis. I know I don’t. The privacy modes will make it easier to do but at the expense of some browser functionality and in some cases, website features like shopping carts. We suspect that in most cases, if it’s not porn or pornesque, few people will use privacy mode. Only the downright paranoid will have it on all the time.
In the meantime we will be watching the trend as these browsers roll out to see if there is a growing adoption of cookie-less browsing. You can be sure that there will be ways to augment insight into long purchase cycles – coupon codes for instance, though they may not be as elegant as the good old cookie. Meanwhile, I’m reminded of these immortal words from childhood:”C is for cookie. That’s good enough for me.”
Topics: Advertising: Online, ECommerce, Google, Microsoft, Reprise Media, SEM: Paid Search, Technology |
[…] In the past we also posted about a similar technique which is especially relevant for retailers who often find that their online promotions are driving offline sales. There are many items such as speakers that the consumer will want to experience firsthand before buying after all. A simple way to measure this is to add in special “coupon codes” to your search ad copy or landing page. You can vary them by geography and engine just as you can with 800 numbers. […]