Digital Traffic Attribution & User tracking : A Basic Framework

Schematics of the Attribution technology:  on digital marketing.

The last time I wrote on attribution. Got a few requests on how the attribution technology should work. Thought I should BLOG it down for people to develop own technology, rather than hiring it at exorbitant pricing.

Things required before getting to develop the product.

1. Knowledge on Cookie, super cookie.
1. Cookie length Vs Cookie Validity
2. Referring URL
3. Traffic Quality 
1. Source 1 Vs Source 
2. Paid Vs Free 
4. Business Rules
1. First Referrer vs Last Referrer
2.  Many referrer 
5. Multi Channel Digital Channel 
1. Media 
2. Search 
3. Affiliate 
4. Mailer 
5. Social
6. Direct

Why is attribution so important on the multi channel digital marketing strategy. Some of the reasons for this are as follows.

1. Large media monies are being spent to get customers on the online space for
1. Brand popularity
2. Transaction
3. Reach
4. Frequency
5. Top of the mind recall etc etc
 
2. To provide the logical information to marketer about what channel is working
3. Performance is the key for a digital marketing campaign to be measured.
4. To know what worked best for the brand/ product / service on the digital channel.

One of the most interesting things to know is the fact that most companies that are in the eCommerce space in India don’t have this in place and don’t seem to have any possible solution to develop it.

Issues a marketer faces in attribution if the technology is not good are as follows:-

1. Multiple refers show us as claimants to a particular interaction
2. Allocation become an issue if the traffic provider is a paid one
3. User journey cannot be defined and hence measured at various steps
4. Budgeting for next campaign becomes an issue as you don’t know what worked the best for you.

So here goes my attempt into developing a schematic to a digital marketing attribution/ user tracking technology.

The landscape 

The advertisers landscape for attribution

The user Journey


Stage 1 : Research. 

The main thing to notice over here is the fact that the user might choose to engage with the brand using many channels or only one, but for a fact he will use two or three channels during his research work before buying a product . So it is important to allocate this user initially to the source of his first visit. Then with the same cookie id keep on updating his profile, add various data points like IP address(this way you can build the users profile over a period of time, city, service provider etc etc.)  


Now once the users moves from this bucket into the consideration set, you can add the  following data to the same cookie id. 


Stage 2/3 : Consideration / re-evaluation 

Product being the main, keep on adding the products that he browses thru, along with date &  time of the visit (again adding more to his user profile). Within this set of data, I am sure you would also capture the source of the user, the referrer, the publisher etc.
The source data / referrer data will be helpful later when we will look at the sales attribution. (Which the topic is all about). 

Stage 4 : Purchase  

In the sales stage of the user journey, just add the product purchased data to his profile in the same cookie id.


This is important as this is also one of big mistake large eCom companies do when they are doing cookie tracking on repeat visitor, they continue to show even the purchased product in banners when the users is being re-targeted on re-targeting networks out side the site or they even keep on throwing up the same product in the consideration set when the user is on the site again, thus adding nuisance value to the user's website journey.


Store the information both ways, If the user has purchased the product then store all the cookie id information into his login id., for future reference and his loginid details into the cookie id, enabling you to target or re-target him better. Next time the user pops onto your site or on your re-targeting network.


Important thing to note over here is that users who either delete cookies or come back after the expiration of the cookie validity period can be found if they again log into the system, enabling advertisers to offer a more customized product offering to them. 


Coming back to attribution of sales to the media channel.


Now that we have the details no the user and the road he used to travel to the site.

Now based on the business logic. first referrer wins or last referrer wins scenario you can attribute sales. 

Also if you organization believes in fairly compensating all  the parties in the user journey then also this data set would help in doing so.

This technology if developed can enable the advertiser to also do the following.

1. Fire tracking pixels of media channels based on business logic.
2. De-dupe sales data across media channels.
3. Find effective data for more efficient buying on the digital media.
4. provide some piece of mind to its eCom managers, doing Multi channel.

Will be happy to receive your feedback on the same, or if you feel I have missed out on some thing(s) please send me a mail or comment, will try to help and resolve your attribution issue.

Doing eCommerce in INDIA?? !! why it will work.

Doing eCommerce in India ?? !! why it will work.

First things first. eCommerce has stayed in India, Ten years and counting.

It is only recently that is has become the flavor of the season for the VC’s for the second time. I remember in the 2000-2003 era, it was the same… the millions were less but the flavor was as strong … I remember meeting people during that time wanting to start eCommerce sites. 

Some survived, some changed hands, some perished or I should say got burnt in HELL… And now it’s a rebirth. 

Travel is the biggest example of this success. And me saying this was like saying that there is an elephant in the room. 

Why did this work! According to me for only one simple reason, digital delivery of the product. 

eTickets did not get into the rut of  last mile courier, cost of delivery of the product and the ecosystem of the GDS’s made it easy to manage product inventories. Will this survive with all the airlines now providing similar services directly on their site? We will have to wait and see. As of now its happy times (my perception) for the companies and the airlines and not to forget the investors, specially the investors as they have seen one listing already and I am sure at least one more on the anvil. I am sure the next big-ticket item to go the same heights will be online life insurance covers. 

Now the non-travel sector eCommerce is something of a worry as of now (early days of the round two).  But I am sure it will survive. 

Here is my take on it.

Like all starting retail shops in the market near you, the first most important
thing is to get customers inside the store. Once the user is inside, then let the
user experience, price of the product and the service support take over .

But to take that space in the market, you have to pay security deposit, high retail rentals, or if you have lots of monies (inherited), you buy the place. All of this the retailers understands is called investment into the business, which in most cases they don’t even think of recovering as that is the pillar on which there business is built. And if it is bought space then that investment will pay for itself in India with real-estate prices going up up away. 
Comparatively: An online retailer, needs to open a website by paying a couple of thousands dollars to developers and he is up and about. With payment gateway, logistics support for deliveries etc.

Now the advantage that a small retailer in a market has is that he has a captive audience to cater to, the foot falls in the market, enables him to scale the business to a certain level and for the next one year he will only think of recovering the operating costs, with some monies for himself in it. Bare Bone, no fat. If he survives for TEN years, is when he thinks he has made it big.

On the other side, an online retailer has to struggle to get this foot fall or visitor, and in most cases the first visitor is actually a paid 4 visitor by the website owner.

I think this is essential, as in the clutter of the eCOM shops; you have to tell that you exist; this is where the eCOM companies are spending most of the monies.

Now there are a few avenues in this line of approach.

Some of them are being tested out by various eCOM sites.

1. Coupon codes. : On the eCOM side, distribution is the key to success, and coupon distribution is one of the key distribution articles, it similar to flyers that the offline people send to entice people living in the locality to come and buy at there shop, and also give incentives to do so.
   
2. Discounts / Best price spiel: Another one, which is used effectively by the larger eCOM companies. They believe SCALE will Trip over everything on the Internet. Some companies have taken it to the level where they are selling stuff even below its buying price. Short-term solution with a long team impact. We have companies in the offline space who did exactly this (sabka bazaar is one such example, I don’t think they sold product below buying price, but good discounts on the MRP and that too on low ticket items)
   
3. Gather distribution lists: All the deal sites today in India are aggregating users, getting them to register for some instant gratification, which they plan to milk over a period of time by sending them products and services at discounts or as special user offers.  This is like the guest book at the normal retail shop.

Most of the good teams running the eCOM businesses know that they will not make monies now or on the first deal, it will be the 10^th -12^th – 20^th transaction or more that they will breakeven on the money used to acquire the customer.

Traditional business do not have these matrices to measure up to as they do not have to bear with the fact that the foot falls into their shop has a cost attached to it and they need to make sure that the footfalls buys. There is to some extent no need for this information.Except one stores that I know of that track a conversion ratio of walk-in to purchase. (Croma)

Interestingly, I am sure you would have noticed in a big mall near you, that shops keep on changing hands. One day it one brand and after three / four months or max a year, the shop changes the brand. Is it to say that offline retail commerce is failing?  

Having said all the above, the following points is what makes me think that ecommerce will stay and be the next big ticket for entrepreneurs in India.

1. Easy funding of projects (VC), similar to retail banking doing the first round of funding for the retailer for stocks.  The Risks are higher but so are the returns.[ This is Now, might not be the case middle of the year.]
   
2. Smart Technology being made available to test market the shop. Now you can setup a retail shop for as low as 2,000-10,000 per month on SAS platforms like MartJACK. and a few more.( I remember this to be as high as 10 -20 Lacs a few years back, there are a few companies still selling at this price. HUH!!). Test it out and see if a particular vertical works for you.
   
3. Last mile puzzle being solved by logistic guys. Courier companies and more deeply integrated into small towns. With some eCOM companies starting their own courier companies to ensure a great delivery experience.
   
4. “GST“:  this the Real fuel for eCommerce. This will enable eCOM companies to bill directly form there central warehouse and deliver the product, with out having to bother for state taxes / octroi / completely redundant documentation etc…
   
5.  Interesting payment options being made available. Now you have the following. 
1. Cash on delivery 
2. Cash before delivery (http://www.gharpay.in/) 
3. Credit cards 
4. Debit cards 
5. Cash cards 
6. Internet banking 
7. Instant conversion to EIM @ zero % interest. 
8. Mobile wallets 
9. Prepaid vouchers
   
6. Govt. Initiatives 
1. GOVT websites now take e-payments 
2. Utility bills are being paid online
   
7. Security 
1. One time Password (OTP) 
2. Instant notification for transaction to registered mobile phones
   
8. Social Media proliferation 
1. Get more feedback on before purchase information 
2. Flaunt what you just bought attitude. (self esteem and near real-time). 
3. Get friends to recommend your next purchase.
   
9. Comparison Shopping (another biggiee waiting to happen).
   
10. Online Media channel on a COST Per CUSTOMER available in INDIA now (last four-  five years, the scale is happening now).
    
11. General growth of users who are now transacting on the Internet for the following : Recharge( MOBILE, DTH, Insurance)  / Bank transfers / Online banking / Restaurant booking / buying deals online(discounts)

Growth in online traffic to eCommerce sites.

(Courtesy: Hindustantimes.com) , additional insights also available on eCommerce on the lnk below .. 

See link:: http://bit.ly/AANc9X

And of course the Multichannel digital marketing and offline marketing combined together will help the eCommerce company to delivery to both the users and its investors. So use them wisely. 

In the end, the only thing that will fail in the eCommerce industry will be teams and not the concept of ecommerce. Be ready for a long haul if you want to make an ecommerce company. If you are starting up an eCommerce site thinking that some one else will buy it out. BIG MISTAKE. think twice or maybe TEN times... :), Not all will get lucky.

Let me know your feedback. 

I will be writing on the basic digital strategy for eCommerce site in India. A start-up guide to the same. Hope you all like it. So keep watching this space.