Columbus, OH (PRWEB) September 29, 2009 — This holiday season, consumer wallets will be tighter and competition for online purchases the toughest in history. How can an online retailer do the best job of closing sales? The answer is simple: by better understanding their customers through strategic behavioral data and analysis.

ClearSaleing, a technology and thought leader in attribution management and advertising analytics, today announced the release of its Customer Behavior Module, which provides deep strategic insight into online consumer shopping and purchase behavior. ClearSaleing is able to provide this strategic insight since it tracks the complete Purchase Path of the consumer, including Paths that result in an actual purchase, as well as abandoned Paths. In addition, ClearSaleing is able to track the entire life cycle of customers, from their very first click through their initial purchase through all subsequent purchases.

PhotoWorks Benefits from Customer Behavior Module
One company that has leveraged ClearSaleing’s powerful Customer Behavior Module is PhotoWorks, an American Greetings company. PhotoWorks identified 20 strategic questions related to their customers’ behaviors and used ClearSaleing’s Customer Behavior Module and rich data warehouse to help find answers to those questions.

“As the online marketing landscape becomes increasingly competitive, it’s more important than ever to focus on customer behavior and advertising insights,” said American Greetings Vice President of Ecommerce Marketing, Dawn Wayt. “The data that ClearSaleing provides allows us to understand the influence of our marketing efforts on customer behavior and begin to allocate spend to the channels that generate the greatest return on investment. We can determine the value of different customers over their lifetime, which helps us spend more confidently.”

Holiday Game Plan
In some situations, ClearSaleing data shows that holiday periods have a significant impact on consumer behaviors relative to average order size, purchase decision latency and repeat purchase frequency. “ClearSaleing gives us the in-depth knowledge we need about how our customers’ purchase behavior changes before, during, and after our busy holiday seasons. For our PhotoWorks site, this data has allowed us to determine which timeframes are best for acquiring new customers and how much we should invest to acquire them,” said Wayt.

Holiday versus Non-Holiday
ClearSaleing’s Customer Behavior Module also offers marketers keen insights into the buying behavior of holiday versus non-holiday shoppers. The ability to segment holiday purchases from non-holiday purchases helps marketers more effectively plan for holiday traffic and set realistic expectations for what to anticipate when the holiday season ends. The reports show both sales volume and product detail, allowing marketers to understand whether holiday sales are volume-driven, or if higher priced goods are contributing more to ROI.

Lifetime Value
Another valuable insight that ClearSaleing’s Customer Behavior Module delivers is assessing the lifetime value of a customer from the first product they purchase. By understanding lifetime value, marketers can accurately set the CPA.

“Based on a customer’s lifetime value, it may be the correct decision to have a negative ROI on the initial purchase when acquiring a new customer,” said Randy Smith, President of ClearSaleing. “Knowledge of the lifetime value of a customer gained through ClearSaleing’s Customer Behavior Module allows marketing executives to determine the appropriate investment allocation to acquire a new customer.”

Wayt concurred. “As in many businesses, PhotoWorks’ customer purchase behavior varies by campaign, product purchased, and seasonality. With accurate reporting on these factors, we can shift our marketing mix to maximize our return on investment.”

Returning Orders (Repeat Customers)
Repeat customers are many companies’ bread and butter. ClearSaleing provides a number of reports to enable online retailers to take a deeper look at customer behavior and design campaigns that will bring customers back and increase profit.

“Using ClearSaleing’s technology, PhotoWorks can view campaign performance well beyond customers’ initial purchases,” noted Wayt. “This means that we can optimize campaigns based on ROI, return ratio, latency, seasonality, and lifetime value–all metrics that can help us manage and achieve our growth goals and secure a leadership position within the personal publishing space.”

About American Greetings Corporation
For more than 100 years, American Greetings Corporation (NYSE: AM) has been a manufacturer and retailer of innovative social expression products that assist consumers in enhancing their relationships. The Company’s major greeting card brands are American Greetings, Carlton Cards, Gibson, Recycled Paper Greetings and Papyrus, and other paper product offerings include DesignWare party goods, American Greetings and Plus Mark gift-wrap and boxed cards. American Greetings also has the largest collection of electronic greetings on the Web, including cards available at AmericanGreetings.com through AG Interactive, Inc. (the Company’s online division). AG Interactive also offers digital photo sharing and personal publishing at PhotoWorks.com and Webshots.com and a one-stop source for online graphics and animations at Kiwee.com. In addition to its product lines, American Greetings also creates and licenses popular character brands through the American Greetings Properties group. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, American Greetings generates annual revenue of approximately $1.7 billion, and its products can be found in retail outlets domestically and worldwide. For more information on the Company, visit http://corporate.americangreetings.com.

About ClearSaleing
Named “Technology Platform Search Marketers Can’t Live Without” at the SES Awards, ClearSaleing’s advertising portfolio management platform helps marketers identify ways to more effectively and profitably allocate ad spend across a complex mix of online advertising investments.

ClearSaleing is a thought leader in the growing scientific field of attribution management and publishes www.AttributionManagement.com that provides a rich repository of ClearSaleing and externally published articles, white papers and other material focused exclusively on attribution management.

ClearSaleing’s unique ability to give marketers telescopic insight into their online ad investment is attracting major brand customers such as American Greetings and Nationwide Insurance. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. For more information, please visit www.ClearSaleing.com

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Allegro Medical Supplies Inc. is the leading provider of life-enhancing products. Through innovation and a strong focus on customer service, Allegro Medical provides its customers with the distinct advantage of unparalleled product selection, competitive prices and the convenience of speedy home delivery. Allegro’s strong Web presence is bolstered by its high quality e-commerce site.

Before ClearSaleing: How to Determine the Effectiveness of Online Advertising?

Allegro team members knew Internet advertising was an important strategic component to the growth of their business, but did not have technology that could accurately determine the true effectiveness of their advertising investment. More specifically, they did not know which online sources, campaigns and ads were leading to sales and which ones were not. In addition, they wanted to do a more effective job of managing all of their online campaigns, but needed assistance in making it happen.

Allegro set out in search of a partner with both the technology and the experience to help them improve the performance of their Internet marketing programs–and that search led them right to ClearSaleing. After a few weeks of researching competing products, Allegro Medical signed on as a ClearSaleing customer in June 2008.

“We realized we had been flying blind in terms of our ability to justify our ad spend for each of our online advertising sources,” said Greg Clark, Allegro Medical’s Vice President of Operations, “We wanted to grow our online presence, and we knew we needed a technology that could provide us much greater visibility into our advertising performance.”

With ClearSaleing: Allegro Optimizes Ad Investment

With ClearSaleing’s tracking in place, Allegro was finally able to see the actual profit and ROI generated from its various sources, campaigns, ads and individual keywords. With that information as a baseline, ClearSaleing’s platform showed the Allegro team which sources and campaigns were generating a positive return and which were not. Based on this information, Allegro Medical was able to effectively reallocate its ad investment to improve the performance of its overall ad spend.

ClearSaleing’s search engine marketing team used a structured and disciplined approach to begin a steady improvement of Allegro’s online advertising performance. First, the ClearSaleing team identified and then eliminated ads and campaigns that were generating substantial losses as easily identified through the ClearSaleing Executive Dashboard. Next, the team identified and focused on winning areas and top performing categories, manufacturers, and products, and increased the investment for each. The ClearSaleing team was then able to perform a major rebuild of Allegro’s paid search campaigns aimed at making investments in the proper areas and simplifying the structure of the overall campaign for optimal management and reporting.

ClearSaleing Results: Allegro Medical Goes from the Red to 100%+ ROI

Upon implementing ClearSaleing’s technology, the Allegro team was able to see that their PPC ads had much room for improvement. In fact, both the company’s Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing programs were returning a negative ROI. Thankfully, with ClearSaleing’s technology in place, the situation quickly changed.
The results that came through after the first few months with ClearSaleing were simply astonishing.

In just 6 months, Allegro Medical’s overall online advertising performance had completely turned around, netting a 105% ROI on Google and an 85% ROI on Yahoo. During that same 6-month time span, Allegro Medical’s performance on Google saw a 12% increase in order volume, a 2% increase in conversions and a 62% decrease in average cost per acquisition. The company also realized great strides on Yahoo, where their conversion rate more than doubled, and their cost per acquisition simultaneously decreased by 68%.

“The results that came through after the first few months with ClearSaleing were simply astonishing,” Clark said. “The turnaround that we’ve seen is the direct result of the actionable data ClearSaleing provides. There’s no other product available that can produce such dramatic outcomes in such a short amount of time. ClearSaleing has provided us with the confidence to expand our online advertising budget and ad sources. We’ll continue to count on ClearSaleing to help us make smart investment decisions when it comes to our online marketing initiatives.”

So when marketers evaluate the performance of these non-branded keywords in their standard analytics package, they see only that they get a lot of clicks and that they’re spending a lot of money. But what they cannot measure is the value that these ads bring and the actual profit generated by them. In most analytics programs, these keywords actually look like they’re having a negative impact on sales and profits and are driving the cost per conversion up.

General Keywords Show Negative Profit

One of ClearSaleing’s customers, a successful internet retailer, faced a similar situation. Prior to working with ClearSaleing, they simply couldn’t justify the expense of these types of “introducer” or “influencer” terms. The analytics package they were using employed the last click method of attribution, which only gives credit to the last ad clicked (the “closer”) prior to conversion. By using the last click method, their analytics showed that only branded keywords, specific product names, and model numbers were having a positive impact on the bottom line, and that general keywords were showing a negative profit.

The first step ClearSaleing suggested was that the client move from a last click attribution model to one that gives credit to all of the ads involved in the Purchase PathTM. Once they moved to this “even allocation” model, ClearSaleing then had the customer segment their top 50 keywords into five different groups:

• Competitive terms
• Product names
• Brand terms
• Model numbers
• General terms

ClearSaleing Suggests Custom Attribution Settings

After they grouped the ads based on the above categories, ClearSaleing was then able to show its customer the impact of giving even credit to each ad in the Purchase Path, versus using a last click model and giving all of the credit to only the last ad in the Path.

By doing this, ClearSaleing’s client was able to see how profit levels for the general terms quickly moved from a negative to a positive return. They were also able to identify the amount of money that would be available to reinvest from branded keywords to future purchases of these profitable, general keywords.

ClearSaleing next calculated the number of additional visitors and clicks that the client would be able to purchase with their newfound profit generated from these general terms. By taking into consideration the keyword’s current conversion rate and the amount of money that the client realized in profits by using the “even with exclusions” method over the “last click” method of attribution, ClearSaleing’s client was able to accurately determine what the financial impact of buying more of these profitable, general keywords would be, allowing them to effectively purchase additional orders and generate more profit.

Armed with ClearSaleing’s attribution reports, the client was easily convinced that, when valued correctly, the purchase of the general terms did yield a significant profit and they invested more dollars into their general top-of-the-funnel terms (i.e. “introducers” and “influencers”).

ClearSaleing Attribution Model Leads to Increase in Ad Spend, Visitors and Profits

The results of implementing ClearSaleing’s advanced advertising analytics and attribution management platform were impressive. As a result of their advertising investment reallocation based on the true performance picture delivered by the ClearSaleing platform, the client was able to determine the real value and contribution, as measured by profit, of their general terms. Armed with this knowledge, ClearSaleing’s client expanded its investment from what was only previously 4 ad sources to now more than 18 sources. They also now enjoy a significant strategic advantage by purchasing general terms that competitors simply find too expensive when evaluated under a last click model.

Most important, however, is the fact that by using ClearSaleing’s attribution management software, the company was able to increase their number of visitors by 222% and increase their net profit by 131% over the course of a mere 24 months.

SafeAuto: In Less Than 12 Months, Online Advertising Grows Policy Base by 33%

SafeAuto Insurance Company, one of the nation’s leading car insurance companies, is certainly no stranger to advertising—in fact, television, radio and print ads have served as the company’s marketing mainstay since it began in 1993. But when Elie Deshe joined the company in 2006, and last year became its Director of Emerging Media and Event Marketing, he realized very quickly that unlike the company’s traditional advertising programs that were fully entrenched, he would have the opportunity to build the company’s online programs from the ground up.

“When I joined the company, our web site didn’t have quoting capabilities,” said Elie. “So my first task was to help get that set up. After the quoting was in place, it was time to see how we could go about driving more traffic to the site and using it as a tool to sell policies. We started researching potential partners and found ClearSaleing—and it turned out that they had a great product. But we needed a company to help us place ads, not just track them after they were running. ClearSaleing in turn introduced us to their online ad buying partner Clarecast, and our three companies began working together.”

Impressive Results within Months

Within months of beginning their business relationship with ClearSaleing, SafeAuto was already seeing impressive results. “It took just a few months before our online advertising reached a steady point where we had a firm grasp on what was working and what wasn’t. If you go way back to when we first started online advertising on our own, ClearSaleing and Clarecast have helped us reduce our online cost per policy acquisition by something like 500%! A more down-to-earth way to explain it is this—in less than a year, online advertising now accounts for a full 1/3 of our online policies issued.”

Lower Customer Acquisition Costs and Faster Market Penetration

ClearSaleing is also helping SafeAuto lower customer acquisition costs. “Let me give you an example of how powerful ClearSaleing is. Though we have a presence in other states, it’s only recently that we’ve begun writing policies in Texas. Within weeks of placing and tracking our first online ads targeting the state, Texas is now the single largest state in terms of quotes, policies issued and closing percentages.”

“In the past, we would have had to invest huge sums doing television and radio to launch in a new state. Working with ClearSaleing, we’re finding that we can become profitable more quickly. We believe that our customer acquisition costs are going down as a direct result of what we’re doing online,” Elie noted.

“We Know Immediately if our Ad Choices are Profitable”

One of the things Elie appreciates about the ClearSaleing platform is the freedom it gives he and his team to try something new. “ClearSaleing really allows you to take chances and experiment. In the beginning, we started with banner ads, then with Google AdWords. Since then, we’ve added a few other channels like InsWeb, the Internet Yellow Pages, DMV.org and others—we’re always challenging ourselves to find a new way to reach our audience. It’s great to be able to try something and then sit back and see—will it bring in 100 hits that turn into 5 policies or 50 hits that turn into 10 policies? Thanks to ClearSaleing we know immediately if our ad choices are profitable. We then work with Clarecast to optimize the ads that aren’t as lucrative.”

Stellar Service Makes Implementation Easy

Another area where ClearSaleing clearly rises above and beyond is in the area of service and technical expertise. “We have our own proprietary in-house system that runs our quoting engine and other functionality within the company,” explained Elie. “ClearSaleing’s technicians were able to connect into our system and cull the information that the program needed, without causing us IT headaches or downtime—which in my mind was one of the biggest challenges we faced. From a service perspective, the platform just does what it’s supposed to do, and we couldn’t be happier about that.”

A Web Budget that Continues to Grow

ClearSaleing also makes it easier for Elie to justify a growing online advertising budget. “At this point, the amount of money we’re budgeting for web spending will only continue to grow, and one of the reasons behind that is that ClearSaleing makes it so easy for us to pinpoint exactly how our ads are contributing to new policies. I don’t see our online ad spend going anywhere but up.”

Opening Your Eyes to Attribution or the Danger of Last-Click Decisions

Executive Summary

A well-known advertising agency was tasked by a high-profile healthcare e-Tail client with running a proof-of-concept online advertising campaign. The goal was to find the highest return on ad spend (ROAS) for dollars spent using pay-per-click (PPC) ads, blog advertising and social media. The agency was given a budget supplement and asked to execute campaigns.

After consulting its analytics software, the agency increased its spending on branded keywords, as those appeared to driving the highest conversion rates. The agency launched the PPC, social media and blog advertising campaigns and tracked results. At their conclusion, sales had indeed increased–but the conversion rate had dropped and the cost per conversion rate had skyrocketed. Because of the poor results and the shaky economy, the client terminated the budget supplement.

Because the agency relied on the ‘last-click’ attribution model provided by its current analytics provider, its decision to spend money on mainly branded ad terms was ultimately unsuccessful. Had the agency used a full-scale advertising analytics platform like ClearSaleing, it would have seen how non-branded ads played a vital part in raising brand and product awareness, generating sales and increasing profits.

Using ClearSaleing, the agency would have received an accurate, comprehensive view of its online advertising performance by properly distributing attribution credit among the spectrum of ads that helped create a sale. And as a result of properly attributing attribution credit, the agency would have been able to generate increased profits and a better ROI for its client, which in turn would have lead to more client ad spend and higher profits for the agency.

Campaign Background

A healthcare eTailer commissioned a well-known advertising agency to run a 3-month ‘proof-of-concept’ media campaign to determine the most effective online advertising spend. The budget for the 3-month period was 300 times the client’s normal pay-per-click budget. The goal was to find the highest return on ad spend for every dollar spent using:

• Pay-per-click advertising
• Blog advertising
• Social media networks

Pay-per-click was the obvious ‘low hanging fruit’ as it has been successful in driving not only traffic to the site, but also generating sales.

The Decision and Initial Results:

The pay-per-click was increased and monitored using a standard web analytics platform.

The results showed:

• Blog advertising, while inexpensive, did not drive quality traffic or conversions
• Social media sites drove very little volume or conversions
• Introduction of non-brand terms (after brand term inventory had been exhausted) delivered less qualified visitors at a higher cost
• Although sales were increasing, the conversion rate was decreasing, culminating in a higher cost per order.

The reality was that there was a long list of keywords that were driving traffic, raising brand awareness and assisting with sales. But these keywords were getting no credit for the visit or for the sales with which they assisted.

Using the proper attribution management system, the budget would not have been cut back, simply revised to focus on the brand keywords and also the huge list of generic terms and long-tail keywords that were raising brand awareness. This would have resulted in higher profits for the client and more revenue for the agency.