In order to gain a representative image of a purchase decision-making process, customer journeys should always be thoroughly compiled and evaluated. This is because the effects that specific advertising measures have on the customer journey can only be assessed if the sequence of individual touch points is able to be reconstructed. This knowledge makes it possible for online retailers to tailor advertisements to potential customers.
Online retailers acquire this necessary data by enlisting the help of modern web analysis tools, like eTracker and Google Analytics. Programs compile information on how long internet users had been in contact with a certain advertisement, as well as which contacts came before and after this touch point. For example, when using the ‘top conversion path’ on Google Analytics, users are able to determine the number of transactions that a specific sequences of touch points led to - and how much turnover these were able to generate.
And for those who aren’t interested in carrying out their own analyses, data derived from buying decision processes can be used in order to plan further marketing measures. This is due to the fact that Google provides free access to large-scale studies on customer journeys on its blog, ‘Think with Google’.
The interactive report is based on the analyses of around 36,000 Google analytics accounts that have made their collected user data available. With just a few clicks, online retailers are able to determine which touch points are most important for their businesses-specific industries.