STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT THE IMPACT of a given search marketing campaign probably shouldn’t be measured solely by online conversions to a sale. A lot of searchers research their purchase online but then go offline to buy.
A report last December by comScore Networks and sponsored by Yahoo! found that 92% of consumer electronics and computer customers who made a purchase after at least one search in 2004’s first quarter were far more likely to buy offline than on.
That offline buying makes it difficult for marketers to keep track of the return on investment of their search engine marketing campaigns. Offline sales also make it difficult to find the best way to optimize SEM, since marketers may not be sure which keywords are converting best into offline sales.
Merchant Warehouse, a Boston company offering credit card processing services and equipment to marketers, has been a strong believer in search engine marketing since its founding. The company has also run an extensive in-house call center to turn sales leads into conversions; in fact, that call center produced 75% to 80% of its sales.
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