More than agencies or freelancers, in-house ecommerce marketing teams tend to have more access to data, making them the perfect intermediary between that data and the campaigns they manage.

Accurate, timely insights from analytics platforms or customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help marketers make informed decisions on how best allocate resources when automating tasks (e.g, email sequencing, segmentation strategies).

This allows for more efficient use of time while also providing a higher return on investment through targeted messaging that resonates with prospects over time.

In his SMX Next presentation, Andrew Lolk, founder of SavvyRevenue goes over what it takes for in-house ecommerce marketing teams to implement the necessary data for their algorithms to be efficient, and making sure that the data that we’re actually feeding into the engine also equals the goals.

Feeding the beast

Feeding the beast means giving as much data as possible. This includes:

• Server-side tracking.
• Enhanced conversions.
• Giving the algorithms as much data as humanly possible.

“We need to feed the system with as much data as humanly possible and then use other methodologies to define attribution,” Lolk said. “What we see in Google ads shouldn’t be what you use to actually determine whether it is good for us or not, as profitable or not. The second part is making sure that the data that we’re actually feeding into the engine also equals the goals.”

Analytics

What should PPC marketers focus on? Not manual bidding, keywords, and rules, according to Lolk.

Rather, your focus should be on taking the captain’s seat. Become a mini-manager, or team lead. In order to optimize accounts, attention needs to be given to feeding the right data into the algorithm.

In fact, analytics should equal about 99% of your back-end data. Lolk’s advice: get enhanced conversions

Micro conversions

Managers need to track micro conversions, Lolk said.

“Once you’ve figured out all these micro-conversions you want to track, you need to assign a value. The reason you want to assign a value is that unless you put some kind of conversion values to these micro-conversions, then you can’t use it for shopping because you can’t do target CPA or maximize conversions or maximize conversion value bid strategies.”

Use cases

Use cases for assigning value to micro conversions are as follows:

• The long customer journey, where it takes consumers 3-6 weeks to make the purchase. 
• High average order value, such as mattresses and high-end office chairs
• Tracking micro-conversions and assigning a value to those. Whether they be using a chat feature or clicking on reviews

Blended ROAS

To calculate blended ROAS, you take your total revenue and divide it by your total cost across all platforms.

Blended ROAS includes spend and return for Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Microsoft, and any other ad platform where you’re running campaigns. 

Negative ROAS

Brands and advertisers need to be comfortable with a negative ROAS for some products in certain categories in order to maximize profits and balance new customers, Lolk said.

There are times when you increase profit but your revenue is still down. But by looking at back-end data you can see which products were best sellers, had the highest conversion rates, or got the most clicks.

You can use that data to create a custom product score, allowing you to prioritize them.

Watch: Feeding data to automation: In-house teams’ secret sauce to Google Ads

Below is the complete video of Lolk’s SMX Next presentation.

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