Measurement has always been a pain point for marketers.
Once upon a time the worry was "I know half my advertising budget is wasted, I just.....". In the age of big data the measurement issue swung from a dearth of data to a deluge. "Help! I'm drowning in data, how do I start to make sense of this?"
Today, marketers have become adept at digesting large amounts of data, and they are detecting dark spots everywhere. Marketers are now realising they can't see the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth of performance, if they rely on one analytics package alone.
For this reason, we've expanded the scope of the Wolfgang E-commerce Report 2019 beyond Google Analytics to include the new Facebook Analytics reporting.
We’ve integrated data from the new Facebook Analytics Funnels report into our dataset.
At times, our curiosity caused us to crave data that just wasn’t accessible via Google Analytics or Facebook Analytics, so we went straight to the horses’ mouths and surveyed social media users ourselves.
This expanded dataset has shed light where previously there was darkness and has revealed the actionable insights that digital marketers have been craving.
This report is our gift to the digital marketing community. We hope it becomes your most trusted resource for reviewing digital marketing performance in 2018 and planning digital marketing strategy in 2019.
Here are the findings:
WHAT DEVICES ARE PEOPLE USING TO BROWSE & BUY?
% TRAFFIC BY DEVICE
% REVENUE BY DEVICE
WHAT SOURCES GENERATE THE MOST TRAFFIC & REVENUE
TRAFFIC
| Organic | Paid Search | Direct | Social | Display | Referral | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | 42% | 18% | 20% | 4% | 6% | 1% | 6% | 3% |
| Multi - Channel | 46% | 15% | 21% | 5% | 4% | 1% | 5% | 3% |
| Online Only | 35% | 23% | 18% | 2% | 10% | 1% | 7% | 4% |
| Travel | 44% | 18% | 21% | 4% | 2% | 2% | 8% | 1% |
| Overall | 43% | 18% | 20% | 4% | 5% | 1% | 7% | 3% |
WEBSITE ENGAGEMENT METRICS
NUM SESSIONS PER USER
AVG PAGES PER SESSION
AVG SESSION DURATION
BOUNCE RATE
AVG PAGE LOAD TIME
AVG SERVER RESPONSE TIME
COMMERCIAL METRICS
CONVERSION RATES
AVERAGE ORDER VALUE
INTERNATIONAL CONVERSION RATES
Interestingly, conversion rates in Europe (1.51%) are higher than those in the US (1.37%), but the UK is streets ahead of the pair of them on that score (1.78%).
CONVERSION RATES
FACEBOOK FINDINGS
The age-old question “What’s a like worth?” now has an answer.
3% of your average order value!
Thanks to the new Facebook Analytics we can now put cold-hard commercial metrics on social engagements.
When we averaged out our Facebook Analytics data we found that 3% of the people who like your post will go ahead and purchase from you. The conversion rate increases to 4% for a share, 4.67% for a reaction, 4.9% for a comment and if the user takes the time to message you it’s a whopper 9.95% conversion rate. The unseen currency of time is crucial here.
As the user commits increasing time and effort to the engagement conversion rate increases. Like: click, Share: a more public click, Reaction: a click and hold, Comment a click and text, Messenger a click and more text.
The old adage Time = Money is especially true for social engagements.
For reactions, it seems the stronger the emotion, good
or bad, the more likely that person is to convert. This means it’s the mission of the social media marketer to make
their audience feel intense emotions… good or bad.
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT CONVERSION RATES
REACTION CONVERSION RATES
GOOGLE'S “DARK” SECRET
Here we can see that the average conversion rate for a Facebook engagement is
double that of the website conversion rate. So we can infer that a social engagement (like, reaction, comment, share)
is twice as valuable as a website visit!
In addition, Facebook’s “any-click view” of
conversion claims a touchpoint on 8% of transactions, while Google Analytics’ “last-click view”
allocates just 2% of revenue to social traffic as a whole (see What Sources Generate The Most
Traffic and Revenue section above). This four-fold swing in conversion between Google and Facebook reporting highlights the difficulty digital marketers are facing in getting a singular view on performance.
SOCIAL SURVEY FINDINGS
The marketing value of the interaction doesn’t end with the engager alone. Facebook offers an advocacy advantage via the share. Any positive message your customers can share about you to their friends and family is far more valuable than anything you can say about yourself. According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report “recommendations from people I know” is the most trusted commercial message globally. We asked a panel of 300 internet users about their attitudes to the share. Here’s what they had to say.
of respondents said they noticed a friend/family interact with a brand on social in the last 24 hours.
said they are more likely to interact with a brand they saw a friend/family member interact with. This is an emphatic demonstration of social contagion.
are more likely to trust a brand they saw a friend/family interact with. So although trust in Facebook as a company is at an all time low it is still a devastatingly effective platform to use to generate trust via its users.
are more likely to buy from a brand they saw a friend/family member interact with. With the average Facebook user having 338 friends, a single share brings you up to 162 eager potential customers in an instant.
WHAT HIGH PERFORMING WEBSITES DO DIFFERENTLY
ATTRACT THAT USER BACK!
One of the unique features of this study is our conversion correlation. We analyse which website metrics correlate with high conversion success metrics. This year’s study has revealed some of the strongest correlation scores we have ever seen (with 0 indicating no correlation and 1 indicating a perfect correlation).
So what do the best converting websites do differently?
Well, the three strongest correlations of the entire study all point towards one thing. The best converting websites have the ability to attract that user back to their websites time and time again. As a result, they have thundered ahead of their one-click-wonder competitors.
The three correlations which point to this are:
Number of Sessions Per User correlates with RevenueBreak it down for me doc: The websites that had the highest volumes of revenue had the highest number of sessions per user over 12 months. This means the more you can entice users to return to your site the more Revenue you’re likely to generate. This is the strongest correlation the study has ever seen.
% Revenue from Direct Traffic correlates with Conversion Rate by Sessions and Conversion Rate by UserBreak it down for me doc: Direct traffic is associated with returning visitors and ‘Dark Traffic’, often driven by social media and sharing through messaging apps. Focus on giving your visitors reasons to return to your site frequently or share it with others to benefit your Conversion Rate and Revenue. Further proof of the value of attracting that user back.
% Revenue from Remarketing correlates with Revenue Growth (Travel)Break it down for me doc: Focus on ways you can re-engage your previous website visitors through remarketing to really move the needle on Revenue Growth, especially if you are in the travel industry.
Long gone are the days when ‘Remarketing’ was executed by chasing a user around the Internet with the same banner ad until they puked. Remarketing done right, by today’s best marketers, is a sophisticated sequential communication.
Cross-channel retargeting using evolving messages at each touchpoint have been among the top performing campaigns we’ve executed this year.
The fact that the 3 strongest correlations in this study all centre around attracting that user back is telling. Creating additional touchpoints, each adding a new layer of value, and reaching the same user on a new channel is about the smartest thing a digital marketer can do in 2019.
REVENUE VOLUME CORRELATIONS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1 ATTRACT THAT USER BACK
People’s paths to purchase are getting longer. As digital marketers we are all in the travel business now. Our job is to create an itinerary of digital media touchpoints which transport the user from curious clicker to loyal customer. Number of sessions per user has become the critical engagement KPI. Currently companies are averaging 1.5 over 12 months. Anything you can do to get this to 2, to 3 to 4, is about the best marketing you can do..2 THE TRUE VALUE OF SOCIAL REVEALED
It’s not just the user interactions on your website that count. New Facebook Analytics reveal a social media engager is twice as likely to convert as a website visit! The more intense the reaction the higher the conversion rate. Messenger was notable as having extraordinarily high conversion rates.3 ATTRIBUTION ISSUES TO INTENSIFY
Right now digital marketers are spending the majority of their budget with Google and Facebook but struggling to understand conflicting metrics being provided by the two platforms. When Amazon grabs a large chunk of e-commerce ad spends in 2019 the complexities around attribution are certain to intensify.ABOUT WOLFGANG DIGITAL
Wolfgang Digital, “The Digital Marketing Scientists” are a gang of digital marketing nerds who are particularly passionate about performance. Our mission is simple; exceptional digital marketing. We’re very proud holders of the “Best Large Integrated Agency” with the European Search Awards 2018 and the “Grand Prix” prize with the Global Landy Awards 2018.
THE DATA
We analysed over 250 million website sessions and over €500 million in online revenue over the 12 months from July 2017 to June 2018 to compile this report.
CONNECT WITH US
Sign up for our monthly newsletter to read our monthly updates on the Battle of the Internet Giants and more. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to watch weekly Wolfgang Bites; our 4 minute videos on all the latest digital marketing ‘must-knows’.
WORK WITH US
We offer digital marketing, consultancy and training services to companies all over the world. Email Brendan, our director of client engagement at [email protected] today to start improving your online performance.
Words by Al | Designed by Jen | Developed by Fionn | Data by Marty
