An increasing percentage of 1-800-FLOWERS customers are researching products and placing orders on their mobile phones. To better understand how these people were converting across devices-and the overall value of mobile to its business-the company used Google AdWords to arrive at these insights. By examining click-to-call and cross-device conversions statistics, 1-800-FLOWERS was able to uncover a 7% increase in overall conversions with conversions that started on one device and ended on another. Being able to assign value to mobile clicks allowed the company to use this data to make informed budget and merchandising decisions.
Goals
Understand the full value of AdWords search ads
Analyze the impact of click-to-call ads
Understand how customers transact across devices
Allocate desktop and mobile spending based on conversion data
Approach
Examined click-to-call statistics
Tracked estimated cross-device conversions
Results
Uncovered a 7% increase in overall conversions (one-per-click)
Uncovered a 4% increase in mobile-initiated conversions (one-per-click)
Reported 8% to 10% of overall revenue from AdWords resulting from click-to-call
Planning to allocate more budget to mobile based on results
1-800-FLOWERS designs and delivers unique flower arrangements and gifts across the world 24/7, 365 days a year. The company has been online for more than 20 years and has used AdWords since 2002. In 2010, 1-800-FLOWERS began using mobile search ads to direct traffic to its mobile website and app.
Amit Shah is the vice president of online, mobile and social, and one of his responsibilities is to drive performance and ROI from AdWords. He meticulously tracks online conversions on the 1-800-FLOWERS website and mobile website. Recently, Shah increased his focus on new conversion types, so the ability to track click-to-call and cross-device conversions has been particularly important.
A bouquet of results
Shah quickly saw value in click-to-call ads. For Shah, these ads serve a dual purpose: “Click-to-call ads drive great revenue for us. In fact, of all the revenue that comes from AdWords, including from desktop and tablet ads, 8% to 10% comes from click-to-call. These ads also improve the user experience and provide flexibility to our customers. If customers want to call us, they can reach us 24/7.”
With more and more people researching and ordering via mobile phones, Shah wanted to understand how these customers were converting across devices. He used the new estimated cross-device conversions in AdWords to obtain these insights. Estimated cross-device conversions is one component of Estimated Total Conversions, a new AdWords metric that provides advertisers with a holistic view of conversions driven by their Google search advertising. By looking at 1-800-FLOWERS’s estimated cross-device conversions statistics, Shah was able to uncover a 7% increase in overall conversions when he counted conversions that started on one device and ended on another. In addition, he uncovered a 4% increase in total mobile conversions after counting conversions that started with a mobile ad click. These were statistics that 1-800-FLOWERS could not track before in AdWords.
Both click-to-call and estimated cross-device conversions provide us with valuable information on how our customers are transacting on various platforms. With this data, we’ll have an even more complete picture of the full value that AdWords search ads bring to our business.
Planting seeds for growth
Shah plans to shift additional marketing dollars to mobile ads as a result of these insights. He also plans on improving the 1-800-FLOWERS merchandising strategy. For example, he wants to ensure that products in certain gift collections are shown on both mobile and desktop devices, along with specific ad creatives tailored for users of these devices.
Shah says, “Both click-to-call and estimated cross-device conversions provide us with valuable information on how our customers are transacting on various platforms. With this data, we’ll have an even more complete picture of the full value that AdWords search ads bring to our business.”
Shah says his new AdWords performance insights are a game changer for both marketing and analytics decision makers, who tend to operate in silos when looking across different sales channels. “The ability to understand how consumers are using multiple devices during the purchase process allows both groups to make better decisions about optimizing the marginal spend across channels,” he says. “Such a comprehensive view of the customer is a true win for advertisers and consumers alike.”
