Efficiently investing in marketing is challenging and overwhelming. We get it. Increased ad costs, more competition, endless channel options, and tighter budgets have created the perfect storm for marketers. So what is the survival kit in this storm? It’s using data to know what works.
It’s no surprise then that companies who effectively use data to guide their marketing can increase sales productivity by 25%. With tight budgets and less to spend on marketing than ever, quality marketing insights are critical to maximizing your spend and return on investment (ROI).
Campaigns helps you understand campaign performance across channels and activities, helping to simplify and elevate your marketing data. And the best part? Campaigns is included in your Shopify plan.
With Campaigns, you can:
Organize all your marketing efforts by defining the UTM parameters you want to automatically track
Auto-generate links and QR codes that attribute traffic and sales automatically.
Understand campaign performance across channels and activities.
Let’s explore how to use Campaigns to get more out of your marketing budget.
Table of contents
Organize marketing efforts
Create a name for your campaign that is specific, using details like reason or timeframe, so you know exactly what the campaign is tracking. The campaign ID can be added to your ads as a parameter, so that traffic can be automatically attributed to the campaign you’ve created.
Add auto-match rules to specify which parameter values to track, so that incoming traffic with matching parameters will automatically be reflected in your campaign results. This can be especially useful when running ads across multiple platforms, while measuring them as part of a single initiative. To add campaign activities directly, you can browse your Campaign activities, filter to find relevant activities, and add them to your campaign with a couple of clicks. This gives you the flexibility to include specific activities in your reporting, no matter how they were created.
Auto-generate links and QR codes
A campaign can have multiple shareable links, each with its own shortlink, URL and QR code. Shortlinks and QR codes make it easy to share and track activities across marketing activities. Want to track an influencer partnership? Create a dedicated link. Running an in-person event? Generate a QR code for attendees to scan, and all traffic and resulting sales will show up in your campaign reporting in Shopify.
Analyze campaign performance
As traffic and orders start flowing in, your campaign dashboard will update with key metrics. Toggle between different time ranges to spot trends, or switch attribution models to understand how different touchpoints contribute to conversion. Attribution models are a powerful way to uncover when and where your buyers are converting, across the customer journey. They can also help you determine which assets (medium, channel, etc) are most useful at each stage of the journey, and guide investment in the most effective channels for your funnel goals. You can currently choose between five attribution models, defined below. For each of these definitions, consider the following buyer journey for a single order:
- A buyer first interacts with a Google Ad
- The same buyer returns a week later via a Facebook ad
- Two days later, the same buyer visits the the online store directly to make a purchase
Last non-direct click: Gives 100% credit to the last marketing channel a buyer interacts with before making a purchase, excluding direct visits. If the buyer's journey contains only direct traffic, then the order will still be attributed as direct, as there's no non-direct source to attribute. The “Last non-direct click” model is the default attribution model and will help you understand the last marketing channel that influenced the conversion. In the example above, 100% of the credit will be given to Facebook.
Last click: Gives 100% credit to the last channel a buyer interacts with, including direct visits. You can use this model when you are aggressively trying to convert traffic into customers, and need to understand the final impact to purchase. In the example above, 100% of the credit will be given to Direct traffic.
First click: Gives 100% credit to the first channel a buyer interacts with, including direct visits. This model helps you understand which channels contribute to building your top-of-funnel interest. In the example above, 100% of the credit will be given to Google.
Linear: Distributes credit equally among each click in the buyer’s journey, including direct visits. This model offers a balanced view and can help you understand more complex buyer journeys. Using the example above, one-third of the credit will be given to Google, Facebook and Direct traffic respectively.
Any click: Gives 100% credit to each channel the buyer clicked, recognizing all interactions that contributed to the conversion. Since this model allocates more credit than orders you’ve received, it’s best used to analyze a single channel versus understanding your multichannel marketing mix. You can also use this model to reconcile with attribution reported by each channel, since they only have a view into their own influence. In the example above, Facebook, Google, and Direct traffic will each be given 100% credit for the conversion.
The “sales”, “orders”, “average order value” and “sessions” cards give you a snapshot of key success metrics for the campaign. Below you’ll find a more detailed breakdown with details like sales by channel and how a campaign has performed for new versus returning customers.
The data you'll find here connects across devices, giving you a complete view of your customers' journey as they switch between laptops and mobile devices
An example of a cross-device customer journey:
- A customer clicks an ad on Instagram from their mobile device.
- Then, they browse your online store with their mobile device and provide their email, but leave without making a purchase.
- A few days later, the customer receives an email from your store.
- The customer opens the email from their laptop, visits your online store, and purchases a product.
Without cross-device data, the Instagram ad wouldn't get credit for purchases made on other devices. Understanding which channels drive your top purchase paths helps you optimize marketing spend and deliver the right message at the right time.
Let’s get to work
Log in to your Shopify admin now and discover the power of Campaigns to drive your business forward. Covert more, spend less, and do it all in one place—with accurate, insightful, and actionable marketing data.
