We were glad to see so many of you turn out last week for the first webinar on our ROI Reporting feature. We hope the information we covered helped you become more familiar with this new tool, and you’re on your way to becoming an even more efficient and effective advertiser!
If you’d like to take another look at the webinar or if you weren’t able to make it, you can check out the webinar here.
Now, for your questions…
While we were able to take many of your questions, we realize this is a great deal of new information. We’d like to take this opportunity to go back over your questions and answer any we missed. We’ve included a detailed Q&A below. If you have additional questions you’re welcome to check out our help page or contact us here.
Q: How can the new ROI reporting help me manage my AdCommerce campaigns?
A: ROI reporting gives you insight into what’s working for you, and what isn’t. It helps you make decisions about how to most effectively focus your advertising spending. Now you have the insight to expand your efforts and optimize your spend to focus on keywords that work, and cut out the keywords that aren’t profitable for you.
Q: Why can’t I see sales results immediately?
A: Two reasons. You won’t see anything right away because reporting lags a few hours. Second, the window of time that sales events may be associated to a click is the industry standard 30 days. For example, if a user clicked on an ad on Tuesday, March 9, and then made a purchase with you on April 8, that sale would be counted toward the click on March 9. This is why it’s important to take a 30+ day historical view of your account; all of today’s sales won’t be reported until 30 days from now.
Q: How do I know if the ROI I have is good?
A: Each advertiser has to determine this for him or herself. If your ROI (sales/cost ratio) is less than 1.0, you need some optimization within your account because you’re paying more for the ads than they are generating in gross sales. You have to determine whether an ROI of 2.0 or 5.0 or 10.0 is the minimum acceptable ROI for you, based on the advertised product’s costs (the wholesale cost of the product, plus your other seller fees, etc.).
Q: What is the BID/BIN column for, and why does it matter for ROI?
A: BID means the number of bids generated on your auctions. BIN means the number of times an ad click led a user to click “Buy It Now.” While BIN activity is easily measured (it’s the sales price received as a result of the ad click), the BID number is not as easily assigned a value. Both BID/BIN together illustrate how effectively your advertising is working for you. Driving ad clicks to your auctions means more bids and a higher closing price. You’re exposing your auctions to users who may not have otherwise found them – thereby driving up demand.
Q: I looked at my ROI and it is not meeting my objectives. What should I do?
A: Don’t panic and delete or cancel your campaigns – just pause them. (This will preserve the historical data.) Finding the right balance will involve some experimentation. Review the help section on ROI and implement changes to your campaigns to improve performance. If you need additional help, you can e-mail customer service. We’ll be hosting an Optimization webinar in April, so look for that announcement here on the blog, and join us.
Q: Does the ROI report display which items were sold through AdCommerce?
A: AdCommerce reporting does not identify specific purchases. Once a user clicks on your ad, a sale is counted when the user buys anything from you – not necessarily the item featured in your ad. For example, if your ad displays on the keyword “watches” and a user clicks, but she ends up buying earrings, a sale is counted and reported for keyword “watches.”
Q: How far does the ROI data go back?
A: Six months.
Q: What is the best way to reach Ad Commerce for one-on-one consulting?
A: Send us your inquiry here.
Q: Will this work on all eBay platforms, or just eBay.com?
A: ROI Reporting has been released to all AdCommerce customers worldwide. You can create specific campaigns to target users in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.
Q: Is there any way we can access our AdCommerce account from our eBay account (My eBay)?
A: Not at this time, but we are working on ways to more seamlessly integrate your advertising with your eBay selling activities. For now, you must maintain a separate AdCommerce account and log in at http://www.adcommerce.com/
Q: I was having technical difficulties during the webinar. Will you email the PowerPoint?
A: While we are unable to distribute the presentation file, you may view an archive of the webinar here.
Q: Are AdCommerce ads distributed to third party sites?
A: Not at this time. We are exploring “syndication” opportunities so that in the future your AdCommerce ads will enjoy increased reach.
Q: Is there any way we can set up e-mail in our AdCommerce account so that I would receive an automatic e-mail containing my campaign report?
A: Not at this time. You’ll need to log in at http://www.adcommerce.com and click on the “reports” tab. From there, you can download text or Excel versions of your data for analysis.
Q: Is there any way we can find out from which region customers are coming?
A: This data is not tracked. However, you can safely assume that if you are running a campaign in France and your ad text is in French, you are most likely reaching your desired target audience.
Q: For those buyers who made purchases, will I have access to their usernames?
A: No. AdCommerce reporting does not identify specific purchases or purchasers.
Q: Why do you say that results might not happen until 30 days later? It seems to me that a sale would either happen right away, or not at all.
A: It is true that the majority of sales will be made immediately after an ad click. However, some users choose to shop around more before making a purchase. They typically bookmark your page and come back later. eBay uses the industry standard 30-day “click to sale” measurement to accurately attribute sales to an ad click.
Q: ROI is currently tracking bids and purchases. Will it ever track customer inquiries, so we see how many users asked a question on the item?
A: Good suggestion. We are evaluating this and it may become a part of the product at a later date.
