Opportunity Analysis using Multi-Channel Funnels

Multi-Channel Funnels (MCF) can provide a lot of valuable data about the entire multi-touch conversion process.

But the most common question I’ve heard from people in this industry is – okay, but what do I do with this?

Today I’m going to step through using MCF for opportunity analysis both in Paid Search and Organic Search.

Paid Search Opportunities in Multi-Channel Funnels

First, for the Paid Search side, select the Assisted Conversions report and toggle the type button to AdWords. Then, sort by Assisted Conversion Value.

When you dig in to this data, look for one specific thing: campaigns where the Assisted Conversion Value is greater than the Last Interaction Conversion Value.

In many cases, these campaigns will look like the poorest performers in your AdWords accounts – either breaking even or losing money on the last click.

But alas, many of these campaigns are driving conversions from the top of the multi-touch user experience.

Use this knowledge: invest more money in these campaigns and see if you can move the needle on your Assisted Conversions.

If you don’t feel like just throwing more budget at the campaign level, dig a few layers deeper. Drill down to the Ad Group level and add “Placement Domain” as your Secondary Dimension to assess your Google Content Network placements.

Increase your bids on managed placements where the Assisted Conversion drives better ROI than the last interaction.

You can do the same thing on a keyword level for each ad group.

Organic Search Opportunities in Multi-Channel Funnels

For the Organic side, bring up the Top Conversion Paths report. It’ll feature the most common multi-touch paths to a conversion.

Click on the “advanced” link and filter for only Grouping Paths that involve Organic Search.

Now you have all Channel Grouping Paths involving Organic Search.

After you’ve isolated conversion paths with organic visits, choose “Keyword (Or Source/Medium) Path” as your secondary dimension.

Once your secondary dimension is set, it’s time to exclude branded keywords from your keyword path. (Be sure to use RegExp to filter out multiple brand names or common misspellings of your brand.)

Sort by Conversion Value and you’ll now have a list of keyword paths where non-branded searches were very valuable at the top of the conversion funnel.

Look for keywords that are common to several paths – in this case, “jean stores NYC” occurs more than once and would be a good target phrase. Use that for some new site content involving stores in the New York City area.