As a company that specialises in bathroom design, products and installations, bathstore is focused on understanding the complexities of omni-channel retail. "We integrate our channels so that the customer experience is consistent throughout the journey, with the same promotions and products offered online as in store," explains bathstore CMO Claire Bayliss. "There is an appreciation that each channel can play an important role in a customer's journey, regardless of whether they convert on a desktop, in store or on mobile."
Approach
Assess mobile performance using analysis tools and Google research
Goals
Evaluate impact of mobile investment
Optimise budget allocation by channel
Results
Significant uplift in revenue
3-to-1 improvement in return on investment
While bathstore's mobile site initially served as a non-transactional marketing tool, the company subsequently launched a fully transactional site optimised for mobile. Today mobile traffic accounts for 20% of the total visits to the bathstore website.
A test-and-learn approach
After the launch of the mobile-optimised site, bathstore wanted to be able to evaluate the impact of its investment into mobile. But as is the case for many companies, this was easier said than done. "The standard last-click attribution model was not an effective way to evaluate the value of mobile performance," says bathstore's Head of Online, Kevin Sears. "We didn't see the impact we would have expected, especially with current trends in mobile website visits and Google Trends research. This meant we had to determine an alternative way to measure mobile's impact."
Mobile is incredibly important and can be misunderstood if you aren't measuring results correctly. Advertisers need to look past the last click and into the full consumer path to purchase.
-Kevin Sears, Head of Online, bathstore
As a first step, bathstore looked to Google and digital media experts Net Media Planet to help analyse the migration of traffic from desktop to mobile. Research showed that 7% of UK in-store retail sales had been influenced by smartphones. The analysis also paid close attention to mobile visitors who had visited the store locator page, since these consumers were more likely to drive foot traffic to a physical retail location.
Following the launch of a fully transactional site optimised for mobile, today mobile traffic accounts for 20% of the total visits to the bathstore website.
The Net Media Planet team then initiated a simple test to assess mobile performance. "From Google research we knew that an estimated 20% of people on the store locator page would then go in-store," says Net Media Planet Account Director Damien Bennett. "Furthermore, from bathstore's own internal data we knew that 45% of in-store visitors would purchase and so could calculate the value of these store visits using the average order value. We then used tracking tools to look at cross-device measurements from mobile to desktop purchases. Using the same method, we measured how many people bought in-store after searching on mobile devices."
Winning with mobile
"These methods provided critical insights into how certain keywords were performing beyond the last click attribution model, showing the true value of mobile keywords," Damien explains. "Campaign keywords were evaluated and optimised according to their ability to influence conversions across channels as opposed to looking at mobile alone."
As a result, bathstore saw a significant uplift in revenue and 3-to-1 improvement in return on investment. How have the new insights influenced the brand's strategy? "Our investment in smartphone advertising has increased," Claire reveals. "We now also optimise mobile campaigns to different metrics, since last-click attribution isn't an appropriate measurement for success. And we now know the impact of mobile on bathstore's bottom line is so influential that we have established a dedicated budget for mobile campaigns."
