Advertising was always difficult to measure be it TV, print, radio or any other form, until 2000 when Google revolutionized the ROI approach with Google Adwords. When marketers advertised on the traditional platforms they did not know which platform worked to get the sale.
Did the print ad work or the TV ad, maybe the hoarding worked.
With Adwords a marketer could measure exactly which click on which website or search result delivered the sale or the conversion.
Here the ROI was clearly visible, and for the first time marketers could spend money and gauge the measuring parameters of the ad – This was revolutionary and a complete game changer for marketers and advertisers.
98 % of Google’s revenues till very recently came from adwords
In the recent Google hangout video Matt, Product Specialist at Google alongwith Meghan Lee, Agency development manager at Google discuss the approach of measuring cross device usage.
More than 90 % of users start an activity (ie to buy a product or download an ebook) on one device and complete the task on another device. They could start searching for a product on their mobile devices and complete the buying process on a desktop or click an ad on one device and complete the conversion on another device.
In such a scenario how does Google measure the ROI, what the full video where Matt and Meghan discuss Google’s measurement approach and conversions across devices.