Tracking conversions is one thing but tracking multi-channel attribution is another altogether.

A typical eCommerce store might advertise on Google, have a customer click a PPC ad, remarket to them via Facebook's retargeting platform, send them a newsletter and an automated cart abandonment campaign and then have the customer convert.

Which source deserves credit for this conversion? There is no easy answer: after all, they all contributed.

This is why multi-channel attribution is important. Most analytics platforms will attribute the conversion to the last direct interaction. That might be a display remarketing avertisement rather than an email. This sort of simple attribution is good for a high-level glance but can lead to under-reporting if take as the only source of data.

With Google Analytics' multi-channel attribution you can define a custom channel grouping, that might look a little like this:

This will then allow you to view your conversions in terms of your specific channels. The net result is that you will have a true understanding of the financial impact of any of your marketing campaigns, both thanks to their direct conversions and conversions they contributed to. This mean no click on any ad or in any email will go unattributed.

SETTING UP YOUR OWN CHANNEL GROUPING

To setup your own channel grouping, you should follow these steps:

1. DEFINE YOUR OWN CHANNEL GROUPING

2. SPECIFY EACH CHANNEL USING A LANDING PAGE OR UTM CODES

If you do not automatically append UTM tags to your email campaigns this step is tricky. Here is how I define our channel encompassing email marketing:

3. VIEW THE RESULTS VIA THE MULTI-CHANNEL ATTRIBUTION REPORT

Now you'll be one step ahead of the pack as you have a real idea of exactly how effective your email marketing campaigns. With this knowledge you can spend more money on your email campaigns and, in turn, ensure they convert better than any of your competitors' campaigns. That is what tracking great data is all about.

4. THE POWER OF A/B TESTING

A/B testing email marketing campaigns definitely deserves more than a single section within this guide but we had to draw a line somewhere!

Testing may be the most powerful conversion optimization strategy there is. The great news (because it's an opportunity) is that hardly anyone tests their transactional and behavioral automated campaigns.

Otehr than the godfathers, Amazon, there are very few examples out there of companies that have improved time-and-again on their automated campaigns. There used to be a few reasons for this:

• It was hard to track revenue and conversions.
• Testing tools had to be built in house.
• Email was 'simple' with lesser opportunity for innovation and invention.

All of these reasons have been smashed. There is no longer no excuse not to conduction A/B tests on all of your email marketing campaigns.

Take this example from Dan at WPCurve. Dan tests all of his blog posts when sending a newsletter. He uses the email he sends as a means to gauge the most effective subject line and, in turn, the most effective title for a blog post:

Another great example comes from Flightfox who doubled the effectiveness of their primary automated behavioral campaign, lifting the total impact of emails on their cart process to a 10% increase in conversions. Their champion variation uses a simple, rich-text Q&A style to bring inc onversions:

Coming up with things to test isn't so hard, here are a few things you can test immediately

• Test a subject line, every time you send or at least once per week.
• Think about your CTA and the copy. Replace 'Submit', 'Continue' and other words with more meaningful CTA copy.

//blog.getvero.com/email-ab-split-test-tricks-so-good-youll-kick-yourself-youve-been-missing-out/