Question
I use UTM parameters to do my own ROAS analysis by different paid advertising channels. I'm able to collect some customer conversion data from different advertising channels like Adwords, but I get a lot of "Direct" customer conversion data to whic I then don't know if Adwords had anything to do with these conversions. Since UTMs are cookie based, I'm sure I'm not 100% capturing all my UTM data accurately.
I then took a look at Google Analytics MCF section, and I can see all the different reports from "Top Conversion Path" and "Model Comparison Tool", but I don't really feel 100% confident making marketing budget decisions based on the data I see here.
So when I do my ROAS analysis, if I just compare my Adwords advertising spend against the Adwords UTM parameters channel my ROI is horrible (negative ROI).
However, if I combine my Adwords UTM parameters channel and "Direct" conversions against my Adwords advertising spend for customers that signed up during that period, my ROI looks a lot better (positive ROI).
So my question is, should I be grouping "Direct" conversions with my Adwords UTM tagged conversions when measing my ROAS for Adwords advertising spend?
How do I accurately know that these "Direct" conversions actually came from my Adwords campaign through a multi-channel funnel?
Answer
Remember that direct doesn't mean "came to my site." It means "Google couldn't ascertain what campaign this was part of." For example, many links that come from Facebook mobile flow into direct, because the mobile app wipes the cookie. (this is part of what's known as "dark social.")
One way to get at this is to look at assisted conversions and multi channel funnel analysis in GA, which helps you start to understand how the channels interact.
Also, when adding UTM params to an Adwords campaign you can cause issues. Google can delete that stuff when it adds its own if you aren't careful.
