Kickoff Call

Going Live with C3 Metrics starts with a Kickoff Call and ends with confirmation that all tags are properly collecting data.  This article will provide an overview of the entire process.

Data Needed for the Kickoff Call

To prep for this call, please have the following ready:

• Vendor Contact Details
  Names & Email Addresses for your Agency, Vendor, etc.
• AdWords Customer Account ID
  In some instances C3 will sync with AdWords, so best to have this available.
• KPI Report by Day
  Most likely Google Analytics or CRM reporting of KPI's for each day

Questions Asked During the Kickoff Call

Prior to issuing tags, it’s important to have some basic questions answered about your campaign. These may seem like simple questions, but they have far reaching effects on how you will be able to visualize and optimize your campaign.  

Plan approximately 30-60 minutes for this call

1

What are your KPI's?

If you’re running an online store, this is a simple question — your KPI are sales.  If your focus is B2B or lead generation, you may want to categorize your leads into different types based on Net Present Value (NPV) calculations. For example, if you're generating mortgage leads, there may be 5 categories based on lead quality. At the time of conversion, you would pass C3 a different (c3_type) parameter and then C3 would be able to assign a unique NPV for each lead type.  From a data management and workflow perspective, we recommend a maximum of 8 different conversion segments.

KPI Report by Day

Please established a KPI report to be sent to 'help@c3metrics.com' each day.  This will allow your account manager to confirm that C3 is always in sync with your internal reporting.

2

How are you optimizing your campaign?

The C3 Metrics Optimization Engine is fully customized based on your campaign goals and current method of optimization. The C3 Optimize budget reallocation is based on how you answer this question.  You will need to let C3 know if your campaign is based on ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) or CPA/CPL (Cost Per Action / Cost Per Lead).  In addition, you will need to set an optimization goal - such as $25 per lead or 2.2 : 1 return on ad spend.

3

What values will be passed at conversion?

You will be placing C3 tags on your Conversion/Thank You pages which signify that a conversion has taken place. Our team will need to know what parameters (if any) will be passed dynamically to our tag. Typical parameters include order id, order amount, etc.  If you are looking to connect online conversions to offline events, such as in the case of an online lead leading to an offline transaction, this becomes an extremely important question. At the point of conversion, you will pass C3 a ‘primary key’ which we will utilize to ‘match back’ once that offline event occurs. This ‘foreign key’, encrypted in the C3 platform, will need to passed back to C3 via an offline file transfer which match up the offline conversion with the online one.

4

What ad server (if any) are you running?

Since C3 attributes all of the ‘viewed’ ads and is able to distinguish between ads which are seen from ads not seen, we will need to know which ad server you’re utilizing so we can provide the proper view-though tags. If you’re not running an ad server, no worries …. C3 is ad server independent. The C3 tags can be site-served and sent directly out to your partners.

5

What SEM bidding software (if any) are you running?

C3 syncs directly with Kenshoo, Marin, Dart Search, MediaPlex and more.  If you're not utilizing any bidding platform, no worries ... C3 is SEM independent and will work directly with Google and Bing.

6

What other channels are currently active (Affiliate, Email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

We just like to know what you have going on so our team can provide the proper guidance and insure everything is set up properly.

7

Who handles what?

Have all of your contacts close at hand (names and email addresses), as in many cases, the C3 Activations Team (under your direction) will reach out on your behalf to to get everything in place as fast as possible.

Implementation Steps

Here are the basic steps to implementing C3 Metrics

1. Site & Conversion Tags Added to Website 
   Tags are issued by C3 after the Kickoff call and can be added either directly to the Website or via a Container Tag.  A daily KPI report will be requested to confirm C3 is always in sync.
2. View Tags Added to Display/Video Ads with Destination URL Append
   Tags are issued by C3 after the Kickoff call with instructions for different AdServers.  In the case of Site-Served Ads, C3 will connect directly with Vendors for Tag implementation.  A daily ad server report (or access) will be requested to sync spend.  For any Dynamic CPM / Site-Served, C3 can collect spend directly from the Vendor.
3. Paid Search/PLA/CSE Parameters Added and Daily Report 
   Instructions are issued by C3 after the Kickoff call either directly to the Vendor (Marin, Kenshoo, Mercent, etc), Agency or Team responsible.  A daily report or access will be requested to sync spend daily.
4. All of Digital Channels Handled
   All other channels (Affiliate, Email, PPL, etc) contacted by C3 with proper C3 URL appends in place.
5. Offline Media Feeds
   Instructions are issued by C3 to any TV/Radio/Print contacts on establishing feeds into C3.
6. Offline Data Feeds Established
   Instructions are issued by C3 on establishing any offline data feeds

What Happens After the Kickoff 

• 7 days:  Follow-up call to confirm status on any outstanding Implementation tasks  (30-minutes)
• 10 days:  Validation
• 21 days:  Dashboard Training  (1-hour)
• 45 - 60 days:  First read on data for optimization (1-hour)