The following talk was given by Florian Heinemann, one of Germany's SEO and SEM gurus, at last year's Next conference in Berlin. At the time he was still with Rocket Internet giving an insight into the latest marketing strategies of portfolio companies such as Zalando. Recently he has also joined Berlin's latest incubator, Project-A Ventures.
He highlights the fact that a customer needs on average 3-4 points of contact in order to convert into a sale. Hence an emphasis should be put on the user journey rather than individual points of contact. This gives rise to the need of display advertising which is usually neglected in online marketing and is very difficult to measure. However, pricing inefficiencies can often make it highly desirable to use such channels.
Another important factor is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and the differentiation between purchasing power by marketing channel. The difference can often be factor 2 and again measurement is of vital importance. The data generated can be around 30x as much as through conventional tracking but if you are able to manage it you can allegedly reach a 30-35% efficiency increase in your marketing.
See for yourself, the Q&A in the end is also worth watching.