To understand the true ROI of your web marketing campaigns you need to capture lifetime value. You need to understand how much revenue the campaign generated not just on the shopper's initial visit, but throughout their lifetime. A campaign that generates a customer that places recurring orders for an extended period of time is much more valuable than a campaign that brings a one time shopper. A web campaign that brings in customers to your physical stores may be just as valuable as a campaign that brings shoppers to your web store. And a campaign that introduces a shopper to your company, even if they don’t place a purchase on that initial visit, may still be a successful campaign.
To capture lifetime value, you need an Ecommerce, CRM and ERP system that can associate a marketing campaign with a shopper, and then track that shopper's lifetime value through all your channels. The campaign needs to be tied to the shopper, not just to an individual visit or an initial order. And you need to track all of a shopper's purchases online, over the phone, and in your physical stores. When you make those two connections, you understand the true ROI of your campaigns, and you know where your marketing money is best spent.