Evan Sikes, Director of Marketing & PR at Cowen's Auctions, presents a case study titled, "How Cowan's Acutions Achieved a 145% Increase in Online Conversions with Data Integration."

1. Increasing Online
Conversions with Data
Integration

2. Let us know what you think!
#AtE2015
@InfoTrustLLC
@NickDuskey

3. Hello!
I am Evan Sikes
Director of Marketing at Cowan’s
Auctions
You can find me at:
evan@cowans.com
@evansikes

4. COWAN’S AUCTIONS
Cincinnati-based fine
art and antiques
auction house led by
PBS History
Detective and
Antiques Roadshow
personality, Wes
Cowan.

5. Hello!
I am Nick Duskey
Web Analyst @InfotrustLLC
You can find me at:
@NickDuskey

6. The Challenge

7. User Actions
➜ New Registrants
and Visitors
➜ Absentee, Phone,
and Timed Bids
➜ Where and how
those bids are
executed
ANALYTICS IN THE FINE ART AND AUCTION
WORLD
Bidders
➜ Bidders are largely
digitally based
➜ The internet has
changed the game
➜ 3 important factors
involved

8. ➜ Non-traditional sales model
➜ KPIs not measured with “out-of-
the-box” analytics solutions
➜ Working with proprietary software
on the back end
➜ Sale of firearms made manual
advertising placement the only
possible model
Business-Specific Challenges

9. ➜ Data siloed into different systems,
each with a different purpose
➜ Technology deployment must be
custom, due to use of custom
software
➜ Need for quick reporting
functionality due to manual
advertising methodology
Technology-Specific Challenges

10. TECHNOLOGY
MUST ADAPT
TO MEET
BUSINESS
NEEDS

11. The Approach

12. The Three Layers of Data Integration
Data Sources
These are the
originators of data.
In our case the data
consisted of web
analytics data, user
data, bid data, and
advertising data
sources.
Integration Tool
In this case a Tag
Management
System was used as
a real-time data
integrator. Could
also have been
accomplished using
an integration tool
like Analyze.ly
Data Interface
The endpoint for
data in this scenario
was Google
Analytics. Other
common endpoints
are databases,
dashboards, or
Business
Intelligence (BI)
tools.

13. DATA INTEGRATION PROCESS
Identify Common Keys
Implement Technology
Build Meaningful
Reports

14. One key to bind them....
Advertising
Data
User
Data
Web
Data

15. TAG
MANAGEMENT
It’s not just an easy way to implement
analytics and advertising pixels

16. Key to integrating systems in real time

17. DON’T EXPEND
VALUABLE
RESOURCES
MANUALLY
INTEGRATING
DATA

18. ANALYZE.LY
Analyze.ly is a web
application that
automatically
integrates data from
various platforms
automatically

19. GOALS

20. GOAL REPORTING
Reporting on KPIs is
critical to any
organization’s digital
success. Pro tip:
Don’t use pageviews
or bounce rate as a
KPI

21. Absentee Bid Dashboard

22. Absentee Bid Dashboard (Continued)

23. The Results

24. COWAN’S ADVERTISING PROCESS
Place trackable ads
Measure business-
specific KPIs
Revise copy,
placements, and budget

25. DISPLAY ADVERTISING
By targeting specific
sites with high
Return on
Advertising Spend,
every marketing
dollar is maximized.
Rare Book Hub
$59,700 in Bids
Ad cost = $400

26. 42%Increase in online bidding in first 30 days following data integration
185%Increase in bid value via strategic decisions informed by integrated data
163%Increase in number of bids

27. Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me at:
@NickDuskey
nick@infotrustllc.com