How to analyse and report the true value of your SEO Campaign
For any organic search campaign, you would be interested in knowing three aspects of the campaign:
- How the campaign has performed
- How organic visitors have consumed your contents
- How the organic campaign has helped other marketing campaigns (PPC, email, social, affiliate, etc.) in completing conversions
I am going to outline the process I follow to determine the true value of SEO campaigns:
Step-1: Create a custom report in Universal Analytics that includes only organic search data and contains the following dimensions and metrics:
Dimensions: Source/Medium
Metrics: Sessions, Goal Completions, Goal Value, Revenue, Goal Conversion Rate, Ecommerce Conversion Rate, Pageviews, Avg. Session Duration, Bounce Rate, and Pages/session.


However, this custom report does not provide complete insight as the conversions (goal conversions & ecommerce transactions) reported are all last non-direct click conversions, i.e. these are the conversions that occurred when organic search was the last non-direct marketing channel a person was exposed to before he/she converted.
- So the goal completions you see in this custom report are the last non-direct click goal completions.
- The goal conversion rate you see in this report is the last non-direct click goal conversion rate.
- The ecommerce conversion rate you see in the report is the last non-direct click e-commerce conversion rate.
- The revenue you see in the report is the last non-direct click revenue.
This custom report doesn’t show assisted conversions generated by your organic search campaign.
Any conversion other than the last click conversion is an assisted conversion.
We can never truly determine the true value of our SEO campaigns unless we don’t start analysing and reporting the role organic search campaign is playing in initiating and assisting conversions.
“ SEO not only helps in completing a conversion but also help in initiating and assisting the conversions which are completed by other marketing channels (like PPC, Email, Display, Direct, Referral etc.). “
Step-2: Navigate to Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Top Conversion Paths Report and then create a new conversion segment called ‘The True value of SEO‘:

In this conversion segment, I am selecting all those ‘conversion paths’ in which ‘organic search’ was not the last interaction.
I use this conversion segment to determine the assisted conversions of my SEO campaign.
Universal Analytics, by default follows the last-click attribution model in multi-channel funnel reports. So in multi-channel funnel reports, you see conversion volumes and conversion values for conversion paths in which ‘organic search’ was the last click/interaction.
That is why in my conversion segment, I have excluded all those ‘conversion paths’ in which ‘organic search’ was the last interaction. This way, I can avoid reporting double counts of last-click conversion volumes and conversion values.
I have already reported last click conversion volumes and last click conversion values through the custom report I developed above.
Once you have applied this conversion segment to your ‘Top Conversions Path’ report, you will get an insight similar to the one below:

Here we can conclude that the SEO campaign assisted in additional 20k+ conversions (which are later completed by other marketing channels) whose value is more than $100k. You can’t get this type of insight through non-multi channel funnel reports like the custom report I created above.
Step-3: Since in multi-channel funnel reports, conversions include both goal conversions and ecommerce transactions, you should segment the conversion data further into ecommerce transactions and goal conversions:

Now we can see that out of 20k+ conversions, 467 are ecommerce transactions. These are the ecommerce transactions in which organic search didn’t directly complete but assisted in completing.
Without the assistance of organic search, these transactions would have never completed in the first place.
Now we want to determine the value of these e-commerce transactions. So I will unselect all of the goals and then click on the ‘Apply’ button:

Fig.1
Once you clicked on the apply button, you can then see the economic value of the ecommerce transactions which were assisted by organic search:

Now we can conclude that organic search helped in generating a revenue of $40,885 on top of the revenue of $260k (as reported by the custom report above).
Similarly, you can determine the true value of your PPC campaigns, display campaigns, email campaigns, etc.
Other Articles on Attribution Modelling
- How to analyse and report the true value of your SEO Campaign
- How to valuate Display Advertising through Attribution Modelling
- Understanding Shopping Carts for Analytics and Conversion Optimization
- 6 Keys to Digital Success in Attribution Modelling
- Google Analytics Attribution Modeling Tutorial
- How to Measure and Improve the Quality of SEO Traffic through Google Analytics
- How to explain attribution modelling to your clients
- Default and Custom Attribution Models in Google Analytics
- Understanding Missing Touchpoints in Attribution Modelling
- What You Should Know about Historical Data in Web Analytics
- Model Comparison Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Data-Driven Attribution Model in Google Analytics – Tutorial
- Conversion Lag Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Selecting the Best Attribution Model for Inbound Marketing
- How to do ROI Analysis in Google Analytics
- Conversion Credit Models Guide – Google Analytics Attribution
- Introduction to Nonline Analytics – True Multi Channel Analytics
- Conversion Types Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Attribution Channels Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Differences Between Google Attribution & Multi-Channel Funnel Reports
- Introduction to TV Attribution in Google Analytics Attribution 360
- Conversion Credit Distribution for Attribution Models in Google Analytics
- Conversion Paths Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Attribution Model Comparison Tool in Google Analytics
- Touchpoint Analysis in Google Analytics Attribution Modelling
- Attributed Conversions & Attributed Revenue Explained in Google Attribution
- Which Attribution Model to use in Google Analytics?
- Google Attribution Access and User Permissions – Tutorial
- Conversion Path Length Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- How to set up a data-driven attribution model in Google Analytics
- View-Through Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics
- Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics – Tutorial
- How to Create Custom Attribution Model in Google Analytics
- 8 Google Analytics Conversions Segments You Must Use
- You are doing Google Analytics all wrong. Here is why
- How to Use ZMOT to Increase Conversions and Sales Exponentially
- Connected Properties Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Marketing Mix Modelling or Attribution Modelling. Which one is for you?
- How is attribution modelling helpful for ecommerce and non-ecommerce websites?
- Conversion Time & Interaction Time Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- How to Allocate Budgets in Multi Channel Marketing
- How Does Attribution Work?
- Data-Driven Attribution Model Explorer in Google Analytics
- Introduction to Attribution Beta – Attribution Project in Google Analytics
Register for the FREE TRAINING...
"How to use Digital Analytics to generate floods of new Sales and Customers without spending years figuring everything out on your own."
Here’s what we’re going to cover in this training…
#1 Why digital analytics is the key to online business success.
#2 The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.
#3 Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.
#4 Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
#5 The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
#6 How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
#7 How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
For any organic search campaign, you would be interested in knowing three aspects of the campaign:
- How the campaign has performed
- How organic visitors have consumed your contents
- How the organic campaign has helped other marketing campaigns (PPC, email, social, affiliate, etc.) in completing conversions
I am going to outline the process I follow to determine the true value of SEO campaigns:
Step-1: Create a custom report in Universal Analytics that includes only organic search data and contains the following dimensions and metrics:
Dimensions: Source/Medium
Metrics: Sessions, Goal Completions, Goal Value, Revenue, Goal Conversion Rate, Ecommerce Conversion Rate, Pageviews, Avg. Session Duration, Bounce Rate, and Pages/session.
However, this custom report does not provide complete insight as the conversions (goal conversions & ecommerce transactions) reported are all last non-direct click conversions, i.e. these are the conversions that occurred when organic search was the last non-direct marketing channel a person was exposed to before he/she converted.
- So the goal completions you see in this custom report are the last non-direct click goal completions.
- The goal conversion rate you see in this report is the last non-direct click goal conversion rate.
- The ecommerce conversion rate you see in the report is the last non-direct click e-commerce conversion rate.
- The revenue you see in the report is the last non-direct click revenue.
This custom report doesn’t show assisted conversions generated by your organic search campaign.
Any conversion other than the last click conversion is an assisted conversion.
We can never truly determine the true value of our SEO campaigns unless we don’t start analysing and reporting the role organic search campaign is playing in initiating and assisting conversions.
“ SEO not only helps in completing a conversion but also help in initiating and assisting the conversions which are completed by other marketing channels (like PPC, Email, Display, Direct, Referral etc.). “
Step-2: Navigate to Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Top Conversion Paths Report and then create a new conversion segment called ‘The True value of SEO‘:
In this conversion segment, I am selecting all those ‘conversion paths’ in which ‘organic search’ was not the last interaction.
I use this conversion segment to determine the assisted conversions of my SEO campaign.
Universal Analytics, by default follows the last-click attribution model in multi-channel funnel reports. So in multi-channel funnel reports, you see conversion volumes and conversion values for conversion paths in which ‘organic search’ was the last click/interaction.
That is why in my conversion segment, I have excluded all those ‘conversion paths’ in which ‘organic search’ was the last interaction. This way, I can avoid reporting double counts of last-click conversion volumes and conversion values.
I have already reported last click conversion volumes and last click conversion values through the custom report I developed above.
Once you have applied this conversion segment to your ‘Top Conversions Path’ report, you will get an insight similar to the one below:
Here we can conclude that the SEO campaign assisted in additional 20k+ conversions (which are later completed by other marketing channels) whose value is more than $100k. You can’t get this type of insight through non-multi channel funnel reports like the custom report I created above.
Step-3: Since in multi-channel funnel reports, conversions include both goal conversions and ecommerce transactions, you should segment the conversion data further into ecommerce transactions and goal conversions:
Now we can see that out of 20k+ conversions, 467 are ecommerce transactions. These are the ecommerce transactions in which organic search didn’t directly complete but assisted in completing.
Without the assistance of organic search, these transactions would have never completed in the first place.
Now we want to determine the value of these e-commerce transactions. So I will unselect all of the goals and then click on the ‘Apply’ button:

Fig.1
Once you clicked on the apply button, you can then see the economic value of the ecommerce transactions which were assisted by organic search:
Now we can conclude that organic search helped in generating a revenue of $40,885 on top of the revenue of $260k (as reported by the custom report above).
Similarly, you can determine the true value of your PPC campaigns, display campaigns, email campaigns, etc.
Other Articles on Attribution Modelling
- How to analyse and report the true value of your SEO Campaign
- How to valuate Display Advertising through Attribution Modelling
- Understanding Shopping Carts for Analytics and Conversion Optimization
- 6 Keys to Digital Success in Attribution Modelling
- Google Analytics Attribution Modeling Tutorial
- How to Measure and Improve the Quality of SEO Traffic through Google Analytics
- How to explain attribution modelling to your clients
- Default and Custom Attribution Models in Google Analytics
- Understanding Missing Touchpoints in Attribution Modelling
- What You Should Know about Historical Data in Web Analytics
- Model Comparison Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Data-Driven Attribution Model in Google Analytics – Tutorial
- Conversion Lag Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Selecting the Best Attribution Model for Inbound Marketing
- How to do ROI Analysis in Google Analytics
- Conversion Credit Models Guide – Google Analytics Attribution
- Introduction to Nonline Analytics – True Multi Channel Analytics
- Conversion Types Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Attribution Channels Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Differences Between Google Attribution & Multi-Channel Funnel Reports
- Introduction to TV Attribution in Google Analytics Attribution 360
- Conversion Credit Distribution for Attribution Models in Google Analytics
- Conversion Paths Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Attribution Model Comparison Tool in Google Analytics
- Touchpoint Analysis in Google Analytics Attribution Modelling
- Attributed Conversions & Attributed Revenue Explained in Google Attribution
- Which Attribution Model to use in Google Analytics?
- Google Attribution Access and User Permissions – Tutorial
- Conversion Path Length Report Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- How to set up a data-driven attribution model in Google Analytics
- View-Through Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics
- Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics – Tutorial
- How to Create Custom Attribution Model in Google Analytics
- 8 Google Analytics Conversions Segments You Must Use
- You are doing Google Analytics all wrong. Here is why
- How to Use ZMOT to Increase Conversions and Sales Exponentially
- Connected Properties Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- Marketing Mix Modelling or Attribution Modelling. Which one is for you?
- How is attribution modelling helpful for ecommerce and non-ecommerce websites?
- Conversion Time & Interaction Time Explained in Google Analytics Attribution
- How to Allocate Budgets in Multi Channel Marketing
- How Does Attribution Work?
- Data-Driven Attribution Model Explorer in Google Analytics
- Introduction to Attribution Beta – Attribution Project in Google Analytics
Register for the FREE TRAINING...
"How to use Digital Analytics to generate floods of new Sales and Customers without spending years figuring everything out on your own."
Here’s what we’re going to cover in this training…
#1 Why digital analytics is the key to online business success.
#2 The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.
#3 Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.
#4 Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
#5 The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
#6 How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
#7 How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.