Are Search Customers New Customers?

Ha!

There's folks out there who tell you that, when evaluating channels like Search or Social, you are evaluating revenue from new customers divided by total ad cost in those channels ... you're assuming that those channels deliver new customers.

And yes, they deliver new customers.

But your existing customers also respond to those channels.

Here's what the data looked like for one brand - percentage of search orders by customer life stage.

• 20% = First Order.
• 10% = Second Order.
• 20% = 3rd - 5th Order.
• 18% = 6th - 10th Order.
• 32% = 11th+ Order.

Yeah, that's actual data.

Oh oh.

This, of course, renders many of the canned aMER calculations useless.

More important, what does it mean if 32% of search orders come from customers ordering for at least the eleventh time with your brand? I mean, they're loyal to your brand or they wouldn't have purchased ten or more times ... and still, they're out there searching, looking for a different dating partner.

Your answer to that question tells you a lot about the value proposition of your brand.

P.S.:  The higher your annual rebuy rate, the higher the fraction of search customers who are well-along the customer life cycle. The lower your annual rebuy rate, the more the skew of search customers to new customers.