How OWOX BI Helped a Large E-Commerce Brand Boost ROAS by 23% and Save Over $5K Monthly
The Customer: A Well-known E-commerce Brand in the US Market
Industry: E-commerce
Company Size: <25 employees
Markets: North America (U.S. and Canada)
Challenges
❌ Different reports showing different values for the same metrics
❌ Attribution model(s) that is not aligned with business needs
❌ Discrepancies between the sales in advertising platforms and CRM system
❌ Limited data control with analytics tools, leading to data loss
❌ Manual and scattered reporting procedures
Solutions
💡 Comprehensive audit of analytics and measurement setup
💡 OWOX BI Server-side Streaming implementation for website tracking
💡 OWOX BI Pipelines setup for data collection
💡 Custom data model for end-to-end analytics with consistent metrics
💡 All-in-One marketing dashboard in Looker Studio
Results
✅ Full-funnel marketing analytics system built in less than 2-month
✅ Saved over $5,000 per month by reducing ads waste on ineffective channels
✅ Better decision-making capabilities with actionable dashboard (40+ pages)
The Challenge: Outdated Analytics System
Before adopting OWOX BI, our customer navigated a complex analytics tech landscape, heavily influenced by the deprecation of Google Universal Analytics.
Our client's web analyst shared:
"I was a strong advocate for Universal Analytics because it was a tool that could basically cover nearly 90% of my needs, except for end-to-end analytics."
When Universal Analytics was phased out, our client was at a crossroads.
They deliberated between TripleWhale – a dedicated e-commerce data tool, and Google Analytics 4.
Despite using TripleWhale, the web analyst was drawn to OWOX BI through extensive research, including video guides, webinars, and blog articles, coupled with firsthand accounts from analytics conferences.
"Our website user behavior tracking was managed through direct Shopify integration with TripleWhale and its integration with Facebook Shop, complemented by GA4."
This setup, though functional, had several challenges, prompting the search for a more accurate marketing analytics solution:
#1. Lack of raw data and customization
Their company struggled with obtaining deep insights due to the limited customization capabilities of their previous web analytics tools.
#2. Not-reliable attribution model
The existing attribution models did not meet business needs, relying heavily on Facebook's model without clear insights into how decisions affected conversions.
#3. iOS device dominance
Accurately distinguishing between new and returning users was challenging, particularly given the dominance of iOS devices in their primary market.
The shorter cookie lifespan on Safari, limited to just 7 days, impacted their business by shortening attribution windows, creating remarketing challenges, and reducing data accuracy.
#4. Sampled data issues
Google Analytics sampling issues, compounded by data retention policies, hindered the generation of comprehensive year-over-year reports.
#5. Scattered reports
The setup of many tools was pretty robust, but it lacks the single source of truth for marketing reporting. That is why different team members were making decisions based on the reports showing different values for the same metrics (because were considering different tools as a source of truth for their data).
#6. Data ownership & privacy
Concerns over privacy and data ownership and the inflexibility of attribution modeling and report customization further underscored the need for a more adaptable solution.
Confronted with these obstacles, our client defined specific analytics goals to overcome their challenges:
Analytics goals of our customer
- Creating GAU-like reports enriched with Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics based on the data everybody across the team would trust.
- Implementing a Linear Attribution Model, but customized to meet business strategies.
- Ensuring ownership of raw data for comprehensive analysis going forward.
- Setting up Facebook Ads Conversion API based on the website tracking they trust to enhance ads performance.
The client's web analyst emphasized the critical need for a transparent and effective analytics setup to improve decision-making clarity across the organization, setting the stage for a transformative solution with OWOX BI.
The Solution: All-in-One Analytics with OWOX BI
When our client business first encountered OWOX BI over a year ago, the introduction came through senior management's participation in seminars showcasing end-to-end analytics solutions.
This experience sparked an interest in OWOX BI's capabilities, prompting them to consider it as a potential upgrade to their existing analytics framework.
Choosing OWOX BI was a calculated decision, influenced by several key factors:
- Established Reputation: Renowned for its extensive experience and robust performance in marketing analytics.
- Commitment to Transparency: Demonstrated through easily accessible insights from the CEO and team videos, providing a clear understanding of the platform's capabilities.
- Data Control: Superior data management features that provided comprehensive control and deeper insights into marketing operations.
- Support Excellence: Transparent pre-sale and ongoing support services ensured a smooth transition and reliable assistance.
OWOX BI stands as an all-in-one marketing analytics platform, trusted by industry leaders like Semrush, Rainbowshops, Allo, and Comfy. Over the past 15+ years, it has catered to the needs of over 2,000 businesses across 23 industries, optimizing their digital reporting processes.
The tailored solution crafted by the OWOX team included:
- Server-side Tracking - Utilizing OWOX BI Streaming for accurate acquisition campaign tracking.
- Ad Cost Collection - Centralizing the data about advertising spending.
- Sales Data collection for being able to connect the dots between marketing expenses and revenue.
- Custom Data Modeling - to create a solid foundation for end-to-end full-funnel analytics.
- Tailored Reports in one place using OWOX All-in-One Marketing Dashboard template for Looker Studio to create a visualization of marketing performance.
The proactive involvement of the OWOX BI Success team was crucial throughout the process.
The Implementation: Setting Up OWOX BI
Our client business utilizes a diverse set of data sources, including Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Microsoft (Bing) Ads with custom cost integration, Pinterest, and TikTok.
Additionally, we’ve managed to incorporate accurate email statistics from Klaviyo.
The website tracking systems now include OWOX BI Server-Side Streaming to Google BigQuery. This is a move to data ownership that stands as a solid foundation for privacy and long-term analytics.
Implementation plan
The collaboration with OWOX began with a detailed plan focusing on several key areas:
- Building a robust data model tailored to our client's business model
- Implementing OWOX BI Pipelines for data collection
- Setting up OWOX BI Streaming for web analytics
- Deploying OWOX BI Transformation to execute data model updates and prepare data for reporting.
- Configuring 4 attribution models: Linear, First Click, Last Non-Direct Click, and a U-shaped model (All tailored for specific sales funnel and needs)
Rollout and results
The implementation of OWOX BI occurred in 3 phases:
- After 1 week, our team set up and initiated data collection, web-analytics tracking, and a few essential standard transformations.
- After 4 weeks, we customized their first All-in-One Digital Marketing Dashboard
- After 8 weeks, our client saw significant improvements in their analytics capabilities.
Critical reports enhancing marketing strategy
Several essential reports have been instrumental in advancing marketing strategies:
- Sessions and Users Report
- Customized Marketing Dashboard with detailed insights
- Venn diagram showing transaction overlaps for Facebook and Google Ads
- Performance Reports on customer sources and profitability
- Reports on channel sequences and touchpoints before purchases
- Comparative metrics report
Technical challenges overcome
From a technical standpoint, integrating OWOX BI presented several challenges that the OWOX team had successfully resolved for our customer:
- Shopify site tracking required a custom event tracking setup via Google Tag Manager due to Shopify's limitations with native analytics.
- Facebook shop integration involved pulling data from Shopify CRM, aligning it with web analytics, and assigning accurate source attribution.
This implementation has equipped our client with the tools to obtain comprehensive data visibility and actionable insights, significantly enhancing their marketing effectiveness across all channels.
Facebook in-app browser compatibility challenges
Mamma Mia Covers faced significant tracking issues due to the use of internal browsers by Facebook and Instagram. These platforms open links within their own environments, which led to a considerable loss in analytical data and resulted in many transactions being misattributed as direct/none.
When a user clicks on a Facebook ad and completes a transaction within the same internal browser session, tracking works correctly, attributing the source as facebook/cpc. However, if the user decides to open the link in an external browser like Safari or Chrome and later completes a transaction, the session is typically recorded as direct/none, bypassing the original source attribution.
This issue was critical for our client as an e-commerce brand, which receives substantial traffic from Facebook. To address these issues and improve data accuracy, the OWOX team developed a tailored profiling approach that addressed the challenges of losing UTM parameters when links initially opened in internal browsers are accessed later in external browsers.
The Benefits: Transforming Marketing Strategy
Since integrating OWOX BI, this e-commerce company has significantly transformed its marketing strategy and day-to-day operations.
Let's look at some of the key benefits they've experienced as our client:
Strategic shifts
- Focus Shift: Insights from OWOX BI led to a strategic shift away from underperforming Facebook campaigns (that the Facebook Ads platform was showing as profitable). This decision was based on a detailed analysis of the real sales from these campaigns.
- Campaign Optimization: Reduction and termination of non-profitable campaigns on Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok have notably improved the return on ad spend (ROAS).
- Innovative Reporting: Providing 3 critical reports with data collected by OWOX BI
The web analyst from our client's team is reflecting on the changes, noted that these two reports have altered their perspective on our customers' behaviors:
"The Venn diagram report was really beneficial, revealing minimal overlap between Facebook and Google Ads transactions, that challenged our previous assumptions, because we thought otherwise.
And another important report was covering, detailing the number of touchpoints before the first purchase and days to the last purchase, that enabled new insights into funnel planning and customer journey understanding."
Cost savings
If we look at the measurable results, here are a few of them:
- Cost Reduction: Our client started saving over $5,000 per month by stopping unprofitable campaigns on Pinterest and TikTok in December 2023.
- Profit Increase: Analytics implementation by OWOX has contributed to a 23% growth in profits, showcasing the direct impact of data-driven decision-making.
Better decision-making culture
OWOX BI has facilitated way more data-backed decision-making by enabling the creation of customized reports with advanced visualizations that were previously deemed impossible.
Through these strategic implementations and insights, OWOX BI has enabled our client to refine its marketing approaches, leading to cost savings and profit gains.
The data-driven insights have fostered a culture of informed decision-making, ensuring that each marketing initiative is optimized for maximum return.
The Impact: Better Marketing ROAS
Before embracing OWOX BI, this e-commerce enterprise was struggling with outdated analytics and lacked a clear application of attribution models.
The integration of OWOX BI marked a significant transformation in their approach to data analysis.
Transformation in analytics competence
The implementation of OWOX BI brought about a notable shift in technical competencies and engagement in web analytics among targeting specialists.
Under the guidance of the web analyst, their team developed a robust understanding of the strategic importance of data analytics, resulting in enhanced efficiency and productivity across marketing campaigns.
OWOX BI has become a cornerstone in developing a new marketing strategy. The platform's insights and data integration capabilities have enabled them to simplify their campaign management processes and improve decision-making accuracy.
Client testimonials and experience
Reflecting on their journey with the OWOX team, our client praised the partnership, emphasizing:
- Involvement: The proactive engagement and support from the OWOX team were crucial in navigating the complex landscape of data analytics.
- Reputation: OWOX's strong market presence and well-known reputation assured them of the reliability of the analytics solutions provided.
- Overdelivery: The results and service provided by OWOX exceeded their expectations, delivering more value than anticipated.
A shift in perspective
Our client's web analyst offered a vivid analogy to describe their experience before and after implementing OWOX BI:
"Initially, our analytics was like navigating a winding road without a map, uncertain of our direction and destination.
After integrating OWOX BI, it was as if we had equipped our vehicle with a state-of-the-art GPS, offering clarity and reliability in our journey through the complex terrain of marketing analytics."
This partnership not only enhanced the technical capabilities but also ingrained a culture of data-driven decision-making, ensuring a clear path forward in our client's marketing efforts.
The Next Steps: Expanding OWOX BI's Role
As our client plans for the future, their strategy to leverage OWOX BI is set to evolve.
Here are the key areas they aim to focus on:
- Decision-making: They plan to further integrate OWOX BI data to gauge the commercial impacts of marketing campaigns and optimize them using refined attribution models.
- More data visualizations: There is a continued effort to refine and expand existing dashboards and create new ones, enhancing the quality of decisions.
- Adapting to new technologies: In anticipation of a post-cookie era, they are preparing to leverage new implementation of OWOX BI Server-side tracking.
Current status and future projects
All currently planned initiatives have been successfully implemented, and the team is open to integrating additional pipelines as opportunities arise.
The access to the data accurately collected by OWOX BI for predictive analytics continues to be a major asset, providing the groundwork for strategic foresight.
Our client is looking to enhance its marketing analytics framework continually, ensuring that OWOX BI remains a core element of its strategic planning and execution.
