When Do People Buy Online?

We have the good fortune of managing a number of interactive marketing campaigns here at Off Madison Ave, many of which fall under the category of new customer acquisition.  Common themes in this process are testing and measurement.  In my opinion, successful marketing relies as much on math and analytical thinking as it does on creative and spontaneous ideas.  Messages and graphic elements are tested, unique buying experiences are created then dissected, and "always on" reporting plays a key role in campaign progression, boosting ROI and determining what creative works. 

For the purpose of creating greater efficiencies with each campaign, we carefully analyze several aspects of consumer purchase behavior.  One such analysis revolves around the time of day in which people take action.  This dayparting analysis compares click trend vs. action trends (e.g. complete a "get more info" form or purchase a product).  To break it down further:

Some Clicks + Lots of Actions = Healthy Return on Investment
Lots of Clicks + Some Actions = Ehm, Not So Much

We have conducted these types of analyses for ecommerce clients and those for whom the goal is to generate new business leads.  Here are some results from real clients who will obviously remain anonymous...

Sample Ecommerce Campaign


Notes: As we can calculate dollars in minus dollars out, this chart displays margin throughout the day. Note the higher margins during the early evening.

Sample Lead Generation Campaign

Notes: This is a relative trendline that compares click vs. action behavior. While many leads are captured from 11am through to the late afternoon, the campaign achieves greatest efficiency and conversion rate from 3pm to 6pm.

Key Takeaways:

1. No matter if the objective is to purchase a product or request information for follow up, the consumer tends to take action later in the day.  Mid-day buying decisions are also prevalent in each example (i.e. lunch break purchases).

2. We can and should adjust our marketing budgets to focus more advertising dollars during those peak times and lower the advertising spend when the ROI is less rosy.  While there are some commonalities in these two instances, it is important to run these same analyses for each individual campaigns. While your results may be similar, every campaign is different.

3. Even those times where the ROI is very low should not be totally abandoned as many potential customers could be in "research mode", gathering crucial information during the day only to make a purchase or buying decision later when they have more time.

4. This analysis only shows time of day. Day of week and week-to-week seasonality should be considered when planning online marketing budgets.

About the Author: Chris Sietsema

As Director of Interactive Marketing, Chris oversees day-to-day digital marketing responsibilities including search engine optimization, paid search advertising, social media, email marketing and media buying.

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