Offline conversion import is the transfer of information about what happened to an enquiry after it was submitted, back into the advertising system. Without it, the system only knows that someone filled in a form, and it optimises for the number of forms – including the unusable ones. Once you add the information on which enquiry turned into a business negotiation, which one into a signed contract, and at what value, the system starts looking for people similar to those who actually bought. The effect tends to be significant in B2B and for services with a longer decision-making process. The precondition is orderly record-keeping: every enquiry must have an identifier that is carried through into the CRM and comes back with a status and a value. Make sure to address the legal basis for processing the data and exactly what is sent.
See also: KPIs for a marketer, Call tracking, Conversion window.
