← Methods · Part 2 of 6

Most of a purchase happens where nobody is looking

The buying decision runs through recognizable stages, and the amount of evidence available at each one is wildly uneven. Analytics sees the transaction clearly and the three stages before it barely at all — which is exactly backward from where the decision was actually made.

Where the evidence exists at each stage — and where it does notNeedsomething changesSearchengines, marketplaces, sComparereviews, price, proofBuyor abandonAfterreview, return, repeatinvisiblepartly visiblemostly invisiblefully visiblepartly visibleMost analytics only sees the fourth box. Most of the decision happened in the first three.That is why we pair behavioral data with the kind you have to go and ask for.
The stage where the choice gets made is usually the stage with the least data behind it.

This is why an assessment that only reads the analytics account will tell you what happened and almost nothing about why. Search terms, review language, competitor comparison and social conversation fill in the earlier stages, and they have to be gone and got.

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