Google Analytics Launches New Features

Google Analytics announced today new product features that they will be launching in the next few weeks. Here are a few brief descriptions:

1. Increased goal completions. The days of only being able to implement 4 goals are over. Now you will have the ability to implement 20 goals; and be able to  assign specific number of viewed pages and/or time spent on site as a goal

2. Mobile websites will now be tracked regardless if the device runs Java Script or not. Mobile applications within the iPhone and Android will now be tracked through Google Analytics to understand how users are engaging with the application. Of course there will be additional coding required

3. Added advanced analysis features allows you to apply filters within the reports for easy analysis and drilling down into the data without having to export

4. Multiple custom variables will allow you to track and define visitors by specific attributes, interactions, and/or behaviors

5. The most attractive improvement that Google Analytics is launching is Intelligence. While reviewing your reports, Google Analytics will alert you when there have been substantial changes in metrics or trends within daily, weekly, or monthly reporting periods. You will also be able to customize and define your own alerts that you want Google Analytics to  monitor.

If you’d like to read more about the features in more depth, check out the Google Analytics Blog.

Think About Optimizing…NOW!!

One question that I get asked when talking about site optimization is “when do you start planning a site optimization.”  My response is always the same:  as soon as the planning stage is complete.  A site optimization plan should be as well crafted as defining your KPIs, in order to minimize cost and maximizing visitor interaction. 

Another factor that a well crafted site optimization plan does is limiting the emotional factor on the analyst.  We all know that regardless of how well we plan a site, visitor behavior is something that is not easily determined.  As soon as the results are not as expected, our emotions take over and we tend to do anything to “fix” the problem.  Rather than being reactive to a situation, I like to take a proactive stance (having a Plan X), planning ahead on what to optimize.  Even if the results are favorable, you want to improve the quality of your traffic, while attracting a diverse number of visitors.  Remember that a static web site is bound to fail.

You might be thinking “OK, this is good, but what to optimize.”  What’s great about optimizing a site is that there are multiple points that can be used to improve the quantity and quality of traffic.  At a minimum, you should be looking at the following:

• The relationship between your media initiatives and your entry/exit points of your site, and look at what attracts or repels visitors when they are on the site.
• Look at the layout of your landing page and ask yourself “would I give out my personal information if I landed here?”  Ensure that your landing pages are not just relevant but that they convey a clear and concise message that entices visitors to move forward.
•  Look at the visitor experience that you’re providing  and look at modifying it by adding additional content, in order to not just attract new visitors, but also returning visitors as well. 

Thinking about an optimization plan before you launch a site is a way to “have in the ready“different options to attract not only returning visitors but a complete set of new visitors beforehand.  This allows you to spend more time analyzing your data and increase your site’s footprint.  What do you think?  Do you think about optimizing beforehand or once the results roll in?  Let’s get the discussion going.   

What!?! Less Than Half of Marketers Use Analytics?

So I was perusing through marketingcharts.com and came across a stat that just astounds me. Alterian released a survey in January that reported less than half (47%) of marketers use analytics to measure their campaigns. Less than half of marketers surveyed know how their campaigns are performing! I’m still baffled. In fact, I would love to learn more from those who do not measure their campaigns and why. If they’re not measuring the effectiveness of their campaigns or their website then I wonder how they decide what works and what doesn’t. The survey also revealed that 25% of the marketers stated that analyzing the results of the campaigns were the hardest part. If this is the case and you find that analyzing your campaign results to be difficult, here are a few steps that may help:

·         Define your goal. What are you trying to accomplish other than increasing traffic to your website? Once you have defined this goal, make sure that you are able to attribute your goal or conversion to your campaigns.

·         Be sure to tag your URLs with the proper campaign parameters that are available with your web analytics solution. Refer to your vendor’s manual for a detailed description of what this may entail. (Vendor’s URL parameters may differ)

·         Drive traffic to specific landing pages. Preferably landing pages that have content that is pertinent to your campaign and target audience.

·         Metrics that you will want to evaluate for performance include click through rate (CTR), conversion rate (CVR), cost per acquisition (CPA), return on investment (ROI), and landing page bounce rates

·         If you want to gather more insight about your campaigns, segment visitors based on the campaign that they respond to and analyze their behavior with your website. You may learn something new about your visitors or you may not, but until you analyze your site visitors, you will never know

Analyzing your campaigns does not have to be hard if you have the available resources. If you don’t, then the problem should not be that it is hard, but that you need to hire someone who can make sense of the data for you.

Remove the Noise: A Web Analytics Approach to Segmentation- Part 1

Segmentation can be used to analyze site visitors in a multiple of ways to compare different types of behavior and identify new insights. Another method of segmentation that can be used is to eliminate visitors by removing the noise of the un-targeted traffic that is not intended for your website.

For example, hopefully you currently exclude Internal IP addresses so that your employees’ activity on the website is excluded from reports. However, if your site only sells products or services in the U.S. and you do not provide services in another country; then you might say that your analysis may be a better representation of your site visitors or intended audience if you filter our traffic from other countries.

Some may argue that having that data is valuable as it may provide insight to the demand of your product or service in another region. This is true and thus should be the reason why you always have a profile that collects all web data to your site. It’s a lot easier to segment out the data you need to do an analysis than it is to add it back in (if that is even an option).

So what are some other ways you would find value in segmenting out types of behavior to better understand your target audience?

Packet Sniffers - The X-Ray Glasses of Web Analytics

One tool in a web analyst’s belt that is critical in the implementation of a web analytics solution is a packet sniffer.  A packet sniffer allows you to view the data that is being collected from your site and sent to the analytics tool’s servers.  This tool allows you to not only troubleshoot your implementation by viewing that data is currently sent, but it gives you a ton of insight as to what behavior is dependent to the type of data that is collected.    

I understand that packet sniffers have been criticized for displaying too much information, or that you must be of the “technical type” in order to decipher the image request.  There are plenty of packet sniffers available that offer a diverse amount of features that anyone can use.  In order to ease the learning curve, and to convince those of you who might be reading this with a raised brow, here are some tips that I’ve learned during the years:

Get the right packet sniffer for you – I always hear the argument that the packet sniffer is too complicated.  There are packet sniffers that offer as little as the actual request from the analytics tool or as much as the “kitchen sink.”  The idea is to match your needs with the capabilities of the tool.

Find a list of variable parameters – Another point of confusion when reading data from an image request is that the parameters don’t match the variables in the code.  You can find list of parameters with the variable that it matches from the vendor.  You can use the list to familiarize yourself with the data that is collected when you travel from page to page on your site. 

Learn how to filter your requests – Each analytics tool uses a unique identifier in their requests that can be used to filter them from other requests.  Here’s a list of the most popular tools:

·         Omniture SiteCatalyst – b/ss

·         Omniture HBX – HG

·         Google Analytics – utm

·         Webtrends – /dcsd

·         Coremetrics – /cm?

A packet sniffer not only displays what information is sent from your site, but also displays other information that can help you learn more about how your analytics solution behaves and how to improve it.  The answers might not be as polished as you may like, but that’s part of the fun.  So, what do you think, have I convinced you or confused you?

How Can I Drive Performance without a Goal

Something that has been talked about in the Web Analytics industry long before I came along is how to make Web analytics actionable. There have been many articles and books written about remaining goal-driven when developing a new website or creating/implementing a strategic online campaign. As a biased analyst, this is something that seems logical to me. Yet, I often see others struggle with the idea.

Let me see if I can help clarify this type of idea. When it is time to launch a new website or acquisition campaign, what is the goal? What are you trying to accomplish at the end of the day? I think for lead and e-commerce sites this is a self-explanatory goal: to increase leads or increase online orders. What about those sites that do not have a lead form or Commerce store for transactions to take place? Well, that’s when it’s time to get creative and do some research to find some information about the visitors to your website. I think, and please correct me if I am wrong; at the end of the day it’s every business’s goal to increase revenue. If that can not be accomplished online, then find out what visitors do on your website that provides value to them making the transaction. Maybe it’s visiting a page on your website that provides information to that person or visitor.

When the call to action or desired action is unclear, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your website goals. If there is nothing on the site that measures success, then something needs to change so that a success metric can be measured and ideally monetized. Everything on a website can be measured, and it’s time to take advantage of it if you are not doing so. What are some goals you have used to track the success of a web development project?

Why Geary Interactive is Excited About Merging with Fathom Online

With our announcement yesterday about our acquisition of Fathom Online, we at Geary Interactive thought we would share the top five reasons why excited about joining forces.

1. Search engine marketing is growing part of the online marketing mix, and Fathom has industry-leading expertise in this field.

2. Fathom has well-established relationships with all the biggies:  Google, Yahoo! and MSN.  Additionally, they have developed proprietary tools to help track and forecast market trends (Fathom Analytics and Keyword Price Index).

3. With this merger we are undeniably one of the few indepedent, integrated digital advertising agencies.

4.  We now have an full-service office in San Francisco which expands our national reach.

5. Fathom Online is as equally excited as Geary Interactive to capitalize on the projected growth of the interactive industry.

To put it lightly, we are ecstatic about this new partnership, and we cannot wait to move forward and utilize our combined industry know-how to maximize our clients’ campaigns.

Web Analytics Consolidation

It was announced today that web analytics provider Omniture will purchase competitor Visual Sciences in a deal valued at $394 million.

The shift of marketing dollars from offline to online as well as the growing importance of a web presence to most companies, is resulting in a greater awareness around the value of being able to analyze the effectiveness of online initiatives. In my opinion, it looks like Omniture is looking to broaden the types of analysis it can offer customers along with the sophistication of those offerings.

It will be interesting to see if there will be further consolidation among analytic providers and if the smaller competitors will be able to hold on against the mega-players like Google Analytics and Omniture.

Website Engagement - A Valid Metric?

The buzz in web analytics circles lately is the idea of being able to accurately measure a website visitor’s “engagement” with a website. What is really meant by the term engagement anyway?

For one thing, it doesn’t seem like anyone can agree on what a standard definition of engagement is and unless you can clearly define what you mean by this new metric, how can you possibly begin to describe how to measure it?

Might I suggest we stick to these basics:

1) Define why your website exists. Not in a five hundred word essay but a single sentence if possible.

2) If you did a good job with #1, that statement contains the critical metrics (three or less) that will identify exactly how you can measure if your website is successful at delivering against its purpose.

3) One of your critical metrics might be what your senior management calls “engagement”. Work hard to identify exactly what that metric means.

4) Once you’ve identified it, don’t call that metric engagement. Call it by it’s real name. For example, if you define engagement as the number of page views divided by unique visitors, then call the metric page views per visitor. At least you will be clear on what you are measuring and it will probably spark some good debate as to why that’s not a very good definition for engagement.

Start the discussion in your own organization about what constitutes website visitor engagement. It will be enlightening.

What Should Our Conversion Rate Be?

Competitive analysis is something that clients really get excited about and who can blame them? Who wouldn’t love to have a peak behind the curtain of how your competitors are doing and how your website compares to them and the industry as a whole.

I get asked frequently “What should the conversion rate on our website be?” I like to tell our clients that while we have a lot of tools available to help them get a sense of the competitive landscape for their vertical, ultimately it’s only one piece of the puzzle to figuring out what their particular conversion rate goal should be. From an article by Avinash Kaushik, I’d like to recommend 3 things that will help promote intelligent discussion about setting conversion rate goals for YOUR website.

1) Sign up for the shop.org annual study and look at what your competitors are doing. Or use FireClick Index. Or the Top 500 Guide from InternetRetailer.com.

2) Plot out your own conversion rates by aquisition strategy (DM, PPC, Email, Display etc).

3) Make sure to note where you are making increased investments in your own acquisition strategy.

These three ingredients will help you put together a framework for determining your own conversion rate. Talk back to us and let us know how you set your website goals.