web analytics ...and beyond Not just for beginners, We are interested in your thoughts:

(1)

WA 201 www.technologyleaders.com 1

web analytics 201

Not just for beginners,

This primer is designed to help clarify some of the major challenges faced by marketers today, such as:

-defining KPIs in a complex environment -organizing tag deployment

-how analytics addresses social media

we also included a handy -web analytics FAQ

We are interested in your thoughts:

analytics@technologyleaders.com

Technology Leaders:

Web and Digital Analytics

• KPI development

• Tagging

• Reports

• Dashboards

• Analysis. . .and more www.technologyleaders.com

...and beyond

(2)

Brand/Content

Self-Service (Informational) eCommerce

Lead Generation

eC BC LG S-S

4 SITE TYPES

and their KPIs

Key P erformance Indicators

DEFINING KPIs

Remember that “KPI” is another way of saying “what I want the user to do”. Think about what kind of site you have. Are you selling directly? Do you want users to get in touch?

Are you selling ads--or trying to portray your brand in the most advantageous light (where users will then buy products off-line)? Or are you charging for (or giving away) access to information?

Below, we’ve created a graphic showing the four major site types and the kinds of activities they want their users to perform.*

*some sites combine different characteristics

Brand and Content sites have very similar goals.

Brand sites want users to interact with content to gain a level of comfort and kinship with the brand.

This may require the measurement of interactive modules that promote products; social media; games;

forums. The longer the interaction, the better.

Content sites sell advertising space.

Therefore, their goal is to keep folks interested and on the pages where the ads are. While the content itself is different--it may be news or entertainment--the measurement criteria is similar: how long did users spend on the site’s key pages?

eCommerce sites have the most obvious business goals, but there are underlying measurements that go beyond the shopping cart.

Especially important to eCommerce measurement is a concept known as “the sales funnel” in which users are brought to the site via campaigns, then engaged through a variety of content until the “buy”

pages are reached.

Measurement and optimization focuses on the variety of steps in the funnel--and there may be quite a few variants--and watching where the most noticeable user abandonment occurs. Chances are, these pages need new editorial or creative.

Lead Generation sites are most useful where the sale itself is not going to be made on the site itself; and where no external advertising is sold.

Similar to the eCommerce site, the Lead Gen site deploys “sales funnels” with similar conversion points. The major difference is that the final conversion is not a “buy” but a “contact” button.

Professional services companies, real estate companies, industrial and other long-sales-cycle businesses should seek these KPIs.

The Self-Service site is almost the opposite of the Brand/Content site. Often the user has already paid a fee for access to information. Or, the information is provided as part of another service (insurance, for instance) or is provided because of the web’s efficiency (human resources). The key metrics relate to speed: whether the user found what they wanted quickly--and then went on to something else.

(3)

Tag Deployment and QA

SU^CC^ESSFU^L TAG DEPL_OY MEN_T The first step in tag deployment has little to do with actually creating tags.

What you’ll need to do first is get your measurement plan to match your business objectives--this means

getting your KPIs right.

Then you can begin the process via deployment of the basic page tag, which will allow you to capture

“basic” information from every page.

Get basic tag from

1

vendor, make sure it goes on every page (usually in the html

header)

Add variables to the

2

tag to capture custom information (these

can be populated dynamically)

Create custom

3

Javascript to force your analytics tool to track “conditional”

information

Quality Assurance:

4

Test with expert help to make sure the tags are placed properly and are “calling” the

analytics tool.

Step 1 was pretty simple--the tool vendor (Google Ana- lytics for example) gives you a snippet of code and you place it on the page for basic reports.

Step 2 is for when you want to track specific variables within your site. A great example of this is when you want to track campaigns. You will need to have a “campaign ID” and make sure the tag picks it up in order to identify a visit as having come from that campaign.

Step 3 accounts for the “uniquely common” instances where your standard custom code from your analytics provider doesn’t follow your need. For example you may want to understand new vs. repeat visitors and the pages they view as a result (.e.g. - yoursite.com|New vs.

yoursite.com|Repeat).

In order to do this you will need customization for tracking of these types of conditional analyses.

Step 4: While tag experts may create your tags, often developers will place the tags; and will need to follow often complex guidelines on placement.

Not surprisingly, they often get it wrong at first, and so QA becomes a critical part of the process. Expect to have your tag experts work iteratively with your developers to iron out every issue--it may take several rounds of QA before everything is right.

Once that is done--let it go live and see that reports are populateing as expected!

(4)

Analytics and Social Media

But I’ve often heard social media is an end in itself. I’ve got lots of likes

on Facebook, and there are Tweets and linkbacks and I am always active in

discussion groups.

My tool vendor told me they had some new modules for that. There are APIs that integrate with Facebook, for example. And of course my email campaigns are a good

model, now that I think of it.

Social media delivers

no value if there is no conversion. That means your social media efforts need to bring users to your web site and then they

need to complete your KPI scenarios.

Social media is clearly a huge factor in marketing these days--but is it well- understood? Part of proper measurement is an understanding of how social fits into the overall marketing mix; and some of the tools available to measure it. Here’s a hypothetical conversation between two worthy marketers. . .

Simply put: SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS ARE

CAMPAIGNS

Yes, and while its

great to understand “influencers” and

“mentions”--it doesn’t mean that much unless that activity leads to your conversion

funnel. It’s going to require “lead nurturing”-- that’s another topic.

+

(5)

Analytics and Social Media

I guess the first step

would be to build my “list”. In Facebook, that means “fans”. And then I need to

“engage” them just as with any other campaign.

So when we talk about “Social Media” we are really talking about “Facebook”. What about the other players--Twitter, Google +,

Linked In and others?

So I need to keep it perspective.

Social media is important, but it’s just one leg of the chair. And I have a feeling like the heavy lifting is till going to get done

on my own web site.

Right.

And the first step with Facebook marketing, just like any marketing, tends to be with advertising. Reports indicate that can win

lots of fans.Then you need to get them to come to your site!

It really is mostly about Facebook.

They own the lion’s share of the market.

But here’s an important thing to remember:

Facebook is a company, not a platform.

5

continued. . .

(6)

Web Analytics FAQ

Please find answers below to common web analytics questions.

1. What is a visit?

A visit is counted when a unique visitor to a website conducts activity measured in the form of page views, regardless

of duration, so long as the duration of inactivity between sequential page views does not exceed a predetermined time (typically 30 minutes).

2. What is a bounced visit?

A visit to a website that only involved the viewing of a single page.

3. What is a bounce rate?

The number of single page visits/total number of visits. This percentage tells you what percentages of visitors are not engaging. The higher the bounce rate, the less sticky the site.

4. What is a hit?

A hit is essentially a server request for an asset (page, image

(7)

file, etc.). Many hits will make up the rendering of a web page.

5. What is a Page View?

A page view definition is relative to the site and how pages are defined within the site. Web Analytics toolsets should align with the website’s page view definition. Typically, pages include files ending with extensions like jhtml, html, jsp, asp, etc. However, given the emergence of Rich Interactive Applications (RIA), such as Flash, the definition has the potential to expand well beyond traditional definitions. This accentuates the need for business/IT to identify what, on their site, constitutes a page.

6. What do average pages per visit tell me?

The average pages per visit metric are a good indicator of how sticky your site is, or how well engaged the average visitor is.

The higher the average, the higher the degree of engagement.

7. What is a referrer?

A referrer can be captured at the site or page level but the definition is essentially the same. A referrer tells you where a visitor was just before they came to your site or a specific page on your site.

Referrer information can get skewed through factors such as:

Redirects

Direct Traffic (Where no referrer is listed) 8. What is Direct Traffic?

Direct Traffic represents traffic to your website where no

W eb Analytics FAQ

?

(8)

WA 201 www.technologyleaders.com 8 referrer is indicated. Examples include:

Visitors who type a website URL directly into their browsers address bar

Visitors who access a site via a saved bookmark or favorite

9. What are spiders/bots?

Spiders/bots are programs configured to surf your website.

Spiders/bots are usually attributed to Search Engines that are leveraging these programs to gather information on your website to incorporate into their Organic Search Ranking efforts.

10. Why do I need to monitor New vs. Returning Visitors?

New Visitors are a good high level indicator of how well you’re marketing efforts (online/offline) are at attracting visitors to your site.

Returning visitors are a good high level indicator of gauging how well your site is a retaining the visitors who come to your site.

11. What is Reach? How do I calculate and what is it telling me?

Reach is a measurement where visits to a page are compared to total site visits.

Reach = Page Visits/Total Site Visits

Calculated Reach can tell you if a particular page is meeting expectations. Combined with knowledge of your site

architecture, Reach can give you insight into how deep into

W eb Analytics FAQ

?

(9)

WA 201 www.technologyleaders.com 9 your site your audience is getting.

12. What is a conversion?

A conversion is defined by the marketing team as a desired outcome. With websites, example conversions events include:

Shopping cart completion Completed registration Signing up for a newsletter

13. What is a conversion rate?

Conversion rates tell you how well you’re doing in driving visitors to your defined conversion events.

Conversion Rate = # Conversions/Unique Visitors

14. What is a cookie?

A cookie is a text file placed on a visitor’s computer that is typically used for identifying visitors to a website. The visitor identification method, for reputable companies, will not include personal identifiable data, but rather data that will ensure you are recognized as a unique website visitor.

15. What’s the difference between 1st and 3rd party cookies?

A 1st party cookie is issued from the domain of the site you are visiting.

A 3rd party cookie is issued from a domain other than the one you are visiting.

1st party cookies are the preferred method for identifying visitors due to the high rejection rate of 3rd party cookies (On

W eb Analytics FAQ

?

(10)

average, 25% of web users have browsers setting to reject 3rd party cookies).

16. What is an A/B Test?

A/B Tests are performed where two site assets are compared.

Typically, one asset is identified as the control and one as the test. The test asset will be presented to a sampling of your

website audience. For example, an 80/20 A/B test would present the Control 80% of the time and the Test 20% of the time.

A/B testing might be performed to test a new look and feel to an existing page. The control would be the existing page and the test would be the new page. The 80 /20 split is a safe way to test in the event that the test page is not well-received; this way, you’re not impacting 80% of the pages visitors.

17. What is an A/B Split Test?

A split test is an A/B test but performed using a 50/50 split. This method may be preferred when you are testing two versions of an altogether new page to the site and not changing an existing one.

18. What is a Path Analysis?

A path analysis gives you information on the paths taken throughout your site, by the visitors using it. Path analysis requires a defined start or a defined end point and the number of points, or levels, from or to, your defined start or end points.

19. What is a Scenario Analysis?

Scenario Analysis is a much stronger version of path analysis. In scenario analysis, all points on the path (typically to a desired conversion point), are defined. Defining every step in the scenario, allows you to identify “fall off” points, which can

W eb Analytics FAQ

?

(11)

provide insight into areas needing improvement in order to increase conversion rates.

Scenario Analysis reports are typically referred to as Conversion Funnels.

20. What’s the difference between Organic Search and Paid Search?

Organic Search is the use of Search Engine assets that are not reserved for Paid Search Campaign Efforts. Using Google as an example, the links not identified as “Sponsored Links” on a search results page, are attributable to the organic search reports in analytic reporting tools.

Paid Search is attributable to the areas on Search Engines results pages reserved for paid advertising (Google’s Sponsored Links).

21. What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is the process of making changes to your website with the end goal of raising your website’s organic search ranking.

SEM, Search Engine Marketing, is the process of marketing your site through use of Search Engines. This effort includes SEO and paid search campaigns.

22. What is a Content Group/Sub-Group?

Content Groups and Sub Groups are aggregates of your website’s pages into roll up categories. They allow you to organize your sites content into smaller groups or segments to provide a higher level viewing of how effective “areas” on your site are performing

W eb Analytics FAQ

?

(12)

in driving visitors toward defined goals or conversion events.

Underperforming areas can be targeted for improvement.

23. What’s the difference between Most Recent Campaign and Same Visit Campaign?

Most Recent Campaign will identify the most recent external campaign that drove a visitor to your site. The key difference between the uses of Most Recent vs. Same Visit lays with your sites defined conversion events.

With Same Visit, the defined conversion event must occur in the same visit that was initiated through an external campaign.

With Most Recent, the conversion event can take place on a subsequent visit and the campaign will still get credit for the conversion, provided it was the Most Recent campaign that brought the visitor to the site.

24. What is an Ad Impression?

The number of times an advertsing asset, typically a banner image or text link, is presented to a visitor.

25. What is a clickthrough rate and what is it telling me?

A click through rate is the number of time visitors clicked on a presented Ad Impression. Click through rates tell you how well your asset performs in initiating or maintaining visitor engagement.

26. What is a Page Tag?

A page tag is a block of code leveraged for gathering data for capture in an analytics tool. Typically, a page tag is javascript

W eb Analytics FAQ

?

(13)

code that is executed initially when a web page loads and subsequently when pre-defined page based events are triggered (Clicking a link to download a file, for example).

27. What is a META Tag?

A META Tag is HTML placed on a web page for the purpose of gathering data. META tags are not visible to the end user, but are leveraged to provide customized data identifiable by the Page Tag, who gathers it and sends it to the Web Analytics Data collection repository.

W eb Analytics FAQ

(14)

WA 201 www.technologyleaders.com 14 Technology Leaders provides web analytics and digital analytics pro- fessional services to organizations seeking to optimize their digital assets.

Customers leverage our deep understanding of web analytics technology, business intelligence, conversion mechanics, and con- version optimization to drive busi- ness results through analytics.

• KPI development

• Tagging

• Reports

• Dashboards

• Analysis. . .and more