Using Web Analytics

MKT 556/I t t M k ti MKT 556/Internet Marketing October 2011Dana Chinn

Twitter: @danachinn

Aren’t all businesses businesses data driven?

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From Analysis Ninja...

…to HIghest Paid Person’s Opinion-- Avinash Kaushik, Google

“Streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses different benefits that need

“Another advantage of separate websites is simplicity for our members…

businesses…different benefits that need to be marketed differently….

p y

“….if you need to change your credit card or email address, you would need to do it in two places if you rate or review it in two places….if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster it doesn’t show up on Netflix, and vice versa.”

Netflix blog, Sept. 18, 2011

“Analytics will be the backbone of our multi-faceted web design, email,

content video and advertising efforts ”content, video and advertising efforts.

4http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/analysts-job-application

S Get an A in web analytics class answer #1:

So what.

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The work of a spreadsheet monkey

Our site has 5,000 monthly unique visitors.

Last Tuesday that story got 20,000 page views.

The average time spent on our site last week was 24 minutesThe average time spent on our site last week was 24 minutes.

Our iPhone app was downloaded 10,000 times.

We have 5,000 Twitter followers.We have 2,000 fans on our Facebook page.

We have 5,000 Twitter followers.

“If you can’t take action, some action, (any action!), based on your analysis why are you reporting data?”

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based on your analysis, why are you reporting data?

--Avinash Kaushik

Web analytics is the analysis of data “to drive a continual improvement of the online experience…which translates into your desired outcomes.” y

7from Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik

A desired outcomeis whatever you say it is…is whatever you say it is…

but you need to define the starting point

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…but you need to define the starting point and the goals with the right metrics

Internal metrics External metricsfor

Strategic Planningfor

Marketing, Advertising

• Census data100% of all visitors, visits, page views in a site

• Panel dataActivity from a sample of self-selected people. Only total site data for a limited number of sites.

• Analysis, decisions, actions, evaluation

• Marketing, trending, competitive analysis

• OmnitureGoogle AnalyticsWebTrendsetc

• comScoreNielsenCompeteetc.etc.

• Web Analytics Association

etc.

• Interactive Advertising BureauBureau

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Is this site a success?Is this site a success?

Our site has 5,000 monthly unique visitors.

Last Tuesday that story got 20,000 page views.

The average time spent on our site last week was 24 minutes.

Our iPhone app was downloaded 10,000 times.

We have 5,000 Twitter followers. We have 2,000 fans on our Facebook page.

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Get an A in web analytics class answer #2:

Itdepends.depends.

Not all traffic is equal

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Old

Eyeballs…

…to……advertisers

Ad ti h t f Advertisers have to pay for access to all of them

New

Only some eyeballs… …to… …advertisers

Advertisers want to pay for only those eyeballs they think are current or potential customers based on how engaged they are custo e s based o o e gaged t ey a ewith selected content…

“The more insight a publisher has into its audience the more

…because they now have many ways – including

audience, the more it can charge advertisers.” Alan Pearlstein, Cross-Pixel Media, Ad Age 8/8/11y y g

directly – they can reach and interact with (almost) exactly who they want

Ad Age, 8/8/11

Word of mouth: Probably hasn’t changed since the beginning of time and probably never willprobably never will

14used to be advertising?

Audiences, actions, metrics differ by channelAudiences, actions, metrics differ by channel

SITES SOCIAL MEDIA

Totals*

1. Who? How many?In target audience?

2 N f i i ?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

3. What did they see?

2. No. of visits? How often? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?Did they get want they wanted?

4. Did they interact?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

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yWhat did they do?How much?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

* Different metrics, methodologies for each channel!

Two types of web analytics data Two types of web analytics data

Behavioral research

What people did when they came to your site,as captured by an action taken on a keyboard or mousean action taken on a keyboard or mouse

Attitudinal research

What people say they did

what they think

Attitudinal research

and

why

as captured by surveys, focus groups, social media, usability studies

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Unique visitors

visit sites

and generatepage views

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Key Performance Indicator: VisitsKey Performance Indicator: Visits

A visit is counted A visit is counted

every time t itsomeone comes to a site

Visits: the strongest metric availableAn increase in visits? Always good.A decrease in visits? Always badA decrease in visits? Always bad.

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Strong vs. weak metricsStrong vs. weak metrics

Strong metrics are useful tools that give clear indications that give clear indications

of what’s successful or not

Weak metrics…-- are conceptually flawed

“so what?” counts of things

c. Kyle Taylor

so what? counts of things

-- are technically flawedmetrics calculated by

b l ti t c. Kyle Taylor

web analytics systems in ways that give unclear indications

…could be so misleading

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gthey could lead to bad decisions

A unique visitor is really a unique computer.

Really weak metric #1: Unique visitors

A unique visitor is really a unique computer. Unique visitors are either over-counted…

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…or under-counted.You don’t know when or by how much.*y

??library, school, Internet cafe

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* It doesn’t matter anyway….better to measure outcomes (did people do what you wanted?) than the number of people who came to your site.

An increase in page views can be good -Really weak metric #2: Page views

or bad.*

Bad design navigation site architecture?Bad design, navigation, site architecture?Lots of page views, annoyed users

A redesign improved usability?

? Fewer page views, happier users

Content that should be there but isn’t? Lots of page views, annoyed users

?Lots of page views, annoyed users

Dynamic content? Fewer page views, happier users (probably)

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* It doesn’t matter anyway….better to measure outcomes (did people do what you wanted?) than the number of pages people went to when they came to your site.

An increase in average time spent on Really weak metric #3: Time spent on site

g psite can be good - or bad.*

Bad design, navigation, site architecture?Bad design, navigation, site architecture?Lots of time spent, annoyed users

A redesign improved usability? Less time spent happier users? Less time spent, happier users?

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* It doesn’t matter anyway….better to measure outcomes (did people do what you wanted?) than how much time people spent on your site.

Systems only measure the time spenti b t it in between pages on a site, so…

The time spent of a user who goes only to

?p g y

one page is NOT included in the time spent calculation. ?

The time spent on the last page

1 minute The time spent on the last page

of a site isn’t counted at all.

minute

10 minutes

Time spent = 1 minute

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Site X

Time spent = 1 minute

When people came to your site, did they stay? did they stay?

Bounce rate percentof the landing page

Key Performance Indicator:

of the landing pagewhere most visits start

“I came. I saw. I puked.”-- Avinash Kaushik on bounce rate

25A bounce: a visit with only one page view

A large number of visits that start with the home page A large number of visits that start with the home page bounce, or leave the site without going to another page

100%

Home page bounce rate: 43%51%

8,331

16,304 visits

Home page bounce rate: 43%visits started on content pages

57%4,547went to

43%3,426

left the site without going to another

pages

49%7,973

visitsat least one other page

to another page

started on the home page

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Week of Sept. 11, 2011

How did people get to your site?

Key Performance Indicator:

Visits by traffic sourceVisits by traffic source

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How “loyal” are people who come to your site?

Key Performance Indicator:

Visit frequency

you s te

19%12,410 visits New visitors

Visit daily or more frequently

q y

41%27,087 visitsfrom new visitors

13%8,495 visits

,101-201+ times

New visitorsmore frequently

18%12 126 i it

9%5,846 visits

8, 95 s ts26-100 times

12,126 visits2-8 times

9-25 times

Occasional i it

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visitors

Total visits Sept. 11-Oct. 8, 2011: 65,964

When was the last time someone came to your site?

Key Performance Indicator:

Previous visit recency

to you s te

Visitors who came back after a long absence 3%

393 visits from people whose most recent

y

6%899 visits from people whose most recent visit

was 15-60 days

393 visits from people whose most recentvisit was 31-120 days

1% 23 visits from people whose most recent visit was 121-365+ days

41%6,333 visits

16%2,490 visits from peoplewhose most recent visit was

1 7 days before

New visitors

from new visitors

33%5,026 visits from people

1-7 days before

Recent visitors

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whose most recentvisit was earlier that day

Total visits Oct 2-8, 2011: 15,267

Let’s cut to the chase!

A lot in

Key Performance Indicator:

Sales funnel completion rateA lot in…

p

t h …not as much out

Funnel example by Josh Podell, USC MBA class of 2011

Home Page – Main StatisticsHome Page Main Statistics

640 Enter

Numbers are examples only.

Enter the

Home Page

64 (10%) of those Visitors Click on the Click on the

Donate Button

576 Leave the Home Page to Go Somewhere

Else

Funnel example by Josh Podell, USC MBA class of 2011

Community Coalition's Funnel

1 Search 514 Total in = 514 + 72 +59 = 640 1 Exit 230

People Entering Each Step People Exiting Each Step

Numbers are examples only.

Home Page

1. Search 514 2. Direct Traffic 723. Referring Sites 54

640

Total in = 514 + 72 +59 = 640

Conversion Rate = 10%64 Continue…640 – 64 =

1. Exit 230 2. About US 1123. Campaigns 744. Events 1225. Action Center 38

Donation Page –

1. About Us 102. Campaigns 63 Action Center 1

576

Total in = 64 + 46 = 110

576

1. Exit 42. Home 23 About US 1Donation Page

Payment Info3. Action Center 14. Events 115. Gala Dinner 18

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CR = 90 %99 Continue

11 Exit

3. About US 14. Events 25. Gala Dinner 2

11Placed

Confirmation Page

Placed Donations

9915.47% Funnel Conversion Rate

Funnel diagram by Josh Podell, USC MBA class of 2011

Questions for a e-commerce company

Who came to our site? e.g., previous vs. new; high vs. low potential

How did they get here?

What did they look at?

Were they successful in getting what they wanted?

A simple e-commerce data story“Current and potential customers who typed in “t-shirts” in Google arrived on our t-shirts landing page.

1.5% of them made a purchase.”

33-- Corey Koberg, web analytics consultant

“You need to know the cost to your business when you don’t learn from business when you don t learn from your customers, as well as dialogue with them ” with them.

-- Nilofer Merchant, strategist and author of “The New How”

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Metrics that indicate interactivity are essential

Facebook Insights – daily stats*Facebook Insights – daily stats*

Key Performance Indicators:

No. of active users

No. of likes

No of commentsNo. of comments

35* Enter daily numbers in a spreadsheet for trending, rolling up into weekly/monthly totals

Start with smart campaign designStart with smart campaign design

“Connect with us to find valuable wellness tips”wellness tips

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Does this page answer th ll t ti i f b d?the call to action, reinforce brand?

Wasn’t this an Wasn t this an Alta Dena site?

What’s Mayfield Dairy Farms? PET Dairy?

Where are the wellness tips?

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Be honest with the metricsBe honest with the metrics

Do 538 people REALLY “Like” this?this?

O d h j Or do they just want another sweepstakes entry?entry?

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Assess context, sentimentt th ith t ttogether with comment counts

Only 2 commentsOnly 2 comments…

… and from people saying they can’t y g yenter the sweepstakes or get the additional code

Does the person/people from the milk company the milk company have a name?

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“Coupon Fairies” but no coupon

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Measurable tweets haveMeasurable tweets have…

1. A call to action1. A call to actionGo here…look…tell me

2 A li k th t t k ith li k 2. A link that you track with link and site metric tools

3. #Hashtags and/or keywords

4. Topic or person-specific handles

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…120 or fewer characters, not 140!

Mapping metrics to business goals Mapping metrics to business goals

Business goal/objective: Site/social media metrics:

No. of Korean BBQ tacos sold… …to people who saw

the truck location on i d hTwitter and went there

“Where else should we send our trucks?” Where people have

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p pasked, via Twitter

Business goal/objective:

No. of cars & trucks

Site/social media metrics:

No. of cars & trucks sold… …to people

who became a member of the GM the GM community…

…after voting for the 1969 Pontiac when we asked them

…after going to our site from Twitter to fi d b GM find out about GM hybrid powertrainsystem

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Business goals are achieved with more than just social media, site

HIghest Paid Person’s Opinion

Two types of decision-making

HIghest Paid Person s Opinion-- Avinash Kaushik, Google

S t ifi tifi bl it l

Decision-making with data• Set specific, quantifiable site goals

• Use meaningful metrics; monitor weekly; y;distinguish between traffic

from external events vs. internal actions

• Analyze traffic by audience segment

• Understand site goals and traffic beforetackling attitudinal survey research,

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tackling attitudinal survey research,social media metrics,mobile metrics

“A good analyst has the capacity to analyze data and y

generate insight.”

Data dexterity with basic overall site metrics and web yanalytics tools

Pattern recognition of the trends most important to the businessbusiness

Attention to detail, and an understanding of the importance of data integrity p g y

Commercial awareness, or knowing how the data should be interpreted given the decisions that need to be made

45from “5 Things to Look for in an Analyst,” by Neil Mason, ClickZ, 8/2/11

Positive presence and the ability to communicate what the organization needs to know