Web Analytics Part I

WEB ANALYTICS INTRO
Anke Audenaert Intro to Online Marketing
Associated Reading Material -Web Analytics 2.0, chapter 2 Avinash Kaushik - Forrester Wave: Web Analytics Q3 09, John Lovett
CHOOSING A WEB ANALYTICS SOLUTION

The choices
For most companies the question boils down to: free tool or expensive analytics solution?:
Pros and Cons to each choice, and while free tools cover a lot of ground, for pay analytics solutions typically go a step further
Make an informed decision
It is worth studying the available tools before deciding

Understand your needs Understand the offering Understand how the company will support you
Keep in mind that even the best tool will be worthless without the capability to generate insights from the reports they spit out

Current tools are still largely focused on metrics and reporting Immediate business applications are rare and if they exist they require detailed set up from your side You need to bring the insights to the picture
Intro to Online Marketing
Anke Audenaert
Tools

Web Analytics 2.0, Chapter 2, Avinash Kaushik Forrester Wave: Web Analytics Q3 09, John Lovett Google commissioned Forrester Research: Appraising Your Investment In Enterprise Web Analytics, September 2009 Remember: Google commissioned! The Coming Bifurcation in Web Analytics Tools, Web Analytics Demystified Blog Jim Petersen
Anke Audenaert
AUDIENCE MANAGEMENT
Website Goals
Before diving into audience management ask yourself:
Goals for my website?
Usually 3 buckets:
1. 2. 3.
Provide Information to visitors Convert visitors to a sale/ subscription (e-commerce) Make visitors consume content (ad supported publishers) Sometimes a blend of goals Not all conversions happen on the site
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Examples
Information
Content/ Ad supported
Commerce/Conversion
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Web Site Audience Management
1 Acquisition
Audience management can be split in 3 stages (although not always neatly split) Goals for the site will affect what we study at each stage Relate back to your marketing action can be aligned with these 3 stages Helps to structure the use of web analytics tools and dashboards
3 Retention
Data: web analytics tool
2 Engagement
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3 stages
Traffic acquisition

Who visits my site? Where do they come from?
Engagement
How do users engage with my site/content

How much content do they consume (ad supported) Do users convert (e-commerce/transaction focused) Which content works best to reach engagement goal?
Who is engaged?
Retention

Do users come back? Who comes back? What makes users come back?
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1. Acquisition
1. 2. 3.
1. 2. 3.
The Basics Demographics & Geo Information Traffic Sources

Search Referral Direct
4.
Segments of visitors
1.The basics
Acquisition is the first step in a typical audience management strategy Features prominently in all reporting (sadly, sometimes the exclusive focus) Basic Metrics:

Unique Visitors Visits
Standard Metrics: Visits and Visitors
Visit = an event in which a user comes to your site and sees one or more pages/ content elements (aka session) Unique visitors = approximation of the number of unique people that come to a site
Read definitions in the tool you use, some tools confuse these definitions Unique visitor metrics in site centric tools are an approximation. Counting exact number of users is complex, because:
People use more than one browser People use from more than one location Users do not have to register on the internet, no one knows you are a dog
Google Analytics Structure
Basic Google Analytics Visitor Interaction Model
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Example
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2. Demographics & Geo Information
Who is visiting my site:

Where do they come from Which language do they speak
Other user characteristics require further definition (custom variables)
E.g. Paying member vs. non-paying member
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3. Traffic Sources
Assess where your visitors are coming from, and assess trends over time Helps to understand

Which traffic acquisition vehicles work well for me? Which traffic channels might offer an opportunity? Effect of acquisition focused efforts

Syndication Links Marketing activity
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Overview
At high level: - Search Traffic - Referral Traffic - Direct Traffic
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a. Search Traffic
Navigational Organic Search Traffic Keyword
Similar to direct traffic Helpful clues toward Search Marketing Efforts Evaluate Search Campaign
Paid
Keywords
Evaluate the trend for each of these search related sources. Evaluate against search marketing efforts
Search Traffic: Organic

Navigational Organic Search Traffic Paid Keyword
Keywords
- What are people searching for? - Most popular searches brand/keyword related - UCLA Anderson navigational?
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Search Traffic: Paid

Navigational Organic Search Traffic Paid Keyword
Keywords
- Some info similar to Adwords - Puts Paid campaigns in perspective - Gives a better sense of quality of the lead (see later: conversion to goal)
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b. Referral Traffic
Link based referrals (i.e. visitors clicked on a link to my site) Helps to evaluate:

Organic mentions Established links for SEO PR efforts success Social outreach success Success of traffic deals (e.g. through content syndication) Affiliate marketing programs
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b. Referral Traffic
- Understand where links to your site exist - Which links are popular and drive traffic? - Insight into social media traffic acquisition efforts
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c. Direct Traffic
Often an indication of brand strength
Often high with high levels of return visitors (through bookmarking)

Increasingly overshadowed by navigational searches
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c. Direct Traffic
- Report shows the main landing pages - Provides insight into what people have bookmarked
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4. Segments of visitors
Segmentation allows to put people in groups of interest (nonexclusive and not persistent for a cookie) Set of default segments:
Define segments that are important to you, try to match them as closely as possible in advanced segmentation Important to link segments to marketing efforts

Define the segment Evaluate the segment

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Use of segments: examples
By Referrer/Traffic Source

By Event
Paid/natural Branded/non-branded search Number of keywords Social media
Conversion goal/ ecommerce

Browser Screen resolution Mobile US/International
By platform
By visitor type

By location
New vs. returning Registered Customer type
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By Landing Page Type
Segments of visitors
- Set of default segments (based on behavior, traffic source, etc) - Custom segments to align with the structure of the site and the different audiences it is trying to appeal to - Use segments throughout analysis.
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2. Engagement
1. 2.
a.
b.
The Basics Studying engagement

For Ad Supported Publishers For e-commerce sites
3. 4.
Across Segments By Traffic Source
Engagement by type of site
Depending on the type of site you have, user engagement will mean different things:
Information: visit crucial pages and potentially convert (e.g. ask for more info) Ad supported publisher: consume as much content as possible E-Commerce: Convert to buying
A clear understanding of goals of your site is essential to study engagement
1. The basics
Studying user engagement is the real core of web analytics/clickstream measurement Should be a continuous focus as it helps to improve the ROI on traffic acquisition efforts (and marketing costs) Basic Metrics:

Time on page, time on site Bounce Rate, Exit Rate Conversion
Standard Metrics: Time on Page & Time on Site
Time on Page: The time visitors spend on an individual page Time on Site: Time spent on the site during a visit (session)

Understand how the metric is computed Time spent on the last page visited causes some problems
Important metric to track to understand whether your user is getting engaged with what you have to offer
Calculated using the time stamp on the page entries, calculating the elapsed time between them (has some Anke Audenaert Intro to Online Marketing caveats)
Standard Metrics: Time on Page & Time on Site
Example:
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Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate = the percentage of sessions on your website with only one page view, i.e. a visitor came, saw the entry page, left Very powerful when looking at site entry points
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Exit Rate
Exit Rate = Number of people that left your website from a particular page
Primarily helpful when assessing commerce conversion funnels
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Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate = Outcomes divided by Unique Visitors (or Visits)
Outcomes are often purchases in e-commerce sites, but they could be many more things
It is important to understand your websites goals. What are you about, what would you like visitors to do on your site? Once you know that, you can assess your conversion rate Keep in mind that conversion does not always happen in one visit it may take the visitor a while to convert
Anke Audenaert
2. Studying Engagement
Ad supported Publisher
Which content gets attention
E-Commerce
Which products sell
Which content engages
Which funnels work best?
Which content delivers most value
Which content/links deliver most value
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a. Ad Supported Publishers
1. Content Assessment
Which content has most views
Understand what is most popular, overall and in subsections Any content that is not seeing the light of day?
Can people get to the content
Check out entry pages, do they have links to most important content? Assess the clicks on key pages for key content
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Example: Content Overview Report
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Example: Main Entry Pages Report
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Example: Key Page Evaluation
Take a closer look at the most popular pages And the most popular landing pages (often the same)
Example: Newer, more in depth, real-time ways to look at engagement
http://chartbeat.com/demo/
Anke Audenaert
2. Understanding captivates users

First check: which content drops visitors = bounces

Important, first fix for your site Assess what causes the bounce (use in page analytics)
Understand which pages engage

Time on page Which pages are sending users on a long & engaging path? difficult with traditional analytics tools
At a glance
Visitor flow
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Example: Bounces: the first fix opportunity
Rank your entry-pages, and evaluate bounces
Investigate high bounce rates

Are they to be expected (e.g. link to other domain)? Are they an effect of poor GA implementation Are they a result of lack of interesting links?
WORK ON IMPROVING THESE PAGES FIRST PAGES THAT DONT ENGAGE THE USERS ARE A REAL WASTE OF TRAFFIC ACQUISITION EFFORTS
Example: Time on a page report
Average time spent on a page can teach us something about the pages that engage users (e.g. when you are MSNBC) But, you would really like to get a view on the forward looking path i.e. how many more pages do people consume from here, or how much more time will they spend on my site?
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Example: Visitor Flow Reports
Some engagement depth information in the visitor flow report
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3. Assess the value of content & engagement
Engagement is great, but as a publisher, you are primarily interested in engagement that monetizes Not always a one-to-one correlation
E.g. user generated content
Traditional analytics tools were not built to answer this question for ad supported publishers. They have focused on conversions and e-commerce players. Setting Goals are a way to approach this
Anke Audenaert
Example: Using Goals in Google Analytics to approach engagement value
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Example: Newer, more in-depth and real-time ways to look at value of engagement
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b. E-Commerce Publishers
ECommerce
Which products sell
Which content/links deliver most value
A few commerce specific basics
Conversion Rate: The % of visits that resulted in a transaction Transactions: The number of visits resulting in a purchase Average Order Value: Total Revenue divided by the number of transactions
Purchased Products: The number of product units purchased

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Example: Overview Report
Example: Total Revenue Report
-Total revenue trends are important to assess the health of your business. -But, it is a very general metric
-Segmentation will make this report more insightful
Anke Audenaert
1. E-Commerce: Product Assessment

ECommerce
Which products sell
What are popular areas of the site
Tells you something about the sales process General assessment of the site: what works well/not so well
Which products see highest sales?
Which conversion funnels deliver most value
Understand what the most popular items are? Any items that dont seem to work?
Are key entry pages linking to the right products, and what do clicks look like?
Anke Audenaert
Example: Products Overview Report
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Example: Product SKUs (Stock Keeping Units)
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2. E-Commerce: Funnel Performance

ECommerce
Which products sell
Basic Checkout Funnel Reporting
Health of the checkout system Flags in case something is going wrong, where the weak areas of the checkout funnel are
Understand which areas of the site work best at generating conversions

Assess what the typical goal flow looks like Which funnels (from entry to checkout work best) Where are the best prospects (micro-goals)
Anke Audenaert
Example: High level: Conversion Rate

-e-commerce conversion means that you converted to buying something, i.e. the goal = sell a product
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Example: High Level: Transactions
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Example: High Level: Average Order Value

-How much do people spend on average per order - As with the other metrics, segmentation is really helpful!
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Example: Funnel tracking: checkout
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Example: Funnel Tracking: checkout
- Understand where people drop off in the checkout process - What do people do next, which page do they go to? - Find clues to where the checkout process fell short
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Example: Understand full path to goals
Site owner has to set the steps towards a goal Helps to understand how people arrived at a conversion page, which pages were good/bad at converting traffic Helps to understand crucial pages in the process, and crucial traffic leakage
3. E-Commerce: Value assessment

ECommerce
Which products sell
With an increased focus on content marketing and use of editorial in ecommerce, important to understand which content works/does not work well In Page Analytics can help with this

Especially focus on key (entry) pages Takes a more holistic approach than restrictive goal flow visualization
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Example: In Page Analytics Content Value assessment
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Putting acquisition and engagement together

2 Engagement
Acquisition
E-Commerce
Which products sell
Which conversion funnels most value
Across User Segments

Channel Analysis: Helping Marketers
Now that you have explored what works/does not work well in your site, you can assess how the different acquisition channels are working for you
Explore the full path to your goal/conversions
Anke Audenaert
Keep in mind, all these previous interactions are based on interactions with your site! (i.e. brand awareness alone is not tracked here)
The Basics: Channels and path length
Assisted Conversions: shows the contribution that specific channels, campaigns or keywords have on conversions Top Paths: Shows the various campaign touch points that customers take en route to conversion Path Length: Shows the number of interactions that customers require prior to conversion Time lag: provides insight on the time it takes customers to convert between first and last click
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Channel groups reflect traffic acquisition vehicles
Different channel groups reflect most common online marketing channels
You can further customize to reflect your traffic acquisition channels

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Example
Example: paths to conversion
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3. Retention
1. 2.
a. b.
The Basics Studying Retention

Visits to purchase/conversion Time to purchase/conversion
3.
Evaluate segments
1. The basics
Retention measurement has its caveats In order to recognize a visitor, a cookie is required. New visitors: visitors who have not been to the site before (dont have a cookie) Returning visitors: visitors who have been to the site before Visitor Recency: time since last visit Visitor Frequency: number of times a visitor visits
Recency and Frequency overview
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Linked to conversion: Visits to Purchase

- Notice how the site remembered my shopping bag?
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Linked to conversion: Days to Purchase
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3. Across Segments
1 Acquisition Data: web analytics tool
3 Retention
Across User Segments
2 Engagement
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Evaluate behavior by segment
Defined user segments may behave differently
Assess all aspects of engagement/retention for the groups of interest Fine tuning segments and their behavior will help to target & evaluate marketing action
E.g. I see that people who enter my site through my homepage explore the car offering but dont ask for a quote, whereas people who come in from a search for the keyword hybrid cars do I see that people acquired via one campaign stay more loyal than people acquired through another campaign
Anke Audenaert

Web Analytics Part I

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Web Analytics Part I

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WEB ANALYTICS INTRO

Anke Audenaert Intro to Online Marketing

CHOOSING A WEB ANALYTICS SOLUTION

Make an informed decision

It is worth studying the available tools before deciding

Intro to Online Marketing

Before diving into audience management ask yourself:

Goals for my website?

Intro to Online Marketing

Intro to Online Marketing

Web Site Audience Management

Data: web analytics tool

Intro to Online Marketing

Who visits my site? Where do they come from?

How do users engage with my site/content

The Basics Demographics & Geo Information Traffic Sources

Unique Visitors Visits

Standard Metrics: Visits and Visitors

Google Analytics Structure

Basic Google Analytics Visitor Interaction Model

Intro to Online Marketing

Intro to Online Marketing

2. Demographics & Geo Information

Who is visiting my site:

Where do they come from Which language do they speak

Other user characteristics require further definition (custom variables)

E.g. Paying member vs. non-paying member

Intro to Online Marketing

Syndication Links Marketing activity

Intro to Online Marketing

At high level: - Search Traffic - Referral Traffic - Direct Traffic

Intro to Online Marketing

Navigational Organic Search Traffic Keyword

Search Traffic: Organic

Intro to Online Marketing

Search Traffic: Paid

Intro to Online Marketing

Intro to Online Marketing

Intro to Online Marketing

Often an indication of brand strength

Often high with high levels of return visitors (through bookmarking)

Intro to Online Marketing

Intro to Online Marketing

Define the segment Evaluate the segment

Use of segments: examples

Paid/natural Branded/non-branded search Number of keywords Social media

Conversion goal/ ecommerce

New vs. returning Registered Customer type

By Landing Page Type

Intro to Online Marketing

Intro to Online Marketing

The Basics Studying engagement

Across Segments By Traffic Source

Engagement by type of site

A clear understanding of goals of your site is essential to study engagement

Time on page, time on site Bounce Rate, Exit Rate Conversion

Standard Metrics: Time on Page & Time on Site

Standard Metrics: Time on Page & Time on Site

Intro to Online Marketing

Intro to Online Marketing

Primarily helpful when assessing commerce conversion funnels

Intro to Online Marketing