Guide to making Web Analytics more accurate! - rewind

I felt the need to bring this up again as organizations are pushing for better returns from their online strategies and web analytics.

Understanding business imperatives, setting clear goals, defining success metrics, continuous testing and robust/agile implementation is what it all boils down to ... when it comes to effective utilization of web analytics for business improvement.

Below is an excerpt:

A recent eMarketer study identified top issues with the accuracy of analytics. Most prominently, users said they can't drill into the data (42%), and called out the issues with marketing attribution (32%), campaign tracking code (25%) and cross site analysis (20%). These factors become prominent as the business evolves over time and market driven changes are incorporated across the site. However, with some planning and framework, we can define and implement a robust analytics strategy that is flexible and adapts to the evolving business needs and site-wide changes.


Here's the link to the original post: http://www.analyticsheaven.com/2009/11/guide-to-making-web-analytics-more.html

The data is in abundance - looking at what matters and applying for business success is what matters ... happy hunting!

Measuring social media - user vs., product data

Measuring social media engagement and return on investment is an evolving science, with a lot of ideas on what is more important to track and record. I proposed an approach on “user and product metrics” in this blog a few weeks back (here’s the link: http://www.analyticsheaven.com/2010/02/social-media-can-drive-roi-now.html). While some of it may seem like a part of a marketing plan, it is still useful data for continuous monitoring and improvement.

Let’s expand on these success metrics. What metrics help us understand the user behavior and engagement on our site? Some of the obvious ones include, number of visits from social sites, followers/fans, page views (content sites) and leads, referring sites, demographic data on users commenting on your product, user segment more “prone” to conversion, loyalty based user segmentation, etc. Based on this data, we can decide how to engage our social media users; add more product information, product updates or new product ideas, engage new user bases, pamper most engaged user segments and our “net promoters,” etc.

To learn more about our products we need to monitor the features that people are tweeting about, be it our’s or our competitors’. Offline products may be impacted by, seasonality of product usage, recalls, new feature and/or product launches, etc. In case of an online product, social promotions can yield instantaneous glimpses into how we did on page design, site, navigation, layout, etc. Think of monitoring Bounce Rates, time spent on the site, pages consumed post landing, brand/product mentions and shares on social sites, etc. These will be good indicators of how well is the site performing relative to your expectations and competition. However, prior to starting a formal monitoring process, we need to set the benchmarks, so we can assess and define the deviations in tweeting behavior.

While following the social usage and consumption, don’t forget the company blog. This is where users will feel most connected and empowered to share their views and ideas about your product. Make sure it is conveniently linked from the social sites in order for the interested consumers to take that extra step.

Internet & TV - the inevitable synergies

As we see more and more user adoption of online videos and increasing TV viewership, I wanted to share some thoughts on possible synergies and trends in online and TV convergence. First let’s consider some facts:

1. Time-shifted TV viewing and online video viewing continued to grow in 2009 (according to Nielsen)
2. TV will become more social
3. Internet enabled devices, including Internet Enable Television sets (IETVs), will double by 2013 (according to Morgan Stanley), implying a more anytime/anywhere content consumption
4. Paid video content will make up 75% of US online video market (rest 25% will be ad supported)
5. Social ad spending approaches 50% of total online ad spend

What does this all mean for TV programming and online content? While internet continues to evolve in technology, engagement, user preferences, etc., TV has almost been stagnant in terms of content delivery and viewership. This is where I predict that online changes will have the greatest impact on TV viewing – something that the cable companies should take note of.

TV programs, while being available online, still are best viewed on TV from user experience perspective. As a result, paid content will be more viable and will see a larger adoption. Users will also start to “demand” more from their Video on Demand (VOD) programming. Because users like to view movies and favorite TV shows on TV for the most part, and not on an internet enabled device. VOD will need to evolve its offerings, interface and user experience to mirror more of what users are now getting used to online. The measurement of success will then closely mirror the success metrics in an online experience. On the other hand, ad supported programming, although a significant market in terms of dollar value, will be steady, and highly dependent on such metrics as, user demographic, click-through rates, completion rates, etc.

In either of the revenue models, common online success metrics such as, site navigation, content programming, time spent on a page, bounce rate, click-through rate on a title/promo, return frequency, etc., will/can be applied in some form to determine the success of a set-top experience.

The functionality offered by TIVO and its integration of streaming content from Amazon, Youtube and Netflix is already pointing to the online and TV synergies. As an example, UK market, with greater adoption of such preferences and willingness of users to pay for content, only helps to corroborate this trend. Cable companies can hence, gain a significant competitive advantage by preparing for the upcoming technological upgrades and investing in portability of online experience to set-top.

One metric to define website performance!

In the recently conducted poll on this blog "what one metric best defines your website's performance" a clear favorite emerged in the RETURN FREQUENCY (42% of votes). In second place was the Bounce Rate (28%), while Page Views and Conversion were not considered primary indicators of performance, although conversion did have some takers.

I would agree with the pattern, although, I also consider Bounce Rate to be a good indicator and more importantly, easily measurable metric to monitor.

Return frequency is interesting, since it indicates that users liked what they saw and are coming back. The greatest challenge I faced when measuring this metric was the accuracy and granularity of tagging to understand what was bringing the users back. The data usually is at site level and does little to offer insights into what did or did not work! (read my earlier post on this .. http://www.analyticsheaven.com/2009/11/are-you-looking-at-your-return_09.html)

Take for example, a content site where users may be coming back to read about a developing story and may stop once there are no new updates (or, the story fades from public memory). For an ecommerce site, certain deals and promotions may prompt repeat visitation, but don't necessarily mean loyalty.

I believe repeat visitation or loyalty is achieved through a combination of factors - navigation, user interface, relevance & timeliness of offering and source of the visit. Hence we need to build a framework, on site usage data and insights, that can be applied across the following 4 criteria.

A - (Product) where are users falling off or bailing from the site - improve our navigation to help users find what they came in looking for quickly (higher number of Page Views may not be a sustainable strategy, given the short attention span of users)
B - (User Interface) are there redundant widgets on the page that are distracting from the main story/promotion (one size fits all not a good strategy)
C - (Relevance/Timeliness) use the keywords trends and industry seasonality to ensure content is in tune with the user needs and interests
D - (Source of the Visit) differentiate the experience for browsing versus targeting. Browsers, ex., SEO visits, tend to consumer more pages, while more targeted referral traffic tends to be focused on the topic and leaves after the first page.

To summarize, if you decide that Return Frequency will a key indicator of the health of your business, ensure that your audience segments are clearly defined and measured; AND product navigation, UI, content and traffic source are designed to fulfill the needs of these segments.

Did I miss a metric(s) that you found to be a better indicator of success - I would love to learn about it, so please drop me a note!

Planning to succeed with Analytics

Analytics and insights play into the business planning cycle in more ways than most organizations apply. It is a standard practice to use historical data and known events to prepare outlooks for the upcoming year. However, success metrics can be utilized to make business planning more robust and measurable. Businesses should identify a set of metrics that are bound to change during the course of the year, primarily from, shifting consumer, market and corporate needs. It is also imperative to earmark the metrics that cannot be influenced during the year and define appropriate measures to control the impact of these “fixed” variables on overall quarterly/yearly goals.

Pitfalls may come from unknown market forces – shifts in economy and consumer sentiment impacted overall usage patterns for online businesses in 2008 and 2009, thus significantly reducing the bottom line. In such times, it became imperative to focus our efforts on targeting and relevance to drive higher conversion and better average revenue per user (ARPU) to ensure viability. Ignoring the obvious may also lead to a lot of pain – for instance, drops in online shopping impacted not just the number of items sold, but also lower cost per clicks (CPCs) for online retailers and aggregators. The other hurdle, in my experience was, when external partners started to rewrite deals to cut costs, leaving us with no choice but to find innovative ways of managing/achieving our revenue and OIBDA goals.

As part of the annual planning, it is important to keep an eye on the key variables that “we control,” in order to be able to react to unforeseen market conditions and/or revenue dips. We started to listen more to our consumers and reacted appropriately to provide more engaging experience thus driving incremental revenue to offset the losses. The frequent A/B testing and agile project management to incorporate resulting recommendations assumed a whole new meaning. It also highlighted the need for a nimble annual planning process and metrics tracking/monitoring, so we are not caught with our pants down when; market softens, consumers leave, partners bail and corporate goals are “reorg’d.”

Customer is always right!

This cliché has been the mantra of customer centric organizations for a long time, however, we often find ourselves at the cross-roads of believing in the principle, vs., living by it. How many times as a customer have we wished that the corporations were more responsive to our needs? If our customers are asking that question, then we need to look inward again and redefine our corporate strategy, products, processes, etc.

During the discussions with my clients, following themes around operational excellence emerged at the core of customer disinterest.

1. Not sure of the key success metrics as they relate to the consumers
2. Not sure of the primary metrics to focus on
3. Lack of adequate data tracking and analytics to support change

And if the above have been addressed, we run into the all powerful organizational processes and legacies that create greater hurdles to change!

I think the root cause is that we often try to do too much in one go through a “one size fits all” website experience.

The point I am going to make is to instead “we need to keep things simple.”

Take for instance, the page layout. A quick look at the click map will reveal the areas/links that 80% of our consumers click on. However, we keep the page cluttered and unappealing to please the other 20%. Once we decide to cater to the top 80%, we need to ensure that the pages are light and current, and in-line with the evolving consumer needs. In other words:

1. Identify the needs of the top 80% of your audience
2. Keep it current – consumer needs are dynamic
3. Leave some white space on the pages

Site navigation across the site is another sore point that clients have often mentioned as not the best across their site. I liken this to a shopping experience – if I can’t find the stuff in a shop, I can’t buy it. Moreover, if it takes me forever to go through the maze of aisles every time I come looking for it, I will probably find an easier store to shop at. Designing the best navigation experience is highly dependent on the consumer demographics, needs, relevance of the promotion, business unit strategy, etc. – a wider topic that should be well left for the next discussion.

If you are having these discussions, please share those and I would love to start a conversation about how do we nurture a customer-centric analytics culture.