Web analytics basics for marketing plans

Web Analytics Basicsfor

Marketing Plans

MKT 556 – Internet Marketing/Hank WasiakOctober 12, 2010

Dana Chinn

• Media that can be measured

• Site metrics

• Social media metrics

Slides: www.slideshare.net/danachinnTwitter: @danachinn

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Evaluating a marketing plan starts with setting goals, objectives

Start here

not here

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Measure these…

Newspapers

MagazinesRadio TVDirect mail Yellow

PagesOutdoor

Publishers with display advertising

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…and these…

*

*A “starting point” – doesn’t include search, lead generation, international, others. Ted Kawaja in paidContent.org, 9/28/10

Company site

E-mail

Video

Buy ads on social media, too!

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…and don’t forget about…

Apps for each smartphone, carrier

Apps for tablets

WAP, or mobile web sites Geolocation

Quick Response codes

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Return On Objective:What can you measure, optimize?

The actions people take

Company site

Are the targeted audiences aware?Did they come? From where? How many? Why?What did they do?Did they come back? Were they “engaged?”

And whether those actions were due to external events or your actions

E-mail

Video

Is this site successful?

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Our site has 5,000 monthly unique visitors.

Last Tuesday our site got 20,000 page views.

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

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Success is defined by the type, number of desired actions taken

Content actions

E-commerce actions

Saadkamal.com

e.g., rate, e-mail, comment

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What people say they did

what they thinkand

why

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

Site metrics

1. Behavioral research

What people did when they came to your site,as captured by

an action taken on a keyboard or mouse

2. Attitudinal research

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Not only are the technologies new, but the metrics are as well. -Online Media and Marketing Association Metrics and Measurement program, June 2009

Social media metrics

1. Influencers

2. Content, context, sentiment

3. Calls to action answered

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

• External dataUsed by agencies to compare sites

• comScoreNielsenCompeteetc.

• Interactive Advertising Bureau

Internal decision-making External marketing

Sources for site metrics

• Census data100% of all visitors, visits, page views for all sections

• Internal dataConfidential

• OmnitureGoogle AnalyticsWebTrendsetc.

• Web Analytics Association

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Key Performance Indicator #1: Visits

A visit is counted

-- Unique visitors

-- Page views

every time someone comes to a site

An increase in visits? Always good.A decrease in visits? Always bad.

These metrics are usefulwhen put in ratios with visits, other metrics

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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.*

* 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.

library

?

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An increase in page views can be good - or bad.*

* 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.

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

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

?

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An increase in average time spent on site can be good - or bad.*

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

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

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

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Systems only measure the time spent in between pages on a site, so…

The time spent of a user who goes only to one page is NOT included in the time spent calculation. ?

The time spent on the last pageof a site isn’t counted at all.

1 minute

10 minutes

Site X

Time spent = 1 minute

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Generally, is your site engaging visitors?

Page views per visit

Visits per unique visitorKey Performance Indicator #2

Key Performance Indicator #3

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Are you attracting new audiences?

Visits from new visitors

Visits from returning visitors

Key Performance Indicator #4

vs.

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When audiences - new and returning - come, are they staying?

A bounce: a visit with only one page view

Bounce rate percentof the page wheremost visits start

Key Performance Indicator #5

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Overall site data consists of traffic from everyone

Northwest Cyberton

Southern Cyberton

Eastern Cyberton

Non-stakeholders

A name that stakeholders identify with

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How much site traffic is from Cyberton?

NW Cyberton 50

E. Cyberton 25

S. Cyberton 25

Non-stakeholders 5

Success is defined by goals, priorities – not totals

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NW Cyberton

E. Cyberton

S. Cyberton

Total Site

Universe

50

25 25

100

67%

200

50

325

Penetration

75

13%

50%

31%

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Social media metrics – focus on influencers

Do you know who they are? Are they following you? Are they interacting with you?

Usually not you

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Social media: a constant stream of calls to action

Brands earn the trust and loyalty of their customers by listening and responding.

-- Interactive Advertising Bureau Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions, May 2009

...the true value of a networkis measured by the frequency of engagement of the participants.

--”The Maturation of Social Media ROI,” by Brian Solis, Mashable, Jan. 26, 2010

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“Engagement” differs by type of social media channel

-- “Five essentials for social media marketing,” by Lisa Wehr, CEO/Oneupweb, iMedia Connection, July 17, 2009

Sharing

Networking

News

BookmarkingReviews

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Success in social media defined by…

Number of people in the network

The “right” people”

The amount of engagement, activity

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Do your followers identify with your keywords?

Analyze your follower profilesto assess their likelihood of

engagement

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Followers Look for influencers Review reach, churn, following/follower ratio

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The Facebook ad application only gives you people on Facebook who filled out the form.

You don’t know how many: didn’t give detailsorupdated their statusortold the truthoraren’t in Facebookor...

Understand the limitations of your data sources

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What info do you need from site registration, donation forms, offline events?

-- Name-- E-mail-- Zip code-- Stakeholder type as granular, specific as needed based on your priorities

Example: Not just “Parent” but also year-of-birth of children enrolled in Philadelphia public schools

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Analyze content

Review hashtags, keywords, sentiment, problems, conversations that connect people

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RT/via @handle + call to action/comment + link + #hashtag

“Perfect” tweets are less than 120 characters

Lost the link

Watch handle, hashtag sizes

100 characters 111 characters

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“When a burst of tweets citing a particular subject or URL emerges, it’s a signaling event.”

--Rishab Ghosh, co-founder of Topsy, a search engine for tweets, in “Live in the Moment,” by Clive Thompson, Wired magazine, October 2009

Is your company part of the conversationin real-time web signaling events?

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What should your marketing plan include?

Clearly defined goals/objectives, audiencesCompany Program or campaign Site Social media

Company site

Saadkmal.com

Metrics that measure actions

Baselines, goalsWhere did you start?Where do you want to go?E-mail

Video

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Dana ChinnLecturerUSC Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism

213-821-6259chinn@usc.edu

http://www.newsnumbers.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/danachinn

Spring 2011

Summer 2011

Drew Prickett, Kevin DuganMarshall MBA class of 2010 2010 AMV News Fellows

News Fellowship Program