I remember reading in a marketing class about a department store that used surveillance footage to analyze how people moved through the store. Taking a long-term view of the data, the marketing team looked for trends: Which areas of the store attract the most customers? Are certain areas correlated, in that a large percentage of users who stop at Area A then go straight to Area B? What is the first area that customers tend to visit after entering the store? Using that information, they rearranged the layout of the store to maximize the amount of time and money customers spend there.
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While the world is moving toward more transparency and more data availability, Google recently backtracked on this front. In a move unnoticed by most, Google is now blocking organic keyword data from being captured for searchers who are logged into Google or searching on Google’s secure (https) site. This means that when marketers look at their web analytics, keywords used by these searchers are not displayed, but are lumped together under “(not provided).”
Why should you care? Because taking away this data makes it harder for marketers to measure the performance of their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. When we know which keywords drive traffic – and more importantly, conversions – we can invest more of our time and effort into those keywords rather than less valuable ones. We can ensure that landing pages are directly relevant to the keyword that brought the searcher to that page. In general, we can continue to hone our efforts and maximize our results.
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Google recently announced a significant change in how it handles search privacy. It has begun encrypting search queries for anyone who is signed in to a Google account, such as Gmail.
This means that when you are signed in and run a search on www.google.com, you will be automatically redirected to https://www.google.com. So the terms you search on and the search results page will be encrypted.
Google explains the reason for this change:
As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver. As a result, we’re enhancing our default search experience for signed-in users.
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Several members of the PPI team attended the SEMPO Atlanta event, “The Future of Web Analytics”. Three speakers provided great insights on analytics to the packed house at the Google office in Atlanta. SEMPO members join us via webcast from Chicago, New York, and Santa Monica. Provided all the opportunities for a huge technology fail, the evening went remarkably well. Also, it was great to meet SEMPO Global president, Chris Boggs. I’ve always been impressed by the amount of support our local chapter receives. Read more…
One of the main advantages of online marketing over traditional marketing is that it is measurable, at both a broad scope and down to the smallest detail, to a degree that must make marketers in more conventional media green with envy. No focus groups or exit surveys necessary – just fire up the analytics platform of your choosing and immerse yourself in a wonderland of data.
To that end, Google has launched Multi-Channel Funnels. A blog post of mine from a few months ago mentioned that this feature was in beta; it is now available for all to use, and could be very helpful for your analytics efforts.
Google Analytics has traditionally attributed conversion to the most recent marketing “touch.” For example, if a user first visits the site through a display ad, but then returns a few days later through an organic search result and converts on that second visit, organic search will be credited with the conversion. Read more…
Please join us for a special SEMPO event about the Future of Web Analytics sponsored by Google. This exciting event will be covering the hot new topic of Tag Management Systems (TMS), insights and myths of data usage from Discovery Communications & HowStuffWorks’ Matt Crenshaw and the recent launch of Google Analytics Premium.
Google Analytics Premium - With the recent launch of Google Analytics Premium, the landscape of enterprise analytics has shifted. We are excited to announce that Enrique Munoz Torres, Senior Product Manager of Google Analytics Premium will be among our panelists to speak directly about the launch of this new product and answer questions.
RSVP HERE: SEATS ARE LIMITED! Read more…
Let’s say you set a goal of doubling the number of leads your website generates. Sounds ambitious – how are you going to get there? There are two very different approaches:
Double the amount of traffic coming to your website, or
Double the conversion rate (so that twice as many visitors become leads).
It’s generally easier to do the latter than the former. Doubling website traffic – assuming you’re not starting from zero – can be quite daunting. As well as potentially expensive. But often, doubling your conversion rate is attainable (again, depending where you’re starting from). And…they don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Let’s look at a couple of examples. Read more…
If your website serves a lead generation purpose, you should have a rough idea of what an average lead is worth to you. This information can help you and your marketing agencies ensure they’re not overspending to generate online leads. There are two pieces of information you need to know in order to figure out the average value of a lead. They are:
The average percentage of leads that close and become paying customers, and
The average value of a customer. Note that this latter figure can be looked at two ways: Read more…
Stacy Williams, founder and president of Prominent Placement Inc, led a webinar for Online Marketing Connect’s Search Engine Marketing Focus Week in early May. This is the
As the previous post stated, measurability is a key benefit of online marketing. Historically, there’s been a gap between site analytics and a company’s CRM database. We could collect data on a searcher’s interaction with the site, and companies could collect data on leads and customers and maintain it in their CRM software (such as Salesforce), but there was no way to connect the two. But technology has improved, as it always does, and now there is much more continuity between these two sets of data. Read more…
Stacy Williams, founder and president of Prominent Placement Inc, led a webinar for Online Marketing Connect’s Search Engine Marketing Focus Week in early May. This is the fifth post in a six-part series based on her webinar about the use of search engine marketing to pull B2B buyers through the sales funnel. To view the slides from Stacy’s presentation, click here.
One of the key benefits of all forms of online marketing is measurability. Every customer click and interaction can be recorded, and the resulting data can be sorted and analyzed in any number of combinations. Let’s explore some nuances of analytics in B2B marketing.
Analytics – Latent Conversions
B2B purchasing is notoriously slow. A previous post in this series mentioned that it also usually involves multiple people, from the employee who first feels the need to the company purchasing manager. This means that most B2B conversions are latent conversions; the buyer doesn’t convert on the first visit to your site, but after multiple visits over a prolonged period of time. Tracking all this can be complex.
Let’s say the buyer first finds your site through a broad search. He then sends an email about it to his boss, who clicks on a direct link in the email to view your site. With his boss’s approval, our buyer now runs a search on your company name to find the site again and make the purchase. Which of these digital touches gets the credit for this conversion? Read more…
