When Was the Last Time You Performed a PPC Audit?
September 27th, 2009
by Laura Thieme
It’s a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. It’s cool enough in Columbus, Ohio today to wear a long-sleeve turtleneck or light jacket. It rained all day yesterday, making the grass and colors even more vibrant. I love this time of year. When I’m driving, I love to take in the colors. Not just the obvious Fall colors of red, gold and orange, but the color of green. Do you notice how green the grass is at this time of year? Grass is so much greener at this time of year, in Columbus, OH. The rain has polished off the ground in its last hurrah before cold weather eventually turns it brown for several months. There is something about the color of green grass that makes me feel good, like it’s necessary oxygen to breathe.
Perhaps, that’s because we all love the color green when it comes to sales and operating in the black. With many companies experiencing losses, layoffs, and budget cuts, due to operating in the red, it’s something very enjoyable when you hear that a company or someone is doing particularly well.
I was on Twitter today, Twittering for a client of ours. I read something rather sad. The Twitterer indicated that a art gallery friend of hers was pulling all of his jewelry and getting it melted down. He could make more money that way. Some in the retail and B2B space are doing well. Why are some doing very well, and others doing very bad? Did the former group make better decisions? Did they operate with larger margins? Did they know how to compete better? Were they willing to do more? Were they more creative with better solutions? Did they compete on analytics to make better advertising and marketing decisions?
I’ve worked for some large brands over 12 years. I’ve often been amazed at no matter how large the brand, or the financial resources, it seemed nearly impossible that they would not track PPC (paid search or pay per click) advertising to the keyword level. Often the contract was an issue, or the legacy website system was an issue affecting the ability for the brand retailer to easily track conversions to the keyword level. In addition, there has been another major problem affecting retailers. It is the ability to track latency, or time of click to time of purchase. Did their search analytics platform easily enable extended tracking periods, beyond the same session?
I recently worked with a major retailer on a sales and conversion problem. They only had a same-session conversion tracking analytics platform. They were in the process of switching to another vendor. But this major multi-channel retailer brand had a major well-known search analytics platform. The problem with the PPC program was not a concern. In fact, they did not know they could even track conversions in Adwords. They left that to the agency and search analytics program.
There are seven things in search marketing that any business, regardless of retail, must be able to track & trend, if sales & revenue are important:
1) Keywords that were the source of conversions
2) Conversion rate to the keyword level
3) Cost of acquisition to the keyword level
4) Which terms are most profitable to your business?
5) Which terms are least profitable to your business?
6) Due to the economy, have these key performance indicators (KPIs) changed?
7) How does seasonality affect your KPIs, or is it harder to measure knowing the economy’s additional impact?
In search marketing analytics, here’s what we look at to analyze the above:
1) CTR
2) CVR
3) Cost of Conversion
4) Average Position (this affects CTR)
Most of the time, we look at PPC campaign summaries, and where we spend most of our money. And many say they focus on conversion rates and total cost. But it’s one thing to exceed budget, but more importantly, shouldn’t you focus on how much each sale costs, or how much it costs to generate a lead? It’s not total cost as much as it is cost per lead. How does your cost per lead affect your total sales/revenue and total costs? For example, here is one campaign summary I’m analyzing right now for a PPC Audit - let me know how this sounds to you:
1) CTR is 1.25%
2) CVR is 7.3%
3) Total spend is over $80k
4) Nearly 1,000 orders
5) Average CPA is $83
So, what’s the problem? Well, there are several. CTR is low, compared to industry standards, and could be improved. CVR is great - since the CVR is so good, clearly we need to focus on the poor CTR campaigns to figure out what’s going on there. The spend is about $10k over budget. The CPA or cost per acquisition is about $33 over budget.
How do you improve your key performance indicators (KPIs) in your PPC campaign? And why should you be concerned about your PPC campaign? If you drill down into the details, we could make your PPC campaign much more profitable, guaranteed. Seriously, I said and really meant “guaranteed.”
Next, if you already have a search marketing agency, or full-time person on paid search, or PPC? We can work with you and them, on this audit. Sometimes people are too close to the data to realize something is trending that they might not have expected, or realized due to their lack of technology tools, or time and resources.
I’ll write back on how to dissect your PPC campaign, how to do a PPC audit, and how to fix it. I’ll also be speaking about this at SMX (www.twitter.com/bizresearchlmt for updates), on October 6, 2009 in NY.
Posted in Paid Search Tools, Web Analytics. No Comments »
Are You Tracking Google Adwords Paid Search Conversions?
October 13th, 2008
by Laura Thieme
October 13. 2008
How do you know if you are tracking Google Adwords Paid Search Conversions? If you are running a Google Adwords paid search campaign, you should see the “CONVERSIONS” column in the Adwords Client Center or console. If you see ‘zero’ for “all time” date range, then you either have a poorly converting campaign online, or you are not tracking conversions.
It is also not unusual to see Google Adwords conversion tracking not working properly. By the way, conversion tracking in Google is set up by having code on the contact or sales confirmation page.
Google Adwords Conversion Tracking is not the same as Google Analytics conversion tracking, which is simply the copy/paste of a URL in the goals section of Google Analytics, which only shows the page views of this page in essence. I have seen numerous installations of Google Analytics conversions done incorrectly, where people put the conversion page as the shopping cart or contact form, initial page only, and forgot to put in the URL that shows the actual form was completed.
Posted in Paid Search Tools, Web Analytics. No Comments »
OSU Students Weigh in On Search Marketing 754 (Principles of Electronic Marketing)
June 13th, 2008
Ohio State (OSU) Students Weigh in On the Challenges of Using Web Analytics for Search Engine Marketing
by Laura Thieme
As you’ll see the blog posts below, several of the OSU students taking my course on Search Engine Marketing & Analytics struggled with web analytics. I noticed a big difference this year in the students. The biggest challenge was learning nine tools: NetTracker (the old fashioned log file analysis software), Google Analytics, WordTracker, Google Adwords, Flickr, Wordpress blog software, WebPosition ranking software, Bizresearch’s Bizwatch, and improving their Excel and Powerpoint skills.
If search marketers counted the tools they have to use on a near weekly basis, they might be surprised to learn they are using over 38 technology tools to do their job. That’s a problem in itself. However, the ability to learn technology tools and adapt to an ever-changing tool industry at an uber-hyper pace is crucial. Knowledge of these tools makes you as an employee far more valuable. Rarely do employers train on all of these tools, thus there is an employment requirement to easily and efficiently adapt to new tech tools as they come out on the market. If you think you’re going to get training on how to use Wordpress, or Flickr, or WebPosition in your first week on the job - that’s unlikely. You might get training on a company’s proprietary tool that they own - but unlikely they’ll train on every new tool that is introduced on the market. If anything, they’ll be looking to you kiddo, to figure it out and quick!
Why is web analytics so hard for search marketing students at OSU? For one, they’ve never had a course anything like this in business school. This is taught at Fisher College of Business, it is not taught at the multimedia school of design or some similar curriculum. I’m also not an easy professor. I don’t grade on a “curve” basis. I don’t do multiple choice until the final exam, and only select questions are multiple choice. I don’t like multiple choice as a professor - you like to guess, and if you had a review session the way students want these days - you get the answers in your review session. Short answer is best. You either know web analytics and search marketing or you don’t. Essays - people bull-shit too much.
One more professional opinion - it’s amazing how cocky some kids can be these days. I watched a 60 Minutes episode a few weeks ago about hiring and retaining today’s younger generation (the younger 20-somethings) - today’s student is likely to walk up to the professor with cell phone in hand and request they talk to their mother about that C you gave them on the mid-term. I had a few students go to the chairperson because they didn’t like their mid-term grades, and they thought I should be more lenient. One student told me he clearly got the “gist” of it all, so isn’t that enough? He asked me six times to change his grade. Six times! I later learned that is actually considered “stalking a professor” and not ethically permitted. Good to know!
Another student actually contacted a client of mine in a spiteful way because he was upset about his mid-term. I caught him in the act, and we are now going through Judicial Affairs and Academic Misconduct. This is not what I want to do teach search marketers how to be better at this topic - at the 20-something or 30-something business school level. I want to teach however, not put up with 5-year olds. I know teachers who do this, and they are to be admired, respected and honored at the highest level. Not all college students are like this type of person mentioned above, just about 10% of the class and that’s enough to make you wonder why you’re taking the time out of your business day at a high consulting rate to teach 21-25 year olds. Perhaps the business level course at a master’s level is better? I’m talking to OSU about offering such a course, perhaps an executive level MBA course on the evenings and weekends where direct application is strongly desired and college course credit is available.
I admit I’m a tough professor, but I want the students to learn more in my class that they can apply to the real world than most any other course they’ve ever taken in a business school. Theory is great - but practical experience where you log in and view, report, and possibly strategize on various ad accounts is best for truly learning topics that can be used in a job. My reputation is on the line, and I don’t want companies who are already recruiting from my class to get students who understand search marketing concepts but have no clue on how to engage in search engine marketing.
Students who check emails during the two hour computer lab, sit in the back of the classroom, or do not engage in frequent correspondence with the professor and course material are likely to really struggle. But those students who really worked at it, improved significantly by the end of the 10 week 4-credit hour challenge 754-level course. I used most of their blog posts below, and will continue to post a few others in the OSU section over the summer.
Having taught search engine marketing at the college/university level at the business school for two years now, with approximately 60 students, I have seen what works and doesn’t. Today’s students expect you to give them Powerpoint notes, review sessions of what’s going to be on the text (like the specific questions not the topics), constant access to you via email, and by phone when possible. They think if you don’t do this, they won’t get an A, and then a few might take their complaints all the way to the head of the department. Strangely enough, they are some of the same students not paying attention in course, and rarely doing a good job on their homework. Plainly, bluntly put - if you’re lazy - don’t get into search engine marketing or web analytics. If you’re really smart, a little geeked up on technology and are fascinated with learning new things, often teaching yourself - if you watch the news a lot, if you pay attention to trends big and small - and you’re fascinated with the Web - you’re probably going to be interested with this - but not necessarily good at it. Ah - but you know what they say - practice makes perfect - years of practice makes better is more like it.
I’d like to hear from you if you’ve taken a college level search engine marketing course, or if you’ve taught at the college level, undergrad or MBA. What has your experience been like?
Posted in Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Web Analytics. No Comments »
WARNING: Search Engine Marketing May Cause Anxiety, Headaches or Stress
May 27th, 2008
WARNING: Search Engine Marketing May Cause Anxiety, Headaches or Stress By:Brittany Amato OSUMKTG754Student Guest Blog Post
When I first signed up for Internet Marketing, I didn’t know what to expect. I figured when I graduated the information I learned from it might actually be helpful in the real world. I also figured it wouldn’t be that difficult. I was in a whirlwind of a surprise when I came to class and Laura started spitting out a foreign language. I never thought that so much went into marketing on the internet, it is on a whole different level then what I have learned in other marketing classes. 
I think the thing that frustrates me the most about search engine marketing is how inexact it is. There is no book that spells it all out for you. There is so much data that can be collected on programs like GoogleAnalytics but trying to figure out what it all means and how to use it to your advantage is where you loose me. I hear the word “assignment” and know a headache is not to far away. 
There are so many things that can be done to try and improve a website, and sometimes you just need to play around to see what works. You need to have the mentality of the Little Engine that Could, because if you don’t think you can you won’t be able to figure out anything. �I know that when this class is over I will have gained valuable information and hopefully a good grade. I feel that compared to other classes, I may end up using this information which is kind of exciting. Although I’m still sure the headaches will never go away. �
Posted in Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Web Analytics. 1 Comment »
Web Analytics, What a Surprise!
Web Analytics, What a Surprise!
By Jenna Hitchcock
OSU MKTG 754 Student
Guest Blog Post
I have always thought of myself as being somewhat of a computer nerd. As my family and friends can attest, I spend the majority of my free time online, whether I am on surfing Facebook, chatting on AIM, stalking the stars on movie websites, or just checking my email. My job is also related to computers. In short, I spend a lot of time on computers and I love it!
When I saw that there was an electronic marketing course offered at OSU and that there was still space in the course, I was, needless to say, quite excited. I had it in my mind that we would be learning how to put together an online marketing campaign, like advertisements and banners. I figured that the class would be a fun mixture of creativity and art and computers. What I never saw coming was that the course would be a mixture of analysis (not art) and computers..jpg)
When we first received the syllabus via email, I briefly scanned it and observed the reading list. Web analytics? Organic and paid searches? What?! I was as surprised as Lucille Ball pictured to the right. Alright, maybe not that surprised, but I was quite nervous to take a course on a subject I had never even heard of before.
The first few weeks of the class were, well, interesting. I had a hard time learning the lingo and grasping on to concepts that I had not expected to learn. Also, the course is totally taught in a way that I have not experienced at OSU, very hands on, figure-it-out-on-your-own type of course. I was surprised how this course just threw us out in the water and told us to swim back to shore. Luckily we were provided with floaties.
I suppose what surprised me most about this course was how useful and effective web analytics really is. I had never thought about how a company’s position on Google could totally alter how many people visited their page and thus their profit. Maybe even more surprising was when I realized how much I had actually grown to like Google Analytics, who would have thought KAIs and KPIs would become my friend? Search engine marketing and this course has definitely opened my eyes to the possibilities of improving one’s company via the internet. �
Posted in Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Web Analytics. No Comments »
Great OSU Student Blog Posts - Marketing 754
May 20th, 2008
by Laura Thieme
I have really enjoyed reading the OSU Marketing 754 student blog posts. I have asked students to be candid, yet professional and talk about their personal interests, as well as most recently what they think about web analytics, the course itself, or search marketing in general.
I’m impressed with how the quality of the blog post has improved since the beginning of Spring Quarter. Without a doubt, most of the students have struggled with web analytics. Analyzing loads of data is challenging at best. Knowing what to do with the information, or how to sort through the information is a challenge for students who are not yet in charge of an advertising campaign.
We have a lot to learn on how to teach search marketing, organic SEO, paid search and web analytics to students in a lab environment. We need a textbook. We could use more than one class. But it’s good to see how much students learn in a 10-week period. Imagine how much more they could learn, if this was a curriculum at the undergrad and master’s level.
Posted in Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Web Analytics. No Comments »
The Keys to Successful SEO - Part 5 of a 5 Part Series
March 25th, 2008
The Keys to Successful SEO - Part 5 of a 5 Part Series on Why SEO Doesn’t & Won’t Work
by Laura Thieme
It’s nearly 4 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. I can’t sleep. Monroe, my tuxedo cat, woke me up, and quite frankly I’m not sure I mind - I was dreaming about ghosts in the basement and watering the vegetable garden - see what happens when you watch “Medium” at 10 p.m. at night. I’m going to have to boycott that show.
Misha who is purring in my ear now, is petitioning for a “midnight” snack. I’m not sure what I’m more afraid of, not being able to return to sleep before it’s “time to get up” or waking the dog. Once I get up, then the cats have to be fed, the dog wants to be let outside, and then it’s all over. No chance of getting back to sleep, but do I care? My mind is active on many fronts - and I suspect it has a lot to do with my class at OSU starting today. But the mind also wandered into web analytics, which is a large part of what I’m teaching my class on at Ohio State. In fact, I’ve redone several parts of the syllabus to put more emphasis on web analytics.
We’re starting the class this year with five sessions on web analytics, instead of ending the class with web analytics. The focus won’t be on visibility first, it’s going to be on web analytics first, because it’s all about continuously proving value to your client (internal or external) on your web marketing budget. Today, I was on a prospective client call. It was our second call into the “relationship”. The company said something that I really liked hearing. They said, “some companies won’t even work with us if we don’t use web analytics”. Isn’t that great???? I loved it!!! I don’t use exclamation marks very often either 
I had asked the company in my first call if they had any form of web analytics? Did they have Google Adwords? Did they have Google Analytics? They had neither. And before you SEO and analytics experts scoff, these people understand the value of investing in meaningful data - they just need a little education on the process. In fact, they are moving forward on making a few minor changes to their website and installing Google Analytics before we proceed, regardless of whether “we” get the deal. So why do I care so much about web analytics, and why am I willing to write about it at 4:10 a.m. in the morning?
If you don’t have a robust web analytics package installed, you’re not able to intelligently answer “what’s wrong and what’s right with my website?” Granted, with web analytics, you will indeed have to make some inferences regarding what’s wrong, what’s right. And in fact, you won’t really know the specific experience analysis (see Avinash Kaushik’s book on Web Analytics, An Hour a Day, Chapter 1), unless you survey your customers. You can only make observations based on the web analytics data.
However, it’s the time that goes into the web analytics process that can be daunting - mindless at times - and like looking for meaning in your life while walking on the beach and looking out at the ocean (not that you or I have ever experienced the latter). What can make web analytics painful, and at times useless? It’s the tool, baby! Well, that and a little methodology or lack thereof.
So, how do you get a good web analytics tool? And how can it help you with your SEO efforts, which is what this series is all about? Do I need a part 6 of this 5-part series? Let’s start with Google Analytics because that’s what at a minimum, most of us should have this application installed (javascript code on your website) if we’re doing SEO and paid search (which is what you should all be doing). And why do you need web analytics again? Because you’re going to learn which keyword phrase(s) send you the lead, make your phone “ring, ring”, and your cash machine ka-ching, ka-ching! (Sorry, it’s 4 a.m.) Start with Google Analytics because it’s relatively painless, and it’s free - go figure!
With Google Analytics you can get alot of info about what’s working and what’s not with your online advertising campaign, or your website in general. It’s not perfect, the data may not reconcile, and quite frankly, if it’s not installed correctly, it could be relatively useless. But in general, Google Analytics makes my life as an SEO expert, and a search marketing guru, much easier to show the client value in which keyword converts to a lead or an online sale.
Now having said this, it’s knowing where in Google Analytics you need to go to figure the answer out to “what’s working, what’s not”. I am guilty of long posts, so I’m going to start another page in the event you want to “read on about web analytics!”.
Posted in Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Search Optimization (SEO), Web Analytics. 1 Comment »
ClickTracks Training - Key Observations
November 16th, 2007
ClickTracks Training - Key Observations
by Gilbert Velasquez
We’re sitting in on a live ClickTracks training seminar with a new client who sells health related products. We find it important to work closely with our new search marketing clients on web analytics and the tools they are going to use.
Agenda: Discussing business goals, mapping them to web goals and KPIs and segmentation with labels.
We began with a series of questions that focus on why it is that we have a site and what our site’s goals are. After a few minutes, we learned the client has many different goals, not just in sales but in moving toward providing content to the user.
As we moved past the questions and started looking at ClickTracks, we begin to see how it works to track our client’s goals. We started with the search report to see how people were getting into the website in the first place. In a single view we were able to see what major keywords people were coming in on and through what search engine. The navigation report allowed us to see what people are doing on a page level basis when visiting the site. This is great information to see what elements in the navigation the visitors find useful and what they never use.
The campaign tracking report was up next. A great feature we came across in this report was the ability to input your Google AdWords information so that ClickTracks would automatically pull that information into their reports. The what’s changed report followed and displayed significant changes that occurred between two user-defined time frames. The funnel report and the click fraud reports were not yet configured, but they did show promise.
The final report was the data dissection report. It allowed us to look at various different aspects of the site. We have access to both quality and quantity metrics. On this report we also took some time to look at the graph options. We were able to choose from various metrics, such as unique page visits, and different time displays, such as daily or monthly. On the same graph we were able to chart up to four different KPIs, such as number of visitors, unique visitors, etc. These KPIs were related to a particular label, such as ‘All Visitors’. These labels can be created to segment particular visitors so that you can watch these KPIs on a segmented basis.
How to create a quick label:
In opening the label wizard, an array of options comes up to let you begin choosing what kind of label you want, such as ‘Compare Search Engines’, ‘New vs Returning Visitors’, ‘Ad Campaign Tracking’ or ‘Search vs Content Targeted’. If you’re in ClickTracks and you forget what the labels mean, there is a nice windows below the options that explains what they are used for.
We went with a Page Goal label. The label applies to any user who reached the page specified by the user. So the first step in creation was to click on the label’s button. We then saw a list of pages from which to select to choose as the page goal. Once we chose the page, we clicked ok, clicked go and that was it. The label was created and we were able to use that label throughout the whole analytics package immediately.
An issue that came up was that our goal page was listed multiple times with different parameters. As a solution, we could use parameter masking to allow us to view all those pages with parameters as one page in the reports. There was a distinction made between page-defining and non page-defining parameters to allow a page where the parameters actual define the content to appear as two separate pages. So it masks parameters, but in a smarter way to allow 2 different pages to remain that way in the reports even with the same file name.
Advanced Labels:
This is where the ClickTracks really shines. Advanced labeling gives you much more granularity than the quick label. You can label based on a page visited, if the user has a specific cookie, by the ad campaign the user entered on, date visited, user’s ip address, how long the user stayed, search engine keyword, certain time of day, the country the user is from, if the user generated a certain amount of revenue, and many, many more. Up to 50 different labels can be created. So one can create a label for all people from the U.S. who stayed for over 2 minutes and viewed a particular product page. Then use that label to group those users together and view data specific to that group throughout all reports in the ClickTracks system.
We created a label for visitors who stayed for over ten minutes, then another label for users who stayed short term. It was a simple process of choosing a label for length of time, input the desired time, the reports we wanted the label to appear in, and gave the labels a name. As soon as ClickTracks was done calculating, which was all of twenty seconds, the metrics were available in our reports. It was almost instantaneous.
We were then able to compare the two labels by keyword. So on one side we saw the keywords that brought our long term visitors in, and on the right a list of keywords that brought the short term visitors in. It was great to see that quickly what keywords were able to keep people on the site and which ones were only keeping them around for a few seconds.
We then created another label for those users who came in on a keyword that contained a particular string. Afterwards we went to the search report and were able to see all the keywords that contained the string and how many users came to the site and from what engine they came from. This would be very useful to create labels that track users who come in on all your branded terms. Then you can view, in one report, all users who came in on branded terms, how long they were on the site, how much they bought, and all other KPIs that ClickTracks offers.
Labels can also be shared across different users with different accounts in ClickTracks. When editing a label, you can just hit a button that says share and it puts the label on the server and not just in the account. Then everyone can use it. If you want to allow just a specific user to use the label, you can export it to your computer, email it to that person and then they can upload it to their ClickTracks.
The label feature in ClickTracks is a huge asset. The ability to group users together to see their data as a whole at once is huge. You can group all kinds of things together. You could take a set of keywords that may represent a larger category and put them together in one label. Then you could view metrics on what is happening to that category as a whole and not to just one individual keyword. ClickTracks seems like a great system that has a lot of value added. It does more that just show you raw data, it allows you to manipulate it in such a way that makes it much more valuable. You don’t have to spend time putting data together manually because the label will segment and group the data for you. And the labels seem varied and flexible enough to meet all kinds of demands. If you’re really looking for that just data, more of an in-depth analysis of you site, ClickTracks may be for you.
Posted in Web Analytics. No Comments »
Bounce Rate Without Keyword And Network Location is Meaningless - Google Analytics
July 13th, 2007
Google Analytics: Bounce Rate Without Keyword and Network Location is Meaningless Data
Part 5 of a 5-Part Series
by Laura Thieme
Don’t just look at your website analytics report site bounce rates. Without further analysis, they are absolutely meaningless, meaningless. I’ve just watched a Hugh Grant movie tonight, so I’m writing this with a British accent.
Earlier this week I heard this quote and have used it often - Thomas Carlyle - "Activity without insight is meaningless".
Many people are talking about their bounce rates. In fact, on a near daily basis I talk to someone interested in their bounce rates. But before we obsess on bounce rates, we need to see the keywords and the network location report segments in Google Analytics. Without this data, the research is meaningless. Of course we want to decrease our overall site and landing page bounce rates. But before we jump into trying to reduce bounce rates or improve landing pages, we need to look at the data more closely.
If you go to Traffic Sources / Keywords / and view 500 rows at a time, we can look at your bounce rates by keyword first. I would hope to see brand names have lower bounce rates, unless they were just looking for a phone number or location and they got what they wanted within the first page, or landing page. Keep in mind that Google Analytics considers a bounce rate 100% if the visitor did not proceed past the landing page. If a landing page has the info they need on that page, it’s not a bounce you should necessarily be worried about. Granted, if the visitor only stayed a second, or didn’t even wait for the page to load, that’s a problem - that’s a true bounce in my opinion.
For example, I review bounce rates for "Bizresearch" in my GA keyword report for the past month. I see some of my own corporate connections through various IPs, ISPs, which are curious in itself. I have to investigate that more in a separate post. I’d like to compare to other analytics tools before I comment further on that issue.
I do see a couple of companies that I have either done business with in the past, and/or would like to do business with in the future. For example, Sterling Commerce was a previous client for four years, until new ownership occurred. Carat Interactive is a company I’ve definitely heard of before. Army National Guard Bureau, Jegs, Security Outlet, all of whom typed in our name to Google, and clicked through on an organic listing to our site, www.bizresearch.com.
Some of these companies had a 0% bounce rate. One had a 100% bounce rate. What’s troubling is that bounce rate counts if only one page was viewed, regardless of time spent on that page, according to Google. So, what troubles me is when I see zero pages viewed, zero time spent and zero bounce rate percent. That doesn’t make sense. If it’s zero percent bounce rate, then I should see more than one page view? Right? Right. [sneaking british accent again].
Let’s investigate Carat Interactive as well as Jegs. Now, you can’t easily drill down in Google Analytics from the report above, you have to go to Visitors, Network Location report. Carat came in on the home page. It was on June 22nd. Surprisingly, it says they came in from Hong Kong. They were using Firefox.
I visit www.carat.com and review their office locations, and yes, one is located in Hong Kong. They list email addresses. Maybe I can send a thank you note and ask them why they didn’t stay on our site? I view visitors by country, and in Asia, I see 52 companies or network locations that visited within the last month. Interesting. I wonder if Carat has ever visited before? Not this year, according to GA.
So what insight should I garner from this activity, as Thomas Carlyle proposes?
Website analytics using the tools mentioned above is sometimes like walking along the ocean, gazing out at the water, looking at the stones (west coast), or seaweed (east coast) and not always being sure what exactly you’re looking for until you find it. You stumble into it, but in the case of website analytics, you have to know which reports offer the most opportunity for meaningful activity.
I love Network Location, segmenting by various options in the drop-down menu and reviewing their pages, time spent and bounce rates. But I look at it all together. So, for example, I see clients who haven’t logged into their reports for two months straight. That’s meaningful. I need to call them on monday and check in with them and see how they’re doing. In fact, I’m going to email them straight away.
I’m back - had to write an email to someone. My final thought to conclude with is this - Thomas Carlyle said that activity without insight is meaningless. I’d take it one step further. Activity without insight is meaningless, but activity without revenue-tied results is a waste of your time.
Google Analytics - A 5-Part Series on Google Analytics New Interface
View Web Analytics - and start from the bottom
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Tracking Code, Strings & Auto-Tagging - Part 4 of a 5-Part Google Analytics Series
July 12th, 2007
Website Analytics - Tracking Code, Strings & Auto-Tagging
by Susan Rosenberg
What is Auto-Tagging?
Google’s auto-tagging (turned "on" by default) allows you to track your keywords from click to conversion and back to cost. This information can be reviewed within your Google Analytics reports, such as goal or sales/lead conversions, to give you a sense of how your AdWords campaigns are really performing. Some users may wish to manually tag some URLs, while using auto-tagging for the remainder however, auto-tagging is a global setting in your AdWords account, and cannot be overridden on a case-by-case basis.
Your site will also require tracking code. Tracking code is HTML code that you insert into your web pages to track what is happening on each of those pages.
Adding tracking code to your pages
Google Analytics only tracks pages that contain the Google Analytics tracking code. You’ll need to add this code to each page of your site, either manually or through the use of includes or other methods.
To access your tracking code
Basic installation - Copy and paste the code segment into the bottom of your content, immediately before the </body> tag of each page you are planning to track. If you use a common include or template, you can enter it there.
<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct="UA-xxxx-x";
urchinTracker();
</script>
You’ll need to update the "xxxx-x" in the sample above with your own Google Analytics account number. You can access your personalized tracking code in its entirety by following the instructions in Where can I find my tracking code? Once you’ve completed this step, Google Analytics will begin collecting traffic data. You’ll be able to see data in your reports within 24 hours.
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