Engage-Digital

Change tracking is as important in web analytics as the data. So much so that it should be seen as an integral element of the ongoing performance optimisation process.

By now Christmas will be a very distant memory and for some online retailers it will be happier than for others. For almost all, the first few months of the New Year are a time to reflect on past sins committed over the Christmas period in the rush to capitalise on the annual consumerfest.

For the more well organised and generally larger e-commerce operations all major development on their sites will have been locked down since the end of September last year, October at the latest; other smaller outfits may still have been making final tweaks right up into the first and second weeks of December. For everybody the more fluid nature of online marketing means that this activity can be changed tactically right up to the final few days before pre-Christmas delivery deadlines make it impractical to spend any more money on acquisition.

All of this means that, waiting to be analysed in the first few months of the New Year, there is a wealth of information about the site and acquisition performance that will reveal which strategies and tactics on the web design and acquisition front worked best. Or is there….?

There have been occasions when I have shown trended data to a client indicating a step change in performance either one way or the other and followed up with the question, “what did you change then?” (…for a web analyst cannot know everything!!) This is often followed by a little head scratching and then sometimes a blank. Working on the basis of cause and effect, if the cause isn’t known, the effect which may be apparent is almost worthless if it can’t be either replicated or eliminated depending on whether it was good or bad. It is surprising then how often change tracking is forgotten about.

Change tracking is the responsibility of many different stakeholders within the organisation ranging from marketing, e-commerce and web development to merchandising and individual product managers. However many differing departments and stakeholders there are, each has a responsibility to log the changes they make in the implementation of their strategies and tactics where they are likely to have directly measurable effects on the performance of the website and business.

It is often a good idea to set up a central location where all change tracking information can be stored and accessed by everybody. Ultimately as long as it’s being tracked and can be plotted against data over time, it will become usable and subsequently have a significant impact on the ability to improve performance. Experience often leads to improvement and it’s easy to look back in hindsight with 20/20 vision if you put in a bit of effort on the way.

With Richard Sedley,  Director of the Customer Engagement Unit, cScape – London.

1.      What is the broad definition of online engagement?

I use the definition: ‘Repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional, psychological and physical investment a customer has in a brand (product or company)’. The two key words here are ‘investment’ and ‘repeated’.

2.      Why is engagement important?

Engagement shifts the focus of marketing away from simple brand awareness and interruption onto a more mutually beneficial relationship for both customer and business. In our current troubled economy the ability to develop and sustain relationships that are based on more than just low prices can be the difference between merely surviving and long term success. 

3.      What can be done to improve engagement?

Be really simple in what you do. Remove every non-essential aspect of your offering. People develop emotional attachments faster and more deeply to well-differentiated and understandable things. Then over time deliver increased value slowly in what is known as ‘The Long Wow’. Lasting engagement, like good friendships, builds gradually. 

With Jean-Paul Edwards, Executive Director, Futures at Manning Gottlieb OMD

1. What are the main reporting concerns currently facing online advertisers?

The primary concern is aggregating the vast amount of data generated by online campaigns into valuable insight that can be used in future planning.

This includes issues such as understanding the value of specific messages along the purchase process, an ever growing menagerie of techniques from online ads and search to offline media and word of mouth.

This is a growing challenge as digital media is going multi platform so an online purchase may well be influenced by an ad on mobile device or content on a games console. Respecting consumer privacy whilst maintaining an accurate view of effects will be of ever growing importance.

2. What are the latest innovations emerging in acquisition lead media buying (/ marketing)?

We now have a set of tools that bring these various data sources together under a single reporting framework. We can now identify the key metrics that help us both measure performance holistically and act as a diagnostic tool to improve business performance. This includes new data sets such as social media indices that track buzz and sentiment, as well as historic data to analyse trends. Federated data environments are now allowing us to get across some of the traditional barriers in analysis as sensitive data can be analysed without the data ever leaving the client’s secure environment.

Looking forward innovations such as semantic web technologies will help to automate the analysis process and then create more sophisticated models based on wider sources of data.

Interview ith Dr. Brian Clifton. At the time of the interview Brian was  Head of Web Analytics at Google for EMEA. He is now Senior Strategist for Omega Digital Media.

1. How will the new set of features currently being rolled out in Google Analytics help SMBs improve efficiencies and increase profits online?

There are a few new features that have been recently introduced to GA and are now already available for use. Site search is one which we feel most of our customers will find especially useful. This feature allows people to understand more about internal site search, what words and phrases are being used, which ones convert most effectively and which are generating the most revenue. Another nice feature of site search is that users will be able to tell from which pages searches were originally made and which pages were subsequently visited.

2. What do you think are the most pressing issues currently facing SMBs that are looking to get the most out of their web analytics?

In my experience of working with both SMBs and large organisations there is a common issue of data overload, that’s why with Google Analytics we’ve tried to focus on simplifying the data while providing reports that can actually be acted upon. Additionally I think the two of the biggest issues facing SMBs today are education and resource. By education I mean the ability to understand the reports and know how to act on them. By resource I mean ensuring that there are both financial and human resources available to implement change.

3. As the largest supplier of web analytics how does Google view recent efforts by the Web Analytics Association to formalize a set of standard web metrics and associated definitions?

As a member of the WAA myself I subscribe to the importance of creating a standard however, one issue that still needs to be addressed is how tools are implemented. Different implementations can yield dramatically different results at the data output end so if we are to have standards I think it is important to address the issue of implementation as well.

This is the first of a series of brief interviews done for my page on Web Analytics which appears bi-monthly in the UKs .net magazine

Interview with Ian Thomas, Director Customer Intelligence, Microsoft Advertiser and Publisher Solutions.

1. How does Microsoft think the introduction of Gatineau will affect the analytics marketplace in the UK?

The UK web analytics market is one of the most innovative in the world; we’re hoping that our entry will prove a valuable complement to the existing products in the market and provide some fresh ideas. The introduction of another high-quality free tool will further raise the bar for other web analytics solutions, which is good news for customers of these tools.

1. What are the key features and benefits of Gatineau as Microsoft sees them?

One of the features we’re most excited about is the ability to break down your site’s users by demographic (age and gender) segment – so, for example, you’ll be able to see if men are more likely to make a purchase than women. This will be out-of-the-box functionality – something you can’t do with any other web analytics tool. We’ll also be providing powerful analysis of the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns, and some innovative visualisation capabilities to help customers understand user behaviour more easily.

1. How will Gatineau help add value to small and mid sized organizations conducting business online in the UK?

Historically, the ability to access demographic information about your web audience has been limited to “enterprise level” web analytics tools, which require a significant financial and time investment to set up. Gatineau will bring this valuable information to smaller organisations with more limited web analytics budgets.

Since this interview was conducted Microsoft have made many improvements to their web analytics product.