basic web analytics for news organizations

February 2010

Basic web analytics for news organizations

Dana Chinn #ONAFL@danachinn

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• Local news audiences then vs. now

• Why measure, what, how

• Metrics for advertising vs. site improvement

• Basic metrics in Google Analytics

• Social media metrics

www.slideshare.net/danachinn

serves participants

A traditional news org

Local news then vs. now

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-- group themselves

who that it distributes to people

who are in the same geography

A news service

-- have conversations

has content

-- have the same interests -- contribute

content

A traditional news org

Mass audience metrics

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It sells advertising based on total audience

delivers the same content, advertising to everyone

when, how it wants in a one-way info stream

Total audience counts (subscriptions, weekly viewers) define success.

Groups of audiences of one do more than read or watch. They

Online or niche audience behavior

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-- on irregular days, times -- in multiple formats (video, audio, databases)

-- get content in pieces (or not)

rate, comment, share, tag, download, vote, buy, converse

-- from myriad places (links, embeds, widgets, mobile),sources (search, e-mail, campaigns). They also

The audiences define your success

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Some “famous” metrics

--The ”famous metrics” term comes from web analytics guru Avinash Kaushik

“After the disaster in Haiti, [our site] hit

168.6 million pageviews in the month of January. A new record.”

“Famous” metrics aren’t usefulfor decision-making

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“We are the go-to source for California

news....[our site had] 12.2 million CALIFORNIANS....For the

month, we received 24,449,693 visits.”--From an internal communication of a

media organization, February 2010

--The ”famous metrics” term comes from web analytics guru Avinash Kaushik

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

• Marketing, trending, external comparisons

• comScoreNielsenCompeteetc.

• Interactive Advertising Bureau

Newsroom Advertising, marketing

Internal vs. external metrics

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

• Analysis, decisions, actions, evaluation

• OmnitureGoogle AnalyticsWebTrendsetc.

• Web Analytics Association

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-- content in pieces-- days, times-- formats-- places-- sources-- sales

-- ratings-- comments-- times shared-- tags-- downloads-- votes-- conversations

Data, data everywhereI think I could sink

Data, data everywhereWill someone please help me think.

Rishad Tobaccowalla, CEO, Denuo at OMMA Metrics & Measurement, June 2009

-- ratings-- comments-- times shared-- tags-- downloads-- votes-- conversations

-- content in pieces-- days, times-- formats-- places-- sources-- sales

-- content in pieces-- days, times-- formats-- places-- sources-- sales

-- ratings-- comments-- times shared-- tags-- downloads-- votes-- conversations

-- content in pieces-- days, times-- formats-- places-- sources-- sales

-- ratings-- comments-- times shared-- tags-- downloads-- votes-- conversations

“Dutch boats in a squall” by J.M.W Turner

Measuring is for decision-making

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To define success - or failure

To decide what to expand - or quit

To set priorities, to allocate enough people, money to activities so they’ll be successful - or to cut or shift resources

Measure only what you need

• What needs to get done, what you want to do, what is impact you want? “What is it that we want to change, improve, accomplish, incite?”

• Who are the target audiences?

• What activities will reach the target audiences, get them to take the desired actions? Over what time periods?

• What are the measurable elements - the Key Performance Indicators - that will tell you whether you’ve succeeded or failed?

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

No. of podcasts subscribed to/

downloaded

vs.

No. of podcasts -- put on iPod

-- played -- listened to

the end

Defining success starts withdefining distinct audiences, characteristics

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What are the site’s goals, top priorities?Map measurable elements/metrics to goals

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Which audiences are the top priorities, or essential to the success of the site?

What elements are essential to attracting and retaining the top priority audiences?

What are the metrics to these elements?

What are the benchmarks/starting points for each metric?

What is the goal for each metric? When do you want (or need) to reach each goal?

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What people do (behavioral)

Who they are, what they think (attitudinal)

Two types of web analytics metrics

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Unique visitors

visit websites,

generate page views.

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A “unique visitor” is actually a “unique computer”

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Work

Home

Hotel

= 3 unique visitors

Unique visitors may be over- or undercounted

= 3 unique visitors

Work

= 1 unique visitor

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The no. of unique visitors is based on the time period you specify.

S M T W Th F S

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July 6-12

1

...on Tuesday, July 1, is six...on Friday, July 4, is three

July 13-19

July 20-26

The number of “daily unique visitors”

July 27-31

532 4

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S M T W Th F S

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July 6-12

1

...for the week of July 6-12 is six

July 13-19

July 20-26

The number of “weekly unique visitors”

July 27-31

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S M T W Th F S

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July 6-12

1

...for the month of July is seven

July 13-19

July 20-26

The number of “monthly unique visitors”

July 27-31

532 4

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Daily UV counts can’t make weekly UVs,weekly UVs can’t make monthly UVs, etc.

SMTWThF

Sa

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The math of visits

A visit is a period of activity separated by at least 30 minutes of inactivity.

A visitor clicks into your site at 1 p.m., surfs for 20 minutes, then clicks into CNN.com.

One visit

A visitor clicks into your site at 1 p.m., surfs for 45 minutes, talks on the phone for 30 minutes without touching the keyboard, then hangs up and goes back to your site for 20 minutes before clicking into CNN.com. Visit 1: 45 minutes Visit 2: 20 minutes Two visits

A visitor clicks into your site at 1 p.m., surfs for one hour, leaves his computer for 29 minutes, and then comes back and surfs for another hour before clicking into CNN.com. Visit time: 2 hours, 29 minutes

One visit

Text

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Two ratios

visits per unique visitor page views per visit

One proportion

the bounce rate of the page where people enter your site most often

Example: 50%

Three basic engagement KPIs

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Visits per weekly unique visitor

Are visitors coming to your site with the frequency you need to build loyal, satisfied audiences ?

If you update your site 24/7, is your content engaging enough to compel someone to visit more than two or three times a week?

2.5 visits per weekExample

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Page views per visit, by week

When visitors do come to your site, are they engaging with its content?

Does a high number suggest visitors can’t find what they want?

3.6 page views per visitExample

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Bounce rate of top entry pages

One visit with one page view

to the home page= 1 bounce

No. of bounces+

No. of visits that started with the home page and had 2+ page views

= 100% of visits

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Source: “Can CNN, the Go-To Site, Get You to Stay?” by Brian Stetler, New York Times, Jan. 17, 2009

Home page bounce rateExample

= over 50%

Over half of the visits to the CNN.com home pageleft CNN.com without clicking into any other pages

Best (?) cases: Came only to get the headlines

Worst cases: Couldn’t find what they wanted Didn’t like what they saw

Home page has dynamic content not captured with page views (check your business model)

Example

What bounce rate should you calculate?

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The home page is the most popular page on the site.Its content, design and navigation has to attract and retain multiple and diverse

Example

Home page bounce rate

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Methodology: The total time in between a visitor’s first pageview and his/her last pageview

Averages don’t allow analysis of visits of either short or long duration

Don’t waste timeon “average time spent on site”

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Bounces are included as zero, or no time - you don’t know whether someone was indeed actively looking at the page

You really don’t know the time truly spent. If a visit is counted at 29 minutes, you don’t know if the person was truly on the site for all 29 minutes or if he/she walked away between minutes 1 and 28.

The amount of time a visitor spent on the last pageview isn’t included

Use weekly stats, not monthly

Basic metrics in Google Analytics

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Needs more detail, comparative analysis to be useful

This is the bounce rate for the total site, not a top entry page

Has methodology issues. Is an average, so is skewed

Use weekly metrics, full-week time periodsso you can identify unusual movement quickly

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5-week period

Looking at data in segmentsgives you actionable info

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Segmentation: New vs. returning visitors Are we building audiences?

KPI: Visits from new vs. returning visitors

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GA focuses on visits rather than UVs

Segmentation: New vs. returning visitors When new visitors come to our site, are they staying?

KPI: PVs per visit, new vs. returning

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Of those 4,807 visits,2,190, or 46%, went to two pages.

There were 4,807 visits to our site during the week of Jan. 10.

Of those 2,190 visits, 1,357 were from new visitors, and 833 were from returning visitors.

Question: Only TWO?

Types of social media channels

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

Sharing

Networking

News

BookmarkingReviews

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1. Listen2. Engage3. Measure

• Audience

• Engagement

• Loyalty

• Influence

• Action

Metrics should map to goals. Period.From “What the **** is Social Media - One Year Later,” Marta Kagan, Espresso|Brand Infiltration, July 16, 2009. Some explicit words.

Social media rules

Always define the R

“What is it that we want to change, improve, accomplish, incite....?”

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

Return On Objectve

and

Return On Investment

Understand Twitter’s simple complexity,understand how social media is measured

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Followers

Content

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

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The perfect (measurable) Tweet

• A call to action to participate, engage with youLook at this. Go here. What do you think?

• A link To get news, information Tweets are now a primary news source, the new home page

To respond to the call to action

• A #hashtag and/or keywords

• Handle specific to person/topic

• A comment

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

1. What was the purpose of your visit today?

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Attitudinal researchDo you know the people behind the clicks?

2. Were you able to complete your task today?

3. If not, why not?

4. If you did complete your task, what did you enjoy most about our site?

Caution: Pop-up survey data is a truth but not the complete truth. Pop-ups are only completed by those who feel like it...it’s not a representative sample.

Web analytics is not easy...

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• Have clearly defined, accountable goals, objectives on which everyone agrees each of which is someone’s responsibility

• Know the limitations of your data, metrics It’s better to guess than to make decisions based on bad data and/or inappropriate metrics

• Analytics is not about technology, software It’s people, processes

• If you make decisions solely on judgment, don’t waste time, resources on metrics

HIghest Paid Person’s Opinion

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Dana Chinn Lecturer chinn@usc.edu 213-821-6259

Analytics for news orgs bookmarks http://www.delicious.com/danachinn

Presentations http://www.slideshare.net/danachinn

Twitter: DanaChinn

Blog http://www.newsnumbers.com