using web analytics to increase website roi

Morgan McKeagney Managing Director, iQ Content

Enterprise Ireland eMarketing Seminar, Dublin, 22/10/09

Measuring the ROI of your website: using web analytics effectively.

Money

Sales

Conversion

Supermarket from hell?

The web’s dirty little secret….

…carnage in the supermarket.

Web analytics is…

…the practice of measuring, collecting, analysing, and reporting on internet data to understand how a site is used and how to optimise its usage.

Four Goals: 1. Better understand your users 2. Make web design decisions based on data, not

hunches 3.  Improve your website (remove barriers to sales) 4.  Improve conversions and sales

Web Analytics Association

The challenge of web analytics

•  Identify the metrics that matter

•  Use metrics that are actionable – that lead to making a change

•  Proper configuration – accurate data on numbers that matter

•  Act on what you find

Using analytics to drive conversions

How to measure

The Conversion Funnel

Viewing a product

category page

Your visitors

Viewing a product page

Viewing a shopping cart

Completing an order Goal = visitors become customers

1

2

3

4

1. GA setup

2. GA review

3. Client makes web site changes

Without GA

With GA = 3x

A conversion story

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Funnel

Goal Page

Check availability

Search results

Booking complete

18.5%

Search properties

Make booking

Confirm booking

Enter payment

42.1%

37.4%

59.6%

95.4%

30.3%

Identify the Accident Black Spots?

Exits = 95.4%

Exits = 59.6%

Exit Reasons: •  Overlong payment form •  Poor layout

Exit Reasons: •  Poor search experience •  Availability checker very clunky

Visitors

Customers

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Funnel

Goal Page

Check availability

Search results

Booking complete

Search properties

Make booking

Confirm booking

Enter payment

Improved layout

Improved layout

Removed

300% improvement

Target = 1000%

This translates directly into revenues.

Design matters: Supermarkets again

  Extensive customer research: •  interviews •  observing people shop •  analysis of store traffic

  Leads to careful design of: •  layout of the store •  product placement •  colours, sounds and smells

  The result? Who has ever come out of a supermarket with much more than they went in to buy?

Analytics tells you the what, not the why

  Customer engagement critical to understand •  WHY things are happening •  HOW BEST to fix them

Understanding your customer

Better results come from deep understanding of your customer

“…knowing and understanding the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Peter Drucker

Techniques for building understanding

Source: “The User is Always Right”, Mulder & Yaar, 2006

Getting into the mind of your users

  Real people, with real needs use your website   Simple goals: find info, do stuff, buy stuff, save time,

save money   If site doesn’t support user goals, it fails   Understanding your users single biggest challenge   How to do it?

•  Define a user model: personas and scenarios •  User test •  Illicit and respond to user feedback

The persona technique

  Alan Cooper Personas •  Archetypal (fictional) user,

with specific needs and background

•  Should be a few key personas for your entire site

•  By serving key personas, you serve everyone else

•  Serve as design targets for the development team.

  Key – what is their primary GOAL that brings them to your site. And what TASK are they performing to meet that goal?

“ The broader the target you aim for, the more certainty you have of missing the bull’s eye ” Alan Cooper

Moving from general to specific

Find out more: two books for your bookshelf

Case Study | Permanent TSB

…re-launched September 09.

Extensive Customer Engagement

Redesigned all aspects of the site

User tested all aspects of the redesign

Key points: funnels and conversion

  Conversion rate is all about user experience: less road-bumps, accident blackspots, higher conversions

  Increased conversions = increased profitability   300%+ conversion improvements are possible and

common   Measurement is a critical first step in increasing

conversions   Necessary, but not sufficient: analysis & action critical   Analytics tells you the what; user engagement tells

you why.

Understanding effectiveness of SEO & SEM

Other things to look at:

  General trends – visitor numbers & engagement   SEO / SEM – was it worth it; is it working?   Campaigns – how effective were they, which worked

best?   Where do visitors come from? How engaged and

loyal are they?   Most importantly: are we getting the outcomes we

want? What changes do we need to make?

Last year…

SEO: Where people are coming from

  No point in using Yahoo or MSN paid search!

  you can drill down to view by country

For Boot Camp profile, it's more interesting

Content popularity: accidental tourists?

  Why is it so popular? And why the high exit percentage?

So we cross-segment that page

  About Dublin page:

Unintentional SEO!

Bounce rates

Majority didn't stick around! Either optimise landing page, or rethink SEM

Effectiveness of SEM campaigns: what worked, what didn’t

  Real data to track your online marketing efforts   Offline require different method of tracking

Key points: SEM & SEO

  Analytics helps you to determine if your SEM was actually worth it & make better decisions

  Focus on your landing pages, your bounce rates, and visitor engagement (page views per visit)

  Pay attention to the valuable organic search data at your fingertips

Summary & Wrap-up

Good analytics = take action

  Forrester Research: Biggest challenge marketers face with analytics?

  53% say Acting on Findings

Analytics framework: be systematic

From Victoria Web Analytics Toolkit

Wrap-up

  Your website is all about conversion   Measurement is critical:

•  # 1: Understand your customers and what they’re doing on your site

•  # 2: Identify accident blackspots – points where customers are experiencing difficulty

•  # 3: Take action – fix problems, track changes •  # 4: Increase conversions – put more money in the bank

  Measurement alone is not sufficient: you need to act on the data – make changes

Questions? Feedback?

  Visit us at: www.iqcontent.com

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Contact Details: Morgan McKeagney Managing Director iQ Content Ltd

e: morgan@iqcontent.com t: +353 1 817 0768 Twitter: @morganmck

@iqcontent

www.iqcontent.com