seth duncan/context analytics 2009 institute for public relations research measurement summit

Measuring the Impact of Earned Online Media on Business Outcomes:

A Methodological Approach

Presentation to the IPR Measurement SummitOctober, 2009

Seth Duncan, Research [email protected]

Itinerary

1. Brief overview of how web analytics work and how they can benefit PR professionals

2. Practical steps for how communications teams can use “out-of-the-box” web analytics

3. How more advanced statistics can be used to integrate web analytics and other forms of media measurement to help communications team target the correct online audiences and optimize messaging strategies

4. Shortcoming of web analytics and emerging uses

Standard Media Metrics

Sentiment

Message Penetration

Volume or prominence

Share of voice/ Thought leadership

Media and Business Outcomes

Web Analytics: A Brief Primer

1. Visitor types URL into browser (or clicks on link)

2. Request sent to website server

3. Server sends page with JavaScript code

4. JavaScript code executed: collects data and sends to collection server (e.g., Google Analytics, Omniture, etc.)


Direct Traffic

Search Results

Email Campaigns

Earned Media

Paid Search

Content Network Ads

Social Media Advertisements

WebsiteLanding

Page

Landing Page

Landing Page

Sale

Download

Registration

•Number of Unique Visitors•Avg. Time Per Visit•Bounce Rate•Number of Page Views•Conversions

•Number of Unique Visitors•Avg. Time Per Visit•Bounce Rate•Number of Page Views•Conversions

Unpaid Traffic from:•Mainstream Media (e.g., NYTimes.com)•Online Media (e.g., CNET)•Blogs•Forums•Twitter•Social Networking Sites•Other Corporate Websites


Earned Media

Why Are Web Analytics So Important to PR?

Uses same metrics to measure earned and paid media

Can help optimize overall communications strategy by matching the right messages with the right audiences

Sites that refer a lot of traffic

Effective messages

Demand generation and sales

Use fact rather than intuition when addressing questions such as:•Is our corporate Twitter account driving traffic to the right web pages? •Is Key Message A more effective at driving sales than Key Message B?•Should we invest more resources in social or traditional media?•What audiences should corporate communications be targeting?

Why PR Is Not Using Web Analytics


Web Analytics Dashboard

Raw Referral Data from Web Analytics Solution

Social Media Report

Traditional Media Report

Practical Steps For PR Professionals

Using Web Analytics for PR

Basic AnalyticsPulled directly from solution

Address basic questionsWho visits your website?

Which sites drive most traffic?

Which sites drive most sales?

Should we invest more resources in social or traditional media?

Advanced AnalyticsIntegrated with other data

Address strategic questionsWhich audiences respond best to campaigns and product offerings?

Which messages are most effective at driving traffic and engagement?

How can we match the right messages to the right audiences?

Basic Analytics

What sites drove the most traffic and engagement?

Raw Earned Media Report From Web Analytics

Clean

Basic Analytics

What types of sites drove the most traffic and referrals?

Raw Earned Media Report From Web Analytics

Media Type

Site Content/Vertic

al

Outreach

Categorize

•Traditional•Blog•Forum•Video•etc…

•General News•Lifestyle•Gaming•etc…

Sites with relationships/contact

Basic Analytics

Just by spending a little time to categorize/segment sites (hypothetical data)…

OutreachMedia Type Site Content

Conversion Rate for Ad Words

Practical Tips for Basic Analytics

1. Web metrics depend on PR goals

Generating Demand/Leads1.Unique Visitors2.Registrations3.Downloads4.Avg. Time on Site5.Goal Page Visits6.Top Exit Pages

Sales1.Revenue2.Orders3.Conversion Rate


2. Take the time to download and clean the data

Results from search and email campaigns could make earned media appear less effective


3. Look at both totals and averagesAverages reveal “hidden gems” (hypothetical data):

Total Sales Average Sales

Advanced MethodsWhat types of stories and posts drive action?

Assign different sites and stories attributes that will later be ranked to better understand what’s most effective

Tying It All Together

Web Analytics Dashboard

Raw Referral Data from Web Analytics Solution

Social Media Report

Traditional Media Report

Where to Get Data About the Site

Knowing who is visiting your site and where they are coming from

What sort of data is useful? Where do you get it?

Media TypeSite

Content

Site Category •Human categorization•Social media monitoring tool (Radian6, Techrigy, Buzzmetrics, etc.)•Business intelligence tools

Traffic At Referring Site•Panel-based data (e.g., comScore, Compete, etc.)

Referring Site Demographics

•Search engine/panel data (Google Ad Planner, Microsoft Adcenter, Quantcast, etc.)

How to Measure Story/Post Content

These are the components of media coverage that drive perceptions and actionSimilar to what is usually found in traditional and social media monitoring reports:

•Sentiment•Spokespeople/Quoteds•Key Messages•Competitor Mentions•Industry Issues•Story/Post size•Brand Prominence•Product Mentions

Data Integration and Analysis

Audience Data

Unpaid Referral Data From Web Analytics

Site-Level Attributes: Site type, site content, audience, traffic, number of posts, etc.

Online Media Content

Post-Level Attributes: Sentiment, product mentions, messages, story length, etc.

Integrated DataIntegrated, Causal Model

Ranking Attributes by Importance

Apply multiple regression, hierarchical linear modeling, or any statistical analysis that can provide an estimate of “effect size”

Sentiment

Industry Issues

Key Messages

Product Mentions

Competitor Mentions

Story/Post Size

Site Traffic

Site Types/Categories

Site DemographicsAudience/

Site Attributes

Content/Message

Attributes

Regression Web Analytics

Metric

It’s like multivariate testing, only for earned media instead of advertisements

Ranking by Coverage Attributes by Importance

What Drives Visitors? What Drives Sales?Statistical Output Helps:

•Understand what types of articles/posts are effective

•What messages are most effective?

•What types of media outlets are effective?

•Ultimately, helps to prioritize PR efforts

Tying It All TogetherCreating a Causal Model Using Path Analysis or Structural Equation Modeling

Playbook

Opportunities Very Effective

Ineffective Missed Opportunities

Dri

ves

Enga

gem

en

t

Drives Visitors

Playbook

OpportunitiesSite/Audience Types1.…2.…Story/Post Content1.…2.…

Very EffectiveSite/Audience Types1.…2.…Story/Post Content1.…2.…

IneffectiveSite/Audience Types1.…2.…Story/Post Content1.…2.…

Missed OpportunitiesSite/Audience Types1.…2.…Story/Post Content1.…2.…

Dri

ves

Enga

gem

ent

Drives Visitors

Playbook

Key Message:“Product makes you

smarter”

Sites With High Income Audiences

Match messages that drive engagement with audiences that are likely to visit the site

Playbook

“Product makes you smarter”

Sites With High Income Audiences

In

Match messages that drive engagement with audiences that are likely to visit the site

Final Thoughts

Caveats

•Reliance on cookies

•Reliance on clickthroughs

•Mobile devices and javascript

•You can’t directly track offline activity

•Messy Data

•Integration requires additional software or technical skill

•Time consuming manual analysis/Communications team bandwidth

Technical Limitations Practical Limitations

Future Directions

Click-throughs

View-throughs

Future Directions

Integrating Advertising and Earned Media

•Are ads more effective when they appear alongside unpaid media?

•Is unpaid media more effective when paired with ads?

Takeaway Messages

1. Web analytics allow communications teams to use the same types of measurement as other forms of marketing

2. Web analytics can show what sites and stories/posts are driving the most traffic and engagement on a corporate website “out of the box”

3. When integrated with other types of media measurement, web analytics can help communications teams match the right types of messages with the right audiences to increase engagement and revenue - this allows communications teams to use sophisticated segmentation and targeting methods used in paid media marketing

4. Web analytics are not perfect: Imperfections with data collection, reliance on click-throughs, and difficulty integrating different data sources are barriers to widespread PR adoption of web analytics

Context Analytics helps marketing and communication teams gain a competitive edge by identifying and assessing perceptions, positioning strategies, and emerging relevant issues in mainstream and social media

Our research adds strategic insight to campaign planning and is critical to assessing and demonstrating the value of marketing programs to executives.

Context Analytics is a subsidiary of Text 100.

Service offerings

• Global Media Research & Measurement

• Social Media Analytics & Influence Mapping

• Consulting & Research Program Management

• Primary Research

• Competitive Research

• Business Impact Analysis

Groups served within our clients’ organizations:

• Corporate Communications/PR

• Product PR

• Pricing Strategy

• Marketing

• Branding

• Advertising

• Sponsorship Marketing

• Investor Relations

• Customer Service

• Legal/HR

Representative Clients:

About Context Analytics

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seth duncan/context analytics 2009 institute for public relations research measurement summit

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