1. Client Logo
Web Analytics: From Data to Decisions
Why do it? Who owns it? When is it important? How?
Johannes Oppermann Conference on Web Analytics –
Account Strategist & Google Analytics Poweruser Web Statistics and Their Evaluation
Google Austria May 28th 2009
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2. Agenda
1 Why you should care about Web Analytics
2 Who owns the Web Analytics function in your company?
3 When should you do Web Analytics?
4 How can you go about implementing a Web Analytics Process?
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3. Why you should
care about Web Analytics
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4. You are facing difficult questions about your Site
How are users engaging
with my site?
How can I make my
marketing campaigns more
effective & accountable?
Am I creating
effective content?
Where and why are
visitors abandoning my
shopping cart?
How do I improve
site interaction?
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5. What does “Web Analytics” mean, anyway?
The Official WAA Definition:
Measurement, collection, analysis and reporting
of Internet data for the purposes of
understanding and optimizing Web usage.
Or, much shorter:
Are you successful with your site or not?
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6. Useful answers & actions for everyone
• Track ROI on all online initiatives from a single report
Executives
• Identify long-term trends in online marketing programs
• Get the most conversions at the lowest possible cost
Marketers • Target high return markets and market segments
• Test advertising creative for each of your campaigns
• Demonstrate the value of your site usability
improvements
Webmasters
• Show how your site design decisions improve website ROI
• Identify web design parameters like visitor connection
speeds and browser types
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7. Analyze all marketing campaigns
Search Marketing
Banner Advertising Email Marketing
Determine which
marketing initiatives are
driving the best traffic to
your site
SEO, Referrals, Affiliate Programs & Offline
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8. You get to know what happens on your site
Web analytics tools give you CONTEXT
and visibility into the full on-site USER EXPERIENCE
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9. Who owns the Web Analytics function
in your company?
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10. Web Analytics should be owned by the business
Is your company big? Then it's probably less agile.
Avoid taking only the HiPPO (Highest Paid
Person's Opinion) into account. Ask the users!
Web data can be complex. So you need
someone smart to interpret it.
Also, Web Analytics can't be owned by the IT department alone.
Because they're solving other problems.
It should be owned by whoever will be made responsible if the website
fails. Marketing? Sales? E-Commerce?
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11. When should you do Web Analytics?
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12. We'll relaunch next week. Have some numbers?
Web Analytics isn't a one-off project. It's something that should be
integrated in your company's processes.
Data
New Data
Analysis
Action Insight
Decision
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13. How can you go about implementing
a Web Analytics Process?
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14. Focus on the bottom line
People will listen more to you if you make a difference in their lives:
Your stakeholders will support you if you can help them get a larger
bonus.
So, the question is: are you focusing on outcomes?
Example: "We make 30% of our sales on the web. A conversion rate of
5% instead of 3% will mean 100.000 € more revenue."
Now we're talking.
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15. It's not about your data. It's about your decisions.
Numbers are meaningless without context. Make them objective.
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8 vs. 8
we
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we the others
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Q1 Q1 2008 Q2 2008 Q3 2008 Q4 2008
2008
Insight = Data + Analysis.
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16. Create a data driven culture in your company
Data
Outcomes
Analysis
Action Insight
Decision
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17. Choose the right metrics to solve for
Clickstream Analysis Outcomes Analysis
• Unique visitors • Support – problem resolution
• Top Landing Pages • Commerce – revenue
• Bounce rates • Lead generation – conversion
• Conversion rates rates
• Could your users do what they
came to do?
Questions you can ask yourself
• How much do we sell / convert? (Outcomes)
• What are users really looking for here? What's happening? (Behaviour)
• Why are the users clicking on random things? (A/B-Testing, Labs)
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18. Actionable insights and metrics that drive change
Insights – analysis – actions
Clickstream analysis: We're only inferring intent.
Try to find trends and patterns, then segment & drill deeper.
Once you're done, formulate a hypothesis and test it
Example: "I think our signup form is too long. So conversion rates
should go up if we leave out all the unnessecary fields."
Experience Analysis:
• Testing
• Experiments
• Usability studies
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19. Necessities & Tricks of the trade
• Decision making – "It's not my opinion, it's the data!"
• Give context – data over time, other competitors, user tests.
• Listen to customers, Listen to bottom line
• Bet on outcomes ("I think page A will convert better!")
• Reporting is not analysis – reports will not tell you what to do by
themselves. So go exploring! At least 20% unstructured analysis.
• Empower analysts, encourage a culture of risk taking (Failing means
learning what to do better)
• Test and try things out!
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20. It's all about continuity
Website Optimizer
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21. How can Google contribute? Google Analytics.
Free, hosted web analytics tool that helps advertisers improve their sites
and increase their marketing ROI with 80+ standard reports.
Use Google Analytics to:
• Understand how visitors engage
with your site
• Compare performance of all
marketing efforts from emails to
keywords to offline campaigns
• See all your AdWords Campaign
data, and track non-Google
campaigns as well
• Identify areas for site improvement
• Pinpoint breakdowns in conversion
processes
• Track e-commerce metrics, such
as revenue, average order value,
and conversion rates
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22. Our own A/B Test with the Picasa download page
We measured outcomes by comparing the number of downloads each
of the landing pages generated.
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23. A: Uses “Free”, Picture, Action Oriented
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24. B: Cleaner, Button, Value Proposition
B Page Increased Downloads by 30%!
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26. Where to find more information
Google Analytics Website: www.google.com/analytics
• Create an account, find implementation instructions & FAQs
Official Google Analytics Blog: http://analytics.blogspot.com/
• Get updates on new features & tips from Google practitioners
Website Optimizer Website: www.google.com/websiteoptimizer
• Learn how to get started with A/B and multivariate testing
Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik: www.kaushik.net
• Blog by Google’s “Analytics Evangelist” provides insightful posts for web
analysts and marketers of all levels of experience
"Web Analytics an Hour a Day" by Avinash Kaushik (Wiley Publishing, heavily
used for this presentation)
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