'Net Features : web analytics

Increase ROI & Go Global With Online PR

Administrator — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:18:00 GMT

(This article was provided by PR Fire; the specialist free PR distribution website.)

Online marketing is a necessity for any business. Regardless of the industry or size of company, a mix of marketing techniques - SEO, PPC, social media - is required to boost overall online presence and to improve sales. Online public relations should also be one of the fundamental tools in any marketing campaign; it's one of the most powerful, effective and cost-efficient tools available.
Despite social media's exponential growth, a March 2012 survey by Text 100 revealed that press releases are still favored by journalists; and are the preferred communication method for relaying news information. Online PR is an essential marketing practice to promote product announcements, service notices and business news. But just how can you benefit from it? We outline the top-three advantages below.

Unrestricted Return On Investment

Traditional PR services are typically paid on a per-lead-basis, so if you pay for an advertisement in a local newspaper, you will only be active for as long as you pay for the fee. However, online PR is continuous and generally unrestricted, so the promotional content will be available and visible online for years to come. You simply pay a one-off charge. The ROI is unlimited, as you can generate a number of future leads. It is a long-term investment and is unparalleled in comparison to other marketing effort.

Globalization

The Web is a vast platform. You have the opportunity for success on a global scale. In contrast to traditional services, which are targeted in local geographical regions. While it would cost a fortune to air an international TV advertisement, or attempt to achieve nationwide coverage in newspaper ads, online press release distribution can establish a global presence. People from all over the world can read the information you are sharing.

Track Progress

In any business it is key to measure progress to better the company and achieve success. One of the most appealing aspects of online pr is that you can track the progress through applications, which offer detailed analysis. For example, through Web analytics you can see how many visitors view every page of the site, which websites they have been referred from and at what percentage they performed a desirable action.

Analyze This: Starting Salaries for Web Analysts top $60K

Linc Wonham — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT

The Digital Analytics Association (DAA) has released a breakdown of Web analytics professionals’ salaries across the U.S., and the bottom line is that the industry is a good one to be in right now.

In the midst of a recession, the starting salary for a digital analyst across key geographic locations is $60,800. The data was drawn from actual job placements provided by IQWorkforce and was analyzed by the DAA’s research committee, led by Brian Thopsey.

“I found this research to be incredibly valuable to my personal career and I hope other analysts will find the same success with this revealing report,” says Thopsey. “The project, through the DAA, yielded great insights into the career tracks of digital analysts around the country and it will allow all analysts to determine if they’re in the right place.”

According to the research, Atlanta is the best city for digital analysts to live and work in when comparing both salary and the cost of living. San Francisco has the highest salaries on average, but the cost of living knocks it out of the top five best cities for digital analysts.

The lowest salary area is Salt Lake City, and the high cost of living puts New York City in last place for digital analysts to call home.

“We found this research to be quite revealing,” says Peter Sanborn, president of the DAA. “Since New York and San Francisco are large hubs for digital analysts, we expected those cities to be the best places for them in terms of take-home earnings. However, we were surprised to find that Atlanta grabbed the number one spot. It will be interesting to see how this data changes in the years to come and see if there is a migration of analysts to the south.”

Visit the DAA for more insights on the newly released research.

Maximize Search ROI with Industry Insight

Linc Wonham — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT

AdGooroo has released a new search marketing dashboard that provides advertisers and agencies with instant access to years worth of proprietary pay-per-click (PPC) data on virtually every industry and advertiser.

AdGooroo’s search intelligence database analyzes and collects data on millions of keywords and billions of individual search impressions per month for every advertiser across more than 160 industry categories. The new Industry Insight tool enables search marketers to access this data — including specific keywords, estimated share of voice or impression share, estimated PPC spend, clickthrough rates (CTR), cost per click (CPC) and more — for each advertiser and industry category.

According to AdGooroo, search marketers using Industry Insight will have the ability to do the following:

• Mine competitors' keyword lists to uncover new traffic opportunities

• Quickly assess the competitive landscape and larger trends that may impact budgeting and performance in any vertical

• Gain immediate insight into any advertiser, including those too small to show up in panel-based datasets

• Compare any two advertisers across any time period by spend, clicks, CTR, CPC, ranking and more

• View historical/seasonal trends

Industry Insight can be integrated with SEM Insight, AdGooroo’s intelligence tool for PPC managers, enabling daily visibility into competitors’ PPC campaigns, including all ad copy and landing pages. As an example of the benefits of integrating the two products, search marketers can filter Industry Insight reports by keyword group such as product category or top-performing keywords in order to view competitors’ PPC spend on individual product lines and more.

Web Analytics Trends in Retail Commerce

Administrator — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:00:00 GMT

How many analytics solutions do you use? While many will assume the total will not be more than one, according to iPerception’s recently released Retail Web Analytics Report for 2011, the use of more than one Web analytics tool nearly doubled in the last year – from 33 percent in 2012 to 62 percent in 2011.

"Until this year, the use of more than one web analytics tool was unusual, with the majority of retailers making decisions based on a single source of information," says Claude Guay, president and CEO of iPerceptions. "But in 2011, using multiple tools became the norm and retailers began allotting more resources to the collection and analysis of website data."

There is quite a bit of interesting information in the report. For example, the use of clickstream analytics in now nearly universal among retail websites with 98 percent penetration. The dominant vendors in the clickstream analytic sspace are Google (68 percent), Omniture (40 percent) and IBM (Coremetrics, Unica).

iPerceptions also saw notable increases for other categories of Web analytics. In 2011, more than half of all retail websites used advertising network tools, and SEM tools double to 20 percent. Voice of cstuomer tools, such as those provided by iPerceptions solutions included the webValidator Continued Listening Solutionand 4Q Suite gained market share as well.

There was also an increase in the share of retailers who were using at least four web analytics tools, from just 1 percent in 2010 to a noteworthy 15 percent in 2011 according to the report, which also pointed to an increase in the use of other, lesser-known web analytics tools as part of retailers' online measurement toolkit.

Understanding Web Analytics Satisfaction

Allison Howen — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:30:00 GMT

According to a report by B2B, only 6 percent of companies are very satisfied with the ROI of their Web analytics.

“This is due to the fact that the majority do not know how to analyze the data being provided by their analytics solution provider,” says VisiStat CEO, Jim Bennette. “If they were to tap a web analytics solution that translated that raw analytic data into easy-to-understand language, they would begin to reap the significant rewards the right solution will deliver.”

Data that a good Web analytic solution should provide includes the names of companies and people that visit a website, the products and services that are searched for on a website as well as how someone arrived and how long they stayed at a website. Yet, this information should also be simplified and easy to read.

By choosing an affordable and easy to use Web analytic tool, businesses will understand important aspects of their website and therefore be able to reduce costs and increase sales. While a few years old at this point, if you are in the market for an analytics solution, why not take a look at Website Magazine's Master List of Analytics solutions. Our editors will be updating this list in the next few weeks, so if you have a suggestion of a service/platform we should include let us know!

Cloud-based Analytics Solution from IBM

Linc Wonham — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT

IBM has announced a new cloud-based Web analytics and digital marketing suite designed to help organizations automate online marketing campaigns across channels such as websites, social media networks and mobile.

The IBM Coremetrics Web Analytics and Digital Marketing Optimization Suite provides analytics designed to help companies better determine the effectiveness of new products and services, fine-tune marketing campaigns and create personalized offers in real-time across all online channels. It automates and simplifies a company’s ability to design and deliver a tailored online experience and marketing promotions through real-time personalized recommendations, email ad targeting, and more:

• Enables marketers to perform advanced segmentation and automate marketing execution based on multichannel data, including off-line data sources

• Delivers real-time product recommendations for all online channels, including social, mobile, email, and display ads

• Provides A/B testing capabilities to help search engine marketers compare pairs of search terms to determine the most cost-effective terms and associated ads

• Incorporates best practice key performance indicators and corresponding industry-specific benchmarks

• Supports deep analysis into how customers interact with a brand over time and when each marketing program is the most effective.

Mastering Web Analytics - WAA Certification

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:00:00 GMT

As the conversation continues to shift from how we acquire traffic to what we do with it once it arrives on site, a firm grasp of analytics (perhaps even an expertise it) would server your Web business well.

For this reason I want to call your attention to a recent announcement from the Web Analytics Assocation. The WAA is now accepting applications for its certification program for Web analysts. The examination rounds for WAA certification will be offered in San Jose, CA, and London in May 2010, and in New York in June 2010.

From the announcement: The WAA certification program is open to all Web analytics professionals, including both the IT professionals who use Web analytics tools and the marketing professionals who apply Web analytics data to business operations. Because the focus of the examination is not on the implementation or usage of tools but on the ability to generate business value, both IT and marketing professionals will be able to showcase their knowledge of the space as well as their business value through WAA certification.

"We are really excited to finally bring certification to the marketplace," said Alex Langshur, president of the WAA. "Our goal is to create a standardized test that represents a comprehensive body of knowledge, one that employers will recognize as a high-caliber differentiator when making hiring decisions, and that Web analysts will see as generating value to their credentials when it comes to compensation. We believe this certification achieves that and more."

Listrak Provides E-mail Marketers With Expanded CRM and Analytics

Linc Wonham — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:30:00 GMT

E-mail service provider Listrak has released a new version of its Web-based E-mail marketing platform that includes expanded integration with Salesforce, Omniture and Google Analytics. A leading E-mail marketing solutions provider, Listrak’s new v4.8 will provide advanced profiling and conversion metrics for clients such as Wolfgang Puck, Waterford and Movies Unlimited.

The expanded Web analytics and CRM integration are designed to increase customer engagement through more directly targeted E-mails and greater tracking capabilities.

“A paradigm shift has taken place,” said Ross Kramer, Listrak CEO. “It’s no longer enough just to reach the inbox. E-mail marketers must use data to create targeted, relevant messaging that reaches customers when they’re most engaged and likely to respond. The new features in this release will help marketers do just that by providing more data and a greater insight into customer behavior online.”

Listrak 4.8 includes the following advances from the previous version:

•    The integration with Salesforce, a leader in CRM, will allow clients to import data such as contact E-mail addresses and profile information directly from Salesforce to Listrak

•    The integration with Omniture, a leader in online business optimization, will pass E-mail analytics such as subject lines, campaign titles, sent messages, delivery metrics, open and click data, unsubscribes, bounces and user complaints from Listrak to Omniture SiteCatalyst

•    The integration with Google Analytics will improve the overall metrics collected across multiple E-mail campaigns

Visual Web Analytics in 3D from Impact Engine

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:30:00 GMT

Advertising technology company Impact Engine released a new analytics module which enables clients to render graphical representations of ad and campaign performance... in 3D.

According to the release: "The Analytics Module compares impressions, click-through's, click through rate, average and total time with ad. Clients can select and compare performance across multiple ads, ad variations, and campaigns, as well as across a multitude of dates and date ranges. The Analytics Module also offers 3D graphing, enabling clients to present campaign performance analysis in a visually compelling format that quickly makes sense."

"The introduction of visual analytics into the Impact Engine platform represents another giant leap in optimization capability for our clients," Bryan Depew, VP Product Development, said. "Just hours after the release, clients have been calling in informing us they are making the Analytics Module a cornerstone of their client retention strategy."

New Advanced Analytics Features in Google

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:20:00 GMT

Google announced a duo of advanced analytics features last week. The improvements are coming soon (a few weeks).

Warning: these new features are for advanced users, so if your head explodes, don't blame me.

Pivoting and Secondary Dimensions: Users will now be able to perform inline cross-tablular analysis of their data, useful for receving an in-depth yet quick analysis within the same table. For example, users will be able to see keywords and cities in one "dimension" and then pivot to another dimension (such as source) while viewing additional metrics such as pages/visit in a single table view..

Share Custom Reports and Advanced Segment Customizations: Users will be able to share the framdword of custom reports and segmenting so that other usres can apply the framework to their own GA data. Users will be able to post a URL for a report or email it to a friend/colleague. When people click on it, the user will import the report structure. Rather than seeing your data though, the user will see the report you build but with their data in it.

Analyzing Where Users Click - Open Source Heatmap Cannoli

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:03:00 GMT

Where are users "clicking" on your page?

Using heat maps is perhaps the easiest way to determine where users are clicking. Many analytics solutions have added the functionality to their set of core features, so you may be using the information already. If not, the visual representations of how/where users are taking action can provide Web professionals with valuable insights into how content presentation is performing - or should perform.

Some of the most popular hosted services, covered at great length on Website Magazine and elsewhere, are Clickdensity and CrazyEgg. But there are open source variations, including ClickHeat and now, another open source click heatmap solution has hit the market, and it's certainly one to consider using.

Cannoli (created by codynamix) is written in Ruby on Rails 2.2 and based on the Ruwa analytics solution. Features include the ability to "save" clicks, to develop per page generated heat maps, and to generate statistics (provided by Ruwa itself).

- Found through Web Analytics World

Viable Alternatives To Google Analytics

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:18:00 GMT

Microsoft shut the doors on its analytics offering recently. While not too many Web professionals are scurrying around looking for an alternative yet, there are certainly plenty out there. Google Analytics is a fine solution for those looking to gather some insights from the consumer traffic moving through their websites, but with so many other (some might argue better) options in the market, where will Web professionals turn?

Read more on the Analytics Provider Master List...

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Bounce Rate Differs From Exit Rate

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Web Analytics is fun, fascinating and important to your Web success - you know it is. It's also immensely confusing for many who get interested in measuring the actions being taken on their site. Let's look at a question that's common among those new to analytics: How does bounce rate differ from exit rate?

Bounce Rate is the percentage of exits based on entrances for that individual page.
Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits, that is, visits in which a user left your site from the entrance page. The bounce rate is often considered a measure of visit quality. A high bounce rate can indicate that when a user enters a landing page it is not relevant. Bounce rate can be reduced by modifying landing pages to include keywords in the copy or providing the information or services that were promised on previous pages or within ads on external sites. Bounce Rate relates to Exit Rate.

Exit Rate is the percentage of exits based on visits to the site.
Exit Rate is the percentage of visitors that leave a site from a given page based on the number of visits to that page. Exit rate is dependent on the page itself. Home or index pages should have a low exit rate while conversion completion pages (thank you pages, for example) should have a high exit rate. This metric helps determine which pages need to be improved, as it indicates the percentage of a site's total visitors who left from a particular page. Exit rate of all the pages combined consequently should add up to 100%, because all visitors will ultimately leave.

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Tracking Email Recipient Action With Video

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:47:00 GMT

Analytics provider ClickTale this week launched Email Tracking this week. The solution enables those responsible for monitoring analytics the ability to watch videos of email recipients actual browsing sessions.

This is an excellent feature and not one that other email service providers can boast of offering. Analytics teams can review which pages individual recipients recevied, what they paused to pay attention to and which completed a transation or other converstion activity.

Video playback of individual browsing sessions could be helpful for email marketers in identifying issues that can be easily corrected. "Watching video recordings of campaign-generated visitor sessions is a must for understanding which campaigns deliver the most valuable leads, and gaining visual insight into exactly where customers fail and succeed on your site," says Tal Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of ClickTale.

If you're interested in viewing what users are doing on your site, you might also want to look into userfly.com. Place one line of javascript on your site, and you're up and running, conducting ad hoc usability studies of browser sessions.