Web Analytics Demystified | The Digital Marketer's New Nightmare
Eric Peterson, Web Analytics Demystified

WebTrends was V1.0, we got basic data, could get our hands around measures of success. Page views and hits were key.

Ads generated sales came next, Google ads, drove people back to your site.

Web 2.0 has exploded things in terms of measurement, hard to get a grasp of what's working, why, where traffic is coming from. Mash-ups messed up measurement. Click events replaced page views. How do we track all this? How can we compare our events to other sites' events?

Syndicated content took off, YouTube, is taking off, hard to measure metrics of views. Same with PageBurner measuring RSS feed usage and traffic.

Add mobile content to the mix, we have additional hits/views coming from these sources.

Hard to measure success of bringing in new customers and converting to sales -- your users are everywhere, in social networks, and the stats coming back in from multiple sources don't line up.

We need specialized tools and resources, with a dedicated analyst, to sort through all the reports from multiple sources to bring the data together so we can really understand our investment in Web 2.0. Even with this, the results are lacking -- a big spreadsheet, pulling data from 5-9 sources, and trying to find out what this work has done for your organization.

New measures of success to transcend beyond page views -- more business-focused metrics.

Attribution
Engagement
Influence

Attribution: I know half of my marketing is wasted, but I don't know which half. Do you? Leads interact in multiple channels. Is there an answer to every question? Boss thinks so, but there isn't. Last-based attribution ignores multi-touch advertising. It's not just the last link that gets all the credit before they buy/open a trial, all aspects of your campaign need to get credit.

GOOGLE gets most of the credit, but it's misplaced.

Search engines users exposed to display ads are 22% more likely to purchase. 1/2 of purchasers responded to a single campaign. Took 4-7 campaigns/touches for high-value customers.

Revenue from First Touch
-----------------------------------
Revenue from Last Touch

Divide the first from last, get equal attribution rolled in for additional granularity and is useful to monitor persuasive campaign types.

What's the ratio? Could be 1, both being equal.

Closer to 0 = Conversion campaign
Closer 1 = Persuasion campaign
Closer to 10 = Acquisition campaign -- something to do to stuff the top of the funnel

What is each kind of media going to do for you? Getting away from the last click model -- look at what each online outreach gets you. Is it conversions, persuasions, or acquisitions? Need all three.

Engagement is hot online. Page views don't tell you enough, but increasing customer engagement is much sexier. Focuses a user's attention on you and your brand. We want exact ATTENTION, make users sit up and pay attention.

Engagement 401... has a tool to measure whether people are poorly, moderately, or highly engaged visitors to your website.

Influence is the power to affect, control, or manipulate someone. Get biggest Twitter users to tweet your offers/new product information, top Twitters are the new influencers.

Be a part of the social networks, see who's exerting the most influence over others and causing clicks and interest.

Need to change measurements from page views -- visits are OK, but need to focus on engagement as the central measure of success.