MRKT10028 Web Marketing,

Fall 2009
Week #13
Capturing & Keeping an Audience
Traffic Analysis & Measuring
Success (ROI)

Getting Visitors Interested Enough to

Keep Them Coming Back

Its not enough to drive traffic to your web site

You have to keep customers (and potential customers)
coming back

Over 1/3 of companies have churn rates > 10%

Churn rate is the number of customers that stop using a
site/service or discontinue their association with a given
brand during a given time period

There is significant value in a returning site visitor

even if s/he isnt generating revenue each visit
Increased site visits build consumer confidence and trust
and ultimately lead to increased sales

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

E-Commerce Environments

Developers of both B2C and B2B (e-commerce) sites consider

two key measurements as an average of all users over time:

Days to Purchase: the number of days that pass from a users first
site visit to when they actually make a purchase
Visits To Purchase: the number of site visits a user makes before
they make a purchase
Obviously, the larger the purchase, the more days/visits the user
will require

New customer acquisition costs are generally 6 8 times

higher than the cost of keeping an existing customer

E.g., cost to acquire a new customer => $12; average sale per

customer => nets $7 profit; net loss of $5 per customer

Cost to get the customer back => $2; average sale per
customer => nets $7 profit; net gain of $5 per customer
The more a returning customer buys, the bigger the profit!

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

Web Retention & Loyalty

Consideration must be given to

Driving traffic to the web site

Keeping customers engaged
Getting them to come back
Remember: you cant please all of the people all of
the time
Know your audience, their expectations and needs speak
directly to them

Increasing brand loyalty online is the same as offline

Provide quality customer service, value, selection
Save them time and money
Improve the overall experience

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

Features that Build Loyalty

FEATURE

% of Shoppers

Free or flat shipping

92%

Order tracking

88%

25%

Privacy policies

83%

Free shipping

25%

Rebates and coupons

76%

Online outlet

75%

Inventory/selection

18%

Customer reviews

74%

Brands

16%

Comparison capabilities

73%

Price and product alerts

63%

Live help

58%

In-store returns

58%

Express checkout

52%

How to guides

51%

Internet only specials

50%

Exclusives

49%

Wish lists

48%

Recently viewed items

46%

In-store pickup

37%

FEATURE

% of Shoppers

Saving money

63%

Saving time

Customer service

15%

Past experience

11%

Rewards programs

11%

Ease of shopping

9%

Charts

from Consumer Loyalty Survey,

DoubleClick Performics, May 2007

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

General Web Design Considerations

Attractive (visibly appealing) web site design gives users a

sense that the site is established and professional, and that a
solid, legitimate company is behind it

Quality design geared specifically toward the target audience will

help to establish brand personality through images, color and

general layout
Quality design can also be used to emphasize specific messages and
products that you want to highlight

Like attractive design, the organization of the site plays a key

role in bringing consumers back

It is essential that marketers take the time (before the site is

developed) to map out the site, segment the content into categories
that make sense, and consider how the navigation elements will lead
visitors to find what they are looking for
This goes right back to information covered earlier in the course (Ch.
8)

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

New Content Considerations

New site content is important to a site for a number of reasons:

It tells site visitors that that the brand is in constant evolution, rather
than growing stagnant.
It generates curiosity and encourages users to come back often to
see new changes.
It gives the marketer a chance to send new messages regularly to
repeat visitors.

The frequency with which a site updates its content depends on

two things:

The ability of the sites marketers to create new content quickly

(content can be difficult, time-consuming, and potentially expensive

to create).
The type of site in question (B2B sites, for example, do not need to
be updated with new content as frequently as B2C, media and
information sites).

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

New Content Considerations

Regardless of the frequency with which new content is

added to a site, it is vital for marketers to maintain a
regular schedule of updates

Updating a site does not mean that an entire site needs to

change
Small updates are sometimes enough to get the point across
that something new is going on

As sites add new content, they also need to delete old

content, because information that is out of date or no
longer relevant can deter users from returning to a site
Content is not the only part of a site that needs to be
updated

Graphic design and artistic style evolve over time, and sites
need to reflect these changes

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

Other Engagement Opportunities

Blogs

Lure users in with the possibility

Keep them current,

of winning cash or prizes

conversational, relevant

Voting, Polls, Surveys

Stimulates future visits by
heightening curiosity as to
the results and/or drawing
them closer to the brand
by providing interaction

Voting = make a choice

between two or more items

Polls = single questions;
usually multiple choice style
Surveys = series of
questions / opinions

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

Contests

Get them to check back for

results

Loyalty Programs

Users receive points for

purchases; encourages repeat
buying
Must be easy to use, realistic,
valuable (to consumer)

Wish lists

Users keep a record of things they

want; can buy later or send to
family/friends (requires cookies!)

Benchmarking: Setting Goals

Every marketing campaign and every web site is

executed to achieve some pre-established goal(s)

What are you trying to achieve?

Clear objectives must be established

Financial (sales, ratios, profit)

Non-financial (increased site traffic, click-throughs, paid
and organic search results, engagement, etc.)

Different components of a marketing campaign (e.g.,

e-mail blasts, Web sites, display ads, search, social
networking, video, etc.) may all have different goals

Sometimes the marketing goals are different from the

web site goals

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

10

Marketing Goals

New site traffic: introduce new visitors to the site

Measured as either a whole number or a percentage increase of new

visitors from a previous month, quarter, or year

Returning visitors: bring established visitors back to the site

Measured as either a whole number or a percentage increase in returning

visitors from a previous month, quarter, or year

Distribution of information

Success is measured by the amount of times a file , page, or piece of

information is passed from one recipient to another, usually through social

networking or e-mail

Percentage of click-throughs

Percentage of people who open an e-mail and click through to the Web site
or who click on a paid search ad or display ad

Targeted regional audiences: increase audiences in specific geographic

territories

Measured as either a whole number or a percentage increase of new

visitors from a region from a previous month, quarter, or year

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

11

Web Site Goals

Sales / Revenue

E-commerce sites generally set goals based on sales, revenue and/or

profit

Number of leads gained

B2B sites requires visitors to take action (by calling or e-mailing the
company to request more information or to set up an exploratory
meeting)

Number of visitors

Record of unique and/or return visitors (goal may be a specific number

or % increase)

Pages visited

Sites typically want to maximize the number of pages viewed by each

visitor and will set specific goals based on this

Length of time spent on the site

Similarly, Web sites want to keep people on their site as long as possible
MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

12

Web Site Goals (contd)

Specific pages visited

Marketers often identify certain pages on a site that they most

want users to visit (usually landing pages for a campaign)

General brand building

For some sites, the goal may just be to increase brand

recognition (generally requires pre-launch awareness surveys,

followed by campaign follow-up measurement)

Visitor registration

For sites that want users to register as members or otherwise

subscribe to the site, goals are set based on the number of
participants

Engagement

A goal may include how many people engage in social

networking activities, loyalty programs, contests, surveys, etc.

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

13

Setting Goals

Goals need to be realistic (and whenever possible, numeric) in

order to properly measure them
Throughout the life of any marketing campaign, benchmarks
should be analyzed regularly toward goals so that adjustments
can be made as necessary
Online campaigns are measured through electronic tools:

Web server logs (basic)

Analytics applications (such as Google Analytics or WebTrends)
PPC and CPM measurement logs (provided by the site or

organization you are working with)

Other third-party reporting tools (Lyris, Omniture, etc.)
NOTE: firms that provide web-based marketing and advertising
campaigns for firms also provide tools for reporting on them

Check out the case studies provided on online LearningPlan and and/or
review the case studies at iMediaConnection.com

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

14

Samples of Metrics Provided

by Google Analytics
The

Dashboard
provides an
overview of all
measurements
over a period (of
one month)
Free basic
analysis is
available; you
must pay if you
want your goals
measured against
metrics!
MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

15

Timeline

Shows the activity of the site

within a specified time period
A small dot shows how many
visits were made to the site/day

Users can change this to display

any number of other analytics

Shows whether or not there has

been growth over time, when
site usage is lowest, if there
have been any spikes, etc.

Useful for tracking traffic

increase as a new campaign is

rolled out

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

Also shows overview of site

usage for the period

16

Site Usage/Visitors

Provides site traffic and visitor

behaviour information can be
broken down into hour, day,
week, month

Unique visitors
New vs. Returning
Pageviews
Average Pageviews
Average Time on Site
Bounce Rate

You can also view languages,

browser, screen resolution,
screen colour, operating
systems, flash versions, java
support, network properties,
etc. under Browsers

See page 442 in text

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

17

Map View

The map overlay breaks

down users by geographic
area, allowing site owners
to mine location
information down to the
specific towns that visitors
have come from

Based on IP addressing

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

For each region, data is

provided that shows
percentage of new
visitors, average time on
site, pages per visit,
bounce rates, and more

18

Traffic Sources

Traffic sources allows you

to see where people come
from

Direct (I.e., typing in the

URL)
Referring sites (clicking
through from another site
or ad)
Search engine

What keywords they used

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

Sites participating in
Googles AdWord
campaigns can also view
ROI information here

19

Issues with Analytics

The sheer volume of information provided by analytics

reporting software can be overwhelming
In order to make the most of web analytic / metrics
data, you need to:

Identify the metrics that are essential to reducing

costs and increasing revenues.

Track the metrics that are most important to achieving
goals.
Understand where and how metrics can be
misleading and how that can result in poor marketing
decisions.

Analytics are tools they must be integrated and used

together with all other marketing plan strategies

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

20

1. Which Metrics Do You Really Need?

Establish a baseline calculate cost (for every

element of your online marketing campaign)
and yield (revenue) of every action on your site
Determine the value of each interaction (what
do you earn from a visit, sale, lead, etc.?)
Calculate the end result: YPx CPx
YPx is the yield (benefit) per interaction
CPx is the cost per interaction
x is the variable number representing the desired
action (a visit, a click-through, a sale, a referral, a
phone call, completing a lead form, a subscription,
etc.)

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

21

Cost and Yield

E.g.,

CPM ad campaign aimed at delivering 5 ads to 100,000 unique

users a week => 500,000 impressions
Goal => to increase brand/site awareness / # of unique
visitors

Based on an average click-through rate of .4%, you expect 400

unique visits per week to your site

Cost is $20/CPM (1,000 impressions)=> $10,000/week

Cost per interaction is $25

YPx (0*x400) CPx (10,000/400)

If, on the other hand, every one of those people bought a $30 item
(at a $20 profit to you), the cost per interaction would be $5 =>
YPx (20) CPx (10,000/400)

*if a user only clicks through and takes no action, the Yield is $0.00

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

22

2. Identify and Track the Metrics That

Impact Cost/Yield

Look at what metrics you can use to make improvements on

cost and yield
What traffic sources provide the best ROI?
How do you get more of that traffic?
You can measure 4 things:

The AMOUNT of activity on your site - page views, visitor sessions,

returning visitors, etc.
The SOURCE of the activity - referrers, search terms, languages,
countries, organizations, etc.
The NATURE of the activity - entry pages, exit pages, browsers,
platforms, JavaScript versions, cookie support, screen resolutions,
page refreshes, page load errors, average time per page, etc.
The RESULTS of the activity - click trails, most requested pages,
number of page views, signups, orders, etc.

Remember, too, that this is INVALUABLE information not

available in offline strategies!!!!

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

23

Organize & Analyze the Results

Question:

Related Metrics

1. Who visited my web site?

Unique Visitors, Repeat Visitors, Demographics

2. From where did they come?

Direct Entry, Referring URL's, Referring Search

Engines, Keyword Search Words/Phrases

3. Which pages did they view?

Entry Pages, Page Views, Average Time on Pages,

Page Views per Visitor

4. Did they have any trouble with my site?

Browser Versions, Platform Versions, Applications,

Errors, Exit Pages

5. What did they buy or sign-up for?

Orders (average amount, number, total revenue),

Opt-Ins, Forms completion, etc.

The

results of this analysis can tell you what aspects of your

web site and associated e-marketing campaign(s) are getting
the hits and which areas may need revisiting and/or
revising (or eliminating!)
MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

24

Watch Out For Misleading Information

Issues can occur when data collection is unreliable for some

reason.

With CPM advertising you will often find a disparity between

the click-through figures provided by the advertiser and those

you find in your own log files or web site analytics tool.
If you run PPC campaigns you may see differences between the
search engine's click-through reporting and your own site stats.

PPC Tracking vs. Third Party Tracking

Tracking

Visits

Difference in Visits
Purchased

According to Google & Overture

138

According to My Affiliate Program

167

21.01%

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

25

Watch Out For Misleading Information

There are several reasons why this might happen:

Metrics programs (not server logs) sometimes cookie people

and recount them when they revisit a page, but not when they
come in via another method (a Google ad, for example).
PPC programs sometimes put a time limit on counting visitors

The same computer clicking on the same ad in a matter of a few

seconds may appear as one visit, not two. However, if the user
revisits later in the day it might be counted as multiple
users/unique visitors, where server logs may not associate it that
way.

Server logs are sometimes not configured to capture all the

information you need (mostly visits, pages views, errors)

Certain ISPs cause users to have different IPs in a single
session (called dynamic IP addressing this prevents users
from being tracked from a set IP). This can cause tracking
problems with both PPC and metrics programs.
MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

26

How to Avoid Issues

To ensure accurate metrics, follow these simple guidelines:

Don't rely only on metrics from a (single) PPC engine or any other

third-party provider. Always use a back-up web analytics solution

to verify the data.
Choose an appropriate tracking solution based on your site
technology.
Run and compare results from tracking solutions built on different
technologies. (For instance, compare your log file analyzers vs. a
JavaScript solution)
Measure hard data (I.e., number of e-sales) against metrics
provided

In spite of enormous advances in all areas of online technology,

at this time there is no single service, product or solution that
can be relied upon to give you totally reliable metrics.

By using two or three different solutions, you can compare results

and at least identify where you have problems.

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

27

Integrated Online Marketing

Integrated Marketing means giving marketing decision-makers

an end-to end view of the entire marketing process (online
AND offline) and providing insight into which campaigns and
tactics actually drive the highest return on investment.
In practical terms, this means:

Taking an integrated creative approach, in which the message is

the same across all of the possible marketing channels

Integrating sales and marketing processes to soften the lines
currently separating the various marketing specialties
Integrating the numerous marketing technologies that different
types of marketing campaigns use (these systems are the key to
calculating and improving ROI)
Methodically measuring success, which entails turning marketing
metrics into business metrics that guide budget and resourceallocation decisions.

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

28

Integrated Online Marketing: Why?

Integration reaps big rewards where it matters most:

Increased sales / revenues, profits

Higher conversions (leads into sales)
A larger return from the marketing spends

The desire to integrate is a natural outgrowth of the

increasingly central role that online-marketing channels play
in companies overall marketing programs
Businesses that dont integrate are finding themselves at a
competitive disadvantage
Firms must get past the barriers to integration (silo marketing
functions that dont typically interact, data thats housed in
multiple tools and owned by different functions, difficulty
measuring ROI for multi-channel marketing programs) in order
to reap the rewards of fully integrated marketing campaigns

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

29

Homework

Read Chapter 12 (Capturing and Keeping an Audience) and 13 (Traffic Analysis

and Measuring Success) plus Appendix A (Analyzing Site Traffic) AND the two
pdf documents in the Required Readings column (one on Analytics & Metrics
for ROI, the other on Integration); you might also want to review the two
recommended readings on the LearningPlan (7 Web Analytics Sins from Lyris,
and IAB Canadas Campaign Measurement and Optimization document)
Review ALL the content covered in the second half of the course (check the
online LearningPlan for details), and ensure you fully understand the purpose,
intent and context (I.e., the VALUE) of this course AS A WHOLE to your future
as a marketer
Make sure you can answer ALL the questions on the Final Exam Review
document

Final exam is subjective questions, point form (same as the mid-term)

You will NOT have access to computers for keying your answers bring a supply of
pens, pencils (and pencil sharpeners and erasers), etc.
Paper will be provided
Final exam is worth 25% of your overall grade in this course
Come well rested, well fed, and well prepared

MRKT10028 Web Marketing, Fall

30