With web analytics you can see sources of traffic via your traffic sources report, but it’s not really the sources of traffic. With this report you can see the different sources of traffic like search, direct, email, etc. and their associated metrics like revenue, visits and conversion rate. This is beneficial to be able to […]
Adobe Analytics: Hierarchies vs Site Sections
On the surface in Adobe Analytics, the hierarchy variable and capturing site sections with channel and traffic variables seem to accomplish the same thing, so why do both? It’s smart to do both because the reports look very different to the analyst and can help them achieve different goals. First of all, the hierarchy variable […]
Stop Telling Stories With Data
There are so many variables when it comes to ecommerce that I’m convinced that the idea of knowing why visitors do what they do is not really possible. All you can know is the results, not the why. But not knowing why doesn’t sit well with our human brains. We yearn for patterns, explanations and […]
Inverted U Curve Of Online Marketing Attribution
I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants where he discusses the concept of the inverted U curve which explains how having more of something can be counterproductive. I think attribution analysis in online marketing applies to the same curve. In my graph you can see that […]
Quantifying The Necessity To Do Display Remarketing Ads
In Google Analytics under Audience > Behavior > Frequency & Recency you can find the count of visits report. Add the Built-In segment Visits with Transactions. This way you can see how many visits it takes for people to purchase. Compare year over year count of visits for purchasers. There is a good chance the […]
The Curse And Blessing Of Direct Traffic
One reason to analyze traffic sources is to identify which sources have the most value and to generate ideas on how to get those high value sources to perform better. If you were to ask what is the value of $100 on AdWords, your analytics tool can give you an answer. Often paid search and […]
Treat Different Site Visitors Differently
When I used to do sales I would beat myself up about getting rejected. Then I started to keep track of how many people I talked to who were actual decision makers and realized I was mostly getting rejections from people who weren’t the decision makers and couldn’t buy anyway. This made me feel better […]
Ecommerce Blog Dashboard (Excel Download)
Many ecommerce sites have blogs as a means to drive traffic, help with SEO, drive new visits, engage with customers, make sales, increase credibility and more. All of the goals can fit into two silos: engagement and driving revenue to the site. The two depend on each other – the better the content the more […]
Making the Vaguest Marketing Objectives Measurable
Almost every marketing proposal and brief include one or more of the following meaningless goals: drive awareness and increase engagement. Of course we want to drive awareness and/or increase engagement. What is marketing if not one or both of those things? The point of marketing proposals are to allow the thinkers on the team to […]
A Web Analytics Measurement Model Strategy
We no longer live in a world where only last-touch direct response metrics suffice. The web influences both online and offline sales, every customer surveys competing sites and brands, they spend more time researching online and they research across multiple devices. This makes for a very convoluted purchase funnel. As people continue to browse constantly […]