tips & pitfalls when measuring online conversions
TRANSCRIPT
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
TIPS & PITFALLS WHEN MEASURING WEBSITE CONVERSIONS
Béate Vervaeckee-Zen
Relationship Marketing Congres20 mei 2010
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
e-Zen?• Freelance online marketeer
• Specialized in:– E-mail – AdWords– Google Analytics
• Past– Technopolis: first website in 1998– Kluwer: e-channel marketeer
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 1
Setting up goals & funnels incorrectly:
• Forgetting about goals• Forgetting about paths to certain
goals
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 1
What is a goal?
Thank you page of an order, of a registration, of a request for information,
Page to locate nearby dealers
About us page
...
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Pitfall nr. 1
What is a funnel?
The pages one has to pass in order to reach a goal
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 1Forgetting about paths to certain goals – not including them in the funnel
2002
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Open funnel
Pitfall nr. 1
130
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Pitfall nr. 1Closed funnel
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Pitfall nr. 1
Solution
Start with an open funnel when unsure about the path
Have an open funnel in a separate profile
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 1
Solution
Check the path through the navigation summary in the Content section
Check the url (or parts of it) in the Content section, and see how many url’s are returned
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 1
Solution
Check with back-office conversions – they should be in the 10% range of the conversions via GA
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Pitfall nr. 2Solution: Traffic sources report
Use campaign tagging!
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Pitfall nr. 2Solution: use a segment
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Pitfall nr. 3Beware of a sole focus on percentages
Day 1: 4% conversion rate5.000 visits => 200 sales
Day 2: 10% conversion rate1.000 visits => 100 sales
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 4No focus on optimizing the end of the funnel Initial situation
Working on conversion Working on visits
homepage 10.000 10.000 15.000
productpage 7.000 70% 7.000 70% 10.500 70%
shoppingcart 750 11% 910 13% 1.125 11% address shipment 500 67% 628 69% 750 67%
address invoice 350 70% 471 75% 525 70%
payment 230 66% 353 75% 345 66%
thankyou page 200 87% 2% 307 87% 3% 300 87% 2%
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 5Beware of a sole focus on 1 metric
Even with high bounce ratesa source can be profitable in cost/conversion
=> Look at a mix of website usage and conversion rate
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Pitfall nr. 6Beware of returning visitors and the time to conversion
72% convert in 1 visit or in next visit on
the same day
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 7Know the rules of conversion attribution when a conversion happens in a returning visit
Þ Conversion attributed to the source of the first visit?– If so – how long before the cookie expires?
Þ Conversion attributed to the source of the last visit?
Þ Or a mix?
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 7For GA: check out
www.e-zen.be/welke-verkeersbron-krijgt-het-bezoek
In short:
When a direct visit with conversion follows on a visit through a traffic source, then the traffic source gets the attribution for the conversion, NOT the direct visit
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
Pitfall nr. 8Know thy statistics and it’s signifance
• Don’t act on only 50 visits• When comparing, check the statistical
significance of the needed sample size
=> advanced AB calculator Buldog solutions http://events.bulldogsolutions.com/newsletters/articles/calculator_0408.html
© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
SourcesSetting goals & funnelshttp://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/goals/index.htmlhttp://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/interpreting_reports_funnel/index.html
Traffic sourceshttp://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/interpreting_reports_trafficsources/index.html
Adding campaigntrackinghttp://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/campaigntracking_adwordsintegration/index.html
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© Béate Vervaecke | e-Zen
SourcesSegmenting:http://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/advanced_segmentation/index.html
Google Analytics Conversion University:
http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=iq_learning_center.cs
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