@EmpiricalPath

Peter Howley of Empirical Path @EmpiricalPath @phowley99

@EmpiricalPath

‣ Introduction

‣ Status Quo

‣Count Conversions

‣ Segment Audiences

‣Test Ideas

‣ Share Insights

@EmpiricalPath

‣ Web analytics, market research and campaign measurement

‣ Founded in Washington DC in 2002

‣ Atlanta, NM and DC offices

‣ Founder led web analytics at washingtonpost.com

‣ Google Analytics Certified Partner

‣ Webtrends Agency

@EmpiricalPath

‣ Defend digital investment

‣ Compare online to offline

‣ Right-size digital investment

‣ Re-allocate budget to most valuable activities

‣ Celebrate and reward successes

‣ Learn from mistakes

@EmpiricalPath

Reports with little context that measure only how many people entered the funnel:

‣ Impressions

‣ Visits

‣ Unique visitors

‣ Friends

‣ Followers

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Measure how many times they complete the funnel (& achieve campaign goal):

‣ Purchases

‣ Social shares

‣ Email signups

‣ Contacts via form & phone

‣ File downloads

‣ Video views

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‣ Track user activity on pages separately from pageviews

‣ Any Flash-driven element, like a website or Movie player

‣ Embedded AJAX page elements

‣ Page gadgets

‣ File downloads

‣ Clicks on links to other domains

‣ Form submits without a unique thank-you URL

‣ Load times for data

‣ Correct Bounce Rate by defining visits with these user activities as not Bounces

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‣ Category ‣ Root level of event tracking and is the base level for sorting events

‣ Collect similar actions together, e.g., Outbound Links, Downloads, Videos

‣ Action ‣ Descriptor for a particular event, described by any string you specify

‣ Verb that describes what user did, e.g., Played, Clicked, Paused, Downloaded

‣ Not just one per category

‣ Label ‣ Optional descriptor to provide further granularity

‣ Often automatically passed based on code on page

‣ Don’t record Page where event occurred; tracked automatically

‣ Value ‣ Numerical variable can have explicit or inferred values

‣ Economic value of non-commerce action

‣ Estimated value of unmeasured commerce action

‣ Non-interactive parameter ‣ Tells GA that an Event was not initiated by visitor

‣ Counts single-page visits with only these Events in Bounce Rate calculation

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‣ Core events reports in Standard Reporting > Content section

‣ Top Events lets you drill down from Categories

‣ Overview rolls up all Categories, Events, and Actions

‣ Metrics on total & unique events

‣ And any optional value tracked

‣ Standard tabs also available

‣ Site Usage: Visits, Avg. Duration, % New Visits

‣ Ecommerce: Revenue, Transactions, Avg. Order Value

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‣ gaforflash is an ActionScript 3 API for Google Analytics data collection

‣ 1st, add the gaforflash SWC to Flash CS3

‣ Quit Flash CS3

‣ Navigate to the location where you unzipped the GA zip and find the swc

‣ Create a "Google" directory

‣ Copy the SWC file there

@EmpiricalPath

public function handlePlayTime(event:Event):void { //Tracking elapsed time for video for event and pageview tracker.trackEvent("Videos", "AutoPlayed", "[VideoTitle]",PlayTime); tracker.trackPageview("/TDNB/[DomainName]/Videos/[VideoTitle]"); } public function handleComplete(event:Event):void { tracker.trackEvent("Videos", "Completed", "[VideoTitle]"); } public function handlePause(event:MouseEvent):void { var button:Button = event.target as Button; if (button.label == "Pause") { video.stop(); button.label = "Resume"; tracker.trackEvent("Videos", "Paused", "[VideoTitle]"); } else { video.play(); button.label = "Pause"; tracker.trackEvent("Videos", "Resumed", "[VideoTitle]", ResumeTime); } }

‣ Example Tracking:

‣ http://stanfordhospital.org/events/awareness/stroke.html

‣ http://test.empiricalpath.com/ga-youtube2.html

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‣ Example Reporting:

‣ https://www.google.com/analytics/web/?#realtime/rt-event/a12625662w34163983p33420663/%3Ffilter.list%3D40%3D%3Dyoutube-video%25253A3Sk7cOqB9Dk%3B

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Only cumulative share data

Only cumulative share data

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Hard Way: Manual

_gaq.push(['_trackSocial', network, socialAction, opt_target, opt_pagePath]);

SOURCE: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSocial

Easy Way: Google +

Do nothing (but get only G+ Social Actions)

Easy Way: AddThis

<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --> <a class="addthis_button" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250"> <img src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" width="125" height="16" alt="Bookmark and Share" style="border:0"/> </a> <script type="text/javascript"> var addthis_config = { data_ga_property: 'UA-xxxxxx-x', data_ga_social: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js"></script> <!-- AddThis Button END -->

Easy Way: Google +

Do nothing (but get GA Events, not Social Actions)

@EmpiricalPath

SOURCE: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSocial

Twitter Tweets

1. Implement a twitter button on your page :

<a href="http://developers.google.com/analytics" class="twitter-share-button" data-lang="en">Tweet</a> <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"> window.twttr = (function (d,s,id) { var t, js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js=d.createElement(s); js.id=id; js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); return window.twttr || (t = { _e: [], ready: function(f){ t._e.push(f) } }); }(document, "script", "twitter-wjs")); </script> 2. Use Twitter's Web Intents Javascript Events 3. Bind a callback function to the Intent Event 4. Wrap event bindings in a callback function to ensure everything has loaded before

binding events.

function trackTwitter(intent_event) { if (intent_event) { var opt_pagePath; if (intent_event.target && intent_event.target.nodeName == 'IFRAME') { opt_target = extractParamFromUri(intent_event.target.src, 'url'); } _gaq.push(['_trackSocial', 'twitter', 'tweet', opt_pagePath]); } } //Wrap event bindings - Wait for async js to load twttr.ready(function (twttr) { //event bindings twttr.events.bind('tweet', trackTwitter); });

Facebook Likes

1. Set up a Like button on your page using the following code

<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script> <fb:like></fb:like> 2. Subscribe to Facebook's edge.create event 3. Create a callback function to execute the Google

Analytics tracking code. FB.Event.subscribe('edge.create', function(targetUrl) { _gaq.push(['_trackSocial', 'facebook', 'like', targetUrl]); });

Facebook Shares FB.Event.subscribe('message.send', function(targetUrl) { _gaq.push(['_trackSocial', 'facebook', 'send', targetUrl]); });

Facebook Unlikes FB.Event.subscribe('edge.remove', function(targetUrl) { _gaq.push(['_trackSocial', 'facebook', 'unlike', targetUrl]); });

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NOTE: All data disguised

@EmpiricalPath

NOTE: All data disguised

Show all, new, returning, or

campaign, etc. visits

Show all, new, returning, or

campaign, etc. visits

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NOTE: All data disguised

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GA Debug (Chrome) WASP (Firefox)

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Charles (any) Fiddler (any)

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ObservePoint (Chrome) ObservePoint (Firefox)

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Experiment with ideas and use conversion rate in key segments to pick a winner:

‣ Landing Page

‣ Ad Copy

‣Home Page

‣Offer

‣Discount

‣ Button color

@EmpiricalPath

Above-the-fold call-to-action

23% of next clicks from the

homepage are to promotions

23% of next clicks from the

homepage are to promotions

23% of next clicks from the

homepage are to promotions

23% of next clicks from the homepage are to promotions

@EmpiricalPath

Carousel dominates above-the-

fold

Copy pushes everything

but Carousel below fold

79% of page views are

entries to the site

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@EmpiricalPath

Revenue per Pageview shot up

Bounce rate improved

Pageviews dropped as client cut

PPC NOTE: Period data disguised

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Visits viewing page spent 32%

more despite falling 73%

Oh yeah!

NOTE: Period data disguised

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@EmpiricalPath

Winner

Excellent lift in conversion rate

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Downplay; few click but most of those

come back

Shrink; pushes

products & prices down

Shrink; pushes

products & prices down

Keep; many entrances

click

Lose; draws eye from

product art & headline

@EmpiricalPath

@EmpiricalPath

Testing Tool Pros Cons Estimated Costs

Content Experiments

Free No worries re: over-sampling Easy to use Part of existing GA login and code

base

No support but GACPs like Empirical Path

No multi-variate testing Non-intuitive splits between tests &

control No visual WYSIWYG editor No targeting

Free

Includes heatmaps & clickmaps Multi-variate testing Visual WYSIWYG editor Includes targeting GA integration

Customer support via email only $49/mo for 10k UVs/mo $249/mo for 100k UVs/mo $1,700/mo for 1M UVs/mo

Live customer support Multi-variate testing Visual WYSIWYG editor Forrester “strong performer” Includes targeting GA integration

Lacks heatmaps & clickmaps Smaller early-stage firm

$71/mo for 10k UVs/mo $359/mo for 100k UVs/mo $1,999/mo for 1M UVs/mo

Deep support team at Adobe Forrester “leader” Includes targeting

Essentially requires costly support team

Worst references in Forrester study No GA integration

$900-$1,300/mo with substantial incremental costs for each “mbox” (the area where split-test is executed, such as a graphic that is being tested)

Deep support team Forrester “leader” Fixed fee lets you test ad nauseum

High total cost Weak on integrations

“Six-figures” per year

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Create variations

Edit, add, move

elements

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Multiple success metrics

For each success metric

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Measure conversion rate for each key segment of visitors.

‣ Traffic source (PPC, email, SEO)

‣Geography

‣ Loyalty (new, returning)

‣ Answers to survey questions

‣ Content interest

‣ Prior purchase

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Unique content for

each audience

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<script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-xxxxxxx-1']); _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar','1', 'Visitor Type', 'Prospective Student','1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script>

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NOTE: All data disguised

Row for each segment…in any report

Conversion rates for

multiple goals

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1 row for each link or set of links worth

tracking

Ties in other analytics

tools

Tells analytics which

channel worked

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Revenue Other

Conversions

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@EmpiricalPath

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Get analytics reports, findings & recommendations to decision-makers

‣ Build useful dashboards

‣ Email reports automatically

‣ Update spreadsheets automatically

‣ Try out mobile apps

‣ Display real-time metrics

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Webtrends

ClickyTouch

ChartBeat

Analytics App

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@EmpiricalPath

@EmpiricalPath

@EmpiricalPath

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Questions now?

Questions later:

‣ info@empiricalpath.com

‣ @EmpiricalPath or @phowley99

‣ Facebook.com/EmpiricalPath

‣ +Empirical Path Page