Travelocity

Company Background

            Travelocity is one of the largest travel companies in the world, providing the most comprehensive and proactive travel guarantees in the industry. The company provides a high level of service and faces tough challenges keeping ahead of rapid developments in a highly competitive industry (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

The industry is faced with engaged, informed, and mobile customers ready to change a reservation at moment’s notice. According to a market study conducted by Google and Shopper Sciences in July 2011, travelers frequently use the internet for comparison shopping. Travel customers on average are using 10.2 online sources, visiting brand websites, aggregate websites, and search engines as they make purchase decisions. In order to succeed in this environment, Travelocity must be informed and agile in its online analysis and marketing (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

Web Analytics Approach and Implementation

            There were a few challenges for Travelocity to keep ahead of their competitors. First they needed quick access to actionable and decision relevant information. Next the data had to be pervasive throughout the organization. Lastly they needed a single source of truth for digital reporting (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

 Implementation of Google Analytics was straightforward and Travelocity used a single code snippet on each page of their site. The customization was minimal which allowed the company to start tracking progress immediately. Travelocity has a premium account with Google Analytics which provides the company with dedicated support. The company was able to work with the Google team and implement the tracking on their tight timeline. According to Satnam Singh, VP Analytics and Site Optimization for Travelocity, “Google has team of first-class support people on call that have worked with us to customize our implementation and continue to help us maximize our returns from Google Analytics” (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

Google Analytics provided a lot of value to Travelocity. The program was easy to use and employees were able to train on the tool immediately. The premium package also came with an efficient training program that was easy to implement. According to Keefe Wong, Web Analytics Manager at Travelocity, “The training effort that we put into Google Analytics is looked upon as a best practice in our company. During our initial training phase, we trained over 80 people in Google Analytics across different products and teams. We have done group sessions where every team could define their own KPIs and track with Google Analytics. This includes advertising and marketing, site content managers, site architects, creative designers, business analysts, and executives” (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

Implementing Google Analytics allowed Travelocity to have faster optimizations and improved conversions. Google Analytics enabled the company to have enhanced access to data across the company and they have been able to streamline their analysis efforts. Before, their analysis requests had to be funneled through a specialized team but now Google Analytics allows them to use an exploration tool available for the whole team. Requests that are sent to analyst teams are structured better and Travelocity has been able to reduce workload and get more actionable data to appropriate teams (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

The site speed report of Google Analytics has been very beneficial to Travelocity. This has supplied the company with a near instant fix to problems within the site. According to Singh, “Google Analytics has helped us quickly discover which parts of our website were too slow to load and therefore a potential impediment to our conversion process” (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

Another actionable result of implementing Google Analytics was found by analyzing bounce rates.  Google Analytics allows all team members access to website insights and through collaboration between an information architect and a project manager they were able to identify a serious problem. By analyzing the bounce rate they were able to identify a set of pages thought to be shared infrequently by visitors, only to find that the sharing behaviors on the page structure could not support sharing and fixed the problem immediately (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

Goals for the next web analytics project for Travelocity are already in place. The company plans to leverage 50 custom variables, event tracking, and funnel visualization. This will help them further expand the metrics readily available to the organization. Also this will help Travelocity create a robust second source of metrics for performance measurement. Lastly it will help the company to quickly determine drop off points throughout the experience on the site (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

Recommendations

            Travelocity already has a plan to implement event tracking in Google Analytics. Event tracking is a feature that allows companies to track visitor actions that don’t correspond directly to pageviews. This tool is very commonly used when there is an on-click event that a company wants to track but there is no confirmation page to use when setting up goals. Travelocity could start tracking events on clicks for promotions they posts on their website for travel deals. The site has promotions for deals that keep users within the website such as “Great deals for Spring Break” and “Cruise Super Sale Reloaded”.  However they also have deals based on sponsored ads that redirect users to other company’s pages. For example on their cruises page, there are ads for various cruise lines and users are sent to another company’s page. Currently there is an ad for “20% off Disney Cruises to the Bahamas.” Travelocity could track when users click the button for getting details so they can have another measure of their ad response rates. This information will allow them to see what users are interested in cruises but it will also give them information for advertisers who are looking to purchase space on their site. Tracking who clicks on the links within Google Analytics will allow the company to keep ad and site metrics in one place (“Travelocity,” 2014).

            Another feature that the company can use is goals to see how people accomplish tasks on the site. Goals can be somebody buying a plane ticket or completing an information request form. Travelocity can use goals to see which paid keywords they are using resulted in purchase. They will also be able to see which keywords work and which ones they should drop. Travelocity will be able to see which pages or parts of pages generate the most purchases. Lastly they will be able to see how changes they make to the site based on content or promotions effect conversion rates (“Google analytics for”, 2010).

            Based on goals that Travelocity sets up, they can add a funnel to determine their conversion process. They will be able to see where users drop off in the funnel and learn what they can do to streamline processes and keep consumers on track. For example if users are dropping off filling out a long travel information form, a solution might be splitting it up into two pages to see if it is more effective There are a lot of steps to purchasing travel accommodations and knowing the purchase path of consumers can be valuable information for marketing efforts and customer service (“Google analytics for”, 2010).

            Another feature Travelocity can track in Google Analytics is geographic data from customers. Although the company does not have physical travel agencies where customers can come in and talk to customer services reps, it is important to know how customer location effects purchase behavior. For example it is easy to assume that people in colder climates might respond well to an ad that features a tropical get-a-way. Most travel ads feature an image that looks like paradise to entice users to book a vacation. Using geographic information will allow the company to figure out how location effects where people vacation. For example, the company assumes that students that go to Kansas want to see spring break ads that feature a beach scene. What if these kids that are used to a rural setting do not want to go to a beach area for spring break? Customer data could show that these kids are more likely to book a trip to a city such as New Orleans so they can get the city adventure that they are not getting by living in a rural area. Tracking this information will allow the company to create more targeted ads and offers based on real customer data.

Conclusion

            In conclusion, Google Analytics allowed Travelocity to meet the challenges of their highly competitive industry. Through the rapid implementation of Google Analytics Premium, they were able to train users across departments. Enabling data sharing across the company allowed Travelocity to create an agile decision making culture. Conversion improvements were seen within weeks and they were able to set goals for future web analytics projects (“Travelocity uses google,” 2012).

References

Google analytics for travel agencies. (2010, March 06). Retrieved from

http://travelalchemist.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/google-analytics-for-travel-agencies/

Travelocity. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.travelocity.com/

Travelocity uses google analytics premium to enable agile, data-driven decision making across

the organization. (2012). Retrieved from http://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/travelocity-uses-google-analytics-premium_case-studies.pdf

Google stands as one of the biggest and recently most controversial data collecting companies on the planet. Some critics of Google’s data collection methods suggest that the company should reduce its privacy policy to one word: none. In a brief first reported by Consumer Watchdog, Google wrote that its users should have “no legitimate expectation of privacy” (Del Castillo, 2013).

Currently Google’s privacy statement is over 2,200 words long and in it the search engine giant openly admits to collecting six types of information from its users. The first is device information and Google says it may collect device-specific information such as the hardware model and phone number. Next is log information and when users use Google’s services to view content provided by the company, they can automatically collect and store that data in server logs. This information includes what the user searchers, phone numbers of friends that are called, and the duration of calls. Another type of information Google collects is location information. When users use a location-enabled Google service, the company can collect and process information about their actual location, like GPS signals sent by a mobile device. Google also collects unique application numbers and this is number and information about the apps users install. The information giant also collects and stores local information, which includes personal information from user’s devices such as HTML5 and application data caches. Lastly, Google collects cookies and anonymous identifiers. The company says they use unspecified technology to collect and store information when users visit a Google service (Del Castillo, 2013).

After that exhaustive list, users are probably wondering, “What information doesn’t Google collect?” Unfortunately, there is a tradeoff to using the best services in the market. Users have to be willing to give up their privacy in exchange for the best services. Google’s ability to create personalized ads and results is what makes them supreme in their industry. They have the ability to create these results because they know everything about their users. Google is a modern day “Big Brother”, but that still does not stop people from using their services on a daily basis.

Some users have taken a stance against Google and plaintiffs in a data-mining lawsuit stated that Google’s automated scanning of email represents an illegal interception of their electronic communications without consent. According to Google, “Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient’s [email provider] in the course of delivery. All e-mail users necessarily give implied consent to the automated processing of their emails.” However, upon its introduction in 2004, Gmail was immediately slammed by lawmakers and privacy advocates as a horrific invasion into Internet users’ privacy. Critics contended that it should be illegal for a company to scan the text of its customers’ e-mail correspondence and display relevant advertising (Musil, 2013).

While on the surface this sounds like a blatant invasion of privacy, very few users are outraged enough to stop using Google services. The privacy infringement also benefits consumers with personalized ads so this again represents the tradeoff between sharing information. It seems that users enjoy that fact that Google has the ability to finish their sentences and make their lives easier.

Recently Google purchased Nest Labs for $3.2 billion dollars. This acquisition serves as another step forward towards a future when Google has enough access to lives of high-income consumers to gain psychological insights that no company has ever possessed. Nest’s Learning Thermostat can track movements and activity of people in their homes, an ability that will be improving by leaps and bounds since acquired by Google. This information combined with the analysis of email and search patterns, as well as smartphone GPS mapping of moving outside of the home, gives Google the opportunity to build an exceptionally intimate consumer profile. Google will be able to have information about user’s current consumption patterns and future choices as well (Kuittien, 2014).

Combining information of what happens in people’s homes with search data and email keywords can be an incredibly potent combination. Most people are unaware how certain facets of daily behavior correlate with various mental disorders and personality traits. With the coordination of Google’s existing profiling power and Nest’s awareness of daily routines, advertising industry psychologists could not only build accurate profile of consumers, but even time marketing messages to cyclical peaks and troughs of manic and depressive phases of certain types of personalities. For example, if a user is visiting neighborhood bars at least twice a week and bringing back different dates between two and four times each month, ads for Durex may be popping up in the YouTube videos they watch with increasing frequency (Kuitten, 2014).

Google knows more about consumers than they even realize due to the intimate mapping of search and email keywords. Users that grant Nest access to their lives be doing it voluntarily with Google providing the necessary privacy policy. Most users probably won’t mind sharing information just as most users don’t mind Google combining Gmail, YouTube, and search information into intricate consumer profiles.  A good amount of people actually appreciate receiving ad messages that suit their interests (Kuitten, 2014).

Users are becoming accustomed to being gently prodded and motivated towards becoming optimal consumers with phenomenal accuracy. Google provides users the right ads at the right moments enticing users to spend more. According to a recent study, consumers are showing an increased willingness to share their data in return for a more personalized and targeted shopping experience. The study conducted by Accenture, surveyed 2,000 U.S. and U.K. consumers, and found that 85% percent said they realized that data tracking makes it possible for retailers to present them with relevant and targeted content. Personalization is the future of consumer marketing and Google is a leader in this industry due to their troves of consumer data. When personalization is done right, the consumer may not even notice, and the benefit is a more relevant experience that cuts through the clutter (Nasri, 2012).

In conclusion, Google has been successful in their mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. They have also found a way for users to accept the fact that nearly all of their online activity is monitored in return for exceptional services. People are willing to trade their privacy in return for relevant search and ad content.  Google has become part of every Internet user’s daily life, even though users are aware the company is monitoring their every keystroke.

References:

Del Castillo, M. (2013, August 15). 6 kinds of your information google openly admits to

collecting. Retrieved from http://upstart.bizjournals.com/news/technology/2013/08/15/6-data-categories-google-collects.html?page=all

Kuittinen, T. (2014, January 14). Say goodbye to privacy: How nest might transform google. Retrieved from http://bgr.com/2014/01/14/google-nest-acquisition-privacy-advertising/

Musil, S. (2013, August 13). Google filing says gmail users should have no expectation of

privacy. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57598420-93/google-filing-says-gmail-users-have-no-expectation-of-privacy/

Nasri, G. (2012, December 10). Why consumers are increasingly willing to trade data for personalization. Retrieved from http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/why-consumers-are-increasingly-willing-to-trade-data-for-personalization/ 

Adobe Analytics (SiteCatalyst)

 Adobe Analytics (SiteCatalyst) Overview

Adobe Analytics helps users create a holistic view of their business by turning customer interactions into actionable insights. By creating intuitive and interactive dashboards and reports, users can sift, sort, and share real-time information to provide insights that uncover problems and opportunities. The program is one of the industry leading solutions and delivers analytics and reporting capability to enable data-driven decision making. It provides insight critical to optimizing marketing efforts such as delivering personalized experiences, driving better ad spending, or monetizing content with the highest ad rates possible (“Adobe analytics”)

Adobe Analytics helps deepen customer understanding with real-time digital analytic measuring and reporting. This allows companies to quickly identify the most profitable paths through digital assets, determine where visitors are navigating away, and identify critical success metrics for online marketing campaigns. The software allows companies to gain deeper insight into visitor segmentation. Adobe delivers a comprehensive, multidimensional view of digital visitors that enable marketers to make accurate, timely, and insightful decisions and improve the performance of businesses. Companies are also able to measure, analyze, and optimize integrated data from all online and offline initiatives across multiple marketing channels in one place (“Adobe analytics”).

Enhanced decision making is another benefit to Adobe Analytics. The software allows users to explore online data in ways that are most relevant to business needs. Users are able to collect, automatically process, and perform custom analyses and visualizations of Adobe Analytics data in Microsoft Excel.  The software also accurately identifies mobile visitors and device capabilities to deliver the right experience to each user. It also tracks and measures owned social media to understand the impact and effectiveness of social media campaigns. Adobe Analytics allows users to gain critical customer insight with conversion reports showing detailed information on purchasing metrics, customer loyalty campaigns, visitor profiles, etc. Users are also able to realize shortened sale cycles with timely customer insight via predictive models and engagement scoring (“Adobe analytics”).

Unique Features

Adobe Analytics offers many unique features to users. Conversion improvement allows users to gain critical insight with conversion reports that show detailed information on purchasing metrics, customer loyalty, campaigns, visitor profiles, etc. Marketing attribution lets users easily compare marketing channels via multiple allocation models to make faster investment decisions that optimize digital marketing. Another feature is cross-device visitor identification which connects visitors across devices to enable a better visitor level view of customers. The software also offers Facebook analytics which allows users to measure all key areas of Facebook. Users are able to measure 100 percent of apps, fan pages, ads, and Facebook Connect. Also through a special partnership between Adobe and Facebook, users have access to aggregate demographic information from Facebook. Adobe Analytics also provides 20 plus out of the box mobile reports that can be emailed to marketers in a mobile friendly format. Lastly users are able to see how video impacts marketing channels and content consumption by integrating the data with all site performance metrics to see the impact of video across all marketing channels (“Adobe analytics”).

Tracking Features

Here is a comprehensive list of the tracking features of Adobe Analytics:

·         Search

·         Real-time

·         Email Campaign

·         Social Media

·         Mobile OS

·         Multi-domain Tracking

·         Event Tracking

·         E-commerce

·         User-defined Variables

·         Cost-per-click (Import)

·         Unique Visitors

·         Forms and Fields

·         Custom Bounce Rates

Analyzing Features

Here is a comprehensive list of the analyzing features of Adobe Analytics:

·         Funnel Visualization

·         Multi-touch Conversion

·         Visitor Loyalty

·         On-page Analysis

·         Visitor Path

·         Segmentation (retrospective)

·         Filters

·         Trends

·         Predictive

·         Internal Search

·         Pivot Tables

·         Secondary Dimensions

·         Statistical Relevance

·         Alerts and Flagging

·         Custom Reports

·         Multi-user Dashboards

·         Customizable Dashboards

Export Features

Here is a comprehensive list of the export features of Adobe Analytics:

·         PDF and Email

·         Excel

·         CSV, XML

·         Raw Data

·         API

·         Apps on Mobile Equipment

·         Integration with other Software

User Reviews

Adobe Analytics scored four out of five stars overall by most users polled on Aboutanalytics.com. A consensus among reviewers is that the software offers loads of data which online marketers can spend a lot of time on, but a minor problem is that it is hard to create the right kind of overview in the huge range of available data. Other reviewers said there is sufficient support information that is available and the search function is easy-to-use and provides users with the right kind of answers. Users also said that the dashboard has a unique PDF integration with a nice editor to create reports. Some users found Adobe Analytics hard to use without a lot of analytical skills and experience. They got lost in the data and experienced analysts seemed to enjoy the interface more. Most users found ease in implementation with standard tagging easy to set up. This however became more complicated with custom tags for tracking conversions and many users needed help if they did not have the technical resources available (“Adobe analytics”).

Comparison to Google Analytics

Using Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics requires different mindsets and skills. Google Analytics is seen as a chic, suave, easy-to-use product, while Adobe Analytics is the more bulky, yet powerful product. One is easy on the eyes and the other requires a little more time to fall in love with its capabilities (What’s the difference,” 2013).

Google Analytics is a free tool that can be easily implemented into a website. Obtaining data is as easy as pasting the HTML code into the website. Google permits the flexibility to do custom implementation that allows users to get the most of the tool. Custom implementation allows for custom variables, cross and sub-domain tracking, virtual pageviews, and event tracking. Google Analytics offers up to five custom variables for free and limits events to 500 per session. Newer features include custom dimensions and metrics as well as cost uploads for various paid campaigns (What’s the difference,” 2013).

On the other hand Adobe Analytics requires cost (starting at $5,000/month) and more in-depth development work. The implementation is always customized and differs depending on specific needs, metrics, and goals. The upfront work and investment for Adobe Analytics is greater than Google Analytics. However if the implementation is done properly, the information gathered will be more tailored to specific metric needs. In addition to tracking web actions the Adobe suite offers various options for data integration across a company’s data infrastructure (What’s the difference,” 2013).

Adobe Analytics has the advantage of custom implementation, which provides the option for the creation of custom traffic, event, and conversion variables. These variables are set in advance to give specific information about visitors rather than looking at all visitors in aggregate. Users can see the visitors who clicked through on a campaign versus the visitors who purchased a product. Adobe Analytics allows up to 75 traffic variables, 100 event variables, and 75 conversion variables. The software also allows variables to be set to expire after a specified period of time and can also be stacked on top of each other, so users can see the sequence of events taking place (What’s the difference,” 2013).

Google Analytics also has the ability to set custom variables but only allows up to 5 custom variables with their free version. Like Adobe Analytics, these custom variables can be set to expire after different measurements such as a page views, completion of an event, or at the visit level. Google is moving to be more flexible in terms of custom variables and their new product Universal Analytics will allow for 20 custom dimensions and custom metrics. These will be easier to implement than Google Analytics’ current version of custom variables and will be more similar to the variables seen in Adobe Analytics (What’s the difference,” 2013).

Adobe Analytics allows for distinctive reporting suited of various data sets. For example if a company has several sub-sites, each sub-site can have their own suite for data, which can then be rolled up into one large suite. This allows metrics to be broken down for each sub-suite. Report suites allow users to track different paths a visitor might take between sub-sites. These reports also allow the creation of one dashboard that can be applied with different report suites (What’s the difference,” 2013).

Instead of reporting suites, Google Analytics allows for the creation of different data profiles. These profiles serve as versions of data with permanent filters applied. Google Analytics also allows users to look at data in sections with segmentation. Users can apply up to four segments and make comparisons across each of these segments. Adobe Analytics does not allow for the comparison of segments. In order for a comparison to occur in Adobe Analytics, the user must export the data from different segments and compare it outside of the program (What’s the difference,” 2013).

Conclusion

Both analytics software bring unique features to the table. Users have to balance the trade-off between ease-of-use and complexity to determine which tool which best for their needs. There are times when Google Analytics is best to use because information is gathered quickly and easy. However, in-depth answers might require Adobe Analytics. These tools in conjunction can give users the greatest value and determine optimal business strategies (What’s the difference,” 2013).

References:

Adobe analytics (site catalyst). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aboutanalytics.com/adobe/adobe-analytics-site-catalyst

What's the difference? comparing google analytics and adobe site catalyst. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.paceco.com/google-analytics-adobe-sitecatalyst-comparison/ 

Optimizing Engagement through Multiple Social Media Platforms

Social media is used by brands to drive engagement and interaction. The objective of any social media strategy is to provide the right tools so that people can engage with a brand, people, products, or service onsite and offsite. There are many social media channels available to marketers and in order to optimize engagement, brands should integrate multiple social media channels. Each channel is unique and provides a different level of engagement to help customers create lasting relationships with a brand. For example, Google AdWords is a tool that allows brands to create sponsored links in Google search results. These links are ads that an advertiser created and Google displays based on the relevance of a search. Another platform that is completely different is Twitter. This channel is a social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read “tweets”, which are messages limited to 140 characters. Each of these platforms is different and both can be used to optimize interaction between brands and consumers (Wells, 2014).

A key benefit of social media is that content across multiple platforms can be integrated. For example Facebook pages can be optimized to include widgets that display postings on other social media accounts. Pins on Pinterest can be posted on Facebook pages as well as YouTube videos to optimize interactions with consumers. Integrating platforms allows brands to increase touchpoints with consumers which leaves a lasting impression and helps create long-term relationships.

Choosing which platforms to integrate is no easy task. Each platform is unique and serves a different purpose for a brand. The best way to identify which platforms to use is to determine the target market and then determine social media objectives. Once these two tasks are completed, it will be easier to identify where and how to reach customers. New social networking sites and applications are appearing on the market constantly and brands cannot take them all on. Every site does not serve the same crowd just like every business does not serve the same purpose. For example, 82% of Pinterest users are women and 71% of Google+ users are men. Brands like Martha Stewart have identified Pinterest as the best social media platform to reach their target market and their Pinterest page drives more traffic to the brand’s website than Facebook and Twitter combined. Knowing your audience and where they interact on social media is essential to optimizing engagement (“Battle of the sexes,” 2012). 

There are a few social media platforms that are popular among brands. The first is Facebook which is the holy grail of social media. Facebook has many tools that help businesses target their ideal audience and virtually anyone can benefit from their blog-like format. It gives content more breathing room than other sites such as Twitter and brands have access to over a billion users. Twitter is also a very popular platform but unlike Facebook, it has a microblogging format. Users really benefit from the real-time aspect of Twitter, since many news reporters and leaders in the global economy are actively posting to the site. LinkedIn can be considered as a Facebook for business owners and job seekers. The site serves as a great connector, helping its users form professional connections and find new clients. LinkedIn pages can be a great way of building a potential customer base. Pinterest as discussed early is very popular among women. The platform works well with businesses within the arts, fashion, and lifestyle industries. Product images can be posted to brand’s pages under categorized albums and shared with Twitter and Facebook easily. Instagram and Google+ are the newer hybrids, both bearing characteristics of Twitter and Facebook. Google+ profiles are beneficial to anyone who wants to enhance their SEO. Instagram is a way to share experiences through pictures which can be categorized through hashtag keywords (“How to find,” 2014).

In order to optimize engagement, content needs to be spread out across multiple social media platforms. There is much debate on whether content or conversation increases engagement.  Based on personal experience, content drives conversation. One does not trump another. They both need to be used in conjunction to optimize social media. The right content posted on a regular basis will drive conversation on and off social media networks. The hard part is determining the right content to post that is relevant to the brand’s strategy and cohesively integrating it across social media networks. As discussed early social media networks are not created equal and based on targeted customer groups, one platform might need to receive more attention than others.

An example of content driving conversation is with Nissan’s online newsroom space. Nissan sought to harness the power of revamping its online newsroom space to create a “multi-market, multi-language, hemisphere-wide news site with a goal of making journalist’s life easier.” With the help of Wieck, a media relations agency, Nissan was able to repurpose content in an attractive, fluid, and engaging way. They wanted to create a more modern, eye-catching design and foster broader appeal. The overall goal of the revamp was to build a hub of information to make it easy for journalists to quickly gather videos, press releases, pictures, and other data needed to inform stories. All the videos, posts, and images on the site were shareable and downloadable to allow for WOM marketing. The site also allows visitors to easily access Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Google+, and email to share content. Nissan’s Facebook and Twitter accounts are regularly populated with stories from the newsroom to integrate all three platforms. Nissan’s site is clean, navigable, attractive, and informative and it is easy to understand the message the car company wants to convey upon entering the site.  The revamped content on the site helped grow from over 90,000 unique visitors each month per month to more than 300,000 visitors per month in a short amount of time (“Nissan drives the,” 2013).

Personal Case Study: Ideal Image

            Ideal Image is a small image consulting company that was formerly one of my clients. Their target audience is females between the ages of 35 and 49, who are transitioning in their lives. The company wanted to use social media to establish an online presence and consistent branding, increase website traffic, and create and maintain relationships with clients and prospects. The social media plan created for the company used multiple social media channels to optimize engagement. Facebook was used to increase the brand’s awareness and engagement due to its wide reach. It was also used because Facebook has been attracting an older demographic as Millennials have gravitated to other channels. Facebook served as the top platform for Ideal Image to engage their target market of Generation Xers. The next channel used was Pinterest which worked as a way to increase awareness, engagement, and solicit recommendations. Pinterest allowed the brand to share items with followers in a creative and engaging way. The site is ideal for recommendations and WOM marketing which is why it was incorporated into the social marketing strategy.  Ideal Image also incorporated their blog into the social media strategy because it was a way to increase awareness and engagement with prospective clients. The blog worked well with current marketing efforts and was incorporated into the company’s site. Integrating Facebook, Pinterest, and the blog served as a way to achieve social media objectives for a small business owner.

 References:

 (2012). Battle of the Sexes [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://8.mshcdn.com/wp

content/uploads/2012/07/BattleofTheSexesSocialWeb.jpg

How to find the right social media platform for your business?. (2014, January 04).

Retrieved from http://blog.macronimous.com/how-to-find-the-right-social-media-platform-for-your-business/

Nissan drives the conversation with content marketing-focus website. (2013). Retrieved

from http://www.prdaily.com/awards/specialedition/218.aspx

Wells, M. (2014). Lesson 3. Retrieved from PI Reed School of Journalism, WVU. (2014).

Retrieved from

https://ecampus.wvu.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/star15879.201401/docs/lesson3.htm

Why it’s Important to Watch your Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who come to a site and leave within a few seconds. A high bounce rate can show that visitors didn’t like what they saw or didn’t find what they were looking for (“What’s more important:,” 2012). KissMetrics developed the infographic shown below to “demystify” the bounce rate. Visitors can bounce from a site for a number of reasons such as clicking on a link to a page on a different website, clicking the back button, or typing a new URL. As shown below, the average bounce rate is 40.5% with simple landing pages with one call to action having the highest bounce rate of 70-90% (“Bounce rate demystified,” 2010).

            Bounce rate was designed to tell sites if they have the right audience coming to their page and if they are meeting visitor’s expectations. In order to understand bounce rate it’s important to understand the difference between bounce rate and exit rate. Bounce rate applies to a visit entry/landing page and exit rate applies to the page a visit exits/leaves on. Exit rate applies to where people are exiting mid-stream from a site’s conversion funnel (Kelly, 2012).

            There are two common tracking issues that inflate bounce rate that sites have to be aware of to make sure their data is more reliable. Sometimes users can click an external link that isn’t necessarily negative. For example, during a visit a user clicks on a link that brings them to an external site such as an account login that requires secure authentication. To combat this, Google Analytics, allows users to have an outbound link that is tracked as an interaction or non-interaction event to determine if the click effects bounce rate.  Another tracking issue is if a site is improperly tagged with tracking code. For example if landing page X has different tracking code settings than page Y and a visitor moves from X to Y, the result will be that page X will have an inaccurate bounce rate (Kelly, 2012).

            There are many factors that affect bounce rate such as the industry, brand credibility, type of site, and the stage of the customer lifecycle. A high bounce rate can be acceptable when the visitor has a positive experience. There are many visitor interactions that are undervalued and ultimately lead to desired conversions in either the short or long-term. For example, “Contact us” is a common and accepted page with a high bounce rate because the visitor just wants basic information about the business. Another example is blog articles, where on a high traffic blog that uses CPM Ad Monetization to make money with a high returning visitor rate, a bounce rate of 89% of higher is acceptable. Blogs offer interesting articles and the visitor leaves after getting value from the article (Kelly, 2012). 

            Segmenting data can help determine a page’s actual bounce rate. In aggregate the bounce rate could look good or bad but not segmenting the data can hide substantial problems. One way to better evaluate a site is segmenting data based on location. For example, if a company is a local business in San Francisco, they should expect a high bounce rate from outside of California. Segmenting the traffic will allow the business to see how traffic is performing in a local area and avoid being skewed by irrelevant visits. Another segment is new vs. returning customers. A returning visitor has different intent than a new visitor. It’s common for new visitors to have a higher bounce rate than returning visitors since they are less familiar with the brand (Kelly, 2012).

            Reducing the bounce rate on pages that have the highest volume of traffic from the highest converting sources means more engaged visitors and a greater change of conversion. There are a few things to consider in reducing a sites bounce rate. The first is avoiding pop-ups because they annoy people and usually disrupt the user experience. Also don’t upset visitors by not providing them with clear and obvious paths to get the content they are looking for. Poor design can also play a part in a high bounce rate. Users are becoming less tolerable of unattractive websites and the content presented needs to be attractive in terms of graphics and readability. Speed is an important factor as well with it not only impacting bounce rate but also causes follower reach to stall, negatively impact search rankings, and destroys the conversion rate. Lastly a site needs to be mobile friendly. With the rise of mobile, the language on these sites need to be simple and clear enough for people on the go to find the information they are looking for (Eubanks, 2013).

References:

(2010). Bounce Rate Demystified [Print Photo]. Retrieved from

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/bounce-rate/

Eubanks, N. (2013, December 27). Reduce bounce rate: 20 things to consider. Retrieved from

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2237250/Reduce-Bounce-Rate-20-Things-to-Consider

Kelly, K. (2012, February 15). What is bounce rate? avoid common pitfalls. Retrieved from

http://www.blastam.com/blog/index.php/2012/02/what-is-bounce-rate/

What's more important: Page views or unique visitors. (2012, July 18). Retrieved from

http://blog.agilitycms.com/whats-more-important-page-views-or-unique-visitors

What Exactly are Unique Visitors?

            “Unique visitors are defined as the number of inferred individual people (filtered for spiders and robots), within a designated reporting time frame with activity consisting of one or more visits to a site. Each individual is counted only once in the unique visitor measure for the reporting period” (Hamel, 2008). Unique visitors are always calculated for a time period and a time reference. Some examples of time periods measured are days, weeks, and months.

The most predominant method of identifying unique visitors is via a persistent cookie that stores and returns a unique ID value. Other methods of inferring unique visitors uses tricks to come up with a fair count of unique visitors for example looking at the combination of browser version, host OS, or IP address. One theory is that the most accurate way of counting unique visitors is to use an account ID, but still sites will have non-authenticated users (Hamel, 2008).

Some studies show that 97% of users accept cookies and with that statistic the accuracy of the unique visitor count will be as high as 99.5%. However there has also been contradictory research that shows a large percentage of people delete their cookies automatically or manually every month. This means that the longer the time reference analyzed, the less accurate the unique visitors will be. For example if Susan automatically deletes her cookies once a month and a company wants to get monthly unique visitors based on a full year reference, she will be counted 12 times instead of just once (Hamel, 2008).

Other issues come into play calculating unique visitors when people use multiple devices, which is now majority of the population. If Susan accesses one site using Internet Explorer on her work computer, then visits the same site using Safari on her iPhone, and goes home and looks at the same site using Google Chrome on her personal computer, that’s 3 unique visits for one user. Multiple devices have the potential for companies to have an inflated impression of their unique visitors (Hamel, 2008).

There is some debate on which matters more page views or unique visitors. Page views are important for publishers because each page view tallies an ad impression for each ad on the page. If their ads are sold on a cost per thousand views or CPM basis, this is an important number for them to grow. However the unique visitor metric gives companies a sense of the size of their audience. The importance of this metric depends on the purpose of the site or publication. Brands might want to maximize the number of people that come to their site with little regard to how many pages they access, as long as the follow a chosen path through the site. Niche publishers may not have a huge audience and want to show loyalty and engagement by clicking deep into the site, generating page views (“What’s more important:,” 2012).

In October of 2012 Google+ attracted 105 million unique visitors compared to 65.3 million in October 2011, a 60.9% increase. In that same time period Facebook had 822.1 million unique visitors, up 4.3% from 788.2 million the previous year. Twitter had 182.9 million unique visitors and LinkedIn claimed 161.9 million. Google can use the information provided about their unique visitors to see if they have accomplished their growth figures for the year. These unique visitors are calculated as users and they can use this data to identify the success of their social media platform. They saw extreme growth in a year compared to Facebook, which is their top competitor. This metric also allows them to see how they compare to the competition. Even though they might have a smaller number of users, the growth the company is seeing from year to year shows that it is becoming a successful social media platform (Wasserman, 2013).

At the end of the day, the most important factor for growing unique visitors is content. If the content is not engaging and relevant to users, they are going to “bounce” and never come back (“What’s more important:,” 2012).

References:

Hamel, S. (2008, January 08). [Web log message]. Retrieved from

http://blog.immeria.net/2008/01/understanding-unique-visitors.html

Wasserman, T. (2013, January 03). Report: Google has 105 million unique monthly visitors.

Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2013/01/03/google-has-105-million/

What's more important: Page views or unique visitors. (2012, July 18). Retrieved from

http://blog.agilitycms.com/whats-more-important-page-views-or-unique-visitors

About Me

Hi everyone my name is Britney Ambers and I'm a grad student in West Virginia University's Integrated Marketing Communications program. I received my undergrad degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Christopher Newport University, in Newport News.Currently I work as a Graphic Designer for General Dynamics Information Technology. This is my first time studying Web Metrics and SEO and as I learn new things about the topic, I plan to share them with you. Thanks for following!