Monday, June 25, 2012
Google Analytics – Valuable Measurements and Their Significance
Google Analytics can provide a great deal of insight about
your website or blog, the audience viewing (or not viewing), as well as the
strengths and weaknesses of your site design and content. It is critical to determine what measurements
within Google Analytics are appropriate to evaluate the success of your site’s
unique goals. Goals for an ecommerce
website may include goals related to sales, such as conversion rates showing
the percentage of people who complete a sale of those that visited the product
sites. Goals for sites that are trying
to build awareness and sell services related to some kind of expertise may
measure the number of content pieces read on sites and how much of the content
is read. These types of sites might also
like to analyze the success of the keywords in their content pieces by
reviewing traffic sources and corresponding bounce rates. Setting goals is important for the success of
your website. “Too many sites lack
focus. They want to bombard the user with as much info as possible. People in
general (and especially on the web) are short on attention and patience. You
need Crystal clear focus on your site to keep people interested (MalleckDesign,
n.d.).”
Monday, June 11, 2012
Content vs. Conversation
There is a debate in the
social media world about the importance of content vs. conversation. People feel strongly about the topic and
emotions run high when they defend their stances. The debate is regarding the importance of
content and conversation and which one is “king.” Ironically, both arguments admit the critical
importance of the opposing view. Those
who feel that content is king argue that without good content, there is nothing
to talk about. Conversation enthusiasts
acknowledge that it takes good content to spark conversation.
Content is King.
This side of the argument
feels that content is what matters most; the rest will follow as long as the
content is good enough. “First, social
marketing efforts need to be driven by content, not vice versa. Without
content, there is not a whole lot to talk about (Greenberg, 2009).”
Conversation is King; content is just something
to talk about.
People on this side of the
debate feel that the importance of conversation triumphs over that of content. “Content without conversation is just
broadcasting, or just advertising. It
goes to the listener/reader/viewer/visitor… and stops there. If the sender is lucky, it may lodge as a
piece of information in the receiver’s consciousness, and they may act on it
someday. If the sender is luckier, or
perhaps more engaging, it may be something that the receiver wants to talk
about. And then the message gets a whole new burst of energy. The energy behind
the message is what gives it meaning, and a life of its own. That happens
because we humans like to communicate with each other (Novak, 2010).”
Considering Google and Facebook Advertising?
Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are
both powerful tools and can both be quite beneficial for companies to use. It is important to understand the differences
in use and functionality between the two before choosing the platform that best
fits your company, or making the determination to use both simultaneously.
Google
AdWords
Google AdWords allows advertisers to
create ads that will run on the Google search page. The set up process is simple and rather
quick. Advertisements are not only
displayed on the Google search page, but also on the Display Network. “The Google Display Network lets you place
ads on a variety of news sites, blogs and other niche sites across the internet
to reach more potential customers (Display Network, n.d.).” The network includes aol.com, ask.com,
earthlink.com and nytimes.com (AdWords, n.d.).
Google AdWords also targets your advertisement to relevant searches. “Using
your keywords, Google's contextual targeting technology can automatically match
your ads to webpages in our Display Network that are most relevant to your
business (AdWords, n.d.).”
Facebook
Ads
According to the Facebook page, the
key benefits to using Facebook Advertising are:
Pages – “Build your Facebook
presence, share content with people who like your Page, and reach new customers
(Facebook, n.d.).”
Ads and Sponsored Stories – “Reach
the people who like your Page and their friends with ads and sponsored stories
on Facebook (Facebook, n.d.).”
Transform – “Transform your website
into a social experience with plug-ins and custom apps (Facebook, n.d.).”
Facebook advertising also allows for
highly customizable placement for advertisements. It is possible to drill down into the demographic
details so that you are able to choose, very specifically, which demographics will
drive who will see your ad. Using
demographics such as age, gender, religion, language, education, connection,
interests is going to result in exactly the desired people seeing your ad.
Great…I
still don’t know which one is right for me!
Like I said in the beginning of this
post, both Google AdWords and Facebook Advertising are powerful tools. How do you choose which one is right for
you? You have to consider your
advertising goals and determine which platform will help you reach them.
Google Adwords is more popular, and
is likely to be the page that a prospective customer turns to when they need a
produc or a service. In short, “Google
AdWords allow you to advertise to people who are already looking for your
product or service (Lewis, 2011).” On
the other hand, Facebook advertising is the clear winner when it comes to
slicing and dicing the audience in order to show the most relevant content to
users. One key differentiator between
the two platforms is the average clickthrough rate of each organization. AdWords averages a click through rate of 2%
and Facebook Ads averages a CTR of about 0.051% (Lewis, 2011). While these numbers are important, they also
fail to show the entire story.
Determining which platform is right for you still depends on what your
advertising goals are and who you are trying to reach. If your target audience doesn’t go onto
Facebook frequently, the it probably doesn’t make sense for you to advertise there.
References
AdWords. (n.d.)
Retrieved June 11, 2012, from https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=adwords&hl=en_US<mpl=jfk&passive=false&ifr=false&alwf=true&continue=https://adwords.google.com/um/gaiaauth?apt%3DNone%26ltmpl%3Djfk%26ltmpl%3Djfk&error=newacct&sacu=1&sarp=1
Display Network. (n.d.)
Retrieved June 11, 2012, from http://www.google.com/ads/displaynetwork/
Lewis, M. (2011, December 28). Google AdWords vs. Facebook advertising. Netwirks. Retrieved June 11, 2012, from http://www.netwirks.com/google-adwords-vs-facebook-advertising/
Monday, June 4, 2012
History of Web Analytics…What a History!
The web analytics market has
undergone such rapid change since 1995, it is amazing! It is understandable that analytics have
changed so much in the past 15 years, especially when you look at how much the
internet has changed in that time period.
According to Pew’s Internet & American Life Project, “only about 15%
of American adults were using the Internet in 1995, with many online users
still getting their news from services like AOL and Prodigy (Shedden,
2010).” According to the same study, in
2010, 79% of adults in America were using the internet (Shedden, 2010). The number of internet users in America in
2000 was approximately 95 million, compared to about 245 million in March of
2012 (Internet World, n.d.).
These statistics are astounding, but explain the growth of web analytics. Where there is success, someone will figure out a way to capitalize on it, whether through pay per click advertising or search engine optimization service offerings. I think the biggest shift in the history of web analytics was during the 2004 – 2006 “Becoming Part of a Process Ecosystem (Perley Isaac, 2012)” phase. During this phase, “a previously technology-centric market was evolving into a process-centric market. In short, it was becoming more mature (Perley Isaac, 2012).” This was a key time period in the history of web analytics from a marketing perspective.
During the time period known as “Stage 3 (Perley Isaac, 2012),” the field of web analytics began to take on more of it’s current role where people don’t simply want to see trackers on homepages showing the number of visitors to the site, instead they started to see the benefit in tracking how customers are finding sites, what is working well on the website and what can be improved, and they started to work on putting this information to use in order to improve practices.
The internet has changed so dramatically over the last 15 years, it’s intriguing to consider what it might look like in another 15 years – in 2027. It will either become even more of a bustling virtual metropolis than it already is, or it will become a barren ghost town as people start to feel overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information (both legitimate and not so much) available at their fingertips.
These statistics are astounding, but explain the growth of web analytics. Where there is success, someone will figure out a way to capitalize on it, whether through pay per click advertising or search engine optimization service offerings. I think the biggest shift in the history of web analytics was during the 2004 – 2006 “Becoming Part of a Process Ecosystem (Perley Isaac, 2012)” phase. During this phase, “a previously technology-centric market was evolving into a process-centric market. In short, it was becoming more mature (Perley Isaac, 2012).” This was a key time period in the history of web analytics from a marketing perspective.
During the time period known as “Stage 3 (Perley Isaac, 2012),” the field of web analytics began to take on more of it’s current role where people don’t simply want to see trackers on homepages showing the number of visitors to the site, instead they started to see the benefit in tracking how customers are finding sites, what is working well on the website and what can be improved, and they started to work on putting this information to use in order to improve practices.
The internet has changed so dramatically over the last 15 years, it’s intriguing to consider what it might look like in another 15 years – in 2027. It will either become even more of a bustling virtual metropolis than it already is, or it will become a barren ghost town as people start to feel overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information (both legitimate and not so much) available at their fingertips.
References
Internet World Stats. (n.d.)
Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm
Perley Isaac Reed School of
Journalism, West Virginia University (2012). Lesson 2: Basic Web Analytics,
Retrieved May 21, 2012, from the WVU eCampus website: https://ecampus.wvu.edu
Shedden, D. (2010, September 17). Pew graphic: Internet use 1995 - 2000. Poynter. Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/business-news/transformation-tracker/105713/pew-graphic-internet-use-1995-2010/
Say It Ain’t So, Microsoft!
Last week, Microsoft announced
features of its to-be released Internet Explorer 10, which will launch as part
of Windows 8. One feature in particular,
has been making headlines, the “Do Not Track (DNT)” feature. Microsoft has opted to default the DNT
feature to “on,” upsetting some using behavioral targeting as a basis for ad
targeting as well as inciting conversations about the reasons behind
Microsoft’s programming choice.
Microsoft claims this move is a result of their desire to protect consumers’ privacy, saying “While some people will say that this change is too much and others that it is not enough, we think it is progress and that consumers will favor products designed with their privacy in mind over products that are designed primarily to gather their data (Clay, 2012).”
However, onlookers are quick to point out that Microsoft may be trying to affect Google’s bottom line, blog contributor for Forbes, Kelly Clay, even goes so far as to say, “With IE10, Microsoft is intending to both be creating a better browser than Google Chrome, and trying to squash Google’s entire business model by turning on “Do Not Track” by default (Clay, 2012).” The reason for the accusations is that Google enjoys a large amount of ad revenue coming from the ability to target ads to consumers based upon information collected about them during browsing sections. Microsoft does not have as much ad revenue generated in this fashion. VentureBeat contributor, Tom Cheredar, writes, “Reading between the lines a bit, it’s easy to see that this move will clearly win over some of Microsoft’s customers. And even if its advertising revenue suffers in the long run, Microsoft isn’t a company that’s entirely reliant on its ad business. One of Microsoft’s major competitors, Google, can’t say the same (Cheredar, 2012).”
I personally have mixed feelings about this phenomenon. While I don’t necessary like the thought of being tracked all the time (it feels a bit stalker-esque when I put a lot of thought into it), I do appreciate seeing advertisements that cater to my interests and behaviors. I also see this situation from a marketer’s point of view and know how frustrating it already is to see “not provided” in my Google Analytics results.
The timing of this announcement causes concern for some. “The change could also threaten the still-nascent privacy standard, and prompt an ad industry revolt against it…the change could backfire by undermining the loose coalition working to create a standard, in the web’s usual, messy, multi-stakeholder way (Singel, 2012).”
In any case, it is clear that many people in the marketing industry are frustrated with the default feature and that numerous onlookers are guessing that Microsoft is trying to slow down the progress of Google. One this is for sure…a move like this will certainly shake things up!
Microsoft claims this move is a result of their desire to protect consumers’ privacy, saying “While some people will say that this change is too much and others that it is not enough, we think it is progress and that consumers will favor products designed with their privacy in mind over products that are designed primarily to gather their data (Clay, 2012).”
However, onlookers are quick to point out that Microsoft may be trying to affect Google’s bottom line, blog contributor for Forbes, Kelly Clay, even goes so far as to say, “With IE10, Microsoft is intending to both be creating a better browser than Google Chrome, and trying to squash Google’s entire business model by turning on “Do Not Track” by default (Clay, 2012).” The reason for the accusations is that Google enjoys a large amount of ad revenue coming from the ability to target ads to consumers based upon information collected about them during browsing sections. Microsoft does not have as much ad revenue generated in this fashion. VentureBeat contributor, Tom Cheredar, writes, “Reading between the lines a bit, it’s easy to see that this move will clearly win over some of Microsoft’s customers. And even if its advertising revenue suffers in the long run, Microsoft isn’t a company that’s entirely reliant on its ad business. One of Microsoft’s major competitors, Google, can’t say the same (Cheredar, 2012).”
I personally have mixed feelings about this phenomenon. While I don’t necessary like the thought of being tracked all the time (it feels a bit stalker-esque when I put a lot of thought into it), I do appreciate seeing advertisements that cater to my interests and behaviors. I also see this situation from a marketer’s point of view and know how frustrating it already is to see “not provided” in my Google Analytics results.
The timing of this announcement causes concern for some. “The change could also threaten the still-nascent privacy standard, and prompt an ad industry revolt against it…the change could backfire by undermining the loose coalition working to create a standard, in the web’s usual, messy, multi-stakeholder way (Singel, 2012).”
In any case, it is clear that many people in the marketing industry are frustrated with the default feature and that numerous onlookers are guessing that Microsoft is trying to slow down the progress of Google. One this is for sure…a move like this will certainly shake things up!
References
Cheredar, T. (2012, June 1). Microsoft has more to gain than lose from
IE10’s default ‘Do Not Track option. VentureBeat. Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/01/ie10-default-do-not-track/
Clay, K.. (2012, June 4). Is Microsoft going after Google with IE10? Forbes. Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/06/04/is-microsoft-going-after-google-with-ie10/
Singel, R. (2012, May 31). In ad network nightmare, Microsoft making ‘Do
Not Track’ Default for IE10. Wired.
Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/ie10-do-not-track/
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