Analytics

Concepts in evaluating a piece of communication

Goals(and Objectives)

Goals

I want to:

Increase exposure by doubling traffic to our site

Improve the perception of our brand

Grow our profit by 10%

Establish our brand in Asia

Build community/buzz

Slide by Brandon Prebynski

Different tools measure different goals

Do you need qualitative measures or quantitative?

People are saying she wants to break up with you.

In the last month, she has answered only one of my 57 text messages.

Slide adapted from Brandon Prebynski

Content Audit Media impressions

Slide adapted from Brandon Prebynski

Focus group Website hits

Slide by Brandon Prebynski

Slide by Brandon Prebynski

What are we trying to measure?

• Unaided awareness

• Exposure

• Engagement

• Opinion

• Conversion

• Negative metrics

Unaided awareness

Tools:• Alerts • Survey• Content audit

What it tells you:How well known about your brand/product is.

What it doesn’t (really) tell you:What people think about your brand/product.How your outreach campaign is doing.

Exposure

Tools:• Unique visitors• Open-rates• New vs. return

What it tells you:How many people have seen your communication/marketing materials. Audience size and growth

What it doesn’t (really) tell you:What people think about your brand/product.How engaged they are.If they’re going to buy.

Engagement

Tools:• Time on site• click-throughs• Average pageviews

What it tells you:How engaging/interesting do people find your content.

What it doesn’t (really) tell you:What your reach is.If they’re going to buy.

Opinion

Tools:Focus groupsContent auditSM Alerts

What it tells you:How people, at any given moment, are feeling about your brand/product (qualitative)

What it doesn’t (really) tell you:What your reach is.Universal perspective If they’re going to buy.

Conversion

Tools:Website analyticsPurchasesTailored linksA/B testing

What it tells you:Did your content achieve your goal? Did it drive sales/downloads/action.

What it doesn’t (really) tell you:Likelihood to repeat the actionAudience size/ reach

Negative Analytics

Tools:Bounce ratesOpt-OutsContent audit

What they tell you:Something’s not working.

What they don’t (really) tell you:Exactly what that is.

Analytics tools for print, websites, email, PR (content audit), social media.

Cookies

Visits / Visitors

A count of all the sessions in a given time period

How sessions start/end• The visitor exits the website• The visitor leaves the page inactive for 29 min

Unique Visitors

A count of all of the individual computers visiting a website during a given time period.

Example of an analytics report

Time on Site:

How long a user spends on a given webpage, as measured by timestamps when they first enter and leave.

Page Views

How many pages did the user visit while on your site?

Bounce Rate

The percent of traffic that stayed on your website for less than 5 seconds.

Or, for email: The percentage of emails that didn’t get through.

Conversion rates

Of your total pool, how many people took the action you wanted them to take?

Social Media Metrics

• Awareness/Exposure

• Engagement

• Opinion

• Conversion

• Negative metrics

Followers, blog subscribers, unique visitors.

Wall comments, sharing, RT, inbound, FF

Comments, Alerts, FF

Alerts, opt-out

But enough about E-Communications…

Public Relations Content AuditPOPs

Placements/comments

Journalism POPs CirculationReadership

Advertising POPs impressions

Qualitative Quantitative

Content Audits

Assigning a value score for coverage/mentionsof your brand, message or product.

Benchmarks

Email Benchmarks

Evaluating the data, making decisions.

EngagementAwareness/Exposure

Unique visitorsViewsSearch TermsFans/followers

Time on sitePage ViewsCommentsReturn Visits

OpinionContent auditSM Listening toolsSurveysFocus GroupsBehavior

FunctionalityBounce RateTime on SiteReturn VisitsDrastic changes to anymetric

ROI = (X – Y) Y

Return on Investment Equation

Where X is your final value and Y is your starting value. So, if you invest $5 and get back $20, your ROI is (20 – 5) / 5 = 3 times your initial investment.

Slide by Brandon Prebynski

Determining Return on Investment

Scenarios

Group 1: Entity: Marketing FirmGoal: Get people to sign up for their Awards Night EventChannels: Email and Website landing page

Open Rate: (high)Click Through Rate (low)Sign-Ups on Website: (moderate)

Group 2:

Entity: Committee to Re-elect Deval PatrickGoal: Drive online donationsChannel: Web

Page Views: HighUnique Visitors: LowConversion: LowTime on site: Moderate

Group 3:

Entity: YouGoal: Trying to build your reputation as an expertChannel: Your personal blog

Unique Visitors: growing by 20%Time on site: declining by 10%Return Visitors: flatComments: Low

Group 4:

Entity: Ann Taylor ClothingGoal: Drive sales of the fall line

Visits: HighUnique Visits: HighTime on site: HighConversions: Low