Empirical Path Web Analytics & Market Research

Empirical Path is proud to once again hear a client tell the world how we helped them measure and optimize online channels.

In this case, it was public-radio station KDHX's Steven Ley, who praised our Analysis Exchange project to establish Key Performance Indicators.  These metrics are guiding the station toward its ambitious audience and engagement growth goals as it is "beginning a new internal evaluation and growth project to increase participation and audience over time." As the Official Blog of the Analysis Exchange reports:

"On September 21, 2011, the National Center for Media Engagement and Integrated Media Association coordinated a webinar entitled “Insights From Metrics: Public Media and Analysis Exchange”.  Thank you to Steve Ley from KDHX in St. Louis...for sharing your Analysis Exchange success stories and how you are using web analytics at your stations.  And Thank you to the National Center for Media Engagement and Integrated Media Association for providing a forum for us to share our story. If you are interested in hearing this webinar, it is recorded and posted on the NCME website here."

The Analysis Exchange "is an effort designed to provide hands-on training opportunities for aspiring web analytics professionals while providing free web data analysis to the entire nonprofit community. The effort works by connecting organizations, mentors, and student participants."

Empirical Path's Peter Howley served as a mentor on this project, with student Joan Cole doing the heavy lifting.  The pair studied the website's goals and interviewed KDHX's web team to recommend a manageable set of Key Performance Indicators, pictured here.  As Steven said: "This is a really helpful approach that our team took in educating us about the relationships between the measurements. It further listed the tools that we already know how to use in order to make the changes based on the goals. It really helped to add value to our project."

Peter and Joan then calculated the current baseline for each metric.  We also highlighted the search terms, content, and traffic sources offering the most leverage on the new KPIs.  In the webinar, Steven concluded: "The Analysis Exchange is really a rare system that provides the kind of value that you might pay thousands of consulting dollars for, and it should definitely be treated that way."

Peter and Joan are teaming up again on an Exchange project for a Washington, DC-based not-for-profit, and Empirical Path's Jim Snyder enhanced web analytics for a DC professional association, earning his own praise.

Please read more about digital measurement for not-for-profits.

World-class athletes are fast, on the field and online.

So an exercise company came to us for help tracking its website visitors as they moved among site sections and through the checkout process, as we describe in a new case study:

"A fitness equipment maker sold its product line exclusively through its e-commerce website, but could not attribute revenue to its campaigns due to multiple sub-domains.  Reporting was impaired by double-counted visits and 'self-referrals' appearing to be from the company’s own domain."

This is a classic example of the cross-domain measurement issues we discussed in December's "Entire web empire must be mapped" blog post.  In this client's case, as in most cases where numerous marketing campaigns are cranking through multiple channels, the payoff was immediate:

"Now, managers of this e-commerce website can adjust spending among channels and on promotions within each channel based on reliable revenue figures."

Read the full case study here.  Identifying cross-domain and -subdomain issues is a key part of our Web Analytics Audit.

The pen is mightier than the checkout scanner.

At least that’s what Jim and I, who earned our stripes at CNN.com and washingtonpost.com, think.  Call ‘em what you will – “media,” “content,” “ad-supported” – businesses that attract and monetize audiences via information might have to be tougher than e-commerce plays…because their job is tougher.

Media is our number-one client vertical, so we’ve learned and taught a lot about how digital measurement is different under the advertising business model.  Content sites face unique reporting context:

1. The looser connection between visitation and revenue
2. The ever-changing product
3. The ever-changing demand
4. The organizational dynamics.

But how unique?

You only have one chance to make a first impression; how do you know if it worked?

A technology client wanted to evaluate which of its many homepage ideas drove the most registrations. Its rich media website is unusual: the homepage is essentially a stand-alone landing page which presents several different user experiences to different visitors via an Omniture Test & Target A/B split test, or as we call it, conversion optimization.

To measure success, none of us was impressed by Google Analytics’ Top Landing Pages report, which only provides basic metrics like bounce rate and entrances.  This standard report doesn’t expose the most and least effective landing page versions as measured by the ultimate goal, conversion.

Furthermore, since the registration process was entirely rich media and lacked unique page names, no confirmation page could be used to capture Goals by URL, the standard approach in Google Analytics.  To keep Pageview numbers accurate, it was necessary to use Events to track conversions and other rich media interactions.  But traditionally, Events could not be counted as Goals by Google.

Time was on our side, however; thanks to Google's recent (and life-saving) upgrade, we were able to count Events as Goals.  And Goals can used as metrics in many Google Analytics reports.  Not Top Landing Pages, of course, so we created a Custom Report, pictured at right.

With a Custom Report, we can show the various conversion metrics -- Goal Completions, Entrances, Goal Conversion Rate -- in one place.  We also customized Per Visit Goal Value, which is the total value of Goals in each Dimension, divided by the number of visits in each Dimension.

Our client wanted the added insight of seeing the specific external web page that contributed to user registration, since many visits came from editorial partnerships with content sites.  We customized the User Defined Value in Google Analytics to store the full referrer path, not just the domain.

Also pictured at right is a disguised Custom Report with our recommended metrics and dimensions added.  We can clearly see that homepage version B had the highest conversion rate and a Per Visit Goal Value more than double the other homepages.  Conversely, the report reveals that despite the default, version A, having a larger volume of entrances, only 1% of all visitors actually converted.  This is strong evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of landing pages and what kind of first impression a site makes.

Learn more about our Conversion Optimization offering or read more about our expertise in Google Analytics.

One year ago today, Jim and I helped Google Analytics roll out a new feature that hugely expands analysts' ability to segment all kinds of visitor-level data.  Since then, we've included Custom Variables in almost every web analytics engagement, so we'll detail some of the most creative applications below.

Custom Variables brought the free GA tool's segmentation power up to and beyond that of its premium competitors, some of whom are still catching up.  We remain honored to be the first Google Analytics Certified Partner to join the GA product team on a webinar, which was viewed live by hundreds and watched on YouTube 10,000+ times:

"Check out the YouTube video of our March 24 webinar with Google Analytics about custom variables and how we deployed this advanced technique to enhance Business Insider's metrics:

Our section begins at 30:00 and doesn't suffer as much from the sound quality issues that commenters pointed out.  That said, if you'd like a readable copy of our portion of the PowerPoint, or an interpretation of what we're saying, please contact us."

 What can this feature do for you?  As the Google Analytics Blog explains:

"Don't Be Evil" is easy to say, but Google backs it up.

The search (and analytics) giant is expanding its Google for Nonprofits effort with the addition of the Google for Nonprofits Marketplace and other benefits.  Empirical Path is proud to have been selected as one of Google's inaugural partners for today's launch.  Google's take:

"Over time, we’ve learned that many nonprofits require hands-on assistance to optimize the use of Google tools. So we’re also introducing the Google for Nonprofits Marketplace, which connects nonprofits with professional service providers who have agreed to offer their services for a free or discounted rate. These firms are already certified partners from existing Google marketplaces—like AdWords Authorized Resellers, Analytics Certified Partners, Google Apps Marketplace and the Google Earth Outreach Developer Marketplace."

Empirical Path is already working closely with Google Analytics and has deep experience serving not-for-profit organizations from universities to Federal agencies.  We just blogged about our participation in the Analysis Exchange, which enables pro bono consulting projects for not-for-profits while training students in the art and science of web analytics.  Now there is another way for web managers in this important sector to optimize development and communications efforts using cutting-edge, free digital measurement tools.

As we've argued in talks before the United Way and International Downtown Association, just because an organization lacks the profit motive, doesn't mean that web marketing approaches from the commercial sector aren't relevant.  We specialize in understanding not-for-profit clients' website goals, even -- and especially -- when they go beyond filling online shopping carts.  Digital measurement expertise can help maximize visibility, education, advocacy, voluntarism, and donations.

Please contact us about the Google for Nonprofits Marketplace or apply now.