Empirical Path Web Analytics & Market Research


All we do is measure marketing and markets, so analytics aren't a way to sell you design, development, or software.


Because we didn't create your sites and campaigns, we give you unbiased data on what works.


And we tell the story behind the numbers, turning dashboards and data into action.

At Empirical Path, our web analytics and market research consultants focus only on measuring your marketing and your markets.

Our web analytics practice tells the story behind your numbers by fixing web analytics software implementations, creating custom reports, and translating data into business insights.  Whether you've installed Google Analytics, Webtrends, Yahoo! Web Analytics, or SiteCatalyst, Empirical Path will make your metrics more trusted, complete, and actionable.

Our market research practice takes the pulse of your customers and competitors by synthesizing online questionnaires, telephone surveys, third-party data, and targeted interviews. When you're entering a new market, launching a new product, or honing your marketing message, Empirical Path will surface customer needs and opportunities.

Read more about our deep service offerings and our success stories in every sector.  Or contact us to learn more.

Client: Business News

Empirical Path consultants audited the Google Analytics implementation of a financial and technology news publisher to enhance how visitor behavior was captured and communicated to decision-makers.  Tested a dozen website goals to ensure that conversions were tracked and recommended Events and URL query parameters to fix untracked goals.  Designed a campaign tagging approach to allow deeper analysis of company-initiated efforts and separation from user-generated referrals.  Launched regular narrative to interpret and recommend ways to improve website results.  Read the full case study.

Client: Parenting Community

Empirical Path consultants synthesized web analytics, ad server, and CRM data in daily "war room" reports for the top parenting community website.  Interviewed executives to understand business drivers and craft Key Performance Indicators. Drafted daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports on results and variance from prior periods.  Created the first-ever detailed forecast of site usage and advertising sales as a baseline.  Configured Omniture SiteCatalyst, DART for Publishers, and Salesforce.com to automate outputs needed for synthesized reports.  Read the full case study.

Client: Hospital

Empirical Path consultants mapped a regional hospital's constituents for its new ad agency.  Leveraged social media interactions, demographic and geographic data, and web analytics data, including page views, search terms, and referring sites, to understand visitor behavior and context.  Identified themes and mapped their relative importance on-site vs. off-site and in search vs. website vocabulary.  Compared visits against the online population in states, DMAs, counties, and cities to highlight potential targets.  Proposed roles for each theme in discovery and exploration of the brand, plus tactical improvements to the site.  Read the full case study.

Client: Career Education

Empirical Path consultants planned, executed, and measured the consumer marketing campaign for a career education program serving college students.  Built a database of school characteristics to select high-potential campuses based on admissions competitiveness, student hometowns, advertising costs, and on-campus recruiting.  Tested multiple online advertising approaches — from display and text ads to email sponsorships — to optimize cost per lead.  Employed Webtrends to track site visitation patterns, then adjusted site navigation to drive visitors toward sign-up.  Read the full case study.

Empirical Path was founded in 2002 by Peter Howley, a seasoned consultant, strategist, and manager.  Howley has advised diverse organizations -- from household names to startups -- in media, finance, retail, not-for-profit, and government.

Howley developed Empirical Path’s data-driven approach while at strategy consultancy Bain & Company and in the MBA Program at Harvard Business School.  He started the Business Research and Analysis practice at social marketing firm Noral Group International.

Howley led market research and web analytics at washingtonpost.com, then headed the advertising effectiveness product line at the internet's largest ad network.  He has earned Omniture and Google Analytics certifications.

Contact Peter Howley at (505) 856-6131 or via email.

 

Empirical Path's Web Analytics Practice is led by Jim Snyder, a veteran of web publishing and technology and a certified Google Analytics expert.  Snyder has led numerous implementation, configuration, and analysis projects for content sites and marketers from Silicon Alley to Silicon Valley.

Snyder built his deep experience in web analytics, content, and marketing in development and measurement roles with Weather.com, Yale University, and Georgia Tech.  He began his web publishing career as part of the launch team for CNN.com.

Snyder's technical skills include SQL, SPSS, Oracle, SQL Server, PHP, and Java.  He also holds an MBA from the Georgia Tech College of Management.

Contact Jim Snyder at (203) 804-4509 or via email.