Measuring the ROI of your website:
using web analytics effectively.
Enterprise Ireland eMarketing Seminar, Morgan McKeagney
Dublin, 22/10/09 Managing Director, iQ Content

Money

Sales

Conversion

Supermarket from hell?

The web’s dirty little secret….
…carnage in the supermarket.

Web analytics is…
…the practice of measuring, collecting, analysing, and
reporting on internet data to understand how a site is
used and how to optimise its usage.
Web Analytics Association
Four Goals:
1. Better understand your users
2. Make web design decisions based on data, not
hunches
3. Improve your website (remove barriers to sales)
4. Improve conversions and sales

The challenge of web analytics
• Identify the metrics
that matter
• Use metrics that are
actionable – that lead
to making a change
• Proper configuration –
accurate data on
numbers that matter
• Act on what you find

Using analytics to drive
conversions

How to measure

The Conversion Funnel
Your visitors
1
Viewing a
product
category page
2
Viewing a
product page
3
Viewing a
shopping cart
4
Completing an
order Goal = visitors become customers

A conversion story
3. Client makes
web site changes
1. GA setup
With GA = 3x
2. GA review
Without GA

Funnel
Search properties 1
18.5%
Search results 2
30.3%
Check availability 3
95.4%
Make booking 4
42.1%
Confirm booking 5
37.4%
Enter payment 6
59.6%
Booking complete 7 Goal Page

Identify the Accident Black Spots?

Visitors
Exits = 95.4%
Exit Reasons:
• Poor search experience
• Availability checker very clunky
Exits = 59.6%
Exit Reasons:
Customers •
•
Overlong payment form
Poor layout

Funnel
Search properties 1
Search results 2
Improved layout
Check availability 3
Make booking 4
Removed
Confirm booking 5
Improved layout
Enter payment 6
Booking complete 7 Goal Page

300% improvement
This translates directly
into revenues.
Target = 1000%

Design matters: Supermarkets again
 Extensive customer research:
• interviews
• observing people shop
• analysis of store traffic
 Leads to careful design of:
• layout of the store
• product placement
• colours, sounds and smells
 The result? Who has ever
come out of a supermarket
with much more than they
went in to buy?

Analytics tells you the what, not the
why
 Customer engagement critical to
understand
• WHY things are happening
• HOW BEST to fix them

Understanding your customer

Better results come from deep
understanding of your customer
“…knowing and understanding
the customer so well the product
or service fits him and sells
itself.”
Peter Drucker

Techniques for building understanding
Source: “The User is Always Right”, Mulder & Yaar, 2006

Getting into the mind of your users
 Real people, with real needs use your website
 Simple goals: find info, do stuff, buy stuff, save time,
save money
 If site doesn’t support user goals, it fails
 Understanding your users single biggest challenge
 How to do it?
• Define a user model: personas and scenarios
• User test
• Illicit and respond to user feedback

The persona technique
“ The broader the target
 Alan Cooper  Personas you aim for, the more
• Archetypal (fictional) user, certainty you have of
with specific needs and missing the bull’s eye ”
background Alan Cooper
• Should be a few key
personas for your entire site
• By serving key personas, you
serve everyone else
• Serve as design targets for
the development team.
 Key – what is their primary GOAL
that brings them to your site. And
what TASK are they performing to
meet that goal?

Moving from general to specific

Find out more: two books for your
bookshelf

Case Study | Permanent TSB
…re-launched September 09.

Extensive Customer Engagement

Redesigned all aspects of the site

User tested all aspects of the
redesign

Key points: funnels and conversion
 Conversion rate is all about user experience: less
road-bumps, accident blackspots, higher conversions
 Increased conversions = increased profitability
 300%+ conversion improvements are possible and
common
 Measurement is a critical first step in increasing
conversions
 Necessary, but not sufficient: analysis & action critical
 Analytics tells you the what; user engagement tells
you why.

Understanding effectiveness of SEO
& SEM

Other things to look at:
 General trends – visitor numbers & engagement
 SEO / SEM – was it worth it; is it working?
 Campaigns – how effective were they, which worked
best?
 Where do visitors come from? How engaged and
loyal are they?
 Most importantly: are we getting the outcomes we
want? What changes do we need to make?

Last year…

SEO: Where people are coming from
 No point in using Yahoo or MSN paid search!

 you can drill down to view by
country

For Boot Camp profile, it's more
interesting

Content popularity: accidental tourists?
 Why is it so popular? And why the high exit
percentage?

So we cross-segment that page
 About Dublin page:
Unintentional SEO!

Bounce rates
Majority didn't stick around!
Either optimise landing page, or rethink SEM

Effectiveness of SEM campaigns: what
worked, what didn’t
 Real data to track your online marketing efforts
 Offline require different method of tracking

Key points: SEM & SEO
 Analytics helps you to determine if your SEM was
actually worth it & make better decisions
 Focus on your landing pages, your bounce rates, and
visitor engagement (page views per visit)
 Pay attention to the valuable organic search data at
your fingertips

Summary & Wrap-up

Good analytics = take action
 Forrester Research: Biggest challenge
marketers face with analytics?
 53% say Acting on Findings

Analytics framework: be systematic
From Victoria Web Analytics Toolkit

Wrap-up
 Your website is all about conversion
 Measurement is critical:
• # 1: Understand your customers and what they’re doing
on your site
• # 2: Identify accident blackspots – points where
customers are experiencing difficulty
• # 3: Take action – fix problems, track changes
• # 4: Increase conversions – put more money in the bank
 Measurement alone is not sufficient: you need to
act on the data – make changes

Questions? Feedback?
Contact Details:
Morgan McKeagney
 Visit us at:
Managing Director www.iqcontent.com
iQ Content Ltd
 Read blog, sign-up for free
e: morgan@iqcontent.com
monthly newsletter
t: +353 1 817 0768
Twitter: @morganmck
@iqcontent
www.iqcontent.com