Seth Duncan/Context Analytics 2009 Institute for Public Relations Research Measurement Summit

Measuring the Impact of Earned Online Media on Business Outcomes: A Methodological Approach Presentation to the IPR Measurement Summit October, 2009 Seth Duncan, Research Manager [email_address]

Itinerary

Brief overview of how web analytics work and how they can benefit PR professionals

Practical steps for how communications teams can use “out-of-the-box” web analytics

How more advanced statistics can be used to integrate web analytics and other forms of media measurement to help communications team target the correct online audiences and optimize messaging strategies

Shortcoming of web analytics and emerging uses

Standard Media Metrics Sentiment Message Penetration Volume or prominence Share of voice/ Thought leadership

Media and Business Outcomes

Web Analytics: A Brief Primer 1. Visitor types URL into browser (or clicks on link) 2. Request sent to website server 3. Server sends page with JavaScript code 4. JavaScript code executed: collects data and sends to collection server (e.g., Google Analytics, Omniture, etc.)

Web Analytics: A Brief Primer

Number of Unique Visitors

Avg. Time Per Visit

Bounce Rate

Number of Page Views

Conversions

Direct Traffic Search Results Email Campaigns Earned Media Paid Search Content Network Ads Social Media Advertisements Website Landing Page Landing Page Landing Page Sale Download Registration

Web Analytics: A Brief Primer

Number of Unique Visitors

Avg. Time Per Visit

Bounce Rate

Number of Page Views

Conversions

Unpaid Traffic from:

Mainstream Media (e.g., NYTimes.com)

Online Media (e.g., CNET)

Blogs

Forums

Twitter

Social Networking Sites

Other Corporate Websites

Earned Media

Why Are Web Analytics So Important to PR? Uses same metrics to measure earned and paid media Can help optimize overall communications strategy by matching the right messages with the right audiences

Use fact rather than intuition when addressing questions such as:

Is our corporate Twitter account driving traffic to the right web pages?

Is Key Message A more effective at driving sales than Key Message B?

Should we invest more resources in social or traditional media?

What audiences should corporate communications be targeting?

Sites that refer a lot of traffic Effective messages Demand generation and sales

Why PR Is Not Using Web Analytics

Why PR Is Not Using Web Analytics Web Analytics Dashboard Raw Referral Data from Web Analytics Solution Social Media Report Traditional Media Report

Why PR Is Not Using Web Analytics

Practical Steps For PR Professionals

Using Web Analytics for PR Basic Analytics Pulled directly from solution Address basic questions Who visits your website? Which sites drive most traffic? Which sites drive most sales? Should we invest more resources in social or traditional media?

Basic Analytics What sites drove the most traffic and engagement? Raw Earned Media Report From Web Analytics Clean

Basic Analytics What types of sites drove the most traffic and referrals? Raw Earned Media Report From Web Analytics Media Type Site Content/Vertical Outreach Categorize

Traditional

Blog

Forum

Video

etc…

General News

Lifestyle

Gaming

etc…

Sites with relationships/ contact

Basic Analytics Just by spending a little time to categorize/segment sites (hypothetical data)… Outreach Media Type Site Content Conversion Rate for Ad Words

Practical Tips for Basic Analytics 1. Web metrics depend on PR goals

Generating Demand/Leads

Unique Visitors

Registrations

Downloads

Avg. Time on Site

Goal Page Visits

Top Exit Pages

Sales

Revenue

Orders

Conversion Rate

Practical Tips for Basic Analytics 2. Take the time to download and clean the data Results from search and email campaigns could make earned media appear less effective

Practical Tips for Basic Analytics 3. Look at both totals and averages Averages reveal “hidden gems” (hypothetical data): Total Sales Average Sales

Advanced Methods What types of stories and posts drive action? Assign different sites and stories attributes that will later be ranked to better understand what’s most effective

Tying It All Together Web Analytics Dashboard Raw Referral Data from Web Analytics Solution Social Media Report Traditional Media Report

Where to Get Data About the Site Knowing who is visiting your site and where they are coming from What sort of data is useful? Where do you get it? Media Type Site Content Site Category

Human categorization

Social media monitoring tool (Radian6, Techrigy, Buzzmetrics, etc.)

Business intelligence tools

Traffic At Referring Site

Panel-based data (e.g., comScore, Compete, etc.)

Referring Site Demographics

Search engine/panel data (Google Ad Planner, Microsoft Adcenter, Quantcast, etc.)

How to Measure Story/Post Content These are the components of media coverage that drive perceptions and action Similar to what is usually found in traditional and social media monitoring reports:

Sentiment

Spokespeople/Quoteds

Key Messages

Competitor Mentions

Industry Issues

Story/Post size

Brand Prominence

Product Mentions

Data Integration and Analysis Audience Data Unpaid Referral Data From Web Analytics Site-Level Attributes : Site type, site content, audience, traffic, number of posts, etc. Online Media Content Post-Level Attributes : Sentiment, product mentions, messages, story length, etc. Integrated Data Integrated, Causal Model

Ranking Attributes by Importance Apply multiple regression, hierarchical linear modeling, or any statistical analysis that can provide an estimate of “effect size” Audience/ Site Attributes Content/ Message Attributes Regression It’s like multivariate testing, only for earned media instead of advertisements Sentiment Industry Issues Key Messages Product Mentions Competitor Mentions Story/Post Size Web Analytics Metric

Ranking by Coverage Attributes by Importance What Drives Visitors? What Drives Sales?

Statistical Output Helps:

Understand what types of articles/posts are effective

What messages are most effective?

What types of media outlets are effective?

Ultimately, helps to prioritize PR efforts

Tying It All Together Creating a Causal Model Using Path Analysis or Structural Equation Modeling

Playbook Drives Engagement Drives Visitors Opportunities Very Effective Ineffective Missed Opportunities

Playbook Drives Engagement Drives Visitors

Opportunities

Site/Audience Types

…

…

Story/Post Content

…

…

Very Effective

Site/Audience Types

…

…

Story/Post Content

…

…

Ineffective

Site/Audience Types

…

…

Story/Post Content

…

…

Missed Opportunities

Site/Audience Types

…

…

Story/Post Content

…

…

Playbook Key Message: “ Product makes you smarter” Sites With High Income Audiences Match messages that drive engagement with audiences that are likely to visit the site

Playbook “ Product makes you smarter” Sites With High Income Audiences In Match messages that drive engagement with audiences that are likely to visit the site

Final Thoughts

Caveats

Reliance on cookies

Reliance on clickthroughs

Mobile devices and javascript

You can’t directly track offline activity

Messy Data

Integration requires additional software or technical skill

Time consuming manual analysis/Communications team bandwidth

Technical Limitations Practical Limitations

Future Directions Click-throughs View-throughs

Future Directions Integrating Advertising and Earned Media

Are ads more effective when they appear alongside unpaid media?

Is unpaid media more effective when paired with ads?

Takeaway Messages

Web analytics allow communications teams to use the same types of measurement as other forms of marketing

Web analytics can show what sites and stories/posts are driving the most traffic and engagement on a corporate website “out of the box”

When integrated with other types of media measurement, web analytics can help communications teams match the right types of messages with the right audiences to increase engagement and revenue - this allows communications teams to use sophisticated segmentation and targeting methods used in paid media marketing

Web analytics are not perfect: Imperfections with data collection, reliance on click-throughs, and difficulty integrating different data sources are barriers to widespread PR adoption of web analytics

About Context Analytics

Context Analytics helps marketing and communication teams gain a competitive edge by identifying and assessing perceptions, positioning strategies, and emerging relevant issues in mainstream and social media

Our research adds strategic insight to campaign planning and is critical to assessing and demonstrating the value of marketing programs to executives.