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w.illi.am/_at_Google_Lobby

The second day at the Google Analytics Authorized Consultants yearly summit is the first of two days fully dedicated to Google Analytics.  The day definitely started on a high note with a keynote from Avinash Kaushik who talked to us about everything but web analytics tools. Let me explain.

It was both interesting and reassuring to hear that a lot of actionable information does not come from your web analytics solution, no matter what solution you have (Omniture, Coremetrics, WebTrends, Google Analytics, etc.). Why is it interesting? Because we shared tools some of us use for measuring mobile activity and for measuring social media activity.  Why reassuring? Because it confirmed that I wasn’t crazy by using KPIs that are nowhere to be found on our client’s web analytics solution.

Most of the time, we focus way too much on data that is available on Google Analytics (or whatever other tool), on how to interpret it, on how to measure it, how to segment it and so on and so forth.  But there is one very significant detail that is not being taken into consideration: all of these tools work when the user is on your website.  Now think about this, where do users read your content? Where do they interact with your content? Is it only on your website? Most likely not! A significant part of how users interact with your content takes places out of your website, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, RSS Feeds or whatever other medium.  Now how do you track this in your web analytics solution?  Omniture made an attempt to integrate Twitter in their reports (specifically, how many followers you have) but it still does not provide actionable information which actually means something.  It’s like saying, “I have x amount of visitors.”  Yes, you always want more visitors, but how does it tell you if you are doing well or not?

We as marketers must be creative and define the KPIs that apply to us and to our marketing efforts. These KPIs are most likely not in your web analytics solution.  Is your KPI engagement? Is it conversations generated from your news? There are ways to measure this and tools available to do so.  The fun part is, this is where we get to be creative.

Follow me on twitter.com/Humberto2210 to stay updated on the GAAC Summit

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/ Marketing interactif /  Web Optimization
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First day at the Google Analytics Authorized Consultants yearly summit was entirely dedicated to Website Optimizer.  Now just to get this out of the way, yes there is lots of information and presentations on new features and case studies.  Unfortunately, I cannot share all of it with you because of an NDA.

I can tell you this, however: the recurring theme is not on how easy it is to use Website Optimizer or even Website Optimizer best practices or guidelines. It is really more about the reality our clients experience when putting in place landing page optimization tests. Two main things came out: the difficulty of establishing an internal process (initial reticence from parties ranging from marketers to IT departments) and the lack of budget.

These two elements seem to be the most recurrent, which is rather unfortunate because putting landing page optimization tests in place should not prove to be that complicated (agreed that there may always be an exceptional technical challenge). What surprised me the most was that even today’s most popular case study – the Obama Presidential Campaign – ran into the same challenges, yet the outcome is clearly impressive

We were fortunate enough to have Dan Siroker, former Director of Analytics for Obama’s New Media team during the presidential campaign, walk us through his reality over the two years he spent working for that team.  It is really amazing to see the results he managed to achieve and the level of customization of the content provided to users that landed on Obama’s website.  The attention to detail of the dedicated analytics team helped the Obama team raise 656 million dollars out of which 500 million dollars came from the website alone.  As you can imagine, Dan’s team was small and did not have much of a budget to work with but they managed to start small and gain credibility through small and quick breakthroughs until more resources were allocated to allow them to do even more.

Starting small enabled Obama’s New Media team to develop a landing page optimization culture that eventually led to some very impressive content customization.  Basically, it let the New Media team start segmenting and targeting each user for two purposes: 1) to keep raising money for the campaign at first  2) to press the user to vote (e.g. by giving voting locations).  The message was personalized for each user based on different variables ranging from geo-location, call to action clicked by the user, etc.

As a website owner or marketing manager who understands the value of user segmentation and content customization, you most likely have very developed ideas on the messages you want to put forward. However, an important lesson learned today is: Keep it simple, start small.  You will get results and it will be easier to get other departments on board with you.

Follow me on twitter.com/Humberto2210 to stay updated on the GAAC Summit

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/ Marketing interactif /  SEO-SEM /  Web Optimization
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We just came back from our first official business trip to Toronto as w.illi.am/canalytics.  The trip went great, not only did we make good progress in the mandates with our current clients, but we also met with other national websites that need w.illi.am/canalytics SEO, SEM and Web Analytics consulting services.  Keep an eye on our client list over the next couple of weeks! 

On our way back, we were talking about the conversations we’d had with our clients and  - this will not come as news to some of you –  we were happy to confirm that website optimization is the main priority for the people we met, especially in the current context. Conversations we had revolved around how w.illi.am/canalytics can help them increase their organic traffic through SEO services, how can we help them increase their conversion rates with website optimization services and with Google’s Website Optimizer, how can we help them leverage their web analytics data through web analytics consulting…  It is great to hear that our areas of expertise can be tailored to the market needs for SEO, SEM and web analytics consulting.

This is part of the reason w.illi.am/canalytics became Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants (WOAC): traffic acquisition is one part of the equation, but optimizing the conversion rate on visitors that land on our client’s website is the logical next step. Ok , time to end this post, my hands are getting a little cramped from writing on my BlackBerry and we’re almost landed back in Montreal…

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There is quite a buzz at the eMetrics Summitin Washington, D.C. since Google Analytics™ just announced a new enterprise-class feature set that includes several enhancements such as: advanced segmentation, API, custom reports, richer data visualizations and integration with Google AdSense™.

Google Analytics is always compared to Omniture SiteCatalyst when it comes to customizing analytics reports and more specifically when it comes to traffic segmentation (among other features).This has been a part in which Omniture has had an edge in the past and where clients saw serious limitations in Google Analytics.

If you use Google AdSense on your website, you’ll be glad to learn that the enterprise class feature set will integrate your Google AdSense data into your Google Analytics account. This should translate into more in-depth analysis for you to increase your AdSense revenue.

Other features that are announced and that should give all web analysts much more flexibility and data analysis possibilities are access to the Google Analytics API as well as the new motion charts.Combining multi-dimensional analysis with Google Analytics usual user-friendly interface is definitely a feature that I want to see in action.

I’m very curious to try these new features, I’ll keep you posted as soon as the beta starts and we have the chance to play around with them. In the meantime, go to Google Analytic’s blog to read the full press release.

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Just coming back from SES Toronto. It’s always nice to have the chance to talk in person with people that I rarely see! There were lots of interesting sessions but the one that I was most curious about was measuring success in (careful, buzzword coming…) a 2.0 world.

It was turning out to be a roundtable with lots of ideas and concepts being thrown around when all of a sudden, someone from the audience came up with an interesting comment to the panel: “so, it’s already been 40 minutes and we have yet to learn how to measure success of 2.0 initiatives; could you please give concrete examples?”.

The panel didn’t seem to know how to react because really, there are no standards in the industry yet and each website is different, a one-size-fits-all answer is out of the question. You have to measure your initiative according to what matters to your business. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to get users to register? To post comments? To upload content? Stick with the basics, there are lots of ways to measure your initiatives, but stick to what really matters in your decision making. Agreed, easier said than done, it is easy to throw floods of data on a spreadsheet that your boss will see, not really pay attention to and have the impression that you really know what’s going on. But choosing just two or three KPIs will most likely help you get everyone in the chain of command clear on what’s being measured, how it is being measured and how it is going to be actionable. This is even better! You’ll see that your boss and your colleagues will start to become more educated, more informed and more interested in the actionable data you can feed them with.

In the end, 2.0 or not, it remains about being able to provide actionable data.

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