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.

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