It is surprising how often these "simple" things come up.
"What is the difference between a metric and a key performance indicator (KPI)?"
"What is a dimension in analytics?"
"What is segmentation?"
"Are goals metrics?"
And many more.
There seems to be genuine confusion about the simplest, most foundational, parts of web metrics / analytics. So in this short post let's try and see if we can fix this really basic problem.
Definitions and standard perspectives on these terms will be covered in this post:
A standard definition will be provided, but more than that my hope is to solidify your understanding with concrete examples and pictures.
The post will end with a Web Analytics Measurement Framework. The framework will be critical in helping you put your understanding of this post into practice.
This is the answer to the question: "Why does your website exist?"
Or: "What are you hoping to accomplish for your business by being on the web?"
Or: "What are the three most important priorities for your site?"
Or other questions like that.
Without a clearly defined list of business objectives you are doomed, because if you don't know where you are going then any road will take you there.
The objectives must be DUMB: Doable. Understandable. Manageable. Beneficial.
90% of the failures in web analytics, the reasons companies are data rich and information poor, is because they don't have DUMB objectives.
Or they have just one (DUMB) Macro Conversion defined and completely ignore the Micro Conversions and Economic Value.
Your company leadership (small business or fortune 100) will help you identify business objectives for your online existence. Beg, threaten, embarrass, sleep with someone, do what you have to get them defined.
Point of confusion: People, like me, often also use the term Desirable Outcomes to refer to business objectives. They are one and the same thing.
[Full disclosure: Depending on the specificity of your business objectives my asking you for your "desirable outcomes" could refer to "what are your goals". See below…]
Goals are specific strategies you'll leverage to accomplish your business objectives.
Business objectives can be quite strategic and high level. Sell more stuff. Create happy customers. Improve marketing effectiveness.
Goals are the next level drill down.
It goes something like this. . .
Sell more stuff really means we have to:
1. do x
2. improve y
3. reduce z
Improve marketing effectiveness might translate into these goals because currently they are our priorities:
1. identify broken things in m
2. figure out how to do n
3. experiment with p type of campaigns
Get it?
The beauty of goals is that they reflect specific strategies. They are really DUMB. They are priorities. They are actually things almost everyone in the company will understand as soon as you say them.
I would not have included the step of identifying Goals were it not for the fact that almost every C level executive, every VP and SVP, give very high level nearly impossible to pin down business objectives.
Point of confusion: Many web analytics tools, like Google Analytics, have a feature that encourages you to measure Goals. Like so. . .
It is possible that some Analytics Tool Goals directly measure your business objectives or goals. Usually though Analytics Tool Goals do not rise to the strategic importance so as to measure either your business objectives or your goals.
For example only one of the above, Subscribers, is an actual goal ("increase persistent reach")for me that lines up directly with a business objective ("effective permission marketing"). Others are nice to know.
So to be clear: Just because you have Goals in your analytics tool defined is not a sure sign that you know what your business objectives or goals are.
Before you touch the data make sure your business objectives (usually 3, or 5 max) are clearly identified and you have drilled down to really DUMB goals!
A metric is a number.
That is the simplest way to think about it.
Technically a metric can be a Count (a total) or a Ratio (a division of one number by another).
Examples of metrics that are a Count is Visits or Pageviews.
Examples of a Ratio is Conversion Rate (a quantitative metric) or Task Completion Rate (a qualitative metric).
This is a crude way to think about it but. . . Metrics almost always appear in columns in a report / excel spreadsheet.
This is what metrics look like in your web analytics tool:
Metrics form the life blood of all the measurement we do. They are the reason we call the web the most accountable channel on the planet.
Key performance indicators (KPI's) are metrics. But not normal metrics. They are our BFF's.
Here is the definition of a KPI that is on Page 37 of Web Analytics 2.0:
A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that helps you understand how you are doing against your objectives.
That last word – objectives – is critical to something being called a KPI, which is also why KPI's tend to be unique to each company.
I run www.bestbuy.com. My business objective is to sell lots of stuff. My web analytics KPI is: Average Order Size.
Business objective: Sell Stuff. KPI: Average Order Size.
I might use other metrics in my reports, say Visits or # of Videos Watched or whatever. But they won't be my KPI's.
Makes sense? No? Ok one more. . .
I run www.nytimes.com. My business objective is to make money. One of my KPI's is: Visitor Loyalty (number of visits to the site by the same person in a month) and another one is # of clicks on banner ads.
So one thing should be pretty clear to you by now. . . if you don't have business objectives (from your HiPPO's) clearly defined, you can't identify what your KPI's are.
No matter how metrics rich you are. You'll be information poor. Forever. So. Don't be.
Business Objectives -> Goals -> KPI's -> Metrics -> Magic.
Targets are numerical values you have pre-determined as indicators success or failure.
It is rare, even with the best intentions, that you'll create targets for all the metrics you'll report on.
Yet it is critical that you create targets for each web analytics key performance indicator.
I am still at Best Buy. My KPI is still Average Order Value. But how do I know what's good or bad?
I'll consult with my finance team. I'll confab with my Assistant Senior Vice President for American Online Sales. I'll look over my historical performance.
Through this consultative process we'll create a 2010 AOV target of $95.
Now when I do analysis of my performance (not just in aggregated but segmented by geo and campaign and source and…) I'll know if our results are good or bad or ugly.
I will do this for every single KPI whose responsibility is thrust on em.
You can create targets for the quarter (Christmas!) or for the year or to any drill down level of specificity. But at least have one overall target for each KPI.
Business Objectives -> Goals -> KPIs -> Metrics -> Targets -> Minor Orgasms.
A dimension is, typically, an attribute of the Visitor to your website.
Here's a simplistic pictorial representation. . .
The source that someone came from (referring urls, campaigns, countries etc) is a dimension in your web analytics data.
So is technical information like browsers or mobile phones or (god save you if you are still doing daily reports on) screen resolution or ISP used.
The activity a person performed such as the landing page name, the subsequent pages they saw, videos they played, searches they did on your website and the products they purchased are all dimensions.
Finally the day they visited, the days since their last visit (if returning visitor) the number of visits they made, the number of pages they saw are all dimensions as well. I know, I know, they sound like metrics. But they are, as the definition says up top, attributes of the visitor and their activity on your website.
This is a crude way to think about it but… Dimensions almost always appear in rows in a report / excel spreadsheet.
Here are the metrics and dimensions in one of my favorite Yahoo! Web Analytics reports, it shows me how many clicks it takes for visitors to get to content I consider valuable. . .
Columns and rows. Get it?
Let's solidify this with another example of a report that shows metrics and dimensions. This report might not come to your mind most easily. I am looking at the internal site searches (on this blog) and the continent from where the search is done and a set of metrics to judge performance. . .
Dimensions allow you to group your data into different buckets and they are most frequently used to slice and dice the web analytics data.
In your web analytics tools you'll bump into dimensions when you are either creating custom reports (love this!) or doing advanced segmentation (worship this!). The chooser thingys look like this. . .
In Yahoo! Web Analytics they are called "Groups" or "Group Selection" but they are the same thing: Dimensions.
There are many long and complicated definitions of dimensions. There are some nuances that I have simplified. But I hope that this definition and explanation helps you internalize this key concept in web analytics.
A segment contains a group of rows from one or more dimensions.
In aggregate almost all data is useless (like # of Visits). The best way to find insights is to segment the data using one or more dimensions (like # of Visits from: USA, UK, India as a % of All Visits).
You segment by dimensions and report by metrics.
Here are some examples of segments I use in my Google Analytics account:
Checkout the dimensions I am using to segment my website traffic to understand performance better.
- Analyzing people just from North Carolina (because there was an ad campaign targeted just to NC)
- People who spend more than one minute on the site
- People who click on the link to go to Feedburner to sign up for my RSS feed
- People who come from images.google.com and smart mobile phones
- People who visit from one source, Wikipedia, AND only one page on Wikipedia (the bounce rate article)
These are just a few of the 28 advanced segments I have created in my analytics profile.
And I am not even a real business.
Think of how many segments I would analyze to truly analyze my Key Performance Indicators to understand causes of success or failure of my Business Objectives!
The Analysis Ninja rallying cry: Segment or Die!
: )
So now you know the seven most fundamental, yet critical, things you need to know about online analytics.
If you fee that you did not understand it all, please go back and re-read it. You are very welcome to ask questions or for clarification via comments. Whatever it takes, make sure you are able to internalize this.
Let's move to the last step. . .
Web Analytics Measurement Framework
As promised I want to wrap up this post with a couple of examples that pull this whole thing together.
Let's say I am responsible for the National Council of La Raza (a wonderful organization I support). Here is how the measurement framework could possibly look for me. . .
Business Objective:
Attendance at immigration rallies.
Goals:
Increase web sign ups.
Key Performance Indicators:
# of NCLR Sign-ups for NCLR Action Alerts
# of Individual Memberships
Target:
Action Alert: 14,000 per month
Memberships: 4,800 per month
Segments:
Acquisition: Organic search, Email campaigns, Mid-western US states
Behavior: Visits to conversions (Action Alerts, Memberships)
All this before I cracked open any web analytics tool.
I have a framework I can use to ensure that the work I do is focused on what's important to the organization, what good or bad looks like in terms of performance and finally I have a segmentation plan ready to do the preliminary analysis of the data.
No fishing expeditions. No data puking. No begging people to pay attention to data!
One more example.
If you are a student in the MarketMotive Master Certification course as a part of your final dissertation you have to submit complete analysis of two websites. One eCommerce and one non-eCommerce. You are supposed to start from scratch, do all of the above and present actionable recommendations. The path you follow, the quality of your analysis and your insights determine if you are awarded the certification, or not.
One of the web analytics students in the just concluded course was Matt Smedley.
In his dissertation Matt used the above framework very effectively to focus and structure his analysis.
Here is Matt's actual picture from his dissertation that tells the whole story:
[Click on the image for a higher resolution version.]
I really liked Matt's presentation for his motor bike company analysis. In less than half a page one could see the complete picture of what the business was solving for and what the expectations were.
Particularly clever I thought was his inclusion of the segmentation in his framework presentation. At a glance for the most important goal for the quarter (build a robust customer database for future marketing) you can see how their campaign strategy worked.
Don't even get me started on how awesome it was for him to including Profit as a KPI. Truly heart warming.
I hope you will find inspiration from Matt's presentation to go create a version of this framework for your company.
We worry so much about tags and data collection and Omniture vs. WebTrends. What we should actually worry about is above. It is not easy to arrive at, but without it all you have is unlimited potential for failure.
And I know that is not going to happen to you.
[Update: I've updated the model used to put all this information together. To see that model, and learn how to apply it to your business, please see this post: Digital Marketing and Measurement Model]
I wish you all the very best.
Ok now your turn.
What do you think of the seven fundamental terms and their definitions? Agree? Disagree? Which one surprised you the most? Was there a point you think I missed in explaining these complex concepts? Do you have a measurement framework you use in your company you want to share with us?
Please share your feedback via comments.
Thanks.
PS:
Couple other related posts you might find interesting:
Via 
Thanks for all this – you really do some in-depth research for us all!
It's appreciated.
I think what surprised me the most was how many breakdowns you showed for what is essentially the "goal" or "target."
I'm used to having one number that serves as the goal/target/KPI all rolled into one. But I can see how they shouldn't (and aren't) all one and the same. Your breakdown is a lot more sophisticated!
Dear Avinash,
Really an excellent post. Crystal clear on many things now.
Could you share a list of the advanced segments you have set for this site?
Thanks,
Pavol
Hey Avinash.
I know I say this a lot but this is an excellent post. I am a long-time advocate of education in our field and it's never a bad idea to go "back to basics" from time to time. This is actually an area that our industry should focus on a lot more than we currently do. We have an influx of new people in web analytics and the number keeps rising, yet we squabble over technical details and hyper-advanced topics (not that I don't like reading about any of that). It's hard for a freshman to take a 4000 level class and succeed, if you catch my drift.
I really like your framework at the end of this tutorial. I also had a question about Matt's final dissertation. Was wondering if you (or him) could expand upon using Monthly unique visitors as a Key Performance Indicator. I don't have anything against that, but I'm curious as to how that came about (there is a backdrop in my question of faint, distant echoes in my ear from web analytics practitioners that swear to never use counts of metrics like unique visitors as KPI's, which peaks my curiosity because I love it when someone goes against what "gurus" blog about). :)
How does the author feel that "Monthly Unique Visitors" DIRECTLY compare against the business objective of "Sell Bike Parts"?
Avinash,
Another great post. Love the simplicity.
Diving in to Dimensions Vs. Metrics, which is always a question I get from colleagues. I've been using Advanced Segmentation for a while but seeing your list has me thinking of other great things to segment.
Hope you don't mind if I leverage your Web Analytics Measurement Framework because it's as concise an outline as I could ever get to fighting the compulsion to add levels of complimentary but generally ignored information.
Peeking at your MarketMotive Web Analytics Master Certification Program.
Thanks again for the knowledge share!
Anthony
Great stuff Avinash and an excellent framework that can be and should be leveraged by anyone doing web analytics.
One way I visualize is to have a split in the Business Objectives section with the first part being the objectives for your company (overall) and the second being the objectives for your website. My reason for this is that I see the website objectives 'feeding' into the company objectives the same way the goals 'feed' into the website objectives.
The other reason why I like to have this is because I like to see one umbrella set of objectives that is common to all departments, organizations, and initiatives across the company and then funnel it down so that each player knows how they are contributing to the company's bottom line.
Once again, I love the way you have laid things out – simple to follow with a great flow from general to specifics.
Good read, thanks for this.
What I found (and have found in the past) suprising is the apparent lack of business acumen that many of us in 'net marketing have. Any second year business student can define KPI, goals and dimensions, but there are a ton of ppl who are very handy with SEO'ing who can't.
I think that it speaks to the need for each side – traditional business and 2.0 business – to gain a better understanding of each other.
Reading this was like pressing 'reset' – I am the same as before but just am thinking that bit clearer.
Big fan of the 'dimensions' concept.
Super times.
Avinash,
Being an avid follower of your blog and reader of your books I have to admit I was floored when I saw a 101 post. How tempting was it to just say "if you don't know this already, go and read my books" and nothing else? Though, the dissertation example is a nice little nugget.
My personal advice to anyone needing this type of information. Read the books.
Mike
Avinash,
Great post! The biggest value for me was Matt's framework. Congratulations to Matt for conceiving and creating it! It almost seems like you need to incorporate this framework into the ongoing reporting so that it sticks in people's minds why we're measuring what we're measuring everytime those numbers (KPI's) appear in an report or on a slide.
I liked your mention of creating KPI Targets based on seasonality as many businesses have a seasonality aspect to them, yet I see targets set for the year, but rarely for the various times of the year when the business experiences highs and lows. If you are managing the seasonality of your business the right way throughout the year, the end of year numbers would likely benefit.
As for your definition of metric. I agree. Just thought that I'd add that Webtrends calls them 'measures'. I'm sure other tools use different terminology, too.
Thank you!
Alice Cooper's Stalker
Thanks Avinash,
this is a great one!
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a big e-mail printer. But for all those working with numbers in an online business: Print this out, keep it on your desk and read it from time to time!
It will make your life a lot easier. ;-)
I liked practical examples, and in particular Matt Smedley's "Bike Company X Web Analytics Framework".
Hey Avinash!
This blog post is truly a blessing. I'm confident that through this article you'll be able to evangelize a lot of people.
:)
Jurgen
Fantastic post Avinash!
I have been trying to get our management and HiPPOs to move beyond simplistic measures but they insist on page views as their ultimate weapon.
Now I can print out your blog post move our company to a much better way of thinking by using the web analytics measurement framework.
Cheers!
Thanks Avinash,
Once again an awesome post from the expert himself. Would help if you could share some insights on common mistakes that newbies make while starting the web analytics.
Joe: To compare two different months it is ok to use Monthly Unique Visitors (what is evil is to sum up the Daily Unique Visitors for each day of the month and call it Monthly Unique Visitors!).
The bike company is small. A key part of their ability to sell more bike parts is to get more people into the top of the funnel. So having it as a goal is ok. The hope is over time they will become more sophisticated and move to even better KPI's.
Ned: Excellent feedback to up-level the objectives and have a direct line of sight to overall non-line objectives.
Conner: Great point on the value of business acumen. The only thing I would add to that is common sense.
You put those two together and you have the formula for massive success anywhere!
Rob: That is the best possible I could have hoped for from my little post. Thank you!
Neeraj: I think the biggest mistake they make is outlined in this post: The failure to understand what they are solving for.
From a technical perspective the biggest mistake I think is not tagging the campaigns.
From a day to day perspective the biggest mistake is thinking reporting is analysis.
From a self perspective the biggest it is not investing enough to educate oneself in learning new tools & techniques.
Hope this helps.
Avinash.
Avinash,
I like that you go with making sure that the Business Objectives are DUMB. I was going to go with SMART (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound). I suppose the acronyms are meant to be memorable to make you do them and make them sensible (SENSIBLE being too long a word for a proper acronym).
Quite agree with Joe above, by the way. It's great to have lots of posts saying 'this is why you should measure' this rather than the technical 'this is how you should measure'. The more we make the basics easier to understand, the more we'll get this new influx in to the heart of things!
Cheers,
Alec
I love the way you think about analytics and how to extract value form data that is already available in spades.
I recently took a job as in a large tech company on the acquisition side. The company has a lot of things already in analytics but they are, to use your term, reporting data pukes. There is no framework or well thought out process to approach data analytics.
This blog post has inspired me and will prove to be invaluable as I create a framework for data analytics in my new job.
Thanks much.
James.
Excellent write-up Avinash. I have always felt that we spend a lot of time in finding ways to acquire new traffic but and we don't do enough for the traffic already coming to our websites. Segmentation is so critical but missed so often. Matt's dissertation is a great tool to rework the way many of us are going about their online businesses.
It used to be a challenge to make web analytics popular with the team as often statistics are taken as boring. But your blog and books are making easier to make this exciting and interesting.
Thanks for giving valuable information Avinash.
I have to say I learned so much from this. I truly appreciate it.
I will print and keep it with me.
Thank you again.
Avinash:
Love this. Had to read it twice, but I never was very good with math and this is mathmatical – this just in ;).
Anyway, your dry humor is a nice way to pitstop along the way and reminded me at the right moments, not to take myself too seriously and to enjoy the process.
I can see why advanced segmentation is nirvana and enjoyed the paint-by-numbers examples.
I look forward to your unique approach to educating us newbs.
Simple, clear and digestable. Wonderful.
Avinash, it is a truly refreshing to see posts that express potentially confusing, loaded and misused terms, with clear and simple explanations.
Loved Matt's framework. Nicely done :)
hey avinash,
very helpful indeed, and in the same spirit of basic knowledge, can you say a few words on the exact way Google analytics treats bounce rate?
how does it calculate it and by what criteria?
i seem to remember you said it what for one page visits that last under 5 seconds, but i may be wrong.
a second matter is regarding using both metrics and dimensions in advanced settings. i understand the use of both together in report, but you actually go through analytics it much easier to use only metrics and look up at interesting dimensions in analytics it self, or the other way around.
am i missing something?
back to basics is good, i always forget.
Ilan: Every single web analytics tool provider now (except ClickTracks perhaps) uses the standard bounce rate definition as defined by the Web Analytics Association:
Any session (Visit) with only one page view (hit) = Bounce.
Bounce Rate is the % of sessions (visits) on your site that meet the above criteria.
With regards to custom reports each person will find their own path. Here is a blog post that shares lots of practical examples and best practices for custom reporting:
Analysis Ninjas: Leverage Custom Reports For Better Insights!
Good luck!
Avinash.
Hey , i have found your web-blog very helpful in defining terms and giving an overview of topics related to web analysis. However i have a few suggestions from a user standpoint that might be useful. 1) it would be helpful to have an outline of the material listed in the posting. I have found you cover a larger amount of material than the average blog. Seeing your outline would be great for later reference and for understanding the work flow before i gave it a first read over.2) i understand that you are not a graphic design guy but i would appreciate headings that pop out more to help readers follow your flow of writing. I find sometimes that the headings get lost in the information and its hard to keep on track with what your talking about.
Overall i really appreciate your insight and diligence in writing . Cheers , Rick
I really like Matt's framework. Nice way to squeeze the insights of an analysis and communicate the big picture to clients fast.
Thanks for sharing it!
Extremely insightful information for anyone looking to gain deeper knowledge of customer behaviour and how to measure and analyse it, not just in this post, but on the whole site (and probably in the books as well, going to check this out ;) ).
Hello Avinash,
I just saw you speak at the Havas analytics conference. I really enjoyed and felt inspired. Thanks.
Hi Avinash,
Excellent post as usual and you do a fantastic job at walking folks through the stuff we should really care about, rather than getting lost in data. Although, I'm not focused on Web Analytics, I feel that the content here is really applicable to any area of the business. Every time I read one of your posts, I always think: This is what I should be talking to my Manager about and more importantly HOW I should be approaching the topic.
At the end, you asked for feedback on the seven fundamental terms and their definitions and which one surprised you the most…
What follows might be considered mostly nit-picking, but since you asked ….:-)
Personally, I was most surprised to see Goals as the second term defined. I definitely see the need to break down a high-level business objective further where it is measurable, but I didn't expect to see the term: Goals there. I'm probably reading this too literally but from a layman's perspective and in most common usage: Objective is a synonym of Goal, so I found this a bit confusing for it to be included in a hierarchical structure under Objectives.
Further, in the definition of Goals: Goals are specific strategies you'll leverage to accomplish your business objectives.
you seem to be equating Goals to Strategies which is more confusing. The rest of the text clearly indicates what you mean and what function the "goal" plays in the scheme of things. If I get the gist of your framework right, it seems as though you tailored your first two steps in the framework on the well known Vision-Strategy-Execution paradigm. Thus Business Objective =Vision (high level stuff), Goals = Strategy (one level lower and more DUMB according to your definition).
Again, the reason I'm having some trouble with this is probably because I'm coming at this from a Strategy framework (e.g: Balanced Scorecard) where if you drilled down from Business Objectives, you would expect to see Strategies and then Initiatives (which reflect business priorities) which you could then measure via KPI. I don't know if "Goals" has any special significance in the Web 2.0 or SEO Analytics space, that made you chose it instead of another word that clearly conveyed that hierarchical relationship, but that's the only term I didn't expect to see come after Objectives in your framework.
Thanks
Prakash
Hi everyone, I have only recently started working in professionally run organisations and find a lot of terms confusing. I piock up bits and piesces of information from the internet but i would like a consolidated body of knowledge/ learning provider to subscribe to. What body of knowledge do trerms like KPi, KRA etc belong to
Uzo: You can look up the Web Analytics Association: http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/
Here is a link on their website about standards and definitions: http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/?page=standards
Avinash.
This is the same perspective I'm used to teaching; however it really is just semantics. See Dave Chaffey's link to this article and he's used the same hierarchy that we are used to seeing.
Again, I'm not overly hung up on the terms, as long as the explanation and sequence of events make sense. The definitions are clear and the steps to follow exact, that's really the bottom line. IMO
Good post. Thanks for sharing………
One of the challenges in defining and measuring online success, including social media, is determining what success looks like. It could be an increase in sales or better customer service or more partnership opportunities. For many companies, it is important to establish "success", and then create benchmarks so it can be measured. Then, you can use objective or subjective criteria to do the measurement.
Mark
Mark Evans
Director of Communications
Sysomos Inc.
Thank you for your insights and excellent examples in this post! I am just getting started as a web analyst (a new position in our smaller company) and I found this information quite helpful for a beginner like me.
Astounding..very informative, covers the things I needed to know, it really is Web Analytics 101.
Kudos.
Im agree with all of those 7.. just i have some issues with prioritizing the KPIs. Not just for an e-commerce website, for a social e-commerce website. even its objective to generate more revenue with sales, but also the social features r the crucial parts to make visitors and customers turn back again and again…
so while i set same KPI; Average order size, how i suppose to check how commenting on feed items or making friends features make them turn back and drive it indirectly to sales…?
Prakash: Thanks for the feedback.
Perhaps tactics is a better world in that context than strategies, if "specific strategies" is confusing.
Mehmet: I treat those as micro conversions (things that add value in the longer scheme of things). Using controlled experiments, trackble links, segmenting referrers, reduction in marketing expenses (if any), and more are ideas I would use to try to figure out what is the value added from those social marketing activities to the core business.
-Avinash.
Great post! Thanks for sharing Matt's framework, I will definitely use it as a template :) I especially liked the Segmented KPI's part. – I would however add a "Delta" (week/month/quarter) to see the evolution (good or bad).
I'm less impressed with the segmentation framework presentation, only because I like to see segmentation as customer focused rather than media based.
I think with further analysis you could pull these out even with a basic analytics package by grouping together the search keywords and on-site behaviour eg 'Returning price led visitor' etc
Hi Avinash
As always Great Post. Your Book is really helpful within the Marketing Department and to the C level executives. My biggest Challenge is trying to convince them to fix the basics within the website such as basic usability, SEO elements. All they look for is the conversion rate without fixing anything in the website. Competitors ads are all over. Not to mention while the searches happens within the site, it takes them to another ad.
After all this they still want to a high conversion. The problem is they dont want to measure the number of clicks and exits to the ads. We do our best to bring in traffic thru various channels but they dont want to understand what is happening after they land.
Is there a way that I can explain to them in such a way that they can understand or have you had any blog post posted related to these kind of issue. Appreciate your posts and enjoy all of your Interviews. Mitch Joel from Twist Image especially always has something to talk about you in his podcasts.
Thank you
Suresh
Suresh: Thanks for fighting the good fight, and trying to create a more data driven organization.
I have written about transforming organizations and bosses before. Here are two posts that might be of value:
* Six Rules For Creating A Data Driven Boss!
* How To Excite People About Web Analytics: Five Tips.
Please check out the above ideas, perhaps there will be a couple that you can directly apply in your company.
Transforming organizations does take time and it is not easy. But it is well worth it.
Good luck,
Avinash.
Hi Avinash
Thank you for the links and yes I found it Valuable.
Would love to hear your experience in fighting the good fight :)
Regards
Suresh
Your statement "Now when I do analysis of my performance (not just in aggregated but segmented by geo and campaign and source and…) I'll know if our results are good or bad or ugly." is the first point at which the concept of "segmentation" made practical sense to me.
Prior to that, "Segmentation? What is that for? He keeps raving about it, but what does it mean? I mean I know what it looks like, but why do it? How do you choose how to segment?" etc.
Chris: I am glad that clarified segmentation.
If you want to get a much better view of segmentation I recommend checking out this post:
* Web Analytics Segmentation: Do Or Die, There Is No Try!
And to solidify the concept, assuming you are using Google Analytics, this post is chock full of practical examples of segments you can create for your own website:
* Google Analytics Releases Advanced Segmentation: Now Be A Ninja!
Good luck!
Avinash.
Hello Avinash,
I have defined 18 goal and funnel for our 5 landing pages. Each landing pages have 3 types of subscriptions option and same one Thankyou page for all goal funnel. Problem is that when we see goal and funnel report in Google Analytic where is showing all completed conversion are same for all goal and funnels. for instance Set1 showing 100 completed Goal and funnel same all other set 2,3,5 showing 100 completed Goal and funnel. I thinks this report is not right.
I have the following pages.
ThankYou Page for all Goal and Funnel : /CheckoutPricing/SubscriptionThanks.aspx
Goal 1 :
Set 1
Step1 : /sports-cards-price-guide.aspx
Step2 : /Sports-Cards/Baseball-Card-Price-Guide.aspx
Step3 : /Membership/Login.aspx?o=47&i=3&b=-1&pp=5
Step4 : /Membership/SignUpNew.aspx?o=47&i=3&b=-1&pp=5
Step5 : /CheckoutPricing/NewUserPayment.aspx?o=47&i=3&b=-1&pp=5
Set 2
Step1 : /sports-cards-price-guide.aspx
Step2 : /Sports-Cards/Basketball-Card-Price-Guide.aspx
Step3 : /Membership/Login.aspx?o=56&i=186454&b=-1&pp=5
Step4 : /Membership/SignUpNew.aspx?o=56&i=186454&b=-1&pp=5
Step5 : /CheckoutPricing/NewUserPayment.aspx?o=56&i=186454&b=-1&pp=5
Set 3
Step1 : /sports-cards-price-guide.aspx
Step2 : /Sports-Cards/Hockey-Card-Price-Guide.aspx
Step3 : /Membership/Login.aspx?o=53&i=186453&b=-1&pp=5
Step4 : /Membership/SignUpNew.aspx?o=53&i=186453&b=-1&pp=5
Step5 : /CheckoutPricing/NewUserPayment.aspx?o=53&i=186453&b=-1&pp=5
Avinash,
Thanks for this truly awesome framework. Its beauty lies in its simplicity and it really seems to work in my conversation with marketing colleagues. Finally you can tie web metrics to business issues and it's all on one page!
One question for clarification: what's the difference between a "goal" and a "conversion"? Aren't they synonymous in this context?
I understand that the web-analytics world is very much used to using the term "conversion" but to me it seems the two mean the same. So in Matt's example his "macro goal" (or "macro conversion") could be "monthly revenue" (given that it's a small business they're probably trying to grow through online sales). All other listed goals would then qualify as "micro goals" (or "micro conversions"). Doest this make sense?
Thanks,
Daniel
Daniel: Good question.
I encourage you to see this section "Point of confusion" under the Goals section of this blog post. It clarifies this precise point.
In a nutshell conversions have a very specific ecommerce connotation to them (good connotation) and goals sometimes refer to only some tools (like GA). In my framework Goals are a much higher level entity.
"Goals are specific strategies you'll leverage to accomplish your business objectives."
-Avinash.
Thanks, very useful.
Thanks for the breakdown!
I'm a web analytics newb, so this was very helpful!
I am a young graphic designer and looking to build my foundational knowledge in web design and user experience. This post was incredibly helpful and interesting. I will have to read it over to remember everything. But you really broke this down into eatable bites! Thanks a lot for your help!
If you can, let me know what other resources you'd suggest that a budding web designer should read.
Thanks again.
Leslie: If you are new here are three posts that I think will be of immense value to you (and only just because I have written them, rather because they cover foundational concepts)…
#1: Keys To Web Analytics Maturity: Structure, Process, Hyper-focus
#2: The Difference Between Web Reporting And Web Analysis
#3: Beginner's Guide To Web Data Analysis: Ten Steps To Love & Success
All the best!
Avinash.
Thanks a lot!
I used to struggle to understand dimensions and metrics :)
Hi Avinash,
Thank you so much for this beginner's guide to web analytics!
I'm trying to sell products in my online store. If one of my business objectives is effective marketing, and my goal for that is build a customer database, can I have KPIs like "# of Twitter followers" or "#of Facebook fans" since I am hoping to drive visitors from those social media sites to my online store?
Thank you in advance. Will definitely read more of your posts :)
Camille
Camille: I'm afraid those might be decent enough metrics, but they are not good KPIs. The difference between those two terms is that the latter is applied to metrics that are tied to outcomes, and the number of fans or followers does not tell you what the impact on the outcomes was.
I would encourage you to use one of four KPIs recommended in this blog post, that should really help you understand if you are participating in Social Media right and what the impact on your business is:
~ Best Social Media Metrics: Conversation, Amplification, Applause, Economic Value
All the best!
Avinash.
Hi Avinash,
I have found your use of the terms "goals" and "objectives" confusing. Goals are general intentions; objectives are precise. Please look here http://www.diffen.com/difference/Goal_vs_Objective
Johan: That link is wonderful, thank you.
There are a number of different uses of the terms goals and objectives and in thinking of their use in the context of Digital Marketing I wanted to let the factual bit be objectives and since the word goals already has an existing tactical usage in analytics I wanted to tie it to ideas to active the factual objectives.
I'll keep your kind suggestion in mind for future iterations. Thanks again.
Avinash.
Yes, there are different confusing uses of the terms but Objectives are SMART, Goals are DUMB. The word goals is incorrectly used for objectives in analytics as well and that should also be revised in a future iteration!
Johan
As a student in your master class, this post is a fantastic summary of the first few weeks.
I've printed it out and keep a copy on my desk as a reminder to keep it simple and constantly ask the question "does it matter?".
A must read for anyone breaking into analytics.
Very well written
Hello Avinash,
Quite often, simple things in life are not necessarily that easy. From your post above I can say that you have made the relevant things easy for us.
Many thanks
Kedar BAGUL
Great post. we started to define our business model after your advices.
"Short post"? Yeah right!! Lolz! I'm slowly becoming your fan Avinash..
This articles is very educational and really helped me understand how to use metrics and dimension in my reports. Google analytics provide a wealth of data and knowing how to slice it and dice using segments, metrics and dimensions to come up with actionable insights is crucial to business success.
Thanks Avinash!
Hello Avinash,
I'm about to set some new goals for my website and I have a question whose answer I was not able to find till now.
Their will be a funnel that goes with the goal I'll set. Let's say that the goal is "paid subscriptions" and in the funnel there are 5 steps before that.
So if I have 5 steps in the funnel, will the "goal" number represent only the people who went through all the 5 steps at once…….or will it represent everybody who reached this goal/ step (by everybody I mean: plus the people who decided after a few days to come back and finish the process but from step 3 to the final step 5, so basically they don't go through all the steps in the funnel at the same time)
Thanks a lot
Martin
Martin: There are exceptions but almost all standard tools from web analytics vendors offer visits based analysis and not visitor based analysis. (An exception for example will be http://www.kissmetrics.com)
With that context…. you are potentially mixing two different things into one, that perhaps is the issue.
First, when you set a goal it measures the number of people who reach that goal during one visit. So in your case it is the number of people who got to the last page via the funnel in one visit. If they came before and left, no goal success.
Second, what you really want to do is know how long does it take for people to complete the funnel across visits. Get Kissmetrics. And all you want to know is how many funnels are abandoned during customer visits, just use SiteCatalyst, Google Analytics or anything else.
I hope this helps.
Avinash.
Read the line: Data Rich and information poor. . . went to Amazon had to buy the book.
Great Post! Thank you so much.
Hey Avinash,
Thanks for sharing this post. In particular I loved Matt Smedley's diagram example of a Bike Company X Web Analytics Framework. I liked how succinct it is. Starting to finally get a better understanding of the bigger picture.
Cheers,
Danielle
Hi, Avinash.
Is your "business objective" the same as "mission"?
Ahmad: You can think about it that way if it helps.
With the definition my hope is to be clear on what information we need in that step, we can refer to it with any name we feel works well.
Avinash.
Hello Avinash,
I'm again struggling with what stands behind my completed goals
As recommended (: , I'm tagging the links of my campaigns (via url builder)
But.. I have a banner on mypartner.com and I tag its link
The problem is that I also have some self promoting banners running (via tha same ad server) on my own website, whose links are also tagged (e.g. Campaign Source= mysite/home and Campaign Medium= wallpaper banner)
So I'm wondering what happens if a customer has completed a goal (subscribed), but he/she first clicked on a banner on mypartner.com and then after landing on mysite.com, he/she clicked on a banner on my homepage and then subscribed. To which "Campaign Source" will Google Analytics contribute the completed "goal" (the banner on my homepage or the banner on mypartner.com)
I'm asking this cause recently I also put a button in the main navigation "get your free your week now" whose link is also tagged, and lots of the completed goals are contributed to it..and the rest of the campaigns seem to be resulting in less orders
I'll greatly appreciate any tips or links to articles/videos that you might already have (:
Enjoy your day,
Martin
Martin: For banners on your own website, that link to your own website, it is optimal to use Event Tracking to track those campaigns. That will allow you to cleanly track them, and you will avoid the problem of multiple sessions (visits) on the site when people come to your site and click on your banner and start another visit (that is how GA behaves).
In your case:
I come to your site on your site via a paid search ad on bing.com.
This will be recorded as a visit from Bing, a new visit will start on your site.
I click around and see many pages. This activity will be attributed to the same visit (and Bing).
Now I click on a banner ad on your own site that you've encoded with campaign tracking parameters.
This will start a new visit. (Still same Unique Visitors, but new visit).
Now if I convert to a goal, that will get attributed to your own banner on your own site.
So use Event Tracking. You get your external website campaign information cleanly. You get your site banners cleanly. You get your goal cleanly.
Avinash.
Avinash, your posts are always very informative and educational. I admire the fact that despite your super busy schedule you find time to create amazing reports for your public.
Truly Appreciated.
Leo
Hi Avinash and thanks for the excellent post.
It is really helpful to start working on analytics setup. I use it all the time and share it when I need to explain to clients what will be achieved with proper analytics strategy.
Thanks for your blog and this very interesting article.
I'm as green as they come with analytics…I have a hard time spelling it let alone understanding. But your article was the razor's edge and appreciate you dicing it up into byte :) sized chunks for even a noob like me to consume.
Thanks
Really helpful!
Thanks for writing this! :)
Hello Avinash,
First of all thank you very much for your exciting speech at Be-Wizard 2013.
I'd like to ask about the configuration of the goal value of the objectives in analytics conversion.
Is a good practice to set an economic value for the non-economic conversion, eg. subscribe form, download, play videos?
If it is, how it can be calculated this value?
Many thanks,
Giuseppe
Giuseppe: Thank you, I'm glad you found the keynotes to be of value. Titanka has done a great job with the conference.
You should definitely track the economic value for all conversions. Some of them will be easy, others will be a little harder. Here's a blog post with specific guidance on how to compute economic value for all types of conversions:
~ Excellent Analytics Tips #19: Identify Website Goal [Economic] Values
Good luck!
Avinash.
Avinash,
I just wanted to say thank you for your posts. They are so in-depth, them combined with your book makes it really easy for someone like me with a general understanding and interest in analytics to actually learn the details of it and be able to practice it effectively.
I just got hired by a company because they knew I could learn the nitty gritty of analytics on my own and I am going to be replacing a third-party vendor. Your information is helping me do that!
What does this abbreviation mean (HiPPO's). You use it several times but do not give a description of what it means ?
Chris: It stands for Highest Paid Person's Opinion. HiPPO.
It is a fun little way developed with an earlier employer where I found it as a delightful way to reference the power dynamics that are present in any business meeting (biggest salary often = loudest voice). The goal was to say "Why let HiPPOs make a final decision when we can test it with an experiment and let the customers help influence decision?" Or "Is there any actual data we can supply the HiPPO so that they can make an even more informed decision?"
In a nutshell, shift from gut based decision making to data driven decision making.
Avinash.
Dear Avinash,
This information is invaluable!
I'm just starting a business and I have no degree in business, nor any real experience running one. This information is therefore like pure gold – which I couldn't pay for at this time.
Thank you for sharing and may God continue to bless you in ways you couldn't even imagine.
Janet
Hi Avanish,
I just came to thank you for everything you have done for the web analytics.
And mentioned that I have translate your article to Portuguese. We will post in the IAB Brazil web site, as part of our strategic efforts to increase the knowledge and interest in web analytics in Brazil.
I hope you don't mind.
Bests,
This is just what I need to get out of the web analytics limbo.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Hello Avinash! I really love learning from you! :D
I am into a redesign process of my website (non eCommerce) and i wonder weather i should firstly set all these 7 elements and then create the content and structure of the new website or not.
Can you please provide me your insight on this?
Thank you in advance for your time!!
Ellie: Yes, creating your Digital Marketing and Measurement Model, will help you be prepared to focus on the right things (first two, from your business leaders) and in the process identify the KPIs and other things you'll need to be successful.
As your leaders answer the first two questions, they will take other input (business focus areas, competition, your unique customer value differentiator, and other things) to help you further zero in on what content you should create.
Avinash.
The way you Explain things is Just Amazing . Learning a lot from you Kaushik.
Thanks Avinash for the in-depth analysis and valuable insights.
I'm a product manager for SMS marketing suite having various functionalities. I need to use analysis of various user behaviors on the website to improve the workability.
please suggest a good course in implementation of Google analytics for website feature optimization.
Thanks,
Ishu
Ishu: The best option for complex GA requests is to hire a GAAC to go through the requirements and validate and recommend the right path.
You'll find a list here: http://www.bit.ly/gaac
They will give you personalized advice, and you will get to the end goal significantly faster.
-Avinash.
Thank you very much for this great lesson, really pedagogical.
Hi, just wondering if there is an updated website performance measurement plan template or blog post that delves deeper into this topic ? Thanks
This blog post is truly a blessing.
I'm confident that through this article you'll be able to evangelize a lot of people.
Hi Avinash! I truly enjoyed reading every word of this article. I loved the DUMB objectives you spoke about. How brilliant! Matt Smedly's framework did inspire me.
I am so grateful to you and Matt for the exceptional intelligence I have gained from what you both offered. I will be doing my best to integrate all I have learnt into my business practices. Thank you so much.