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Everyone's heard of analytics, but most think of them as a way to see how much traffic you are getting to your website. This use to be the case; however the analytic programs of today are the truest roadmaps to your website’s online success. Analytics can deliver you specific information that can pull your website out of the red and literally boost revenues and ROI.
Types of Analytic Programs
If you own a website you simply must have a good web analytic service to help you track your success; allowing you to make decisions for your website and marketing campaigns. While there are many programs out there that provide important information; we recommend Google Analytics; a free analytic solution. Lets face it, there are hundred dollar and thousand dollar solutions that you could select; but this solution provides exactly what you need to pinpoint problematic areas within your website and determine whether a marketing campaign is a success or not.
When talking with website owners, one of the first things we ask is, "Do you have web analytics set up for your site?" There are two common responses we hear everyday. Either, "Yes, but we really don't understand what we're looking at." Or, "No, we haven't had a chance to do that." Both responses are costing website owners a ton of money.
What Information Can Be Obtained
To get a real understanding of what an analytics program can do for you, think about these scenarios and if you are having these types of problems.
Retail Sites with Shopping Carts
- Visitors place items in the shopping cart but do not actually check out.
- Visitors go to the checkout page but do not finish the ordering process.
- Large amount of visitors but little to no orders.
- Orders come in but they are sporadic.
- Not really sure which product to promote as you offer so many.
Service Oriented Sites
- Having trouble tracking sales / leads because there is no actual ability to order online.
- Multiple types of ways to send leads but not real way to see which is the most productive.
Pay Per Click Campaigns
- Large amount of traffic but no sales.
- Budget running out in the middle of the day.
- Cost per click rising continually and can't afford to continue to compete for the top spots.
- Competitors causing bidding wars which don't allow your ad to be seen without becoming costly.
- Orders coming in but you can't tell where they came from so your afraid to adjust the account.
- You know that they campaign is somewhat successful but don't know what to do to cut costs or how to increase ROI.
- Visitors come in but leave immediately.
Sponsored Site Ads / SEO & Organic Traffic / Banner Ads / Affiliates / Purchased Links Etc.
- Large amounts of traffic but minimal sales.
- Possibly untargeted traffic but not enough information to make changes.
- Outside marketing mediums report how much traffic they are sending to the site but no real idea how to track what those visitors do once they enter the site.
High Priced Products or Items
- The buying cycle is between 1-6 months so its hard to tell where the visitor originated.
- It’s hard to tell what marketing medium sent traffic and ended up converting via telephone orders.
- Most of your visitors would never order without talking to a representative at your company.
If you are struggling with these types of issues, an analytic program can cut your costs and get your marketing dollars to work for you. Whether its organic traffic that you have built on your own, or traffic that you are paying for; the end result is that you need to figure out how to convert that traffic into a sale or a lead. If you cannot do either then you are truly losing out.
Spending Through Desperation
One of the most common problems that occur is that a site owner or marketing director understands that their job is to get traffic to the site; without traffic you can't have sales right?!
Generally they start with one type of marketing and then there is a small sporadic sale or two; this sparks a sense that they are headed in the right direction. Suddenly the sales stop or there is a small dry spell which can be 1-7 days. There is a thought process that says, “I know that this works because it already made sales; I must need to put more money into it, increase my bids or increase my spending. Something changed that is not allowing me to get those sales.“
Increased Spending With Decreased Sales
Once the change occurs in comes a few sales and then another dry spell. This becomes a cycle which takes the person out of their element and they are now chasing sales and traffic. If an analytics analysis was completed it is likely that the cost to convert the visitors is more than the actual profit margin.
This cycle causes site owners to say, "Pay Per Click doesn't work." Or "My competitors have made it impossible for me to use Pay Per Click." Unfortunately this turns them away from a truly viable marketing medium and pushes them into desperation.
Most site owners who we’ve talked to that have gone through this cycle say things like, "This is my last hope." Or "I put my last bit of money into this and it has to work." More times than none even with top ten organic rankings and substantial amounts of traffic, there are still no sales. This too brings a thought process which is, "I have to be ranked for the most competitive phrases" or "I have to give up because this just isn't working for me." Again, this is sad because it is often times not the marketing venue that is not working but something within the site that causes the visitor to not finish the sale.
Breaking the Cycle
So what is the solution? How do you correct these things? Where do you start first? The first thing to do is ensure that you have an analytic program properly installed on your website. When we say properly we mean properly! That essentially means that it can track any and all visitors to each every page throughout your site.
You want to then ensure that each and very sale can be tracked down to the very source (advertiser, affiliate, search engine keyword, pay per click keyword etc.) If you do not have this information then you can't accurately make the right decisions.
The next step is for you to make a decision on whether you or someone within your team can understand the information within the reports, but more importantly point out things such as:
- Web pages that are not performing
- Marketing campaigns that are not performing
- Keywords from organic campaigns that convert into sales
- Keywords from Pay Per Click that convert into sales
- Keywords that should be removed from your campaigns
- Products that should have more emphasis on them due to their ability to convert
- Problems within the site that need corrected to promote higher sales / leads
There is so much more, but these are some of the key areas that can be looked at by an analytic program. If you do not have someone who can do this, you may want to consider an outside source to handle this for you.
Combining Analytics with Marketing Mediums
Often times when you have the same company handling the analytics analysis, Pay Per Click and SEO campaigns, decisions can be made and changes can be implemented easily. If you choose different vendors for these three areas you will need to somehow coordinate how each vendor's efforts can be used to assist the various campaigns.
Spotting True Success with Analytics
Finally, you want to use all of the information you collect to allow you to:
- Spot trends
- Identify successful products, productive marketing campaigns and unsuccessful campaigns.
Weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual analytic reviews allow you to ensure each dollar spent is going towards growing the site’s sales and cutting your losses.
Organic & PPC Analysis
Analysis reviews can be completed for each keyword and search phrase that brings in traffic. You will be able to determine:
- The exact keywords or search phrases that convert to sales.
- Additional phrases that can be added based on conversions.
- Which phrases that should be removed if they are non-productive.
- Pay Per Click ads, campaigns and landing pages that should be adjusted.
- Existing campaigns that can be paused or new campaigns that can be created.
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