Goal Oriented Web Analytics

Web Analytics, and analytics in general are hot topics in the business world. Analytics have changed the face of corporations. Mega companies like Walmart, Amazon and Netflix wouldn’t be where they are today without using analytics to drive business decisions. But what exactly are analytics?

By analytics we mean the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions (Davenport & Harris, 2007. p. 7).

In web analytics we are speaking specifically about the data associated with user interactions with websites. This is the measurement of the ways in which people actually engage with websites. By carefully recording and examining this data, a company can not only learn valuable insights about their visitors, but can also use the intelligence to streamline their site’s performance and make it more in line with their business goals.

Business goals are at the heart of the functionality of a good website. In order to track these macro and micro conversions using web analytics, you first have to clarify those business goals and list them in your Key Performance Indicators.

One of the leading authorities on web analytics, Avinash Kaushik (2010), segments conversions into two types: macro and micro. The macro would be the dollars. The micro would be things like getting people to register on your site or downloading a white paper. These conversions are track-able, measurable, and like any good statistic, slice and dice-able--but only if you have already included them in your list of Key Performance Indicators in your analytics tool. And more importantly, the success of your website is only measurable if you’ve set up your analytics architecture correctly.

Andrew Edwards (2012) of ClickZ writes:

Make sure:

·         You’ve planned your analytics environment advantageously.

·         You’ve gone through a stringent KPI definition exercise and know what your site goals are.

·         Your KPIs are logical and match your business needs.

·         Your tagging and reporting reflects the choices you’ve made.

This will require mapping business requirements to actual possible reports that can actually be achieved within the tool. It’s just a bit harder than it sounds, and should be placed squarely in the hands of folks who spend lots of time making sure analytics really works (paras. 20 &21).

So mapping out macro and micro business goals are a must before you implement an analytics tool. Similarly, you must come up with your benchmarks of success. Is 100 white paper downloads per month success? Is $100,000 per month of sales your goal? Defining the targets for each KPI is foundational to your analytics strategy.

This may sound ridiculously simple, but it’s not easy. Once you get the pages and pages of data from your analytics tool in front of you, having those very clearly defined parameters will help you sort through what is important, what is actionable and what is just nice to know. All the data in the world will not help you if 1) you are not clear about your goals and 2) you do not understand how to make that data actionable.

References

Davenport, T. H. & Harris, J. G. (2007) Competing on analytics: The new science of winning. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.

Edwards, A. (2012, July 2) 5 little known facts about Google Analytics. Mashable.com. Retrieved from http://mashable.com2012/07/02/5-little-known-facts-about-google-analytics/

Kaushik, A. (2010) Web analytics 2.0: The art of online accountability & science of customer centricity. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc.