Monday, January 26, 2015

Where Is Your Audience Hanging Out?



Attracting consumers to a website can be a daunting task and can result in a serious lesson in time management and attention to detail. In order to be successful, marketers need to be aware of where their best customers are coming from and not spreading their budgets thin on platforms that aren’t useful. Google Analytics can provide marketers with a way to track website activity through referral reports. Referral traffic can be defined as “Google's method of reporting visits that came to your site from sources outside of its search engine,” (Bashara, 2014). When a consumer clicks on a link to go to a different site, Analytics tracks the click as a referral visit to the second site and marks the original site as a “referrer” because it referred the traffic from one place to the next. Marketers can easily review the website’s referral traffic by using the graph formed by Google. The graph displays traffic for a one-month period and statistics on how visitors react to what they find on the site. (Bashara, 2014). 


In order for marketers to make the most out of their marketing strategy and ad dollars, it’s important to analyze and optimize referral traffic. Below are four tips by marketers that have mastered referral optimization to boost the bottom line. (Wallace, 2013).

1. Understand the Different Kinds of Referrers

When looking at a referral report, you will see two types of referrals — referring domains and individual referrals — which are both important to analyze to gain a better understanding of the referral sources as a whole. "Referring domains focus on which websites in aggregate are sending you visitors, and is useful for informing things like paid advertising efforts," says Christopher Penn, vice president of marketing technology at SHIFT Communications. "If you see, for example, Mashable.com sending lots of traffic to you already, you may want to take out a campaign to advertise on Mashable to take advantage of an audience that is already interested in you," (Wallace, 2013). On the other hand, individual referrers provide insight into what specific pages are driving traffic. For example, it can be useful in measuring PR efforts and determining if an article that references the brand is actually attracting a new audience.  (Wallace, 2013). 

When experiencing a spike in traffic, the referral report is a great place to start understanding why because it allows marketers to quickly determine the source and content of the spike. This knowledge provides marketers with the opportunity to optimize traffic and continue to grow a particular audience. "If you are serious about your online marketing, you have to know your referring traffic sources so you can identify where your audience is hanging out," says Maciej Fita, SEO director at Brandignity.com (Wallace, 2013).

2. Track Everything

“Measuring your referrals isn't just about setting up campaigns, watching the numbers roll in, then deciding where to spend money to gain a bigger audience. You need to do some grunt work, or else your data might be vague and you won't know where to invest for your next campaign,” (Wallace, 2013). In order to avoid vague data, marketers must not lack when it comes to measurement planning or making sure tracking codes are in place. Without these steps, it will be difficult to identify which executions are working and which are not. (Wallace, 2013).

3. Optimize for Social

While social media may not be the top driver of sales, it still offers great value for brands through referrers because it provides insights into which channels are the most effective and what content is acting as a traffic source. 

PureWow, women’s lifestyle publishers, was able to use its referral report to increase its activity on Pinterest. "We pay close attention to referring domains. Like many women’s lifestyle publishers, Pinterest has vaulted in the last two years from a top-20 traffic source to a top-5 traffic source. But, unlike some other lifestyle publishers, PureWow sees incredible visitor quality from Pinterest, in terms of depth of visit, engagement and consistently low bounce rates," says Alexis Anderson, PureWow's director of marketing and partnerships (Wallace, 2013). After taking the information provide from its referral report, PureWow redesigned image specs to be more Pinterest-friendly ("balanced, squarish images over very tall and narrow") and placed "Pin It" buttons on every image or idea that might be shared. (Wallace, 2013).

4. Discover Partner Opportunities

In addition to providing insight into a brand’s core audience and effective channels, tracking referrals can help marketers uncover potential partners that uphold a similar mission and overall goals. "Cross-checking site referrals can be a worthwhile exercise, especially during campaign periods. You may be surprised by not only the type of sites that are referring traffic, but also the page context in which your site is referenced," says Tony Clement, strategy director and head of data and analytics at Big Spaceship. "This data can be useful to management, especially if you are looking for prospects for potential partnerships for media placements, sponsorships, events or even SEO authority," (Wallace, 2013).  

All in all, keeping up with referrals, both big and small, will allow marketers to make strategic business decisions when it comes to efficient ad spend and time management as they “cultivate an engaged digital audience and convert them into customers,” (Wallace, 2013).


Bryan from KISSmetrics created an excellent video that helps marketers make the most out of their Google Analytics account including defining referral paths and how marketers can use it. (Harris, 2013).



Bashara, R. (2014). What Is Referral Traffic in Google Analytics? Retrieved from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/referral-traffic-google-analytics-53168.html
Harris, B. (2013, November 21). How To Extract Value From Google Analytics Referral Paths (The Video). Retrieved from: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/referral-paths-the-video/
Wallace, T. (2013, November 27). 4 Ways to Optimize Your Referral Traffic. Retrieved from: http://mashable.com/category/metrics-that-matter/

Saturday, January 24, 2015

'They came, they puked, they left.'


As I begin to learn about the categories and terms associated with web analytics, I can understand why some marketers become overwhelmed with the data available. However, it is still no excuse to simply not take the time to dive in and begin to process the information, especially when it comes to engagement – specifically bounce rate.

“On the Internet, a high bounce rate is the kiss of death — and a sure sign that your website and marketing strategy need a major overhaul. In order to better understand and analyze the success of your marketing campaigns, there are a plethora of web analytics tools to measure everything from time spent on site to cost per engagement, and it's easy to become paralyzed by the inundation of data. But bounce rate is one metric savvy marketers can't afford to ignore, as it measures how effectively your brand is resonating with visitors,” (Hartwig, 2013).

Bounce rate can be defined as the percentage of site visitors that leave after only visiting one page. The rate is viewed as important because it provides information on how long users stay on the site, which can shed light on whether or not they are enjoying and interacting with content available, and is a simple way to gauge efficiency. (Hartwig, 2013). Web analytics guru, Avinash Kaushik, described what happens with visitors on websites with high bounce rates by stating, “They came, they puked, they left,” (Quinn, 2011). A user may “bounce” quickly due to the site not providing the information they need, having a long load time, being hard to navigate, etc. (Hartwig, 2013). 

A site’s bounce rate can easily be tracked with tools like Google Analytics. “Such tools can show you the bounce rates on different pages of your website, how the user came to your site (organic search, paid search, banner ad, etc.), how the bounce rate has changed over time, and other data so you can really dig into where you might have a leak. As a rule of thumb, 50 percent bounce rate is average. If you surpass 60 percent, you should be concerned. If you're in excess of 80 percent, you've got a major problem,” (Quinn, 2011).

However, when determining the success of a bounce rate, it’s important to keep the goals for the website in mind. If the goal were to increase the time users browse content then the rule of thumb would apply. But, if the goal were to take a call of action or to only visit one page, it may result in a higher bounce rate because it would encourage the user to leave the site. For example (Hines, 2014):

  • Calling your 1-800 number to speak to inquire about products or services.
  • Leading customers to product sales on another domain or network, such as if you sell products on eBay or Etsy.
  • Clicking on ad banners that pay per click or lead to affiliate product marketing sites.
  • Filling out a lead form that does not take the visitor to another page on your website for confirmation.



Either way, it’s important to realize if there’s an issue and taking the necessary steps to address it. Below are a few tips marketers could incorporate to lower their site’s bounce rate:
 

Delivering Upon Expectations

Users can become quickly frustrated when they are searching through a poorly designed website and not being able to find the information that meets their needs. Jason Squardo, executive vice president of optimization at ZOG Digital, a search and social marketing company, stresses the importance of meeting user expectations. "A high bounce rate may be an indication that your content isn't engaging or that your advertisements are misleading. In order to reduce bounce rate, it's important to set up users' expectations through the content — whether that be the call-to-action in an ad or headlines that match blog content," he says (Hartwig, 2013).

Improving Brand Storytelling

Storytelling has been the topic of many discussions that relate to communicating with consumers and it’s an important strategy to keep in mind when trying to lower a bounce rate. In addition to meeting user’s expectations, the website should also provide them with a clear understanding of the brand, what it stands for and what it has to offer.

Digital marketer Rob Longert discussed the importance of brand storytelling in relation to bounce rate by stating, "A low bounce rate is a good indicator that the story you're trying to tell is resonating with customers and potential customers. Brand storytelling is about cutting through the clutter and hooking your visitors in the story, products or content on your site, and analyzing bounce rate is a good way to tell if that's working," (Hartwig, 2013).

Being Savvy on Social

As social media becomes to go-to source for information, it has become increasing important for marketers to be active and responsive on these platforms – including meeting user’s expectations and providing them with a compelling reason to engage further on the website. Morra Aarons-Mele, founder of the digital cause marketing agency Women Online, identified bounce rate as a hugely critical metric. "Use social media content to engage people, and keep them informed and entertained. But when you really need to reach them — use email and social media. This way, you can get your content out to people without having to rely on them coming to your site of their own volition, and probably 'bouncing' off," she said (Hartwig, 2013).

Developing a Better Web Design

Sometimes a few design tweaks can make all the difference, including (Hartwig, 2013):

  • Have clear navigation — if a user can't find what they're looking for, she'll leave.
  • Have a clear purpose or call to action on the landing page — one of the biggest causes of a high bounce rate is visitor confusion.
  • Be wary of third-party content and widgets — they weigh down the site and increase load time.
  • Make sure your content is easy to read — be wary of font size and contrast, especially because a lot of browsing occurs on the small screens of mobile devices. 
  • Invest in a responsive design, which will adapt to any screen size and optimize the user experience for everyone.

Understanding bounce rate and how to effectively lower it can become complicated. QuickSprout took the time and effort to create an impressive infographic that explains why bounce rate is so important, highlights benchmark industry averages for bounce rate, and identifies a variety of additional changes a marketer could make to help reduce their website’s bounce rate. (Kusinitz, 2014).

Click here for enlarged version


Click for enlarger version




Hartwig, E. (2013, November 22). How to Lower Your Site's Bounce Rate. Retrieved from: http://mashable.com/2013/11/22/bounce-rate-metrics/



Hines, K. (2014). What you can learn from bounce rate and how to improve it. KissMetrics.com. Retrieved November 3, 2014, from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/what-you-can-learn-from-bounce-rate-how-to-improve-it/.



Kusinitz, S. (2014, July 17). How to Decrease Your Website's Bounce Rate [Infographic]. Retrieved from: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/decrease-website-bounce-rate-infographic



Quinn, M. (2011, January 31). How to Reduce Your Website’s Bounce Rate. Retrieved from: http://www.inc.com/guides/2011/01/how-to-reduce-your-website-bounce-rate.html