Stop Wasting Your Analytics Budget - edUi 2016
- 1. Stop Wasting Your Analytics Budget October 2016 Mitch Daniels Digital Analyst at Viget
- 3. How’s our site doing?
- 11. ✘
- 12. Establish Meaningful Goals Share Decision Context Deliver Actionable Analysis 1 2 3
- 13. Establish Meaningful Goals Share Decision Context Deliver Actionable Analysis 1 2 3
- 14. The Problem
- 15. Common Requests • We want to know how our site is doing. • We want to know if we’re ‘moving the needle’. • We want to be able to show progress / improvements.
- 16. Common Goals • Increase traffic • Increase engagement (pages / session; time on site) • Reduce bounce rate • Drive more email signups
- 17. Weak goals yield weak results.
- 18. Common Goals • Increase traffic • Increase engagement (pages / session; time on site) • Reduce bounce rate • Drive more email signups
- 19. Effective goals are clear, actionable and meaningful.
- 22. Total Time Reading (TTR)
- 23. Goal Framework
- 24. Goal Framework Business Objective BUSINESS OBJECTIVES What are our the overarching goals of our organization?
- 25. Goal Framework Business Objective BUSINESS OBJECTIVES What are our the overarching goals of our organization? “Don’t let your dreams be dreams.”
- 26. Goal Framework Business Objective BUSINESS OBJECTIVES What are our the overarching goals of our organization? • Increase Undergraduate Enrollment • Grow Alumni Donations • Improve Student Retention • Recruit High-Quality Faculty
- 27. Goal Framework Business Objective BUSINESS OBJECTIVES What are our the overarching goals of our organization? • Increase Undergraduate Enrollment • Grow Alumni Donations • Improve Student Retention • Recruit High-Quality Faculty
- 28. Goal Framework Increase Undergrad Enrollment Site Goal SITE GOALS How does our website contribute to the objective? • Communicate value proposition • Provide path to application
- 29. Goal Framework Increase Undergrad Enrollment Communicate Value Prop Provide Application Path
- 30. Goal Framework Increase Undergrad Enrollment Communicate Value Prop Provide Application Path KPIs How do we measure progress against site goals? • Sessions viewing ‘Student Life’ content • Interest email sign-ups • Campus tour sign-ups
- 31. Goal Framework Increase Undergrad Enrollment Provide Application Path KPIs How do we measure progress against site goals? Communicate Value Prop • ‘Student Life’ sessions • Interest email sign-ups • Campus visit sign-ups
- 32. Goal Framework Increase Undergrad Enrollment Provide Application Path KPIs How do we measure progress against site goals? Communicate Value Prop • ‘Student Life’ sessions • Interest email sign-ups • Campus visit sign-ups • Online application starts • Online application completions
- 33. Goal Framework Increase Undergrad Enrollment Communicate Value Prop • ‘Student Life’ sessions • Interest email sign-ups • Campus visit sign-ups Provide Application Path • Online application starts • Online application completions Effective goals are clear, actionable and meaningful.
- 34. Goal Framework Increase Undergrad Enrollment Communicate Value Prop • ‘Student Life’ sessions • Interest email sign-ups • Campus visit sign-ups Provide Application Path • Online application starts • Online application completions
- 35. Establish Meaningful Goals Share Decision Context Deliver Actionable Analysis 1 3 2
- 36. The Problem
- 37. Decision Context • Priorities - Risk aversion - Appetite for change - Politics vs data • Constraints - Development resources - Budget - Stakeholder approval
- 38. Media Spend Optimization SITE GOAL Facilitate MBA applications KPI Number of started MBA applications
- 39. Media Spend Optimization How can we grow our MBA application numbers using our existing budget? Decision Context • Timeline - Budget approved annually • Constraints - Maximum total budget - Minimum spend on certain outlets
- 40. Identify constraints, priorities and resources. Be realistic.
- 41. Establish Meaningful Goals Share Decision Context Deliver Actionable Analysis 1 2 3
- 42. Establish Meaningful Goals Share Decision Context Deliver Actionable Analysis 1 2 3 >>> Configure tracking
- 43. Analytics budget 10% on tools / tracking 90% on analysis
- 44. Configure tracking KPIs > Tracking Requirements
- 45. Establish Meaningful Goals Share Decision Context Deliver Actionable Analysis 1 2 3
- 46. Typical Web Reporting • Year-over-year, visitors increased 18% from 8,951 to 10,562 • Page entrances to the homepage increased 26% from 6,718 to 8,468 • Page entrances to the /solutions pages decreased 15% from 491 to 419 • Page entrances from Google increased 8% from 6,718 to 7,235 • Contact Us form submits decreased from 17 to 16
- 47. Typical Web Reporting Traffic Source Visits Bounce Rate Avg Time on Site {redacted} / referral 79,976 22% 1:37 Google / sem 34,797 54% 0:56 {redacted} / referral 21,697 34% 1:20 Facebook / social 17,901 78% 0:53 paid.outbrain.com / referral 14,996 77% 0:35 Twitter / social 12,299 83% 0:24 (direct) / (none) 10,913 45% 2:26 Undertone / display 7,299 69% 0:42 google / organic 2,013 42% 2:42 uni-watch.com / referral 1,570 25% 1:02 TOP TRAFFIC SOURCES Device Visits Bounce Rate Avg Time on Site Apple iPad 27,973 54% 0:56 Apple iPhone 21,457 76% 0:36 Samsung Galaxy S 9,669 76% 0:48 TOP DEVICES
- 49. “ Avinash Kaushik Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google If you see a data puke then you know you are looking at the result of web reporting … If you see words in English outlining actions… then you are looking at the result of web data analysis.
- 50. web reporting • tables, charts, graphs • something happened • past tense web data analysis • paragraphs • why something happened • Forward looking • Recommendations
- 51. web reporting web data analysis • informs (hopefully!) • inspires action
- 52. web reporting web data analysis
- 53. Why?
- 54. So What?
- 55. We should…
- 56. Typical Web Reporting Year-over-year, visitors increased 18% from 8,951 to 10,562 Why? Google organic traffic landing on /admissions. So what? These sessions bounce 10x more often than average. We should… create a CTA on the /admissions page to engage this growing audience.
- 57. Web Data Analysis Create a CTA on the /admissions page to engage the growing Google organic audience. Bonus! If 5% of these sessions convert, we’ll see up to 500 additional applications in the next year.
- 58. Recommendation Level of Effort Priority (1-10) Status Create stronger CTA on admissions page Medium Low Implemented Link to Student Life more prominently in the main nav Low High To-Do
- 59. (a word of caution)
- 66. Deliver Actionable Analysis • Use your goals and decision context • “Why?”, • “So What?” • “We should…” • Align reporting to your organization’s speed
- 67. Establish Meaningful Goals1 Share Decision Context2 Deliver Actionable Analysis3 >>> Configure tracking
- 72. Thanks!