Gilt's Web Analytics' Success

Gilt is a membership, ecommerce platform that is centered around providing great discounts on high-quality items.  Gilt is based entirely online and uses emails campaigns and other digital marketing tactics to drive traffic. Gilt turned towards Google Analytics after realizing that they needed to take control of their data and put it to use.  

After switching to GA, Gilt upgraded to GA Premium where they were able to track even more.  

One of the first things that they did was make sure that they were getting information from their entire audience, not just the sampled data. “When the company went from viewing sampled data within the Google Analytics interface to pulling unsampled data, it was able to remove uncertainty and act on test and campaign results with confidence” (Google Analytics, 2012).  No longer would they just be assuming that the data they were pulling was representative.  Using GA Premium’s tools, they were able to react with certainty that their results were more concrete.

Another aspect of GA that Gilt took advantage of was the option to create custom variables.  This allows Gilt to really get a grasp on the information that is most crucial to the customer experience on the site as well as create tests that reveal how to create more conversions and become more profitable. “Today Gilt is using 20 or more custom variables, which enable more opportunities for comparison and analysis, as well as A/B testing”(Google Analytics, 2012). Because Google cannot have every possible variable built into their analytics, they allow you to create variables that are specific to your ecommerce site.  Therefore Gilt can track different types of visitors and their behavior on the site.  A/B testing allows them to try out different layouts, product recommendations and promotional offers based on information they have on their visitors.  The results of these tests lead to higher engagement and increased sales.

Currently Gilt is using metrics including user IDs, partitions for testing, page types, time stamps, demographic, hit times and  testing variants.  “The company takes all this data to construct a clickstream and to reconstruct visitor pathing across their different domains, analyze both onsite and external sources of traffic to sales, do site personalization, and view test results in Google Analytics” (Google Analytics, 2012).  

In addition to personalization, predicting buyer behavior is at the forefront of the company’s strategies. “Gilt uses clickstream data from Google Analytics to create decision models to predict buying behavior. By collecting detailed data points about each session related to timing, pricing, sale position, and so on, Gilt is able to feed these variables into a model and predict the probability of a purchase” (Google Analytics, 2012). This is a complex process and involves compiling many different variables in order to recreate how similar visitors behaved on the site.  While this may not be something that small ecommerce sites would have enough data to do, Gilt has enough traffic to put together these models.

Because Gilt is an ecommerce site, sales funnels are crucial to the company’s success. “To fill their sales funnel from top to bottom, Gilt has embraced attribution modeling. “GA really shines here,” explains the company’s web analytics senior manager, Ana Kravitz. “The Google Analytics standard version provides several multi-channel funnel reports that give a very intuitive way of understanding how

users pass between different marketing touchpoints. Google Analytics Premium provides an attribution modeling tool that lets you quickly view and compare the results of different attribution models” (Google Analytics, 2012). Gilt’s site is built heavily on recommendations and trying to determine which products and/or product categories each visitor is most likely to purchase.  Therefore, the company’s funnel will likely include the steps before the visitor lands on the desired product.  Visitors may be coming in from email campaigns, link networks, social media pages and more.  

The sign-up or sign-in requirement on the website allows for a lot of more individual data collection than many other ecommerce sites.  Before you can do much of anything on the website, you must create an account or sign in.  “This means several things. For you, because you have to login to see the products, the registration step isn’t part of the purchase completion path, so it’s faster to complete a purchase. For Gilt, they have a better chance of turning you into a paying customer (and a return customer) because you probably gave them permission to send you direct marketing emails” (Weidner, 2010).

The mobile aspect of Google Analytics will be Gilt’s next adventure in data. As all website owners are currently doing, Gilt is making sure that their website performs well on mobile devices.  In addition, they want to find out how many of their members use their mobile devices as their primary way to access the site. “What’s exciting to us is to be able to get as much information as possible and to get better and better in terms of our customers’ cross-channel behaviors. Mobile channels have been experiencing, what I would say, is amazing growth over the past two years. From the data analytics and customer data perspective, one of the most exciting things for us is we will be able to identify, at the user level, all of the [implications across] possible touch points…we will see the big picture and understand when to talk to the customers when they’re most active on which channel and ultimately provide a better experience” (Liyakasa, 2013).

I can’t find much that Gilt is not already doing in terms of their web analytics.  They have received shining reviews from many marketing blogs and critics.  Though they may already be doing so, I think it would be beneficial to track their competitors through some of the applications that Google Analytics provides.  One example is an application called GitGrow.  Although this particular application is mainly for smaller businesses, I think that Gilt would benefit from something similar.  GitGrow gives analytics on competitors and shows the areas in which they are performing better.  Sites like Ideeli (which is also a membership, retail site) would be good to keep an eye on.  Doing so could show them where they are lacking.  Perhaps Ideeli has created a more effective sales funnel and has managed to drastically increase its conversion rates.  Checking out the competitors regularly would be just one more benefit for Gilt.

References:

Google Analytics. (2012). Gilt group embraces the enhanced functions of Google Analytics premium. Retrieved from: http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/analytics/customers/pdfs/gilt.pdf

Liyakasa, K. (2013). At Gilt group, cross-channel acquisition fuels member surge. Ad Exchanger. Retrieved from: http://www.adexchanger.com/ecommerce-2/at-gilt-groupe-cross-channel-acquisition-fuels-member-surge/

Weidner, E. (2010). Gilt group gets it. WorkBox. Retrieved from: http://blog.workbox.com/gilt-groupe-gets-it/

Funnels, Filters & Goals

Google funnels, filters and goals are an easy way to track how people are behaving on your website.  This of course applies not only to e-commerce sites, but blogs and review sites alike.  We all have goals and desired actions on our sites, whether it be a blog or a retail site. Recently on this new blog, I have been looking at how these parameters work and evaluating how they can be useful to everyone.

To start off, let’s take a look at the different types of funnels that you may be using depending on your website:

“A conversion funnel is a series of web pages which you expect your visitors to follow to complete a non-transactional goal like ‘newsletter signups’, ‘downloads’ etc.

A sales funnel is a series of web pages which you expect your visitors to follow to complete a transactional goal like placing an order on the website.  Checkout process is a good example of a sales funnel” (Sharma, 2012).

For a website like mine, I will mainly be looking for people to subscribe to my blog.  The process isn’t complicated and does not have very many steps.  However, for sites that have a more involved process, creating a funnel through Google Analytics will help you not only understand your readers’ behavior but also how to increase revenue by making improvement to specific pages on your site.

We have all heard about marketing and sales funnels in classes and in our jobs.  The ideas have been around for so long that they have to be outdated, right?  Well, sort of.  They have evolved and shifted to relate more closely to the modern marketing and sales processes. Funnels, as they relate to website behavior can come in many different forms.  They do not necessarily need to follow the traditional sales funnel.

Samantha Stanley demonstrates what you should look for when choosing goals to track (2013):

• URL destination - When you setup an URL destination goal, a visitor must view a defined URL, such as your About Us page, to fulfill the goal. This metric helps you track the effectiveness of key landing pages.
• Time On Site - Say your goal for the month is to increase the amount of time visitors spend on your website from :30 seconds to 2 minutes. This metric shows how well your information captures visitor’s attention.
• Page/Visit - This goal is completed when visitors view a defined number of web pages in one visit. A higher number means site visitors are engaged and that your content is drawing them down the funnel to take action.
• Event - This is probably one of the most important goals for content marketers. An event goal can be set up to track when people complete actions such as clicking a social sharing button, subscribing to your blog or submitting a form.

Now that we understand what types of tracking we can do through GA, let’s look at an example.  Let’s say that you want to track URLs.  You know that you want people to buy a specific product from your website so you decide to create a funnel on GA that reflects this process.  We know that the information provided by funnels and goals on Google Analytics  is astounding.  But how do you know if you are setting up your funnel and goals correctly? 

First of all, you should think through exactly how you would want customers to do.  Imagine a person walking into your brick and mortar bookstore.  What are our goals once a customer is inside the store?  Initially, we would want them to pick up a book.  We can consider this the same as a person viewing a product page on your e-commerce site.  Our next step would be for the person to put the book into their basket and show intention to purchase it.  This would be equivalent to a person clicking “Add to Shopping Cart” on your website. Next, you would want the customer to bring the book to the register, or “Checkout” on your website.  These page URLs would be the different steps in your funnel with the final goal being the “Thank You” page on your website.  

What can we learn from this information?  We can discover how many people are entering the funnel as well as how many people we are losing by the end.  The more steps we add to the funnel, the more we are able to see where exactly we are losing potential customers.  Take a look at the image below.  This demonstrates the drop off for a site that requires customers to sign in before between the “Add to Shopping Cart” and “Checkout” steps.  Requiring them to do so forces about 18% of people to abandon the whole process.

In addition to this type of loss, you may notice a large drop off people after they have tried to checkout but never reached the “Thank you” page that comes up after the sale. What can we do about this, or other funnel issues that we may find?  For the first issue demonstrated in the image above we can look at what the Sign-In page looks like.  Is it too complex?  Does it allow people to continue to check out as a guest customer?  If not, doing so may decrease the number of drop off in the step.  If we find that people are dropping off before completing the payment page, we should look at what may be discouraging them.  Is the page clear and simple?  Are we asking too many unnecessary questions (like asking for a mobile AND home phone number)?  

Setting up your funnels, filters and goals is only the first step.  Then, you must make sure that you are actually checking what steps seem to be hindering your revenue stream.  Once you’ve identified the problem pages, act like a customer.  Try and go through the process as a customer, and not the seller.  Doing so will provide you with the insight you need to get more customers completing your goals!

References:

http://www.seotakeaways.com/the-geek-guide-to-understanding-funnels-in-google-analytics/

http://www.sproutcontent.com/blog/bid/170949/Google-Analytics-Using-Goals-and-Funnels

Which Metrics Matter for a Personal Blog?

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for almost every type of website.  Whether you run an ecommerce site, a non-profit site or a blog, GA will provide you with valuable insights.  In this post, I am going to discuss which analytics are particularly helpful to bloggers, like myself.

Recently I installed GA on this blog to start tracking traffic and visitor behavior.  When you first open up the program, you see your dashboard with some key insights:

• New Visits
• Unique Visitors
• Visits by Location
• Visits by Browser
• Bounce Rate
• Avg. Visit Duration
• Revenue
• Goal Completion

Clearly, I have not yet customized my dashboard.  Doing so will make my dashboard more meaningful to me.  It’s important to remember that the default dashboard is just a snapshot of information.  The more you poke around the program, the more insights you will find.  After looking at the data, there are a few  specific pieces that were most important to me.

Because this is more of a personal blog, and not a business blog, it was challenging at first to determine what defined success.  Therefore, I had to start thinking about goals.  The main purpose of the blog is to share ideas with people by generating interesting and engaging content.  Therefore, the following questions are crucial to understanding my progress and success thus far.  

1. How many people are coming to my site?

Prominently displayed on the dashboard are the number of visitors.  This will give me an idea of how many people have been coming to my site over the course of different days.  Tracking the number of visitors on certain days can tell me which topics are more popular than others.  Of course, at the beginning of a blog’s life, we want to see some drastic increase in readership over the course of the first few months.  We can also track unique visitors which is another crucial metric.  From this number we can determine how many visits we are getting from people who have already visited the blog once.  These are the people who may grow into loyal readers.

2. How are they getting there?

To answer this question, we will look at acquisition.  For me, this is a really fascinating metric.  We are able to see exactly what brought visitors to our blog.  Were they searching for “Freelance Marketing”? Were they referred from another site?  Google Analytics will be able to answer these questions with specific answers for us.   Currently, the majority of my traffic is “direct traffic”.  This means that people are typing my URL in directly.  This would be unusual for many blogs, but my traffic is mainly coming from other student in my Integrated Marketing Communications course where I have posted my URL.  

3. How long are they staying?

It’s important for personal bloggers like us to remember that bounce rate may not be as negative a metric as it is for ecommerce sites. While ideally we would like readers to come to the site and read post after post, this often is not the case.  Think about your most recent interactions with an informational blog.  You may have found the post through a Google search and then read the post to find answers to your question.  If you were satisfied with the answers you found, then there’s a good chance that you exited the page afterwards.  Google acknowledges this as a reason why bounce rates can be high: “Visitors might also leave the site after viewing a single page if they've found the information they need on that one page, and had no need or interest in visiting other pages” (Google, 2013). The second half of that statement is a bit more worrisome.  No interest in reading any more posts? Maybe that’s something we can change.  We can change the layout of the blog to make links to other posts more accessible.  In addition we can make sure that we are tagging each post so that similar posts will be displayed.  For instance, if someone found a post about Bounce Rates helpful, they may also want to read a post about Site Engagement.  Doing these things will increase the amount of time viewers are spending on your blog!  

4. Which pages/posts are they landing on?

This can be found in Google Analytics under landing pages.  Where visitors are landing also tells us which posts are most popular.  These posts are either getting the most referrals or have popular keywords being used in search engines.  What’s the takeaway?  First, make sure that this page is aesthetically pleasing and that there are clear links to other posts.  Secondly, see what you can learn about this page that makes it so popular.  Try to model other posts after that format and see if they get a similar response!

5. What pages/posts are they leaving from?

This can be found by analyzing exit pages.  The pages that people are leaving from most could imply one of two things.  One, they found the information they were looking for and left without browsing any more.  Or two, they did not find the post helpful and left unhappily. Exit rate is different from a bounce rate because they may exit from the third page they viewed instead of exiting immediately after viewing the first page.   The discerning factor in this is the page duration.  IF the viewer only looked at the page for less than ten seconds, there’s a good chance that the page did not contain the information that the viewer was searching for.  On the other hand, if the viewer stayed for a few minutes, they may have found helpful information and left satisfied.  

For personal blogs, Kaushik recommends analyzing Raw Author Contribution, Audience Growth, Conversion Rate and Cost.  The first and last metrics that Kaushik puts on his list for personal blogs are not something that can be measured by GA.  For those metrics, he recommends using the General Stats plugin for WordPRess or similar program.  We can cover those two in another post.  

However, audience growth and conversion rate are metrics I can analyze using GA.  Audience growth is important for obvious reasons, especially at the beginning of your blog’s life!  This can be seen in the dashboard under the visits graph.  In terms of conversion rates, does your blog have a selling point?  Are you trying to sell an e-book or get people to sign up for your monthly newsletter?  If so, add this as a goal on Google Analytics.  Once you’ve done so, you can easily track your conversion rate for getting visitors to complete your intended action!

References:

Google Analytics.(2013). Retreived from: http://www.google.com/analytics/

Kaushik, A. (2007). Blog metrics: six recommendations for measuring your success. Occam’s Razor.  Retreived from: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/blog-metrics-six-recommendations-for-measuring-your-success/

Google Adwords vs. Facebook Ads

Google Adwords has been at the core of digital advertising for years now.  Look at any digital advertising or marketing position and you will see the qualification clearly listed: experience using Google Adwords.  You can take classes to become an expert and even become certified. 

Why has there been so much focus on one specific form of digital marketing?  The first reason is that Google has an incredible amount of traffic.  Where do you head first when you need something?  For most of us, it’s Google.  Elisa Gabbert notes 10 Reasons to Use Adwords which include two very appealing reasons: it’s flexible and easier than SEO (Gabbert, 2012).  Google allows you to target your audience and customize your campaign through an array of options.   Geographics, demographics and browsing behavior are just the start.  Google allows you to be very flexible and experiment through different campaigns.  As for SEO, don’t get me wrong, it is extremely important in order to organic traffic.  But with paid search traffic getting more conversions than organic traffic, it is well-worth your time and money to be investing in Adwords as well. 

However, it can be easy to get turned-off or confused by the ever-changing landscape of Google Adwords.  Just recently, the search giant released a statement saying that they will be updating the Adwords Ad Rank algorithm.  You might be thinking: I didn’t really understand the algorithm before, so do I need to try to spend the time learning the new one?  Here’s what you need to know: the cost and placement of your ad is based on expected impact from ad extensions and formats (Kim, 2013).  This means, that if you aren’t using ad extensions, it’s time to start!

Larry Kim says that in lieu of this new algorithm, we should expect a few things to be happening:

●     Expect the mobile transition to pick up the pace.

●     Rising average CPCs.

●     AdWords becomes more competitive.

●     SMBs will fall down or have to outsource help.

●     Goodbye, more organic SERPs space.

So, in addition to Adwords, what are our other options?  Many businesses, both big and small, have been utilizing Facebook as an advertising platform.  Facebook, like Google, is a good place to advertise because of the sheer amount of people who are on the site every day.  You also have the ability to target people by geographic location, age and other simple demographics.  However, the type of hyper-targeting offered by Google is not supported by Facebook yet.  In order to compete, Facebook has recently unveiled a new system of advertising which I briefly outlined in a previous post.  This system will allow marketers to use new “objective-based” buying to purchase ads by determining an ideal click-through rate, amount of likes or app installations.  With this new program, Facebook is hoping to draw in more marketers by providing more options while simplifying the process.

So which platform is for you?  Let’s take a look at this infographic for a few takeaways:

 

●       First we see that the country you are in matters.  The Philippines for instance, has a much higher use of Facebook ads than Google ads. 

●       Next we notice that online revenue for Google Adwords is about ten times as much as Facebook Ads.

●       Market share also demonstrates that Facebook only accounts for 3.10% of global online ads while Google accounts for 44.10%.  However, in the US, Facebook accounts for 16.76% of online display ads which is more than Google’s 16.50%

●       Skipping down to Global Online Advertising Reach, we see that Google has twice as much reach, and about the same amount of unique US visitors

●       Google’s average CPC for the US was significantly higher than Facebook’s

●       However, Google’s CTR is light-years beyond Facebook’s

Each platform has its own forte.  Perhaps the answer is not simply which one is better for your business.  Try experimenting with both, and you may find that certain products or pages are more successful on either Google or Facebook.

References:

Gabbert, E. (2012). Why use adwords? Here are 10 reasons. WordStream.  Retrieved from: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/12/03/why-use-adwords

Kim, L. (2013). Google says: use adwords or else. Search Engine Watch. Retrieved from: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2302679/Google-Says-Use-AdWords-Ad-Extensions-Or-Else

Social Media: Content vs. Conversation

We have really seen this debate come to the forefront lately when discussing social media. 

This, like many debates, isn't one that we are looking to answer with a clear winner.  We know that both need to exist, but in what capacity?  What is our focus?  Where and how should we be spending our budget?

Kaplan and Haenlein of Indiana University discuss the challenges and opportunities that social media present.  One particularly helpful part of their article notes five points about being social (2010):

1.      Be Active

2.      Be Interesting

3.      Be Humble

4.      Be Unprofessional

5.      Be Honest

Points 1,2 & 5 seem straight-forward and fairly obvious to most of us.  Sure, we should be posting interesting things on a frequent basis (CONTENT!).  However, point 3 may be a bit more challenging.  No, we should not just brag about or constantly endorse our products or services.  We can let others do that for us (CONVERSATION!). Lastly, let’s address point 4.  I imagine that this will be controversial.  While you should always use correct grammar and be careful not to be offensive, there’s no reason to be overly uptight.  In fact, a more relaxed tone not only is more relatable, but will also be more likely to spark an interesting/viral conversation. 

Not everyone thinks that conversation is important.  Justin Wise, a social media blogger, agrees with Avinash Kaushik’s statement that “engagement isn't a metric, it’s an excuse” (Wise, 2011).  Justin writes that “the more time and effort I invest into social media, the more I’m convinced these platforms exist to enable people to share content they care about, not conversation. In other words, what matters most to people on social networks is sharing a content-centered, communal experience with their online community.  To put it bluntly, people don’t care about your organization. They care about the experience your social networks allow them to have with their friends, family and co-workers” (Wise, 2011).  There is certainly truth to his words.  But, does anyone want to be part of a community that isn't engaging?  Doesn't a community imply a certain amount of interaction and conversation?  Think about image-sharing sites like Imgur.  The whole point of the platform is to share the web’s most popular images (content).  However, the first thing I find myself doing is reading the comments (conversation).  Without these comments and interactions, the Imgur community would not be nearly as active or popular. 

Without content, there is no reason to visit or follow a business on a social media platform.  On the other hand, if reading the page feels strangely like browsing your RSS feed, there may be a problem.  Conversation is what makes business more likeable, more unique, and more popular. 

The goal of your social media page is also a predictor of which might matter more to you.  Is your business trying to inform and/or educate people on a specific topic?  For instance, The Red Cross would likely be more interested in explaining how people can help certain causes.  Of course, a viral conversation would likely send more money to help tsunami survivors in the Philippines.  However, without them initially posting valuable content, the entire message would be lost. 

References:

Kaplan, A. & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons, 53, 59-68.

Wise, J. (2011). Social media are about sharing content, not conversation. Think Digital. Retrieved from: http://justinwise.net/sharing-content