Empirical Blog

"Track, Report & Optimize" presentation up

2013-05-02T16:52:54Z

Empirical Path founder Peter Howley delivered a talk on how to "Track, Report & Optimize Your Web Creations" to HTTQ on May 1. Howley admitted to being one of the "green-eyeshade-wearing bean-counters" in the summary below:

"You create a cool web experience using cutting-edge tools and techniques. Then some green-eyeshade-wearing bean-counter — who admittedly paid for it — inevitably wants to know if anyone’s using your site/app/feature, and how it can do more for his bottom line. That’s where web analytics and conversion optimization come in. Peter Howley from the ABQ office of Google Analytics Certified Partner Empirical Path will present techniques to track visitor interactions with rich user experiences that don’t follow the traditional URL-to-URL path. He’ll review how to roll up, segment, and deliver that tracking as reports that a marketer and accountant can understand. And he’ll show techniques to get more widgets/signups/donations/shares from key pages on sites and apps via split testing."

The presentation detailed how to improve digital properties and communicate results by:

Counting conversions -- with examples of tracking video plays and social media shares
Segmenting audiences -- via Custom Variables and Campaign Tracking
Testing ideas -- with Google Content Experiments and Optimizely
Sharing Insights -- via APIs, spreadsheets, and dashboards

Please contact us to learn more about Google Analytics and other web analytics and split testing tools. And see our other speeches and webinars here and here.

Track Report & Optimize Your Web Creations from Empirical Path

Web analytics boosts power of CRM

2013-04-28T21:19:59Z

We've long beat the drum to encourage the best practice of tracking online and offline marketing campaigns and other traffic sources in detail, to prove which channels, creative and placements “ring the cash register.” But what if conversions in your business model take place weeks or months later, or offline by phone or in person?

Even if you are religiously tracking website visitor behavior with web analytics, and tracking leads in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system like Salesforce.com, neither source tells you out of the box which campaigns and landing and offer pages brought your sales team the leads that later closed. They represent two separate sets of data, but when combined, they provide valuable information about individual customers. By configuring Google Analytics to integrate with your CRM, you can tie key web analytics dimensions to downstream revenue, right in your CRM.

Case in point: we just taught a top-ranked business school how serious applicants -- as opposed to “tire-kickers” -- find and use its website. We customized JavaScript to integrate Google Analytics into Salesforce.com so that traffic source, content consumption, and other data is passed to CRM along with form submissions. This enabled the university to see the quality of prospective students referred by various websites, and to differentiate among paid and organic keywords searched at the “top of the funnel” vs. at the bottom. With this information, marketers now have the ability to focus on the traffic sources, keywords, and website pages that drive the most valuable potential applicants, resulting in additional student enrollments and more efficient use of admissions staff time

Likewise, we recently helped a national restaurant chain -- which derives a healthy percentage of its revenues from wedding receptions and parties -- understand how meeting planners research their locations. By integrating Google Analytics with the restaurant’s Salesforce.com dataset, we linked the “first-click” and “last-click” traffic source to each lead record to understand the role of other websites in attracting the most valuable prospects. For the first time, catering management was able to see that both Urban Spoon and Open Table play an important role in directing customers to the website. By understanding how to attract more of these prospective customers, the business now has the ability to quickly translate this newfound knowledge into millions of dollars in revenues.

In both cases, we helped our clients answer targeted, specific questions about the website usage of the best customers and leads. Customizing Google Analytics to capture and send information to Salesforce.com or any other CRM can provide valuable insight into data such as:

How many times did each lead visit the website before reaching out?
Which campaigns, keywords, and referring sites drove the initial -- and subsequent – visits from each lead?
On which specific page did each lead complete a form?
What other website factors converted a visitor to a lead or eventual customer?

Google’s recent announcement of Universal Analytics reinforces that vendor’s commitment to letting marketers respond to more of their audience’s activities. Universal Analytics allows CRM, call-tracking, and other systems to send conversion data back to Google Analytics, so that leads and customers can be segmented and reported there. But whether you do the math in web analytics, CRM, or business intelligence systems, learning how leads learn about you is invaluable. Organizations with direct sales teams, long sales cycles, or high-consideration products can link a sale in May to the content that customer read in March and the ad they clicked in January for a complete view of the conversion process.

Interested in learning more? Contact us today about how Empirical Path can customize Google Analytics to integrate with your CRM.

Optimizely added to split test toolbox

2013-04-11T20:19:36Z

Empirical Path has gone Platinum! Now we can save you some gold while tuning your website.

We are proud to be a Platinum-level partner with Optimizely, the leading A/B and multivariate testing platform in the world. To celebrate, this month we’re offering 50% off split testing software fees with our flat-fee Conversion Optimization services.

In addition to these savings and our testing expertise, our clients now have access to features and support not available in other Optimizely plans: Multi-page funnel testing, Multivariate testing, Mobile website testing, Geotargeting, and Optimizely’s Optimization consultants.

Why split test? As our Jim Snyder wrote recently:

“Do you know exactly which combination of elements actually converts visitors to take the desired action? If not, you’re not alone. Most marketers want to do more than simply capture better data; they want to test the content of their landing pages and then optimize it by targeting visitors with messages and options that will convert them to inquire, purchase, or sign up for more information. Using … more advanced tools, many marketers have seen remarkable increases in conversion rates, whether they measure success by the number of orders, registrations, and leads, or by content consumption.”

Why Optimizely? We also work with the free Google Content Experiments (see Google’s case study on our work here) and the premium Webtrends Optimize, so Optimizely fits right in between as an affordable but full-featured solution. More than 2,800 enterprises have adopted Optimizely including Starbucks, Disney, and Salesforce. According to “The Forrester Wave™: Online Testing Platforms, Q1 2013”:

“Webtrends maintains its position as a Strong Performer this year with highly robust testing capabilities. …Optimizely [is] a breath of fresh air in the online testing platform market. …Optimizely maintains a laser focus on reducing the complexity of online testing for businesses of all sizes. … Optimizely [is] most notable for their commitment to application usability and deserve[s] credit for bringing legitimate innovation to online testing user interface design."

Click here to learn more about our fixed-fee Conversion Optimization services. Or contact us in April to get half off your Optimizely fees.

Analytics audit evolves

2013-04-03T07:34:48Z

The times, they are a-changing, and so must our key services.

After delivering dozens of web analytics audits -- and having them cited as a best practice -- in the past three years, this service is evolving to keep pace with advances in the capabilities and complexity of Google Analytics, Webtrends, Coremetrics, and SiteCatalyst. We've also revamped the pricing for our most popular offering so that every client can be sure that fundamental website visitor behaviors are tracked accurately.

For instance, the Basic Audit ($3,000 for the free Google Analytics, $3,000 for premium tools) now includes a checkpoint once reserved for the Advanced Audit: "Ensure all social sharing tools, downloads, and exit links are tracked." Many not-for-profit clients -- the target for the Basic Audit -- rely on downloadable PDFs, so we now test their sites and reporting to make sure file downloads are recorded.

Social media plugins from AddThis, ShareThis, and Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn et. al. allow clients of any size to encourage content sharing, and Google Analytics has a standard report dedicated to it. So we make sure this word-of-mouth marketing is captured so clients know how to get more of it.

The Basic Audit got another upgrade: Empirical Path will now "Confirm that conversion paths and confirmations are counted as funnels and goals for more detailed reporting." In the past, the Basic Audit excluded revenue-generating conversions, since the Advanced Audit addressed full-on ecommerce tracking. But those not ready for ecommerce measurement still want to know how often the cash register rings, and what traffic sources, landing pages, and geographies ring it.

Likewise, the Basic Audit now looks at exit links, which when tracked can be a poor man's cross-domain tracking, another checkpoint in the Advanced Audit. Even if a college, for example, is not ready to invest in cross-domain tracking to roll up all domains and de-duplicate visits that span domains, it wants to know at least when domain A sends a visit to domain B, and vice-versa.

Both tiers share the same deliverables: We "document audit findings and recommendations in writing, then review by phone for as long as needed" and "recommend improvements to dashboard layouts, summaries, sharing, and underlying reports." Contact us for a sample report to see the detail we provide.

So what's left in the Advanced Audit ($5,000 for the free Google Analytics, $6,000 for premium tools), beyond validating revenue, product and item reporting, and cross-domain tracking that connects conversions on one site to campaigns on another? As before, we:

"Verify that all active marketing efforts are counted as campaigns for more detailed reporting by channel, source, and creative (see related post)
Ensure integration with pay-per-click (PPC) search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns
Study existing or required integration of third-party data sources (see related post)
Ensure interactions with key video, HTML5, Flash, carousels, and other Rich Media features are tracked (see related post)

And in keeping with the times, we now:

"Confirm that mobile apps, domains, and responsive designs are fully tracked and distinguished in reporting"

So it is an evolution, not a revolution, in what is often our first project for new clients: still a fixed price for every budget, still thorough inspections of all the factors that affect web analytics data reliability. But with social media and mobile at the top of many marketers' minds, we now go deeper for more clients to validate data gathering and reports for these channels.

Click here to chose from four case studies showing the impact of web analytics audits on media, not-for-profit, and ecommerce clients.

Or contact us to request a disguised audit report to see typical findings and recommendations.

HTTQ hosts "Track, Report & Optimize" talk

2013-03-27T05:00:00Z

UPDATE: please see the slides here.

Empirical Path founder Peter Howley will deliver a talk on how to "Track, Report & Optimize Your Web Creations" to HTTQ on May 1 at O'Niell's Pub, in Albuquerque's Nob Hill. Howley admits to being one of the "green-eyeshade-wearing bean-counters" in the summary below:

All HTTQ events are free, but space is limited. Sign up here!

HTTQ "is dedicated to supporting the growth of web professionals in the broader Albuquerque area.We strive to promote knowledge across all facets of web creation while embracing the open nature of the medium." Get more details at the HTTQ site.

Please contact us to learn more about Google Analytics and other web analytics and split testing tools. And see our other speeches and webinars here and here.

New Analytics features revealed

2013-02-11T22:18:04Z

Performance enhancing drugs have no place in marketing, but performance enhancing measurement can give marketers a legitimate edge on the competition.

That's why our Jim Snyder presented a webinar, "Google Analytics on Steroids - New Features: What You Need to Know," with one of our agency partners and clients, Seattle search engine marketing firm Point It. Jim and Point It's Preston Parshall taught attendees:

Powerful new features in Google Analytics and why they're important to you
How to get actionable, impactful data out of Google Analytics
How to integrate data into Salesforce and other CRMs
How to use attribution modeling & remarketing in Google Analytics

Slides are available here. And please see the webinar recording below, where you can fast-forward to these specific topics:

3:33 - A/B Split Testing (related blog post here)
10:43 - Goals and Funnels
15:10 - Multi-channel Funnels
22:58 - Google Analytics in Spreadsheets (related blog post here)
28:11 - Integrating Google Analytics and Salesforce.com
32:20 - Google Tag Manager (related blog post here)
39:18 - Google Analytics Remarketing

Please contact us to learn more about Google Analytics and other web analytics and split testing tools. And see our other speeches and webinars here and here.

Great year caps first decade

2013-01-31T05:00:00Z

It's our tenth anniversary as a business -- and third as an LLC -- but please don't send tin or leather, the traditional presents. The past year was gift enough.

The firm more than doubled revenue and completed large web analytics engagements for new clients Dice.com, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and the General Services Administration. We delivered yet another market research project for one Fortune 100 client. We inaugurated mobile measurement for retail and insurance clients. And Empirical Path deepened its Google Analytics Certified Partner relationship by jointly publishing a case study on Content Experiments, certifying our DC office, and partnering on Google Tag Manager.

Empirical Path started in 2003 as a Washington, DC market research consultancy, and is now a team of experts in marketing measurement and split testing with offices, clients, and partners around the country and the world. In January 2010, we changed our legal structure from a sole proprietorship to a Limited Liability Company to enable a geographic and leadership expansion. We've achieved more in the past three years than the previous seven thanks to the addition of Jim Snyder to lead our web analytics practice. Jim cemented a partnership with Google Analytics that has made us to thought leaders and kept us on the cutting edge of the digital measurement field.

In the past 12 months, Empirical Path also:

Built on our experience with government clients by helping PBGC with SiteCatalyst, a local CVB with monthly reports, and GSA with training.
Published another "hit" blog post, this time on using spreadsheets to get more from web analytics data.
Added agencies like Point It and Sage Communications to a client roster that already boasts Siteworx and Dachis Group.
Formalized our Google Analytics Training offering, including a fixed-fee package.
Leveraged our financial services experience by serving Assurant and EZShield and continuing with Kapitall and Business Insider.
Spoke at or sponsored events including Web Analytics Wednesday in DC, an integrated advertising agency's symposium and a search agency's webinar.
Dived deeper into the higher-education space by aiding Stanford and UNC and extending our work with Emory.
Led another project for the Analysis Exchange and had our Web Analytics Audit featured on its blog.
Hired Web Analytics Reporting and Technical Specialists...and we're hiring even more!

Our plans for the next three years? Continue to expand our talent and our client base, while staying true to our mission:

"Empirical Path offers specific, actionable recommendations on measuring and maximizing markets and marketing from experienced, objective experts, using the best tools, tailored to organizations that do more than just sell online."

Please read more about our 2010 expansion, how we're different, and the clients we serve.

Or contact us to see how we can help you optimize your marketing.

Metrics key to integrated marketing

2013-01-30T05:00:00Z

No one wants dis-integrated marketing, so we were happy to help an agency partner make the case for integrated marketing at an event last August.

Longtime agency partner McKee Wallwork & Company put on a two-day Integrated Marketing Symposium for its client The Dwyer Group, the parent company for seven service-based franchise companies, including Franchise Times Magazine "Top 200" awardee, Mr. Rooter. The agency's "Stalled, Stuck or Stale" blog explains integrated marketing:

"...the best way to develop and foster an ongoing relationship with a customer is through a seamless experience with the brand. Integrating tactics across the Four Ps and ensuring each stage of the customer life cycle is addressed are crucial to a brand’s success. Integration is possible – but not always easy to execute – because it requires consistency, continuity, perseverance and patience across the entire organization."

Consistency and perseverance are also critical to measuring marketing, so our presentation detailed a number of best practices for counting conversions, segmenting audiences, and sharing insights.

We updated that last section to emphasize how web analytics data can play nice with data from other marketing systems to aid integration, showcasing how to auto-update spreadsheets via the Google Analytics API and visualize conversion rates via Tableau.

During our talk, an artist from Ink Factory created a real-time visualization of key themes, shown at right. The old-fashioned PowerPoint visualization is below and at SlideShare:

Website Data Analysis at Integrated Marketing Symposium from Empirical Path

Please contact us for a web analytics speaker and see previous engagements here, here and here.

Washington DC office certified

2013-01-28T08:07:21Z

All roads may lead to Rome -- Washington, DC these days -- but our path to the capital was circular.

We're pleased to announce that our partner Google Analytics has "certified" our Washington office and listed it among their Certified Partner locations, joining our Atlanta and New Mexico offices. In one sense, this is just a formality, as we've served Google Analytics clients from the DC office for years...hell, Empirical Path started in Dupont Circle in 2003, with one client in Georgetown.

That's why, in another sense, Google's certification means a lot to us: Jim and Peter hail from Virginia and Maryland, respectively, and Peter started his .com career at washingtonpost.com and Advertising.com. Our campaign measurement expert Daavi Zain is based in Rockville. We hosted a Web Analytics Wednesday in the District last year and will do so again. We led a volunteer Analysis Exchange project for a not-for-profit in DC as well.

And on the less warm-and-fuzzy side of the ledger, we want to build on our great history of direct and agency partner clients in Maryland, DC, and Virginia: media players like The New Republic, commercial businesses like 2U and EZShield, communications firms like Noral Group and Sage Communications, and of course government agencies, including Peace Corps, Health & Human Services, GSA, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

So we're proud to deepen our Google Analytics Certified Partner relationship, which has grown -- since we were chosen as the first GACP to co-present a webinar with Google -- to include Google Tag Manager certification and joint case studies on video measurement and split testing.

And if you're in Bethesda, Arlington, Germantown, or McLean and need your markets or marketing measured, please call Peter at 703-629-9929 or Jim at 202-656-0702. Or contact us via email to see if we can help.

Google features our split test

2013-01-15T05:00:00Z

Angry Birds make for a happy split testing client (and happy software partner).

Once again, we teamed with our Partner Google Analytics to jointly publish a case study, "Kapitall uses Content Experiments to drive a 44% conversion increase." The two-pager recaps Empirical Path's success tracking usage of our financial services client's game-like user experience and optimizing its key landing page. How? By deploying Event tracking in Google Analytics and A/B testing entry pages with Google's new Content Experiments.

We're proud to deepen our Google Analytics Certified Partner relationship, which has grown -- since we were chosen as the first GACP to co-present a webinar with Google -- to include Google Tag Manager certification and a joint case study on video measurement.

And we're proud to jump on the Angry Birds bandwagon by proving that the video game's theme was the biggest driver of conversion, besting Mario, Space Invaders and Pac-Man themes. Read on...

Google Analytics Content Experiments Case Study from Empirical Path

Our New York client's goals were typical of service sector businesses:

"Identify an effective alternative landing page
Increase conversions"

Our approach combined out-of-the-box Google Analytics features with advanced customization:

"Used Google Analytics’ Event Tracking to create a relevant testing pool
Designed Content Experiments in Google Analytics to execute split testing

In this client's case, the results were clear-cut:

"Discovered the best landing page variation
New version proved 44 percent more effective than original landing page"

Please read more about our fixed-fee conversion optimization offering, and contact us to learn more about boosting your sales, leads, and other conversions today.