Designing a Measurement Strategy that Drives Results How to Achieve Real ROI from your Analytics toolkit Jesse Nichols Global Partner Program Manager, Google Analytics
How do you determine whether your analytics solution is producing real business value?
What are you measuring? and WHY?
The what and the so what
Where do we typically begin? 1. I have an analytics tool. 2. I have chosen a few metrics to monitor. (hopefully good ones) 3. I check in every once in a while to make sure things don t appear to be going haywire. SO WHAT? What is the connection between what you measure and your ultimate business goal?
Measuring Things that Matter: U.K.A.S.I. Ultimate Business Goal. Key Actions users can take to complete the UBG. (both direct & indirect) Audiences to whom each Key Action is relevant. (hint: each action may have a unique audience) Steps required to complete these Key Actions. (both concrete & conceptual) Items that must be tracked in order to measure all of these things. UKASI model Jesse Nichols, 2012
Result: Data has a clear line of sight back to the Ultimate Business Goal Why are you telling me this number? Because it indicates that we should change x Why should we change x? So we can get more of y Why do we want more of y? Because it s a critical step on the way to z Why do we want more of z? Because z is z money. We want more of z money.
Key Actions: Why more than one? 20% Failure Rate 50% 95% Only Failure Doing Rate? Research 15% Email Signup 10% Store Locator 5% Conv. Rate 1. Didn t like checkout process 2. Couldn t find product using site-search 3. Product size was out of stock
Audiences: Different strokes for different folks Researchers Shopping behaviors Video views Converters Transactions Newsletter signups Customers Repeat purchases Social sharing
Steps: Where is my influence on their action? View Cart Payment Info Shipping Info Confirm Purchase Become Aware of Me Visit Site Research View Video Download Whitepaper
Moving from strategy to reality Plan Design Implement Refine Optimize
Plan: What to measure UKASI Model Digital Marketing & Measurement Model* UBG Key Actions Audiences Steps Items http://goo.gl/jrsvy *Source: Occam s Razor http://www.kaushik.net
Design: Identify measurable items What website elements & actions need to be captured in order to effectively measure key actions, steps, and audiences? Outbound Links Page Category Interactive Objects: Flash, Ajax, etc Form Submission User-Provided Data Site-Search Dynamic Page Content Key Functions Ecommerce
Design: Common items worth measuring Key Actions such as purchases, leads, submissions, registrations Website features that could aid or prohibit Key Actions Additional characteristics that describe the visitor or your content What am I willing to change? What is worth changing? What should I not measure?
Implement: the hard part Campaign Tags Custom Variables Event Tracking Social Plugin Tracking Ecommerce Tracking Virtual Pageview Tracker Core Page Tracker
Refine: Making the data usable Context: Are all key actions identified in the tool? Governance: Who needs access, and to what data? Cleanliness: How does the data look in reports? Integrations: Do you use other Google products?
Optimize: Making insight gathering easier Fast Custom Dashboards Key metrics over time Deep-link into reports Multiple dashboards Custom Alerts Significant changes to key metrics Alarm bells for critical issues Easy Custom Advanced Segments Groups defined by user-type or behavioral trends Objectives for each segment Custom Reports Simplify analysis Remove unnecessary data Good for infrequent users
Life after implementation Action Strategy Design Implement Refine Optimize Analysis Action Action
How do you determine whether your analytics solution is producing real business value?
Analytics has an attribution problem: What is the ROI of analytics? Analysis costs are often added to the I", but rarely get credit for the R.
What is the Return on Analytics? Can we fully quantify the impact of analytics? Can we account for Long-Term Returns? Can we factor in all elements of a project? Return on Analytics Jesse Nichols, 2012
ROA: Analytics Cost Justification Your marketing campaign generates a Return of $40k per month. You spend $10k on analytics and increase the Return to $60k per month. The campaign lasts for 12 more months. Full Incremental Return from Analysis Analytics Investment Costs
Determining Analytics Costs Costs Impact ROA Upfront, comprehensive Speedometer checking Implementing analysis recommendations Strategy Technology Reporting Analysis Action Investment $10,000 (1x) $20,000 (1x) $10,000 (yr) $40,000 (yr) $20,000 (yr) Implementation & maintenance Insight gathering, optimization tactics, open-ended research Total $100,000 ($70k/yr recurring)
Determining Analytics Costs Costs Strategy Technology Reporting Analysis Action Total Impact ROA Investment $0 $200,000 (yr) $100,000 (yr) $5 $0 $300,005 (yr)
Determining Analytics Impact Costs Impact ROA Just planning, nothing done yet Is the data changing behavior? Is there value in insurance? What was the before/after change in revenue (or costs) over time? Strategy Technology Reporting Analysis Action Return $0 $0 $0? $0 $? Data is flowing, but is anyone looking at it? Got data-driven recommendations? We re so close! Total Greater than $100,000?
Improving your R.O.A Do you have a sound measurement strategy? Do your reports provide the right data? Who is responsible for action? Costs Strategy Technology Reporting Analysis Action Impact Return Investment $0 / $10,000 = $0 / $20,000 = $0 / $10,000 = $0 / $40,000 =? / $20,000 = ROA R.O.A 0% 0% 0% 0%?% Is the tool collecting what s needed, and accurately so? Are you analyzing the right metrics? Total? / $100,000 =?%
Achieving a positive R.O.A Where is the process falling short? Where do you need to invest more (or less)? Do you have a solid strategy foundation?
Thanks. Jesse Nichols, 2012 www.linkedin.com/in/jessenichols follow me on Google+ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Please give credit if shared.