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In a recent marketing and media survey by Datran Media marketers was asked to address their toughest challenges in this increasingly difficult economy. Survey results showed a definitive move toward leveraging online marketing measurement tools, and a focus on emerging digital and social channels for reaching target audiences.

However accuracy topped the list of marketers’ biggest challenges around measurement - the lack of ability to take action on data and lack of standards are also key barriers. So the next natural question has to be “What are the marketers then measuring effectively?”;

According to the survey, clicks are reported to be the most prevalent metric collected by survey respondents; however, clicks do not tell the whole story. Clicks might give marketers an idea of the route taken by a customer, but they do not show the finish line. A click is just one step, a single chapter in the audience measurement story. Further down the funnel, marketers are measuring conversions, transactions, and impressions, and 40.2 percent are now measuring audience too. Survey respondents ranked conversions (89.3 percent), click-throughs (59.8 percent), and unique views (42.9 percent) as most important. This is good news as, in general, marketers have at least agreed upon baseline metrics for measuring the digital channel from a direct conversion perspective.

During the last ½ year there has been a lot of talk about attribution weighting, sales funnels etc. and you can’t overlook the value of a banner impression or any interaction with a banner. I believe that interaction rates, dwell time etc. will become dominant measures of online ad effectiveness in the future; or at least it will for those who understand what they’re doing online…

What do you think?

Sources: iMedia Connection

We are finally back after a loooooooooong break! And to kick off, we have a new very useful for all companies running banner display campaigns - The Banner Heat Map:

Today Adform (Ad serving & tracking firm) introduced a new reporting feature – the Banner Heat Map. It allows for deeper analysis of where people interact with your ads, and helps identify what drives consumer engagement.

Example of a Banner Heat Map report that shows clicks concentrate on text and logo

Visualization of clicks on an actual banner can help clients identify banner areas that are most clicked and provide valuable insights on creative execution of the campaign. The Banner Heat Map is a standard reporting feature for all campaigns and heat maps are automatically produced for each ad format.

The Banner Heat Map is also very useful in combination with banners supporting Adform Content Manager - while the Heat Map allows clients to identify the best performing areas; Adform Content Manager enables them to easily edit banner content, thus optimizing campaign performance.

To learn more click here: Adform.com

Thought I should share some of the lastest analytics news/tools I found…

Microsoft Excel-Google Analytics integration

Through one of my LinkedIn groups I found this new tool - it’s a free, open source, plug-in for Microsoft Excel that let’s you import, store, and manipulate data from Google Analytics.

The add-on is available for free download and use at: excellentanalytics.com - go check it out.

Tracking mobile applications

With all the mobile app stores that have sprung up in the past year, developers and brands have a wide range of new ways to reach mobile users. As is so often true, however, opportunity brings new challenges, and in this case it’s monitoring sales and performance across all those platforms.

Distimo, a Dutch startup has the solution, tracking prices and download activity on all the major app stores. It covers Apple, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Palm app stores, among others and functions as a sort of Google Analytics for mobile applications, monitoring and reporting on the details of each application’s performance across platforms.

The free Distimo Monitor program (in beta) offers a central place to monitor one’s apps in all app stores. Updated daily, the Monitor program provides an analytics page that also includes information on the competition, such as which channels they’re doing best in and how price changes are affecting their download numbers.

In addition to a free monthly report focusing on Apple’s App Store, the company also offers custom reports for the Apple and Android markets that provide data specific to a client’s applications, including those of the competition.

As the world embraces all things mobile, there are opportunities aplenty not just for developers, but also for those who can help support them.

ROI

When you have all the measurement codes etc. in place, next step is to really have a closer look at your digital marketing investment ROI - some of the key metrics you should be looking at/discussing are:

• Total campaign cost
• Total cost per sold item
• Redemption cost
• Total revenue
• Total profit
• Prospect acquisition
• Customer acquisition
• Click rate
• Response rate
• Conversion rate
• Risk assesment
• Breakeven point
• Prospect asset value
• Life time customer value
• Customer satisfaction
• Long term programme value

Yesterday I found this great case on how you can use social media buzz to build awarness, interact with your consumers and get them to spend more time on your site/related content/relate products. Also, this setup can easily be reused for many products adding another dimension to your brand website.

Have a read and let me know what you think:

BBC has just launched a prototype of a service called Shownar, which tracks online conversations on blogs and social media sites about the broadcaster’s programmes. Developed by BBC Vision, the website focuses on discussion about BBC TV and radio programmes that takes place on non-BBC sites, such as personal blogs and social networks like Twitter.

The aim of Shownar is to find out which programmes get the most attention online and also help users to find new shows that may be of interest to them while also linking to the relevant iPlayer content. One of the main goals of the website is to generate links to discussions on external sites. Shownar’s ‘about’ page states that the BBC believes shows are improved by linking them to wider discussion in much the same way as news stories are.

Dan Taylor, senior portfolio executive, internet, for BBC Vision, explains that the service works by tracking inbound links to programme pages on the BBC website, although the corporation is hoping to use intelligent keyword matching too in the future. It is using data from Yahoo! Search BOSS, BlogPulse from Nielsen Online and microblog link tracker Twingly to measure online buzz around its programmes.

“We are also ingesting data from LiveStats, the BBC’s own real-time indicator of traffic,” Taylor says. ”Once ingested, this data is processed according to a specially created algorithm to calculate the ‘buzz measure’ for every BBC programme.”

The BBC homepage was the eighth most visited UK website as of June 27th, according to Hitwise.

Source: iabuk.net

Razorfish (one of the world’s largest interactive agencies) filed for a patent back in December for how to measure social influence.

Today social media apps (widgets, applications, viral media, etc.) cannot track or account for unique individuals other than those who download the application and those that download the application from a friend. Couple that with the lack of known quantitative methods for identifying key influencers within a social network in regards to a specific application and you’ve got a big problem for the industry. Certainly a billion dollar problem and one that matters a lot if we want to make social influence marketing more real for marketers.

Core Questions Razorfish Tried To Answer:

• What is the value of a key influencer?
• How viral or how many generations of influence has my social media application achieved?
• What is the value of someone who receives a social application from a friend versus someone who receives it via media or a paid seeding strategy?

The Razorfish Incrementing Action Tag Solution:

The solution is the Incrementing Action Tag which is a set of functions within a social media application that creates a variable that may be read externally based on where the user acquires the application.  When a user downloads the application from the original source, the Incrementing Action Tag notes the source and assigns the downloader the value of first generation (or one). When another downloader obtains the application from somewhere other than the original source (e.g. a friend, other website, etc.), the Incrementing Action Tag looks at the variable (or generation) assigned to the current source and increments it by one; thus making the next downloader generation two or other appropriate generation number.

The Incrementing Action Tag is thus able to identify (via a cookie and unique identifier and not through personally identifiable information) and track social media, identify how far removed (generation) cookies are from the original source of the social media, and identify key influencers (again no PII- see note above) of users of social media. In essence, this technology enables our agency to create a system that allows us to value and reach key influencers across the Internet, regardless of property.

In everyday language, this is very important as social media spreads through the viral influence. Brands really need to know how and why something goes viral so that when they optimize who their efforts, they can target and seed more efficiently.

The system is similar to the ForwardTrack system created by Eyebeam R&D designed to promote on-line activism. The system tracks and maps the diffusion of email forwards, political calls-to-action, and online petitions. It can trace email forwards, map the impact of blogs, and facilitate web-based sign-ups and social networking.

The difference, as far as I have understood (From speaking with Lee Sherman at Ad:Tech Singapore) is that the Action Tag solution sits on top of an ad serving & tracking system thereby providing the advertiser or agency with a complete overview of the campaign performance and value – NICE!

So the question is – when will Doubleclick, Atlas, Eyeblaster or Adform include this as a part of their ad serving & tracking system?

CNET published this list of 12 online applicatons that track your site or blog’s traffic. Some are better than others, but they’re all designed with the same goal in mind: helping you grow your site/blog.

Clickdensity

Clickdensity not only tracks the number of page views and unique visitors to your site, it overlays a “heat map” on your page that tells you where visitors are clicking. It’s a helpful tool. You can see if the way you place content on your site is helping you increase traffic. And it will give you insight into where to place page elements. Pricing starts at $5 per month. If you want to improve your site’s design, try Clickdensity.

Clicky

Don’t let its childish name fool you; Clicky is outstanding. You’ll find charts and graphs, but one of its best features is its visitor detail, which gives you accurate information on individual visitors in real time. It tells you which country they’re from and how long they’ve been on your site. Clicky also has a mobile page designed specifically for the iPhone. It boasts all the same features as Clicky’s online version. Plus, it’s snappy, so you won’t waste time checking traffic. Pricing starts at $29.99 per year.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free service that provides you with a graph showing how many people visited your site. The tool also lets you see which pages visitors clicked, how many unique visitors went to your site, and information on where the most people entered and exited. It’s not nearly as advanced as other apps in this roundup, but it’s certainly the easiest to use. If you want something simple and accurate, Google Analytics is for you.

Histats.com

Histats.com sports the slickest design of any tool in this roundup. You’ll find common tracking elements like page views, visitors, and referral information, but that’s all displayed in the most user-friendly design I’ve seen in this space. The graphs are gorgeous. The app’s ease of use is unparalleled, thanks to slick menus. And changing the data you want to look at is simple. I was really impressed by Histats (and its free price tag).

Mochibot

If you operate a Flash site, or you want to see how many people are clicking on your Flash content, Mochibot is a must-have. The app works with games, Flash video, and Flash applications. Its reports are simple–they provide only view information and graphs–but they’re highly useful, if you want to see how many people are viewing your content. So far, the service is free, but paid features will be coming shortly.

Opentracker

Opentracker is ugly. There’s no doubt about it. And its menu system makes it too hard to maneuver around the online console. But if you want to see where your traffic is coming in and exactly what individual users are doing, this app is for you. It does the basics, such as tracking total visits and unique visitors, but it’s that individual tracking that sets this app apart. You can view the person’s click stream, see how long he’s been on the site, and find out which country he visiting from. It costs $19.95 per month. Unless you care about individual visitors, Opentracker isn’t worth it.

Pagealizer

Pagealizer goes beyond simple analytics. The service not only tracks page views and visitors, but it helps you increase traffic. Its page design suggestions and landing-page optimization tips are outstanding. Using data like the visitors’ length of time on the site, as well as how far they scrolled down the page, the tool finds ways for you to improve your site. It told me that for my blog, I need to change the location of some page elements to increase click-through rates. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Pagealizer’s advice. For a starting price of just $9.99 per month, it’s worth trying out. I think you’ll learn quite a bit.

ShinyStat

Like many of the other apps in this roundup, ShinyStat comes in free and premium versions. Its free service provides all the basics, such as page views, graphs, and unique visitors. But its most useful feature is its “forecast” function, which estimates how your site will do today. It constantly changes that forecast as more people filter in.

ShinyStat Pro provides far more information. You can see detailed graphs showing real-time data. Its referrers’ chart tells you where your visitors are originating from. And its geolocation chart tells you where most of your audience lives. You can even track how well your advertising campaigns are working. Pricing is based on the number of page views your site generates. ShinyStat is a great resource. I highly recommend it.

StatCounter

StatCounter is free, so you won’t find much advanced help like you will in paid apps. But what it lacks in advanced features, it makes up for in customization. For any metric, the site lets you choose the time span of data you want to view. You can also decide which information should be included in the graph, how it’s displayed (area or bar graph), and much more. You can create a fully customized chart to get minute detail on any traffic figure impacting your site. And since it’s free, StatCounter is definitely worth trying out.

VisiStat

Although it’s costly (pricing starts at $29.95 per month), VisiStat is an outstanding traffic-tracking service. It’s built for the person who has little to no tech know-how, so it’s easy to use. Its reports capture real-time traffic data, but instead of bogging you down in complicated analytic talk, it displays your unique visitors and page views in a graphical style that’s easy to comprehend. The tool also has ad tracking so you can see how your campaigns are performing. It’s a neat tool that’s worth trying out. But it would be nice if it were a little cheaper.

WebStats

WebStats comes in two versions: Basic and Pro. Its Basic version is free. It provides daily page views, unique visitors, and graphs to visually display how your site has performed. But the company’s Pro version is far more powerful. You can view traffic flowing in from search engines and see who the best referrers to your site are. You can even follow your advertising campaigns. Even better, it’s relatively affordable–the company’s Pro version only costs $9.95 per month. Definitely check it out. I liked it a lot.

Yahoo Web Analytics

I was generally impressed by Yahoo Web Analytics. I especially liked the app’s visitor demographics, which should help you increase advertising effectiveness. Yahoo Web Analytics gives you information on age and gender–two key factors involved in creating an effective marketing campaign. You can even consult its behavioral charts, which fill you in on what your visitors are doing whenever they enter your page. You’ll be amazed by all the data Yahoo Web Analytics provides. You should definitely check it out. Plus, it’s free!

Source: Don Reisinger/CNET