Advanced Track Statistical Analysis

Whether you need to start analyzing your server logs or you already have access to the information but need to do more, there are probably several questions you are looking to answer as you move forward such as:

• What program(s) is best for my needs?
• Who should be in charge of compiling and analyzing the trends?
• What data is really important to look at and analyze?
• How should the data be presented to management?

Choosing a program

All statistical analysis programs are not created equal. Some are monstrous, cost an astronomical amount of money, and can sift through and parcel out any type of data you can dream of wanting. Others are cheap, tell you the basics, and don’t even present those basics in an overly user-friendly format. Somewhere in the middle of those two options is the program most companies want. But it’s important to prioritize what you want out of your software.

Do you want, as an example, one solution that can track usability data and ROI data from your organic and paid search campaigns? Do you not need ROI data for paid search because you already use a program like KeywordMax? Are you tracking dollar conversions or just behavior conversions (like newsletter sign up)? How much time do you have to sift through data? Is a marketing friendly format with graphs and charts you can pull out into Power Point or Excel important to you? And how much can you spend on this solution?

Answer these questions and then you can better sift through all the different stat analysis solutions out there. At SageRock, we have recommended NetTracker, Key Word Max, Click Tracks, Engine Ready, and a few others.

Doing the work

The problem we see happening over and over again with statistical analysis is that no one in the company wants to take ownership of analyzing the data. It might seem strange for us to even be discussing this problem, but setting up the program is simply not worth it if no one has time to use the data to make decisions.

The problem begins because typically the IT team has the knowledge to better use the program and set the site up for the program, but their department has little interest in the reports that can be generated. It is the Marketing department that wants the data and the reports, but they don’t have anyone on staff who can take the time to learn the program and then dedicate even more time to generating useful reports for management to analyze.

Before you buy the program and embark on this important stage of web marketing, be sure and sort out who will be compiling data, who will be analyzing data, and what format and timeframe you’d like to use for presenting the data to those who need to see it.

What to analyze

It’s your first day in the program. You see hits, views, unique page views, referrers, and so much more. Now what? What exactly are you looking for? Here are some good reports to generate. Some you may have to create yourself, others the program should create automatically for you.

• Total Visits Compared To Total Views For A Certain Time Frame (week, month, quarter)
  • You want to keep an eye on how many pages each visitor is seeing on average.
  • The closer the ratio gets to 1:1 the more possibility there is that the traffic is not targeted.
  • Three to five page views per visitor is a good number to target for a typical commercial site.
• Total Number Of Visitors That Start Your Most Wanted Response For A Certain Time Frame
  • This could be people that make it to your contact form.
  • This could be people that start a shopping cart.
• Total Number Of Visitors That Complete Your Most Wanted Response For A Certain Time Frame
  • These are people who filled out your contact form.
  • These are people who signed up for your newsletter.
  • These are people who completed a shopping transaction
  • These can also be people who saw a certain number of pages or stayed on the site for a certain amount of time.
• Percentages
  • Of people who started your most wanted response in comparison to the total number of visitors. 
  • Of people who completed your most wanted response in comparison to the total number of visitors. 
• Track Growth Based On Incremental Marketing Changes

Presenting the important data

Unless you’re the CEO, you usually have to present the numbers, good and bad, to someone else at the company. And usually this person doesn’t have the time to learn what each term really means or sift through complex charts or tables. These are the figures we recommend breaking out for those that need to stay appraised of the data without getting bogged down in it.

• How is overall traffic?
  • Is it increasing, decreasing or staying the same?
  • Is the change due to marketing, economic trends, or business cycles?
• How much traffic is being generated by specific marketing campaigns?
  • How much traffic is each search engine bringing in?
  • How much traffic is pay per click bringing in?
  • How much traffic is the newsletter bringing in?
  • How much traffic is rich media ad buys bringing in?
  • How much traffic is offline promotion bringing in?
• What's the effect on sales?
  • What's the change in online sales?
  • What's the change in offline sales?
  • What is the reason for the change?
    • Marketing
    • Seasonality
    • Market Conditions

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