Toluu

Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate.

Google Analytics Maximized: Deeper Analysis, Higher ROI & YouJanuary 6

I am sure you have a new year’s resolution.

Perhaps it is that you’ll maximize the value you get out of your web analytics implementation (or should I say from your implemented web analytics tool since for many tools just implementing the tool is a multi year project!).

For all Analysis Ninjas this special post outlines how to get maximum value from Google Analytics. Tips, best practices, pictures, pointers, guidance.

Most people barely scratch the surface of their web analytics tools. My hope with this post is to get you beyond the Dashboard and the Search Keyword reports and the Referring Websites data.

[While this post is uniquely focused on GA these are things that you should do with any web analytics tool, be it Omniture or WebTrends or CoreMetrics or the one your mother-in-law gave you for Christmas.

Many of these features are, IMHO, easier to use in Google Analytics but they are available in other paid analytics tools.

In fact with paid analytics it is quite likely that you are also getting additional options, add-ons, drill-anywheres, etc that should exploit a lot more to get exponentially higher ROI - if you are not call your vendor and do ask for guidance to show ROI.

Net, net this post should help everyone, that's my goal.]

Multichannel Analytics: Tracking Online Impact Of Offline CampaignsDecember 22 2008

Admit it, you secretly live in the fear of your Senior Management finding out that your online greatness is less a result of your online campaigns and more a result of the tons and tons your company has invested in the real world.

The real world. “Offline” to you and me. :)

We tend to often overlook the pesky offline real world. Sooooo booorrring ! (Say that with a Paris Hilton’ish brush off. :)

I think most of it is not malicious.

For one thing it is really hard to measure. For another thing your “online” presence is probably three geeks (says the proud geek!) living in Seattle and your “offline” presence is 15,786 people in the company with power concentrated in New York and Atlanta. Hard to coordinate and get “them” to listen to us and pay attention to us.

But the world is not online or offline, it is nonline (hat tip to David Hughes for that magnificent term). One of these day everyone will get that.

Meanwhile you are the smart one, know that it is important that our “online analytics” morphs into

Analytics Career Advice:”I am an Analytics God, I want more $$. How?”December 3 2008

Michael, politely, says in an email:

“I have done web analytics for five years, I have mastered Omniture, WebTrends and Google Analytics, I provide analysis and not just reporting. I feel like am an Analytics God.

What would be your advice for me in terms of next steps for my career? My goal is to climb the ranks and increase my salary.”

Let me hasten to add two things.

Michael is not his real name.

Modesty aside, :), Michael is good at what he does.

I get many emails in the spirit of this one and thought it was about time I wrote a proper post about it.

Another reason for writing the post now is that it is always a good time to think about your career path, but never more so than the current economic circumstances. Some of you face tough times, some might get laid off [see end of this post], some might make opportunistic leaps. Either way good time to ponder, do some self reflection and make a conscious choice.

Before we get going some assumptions I am making:

1) You are an “Analyst” (Senior, Junior wh

Excellent Analytics Tip #14: Measuring Value of Ecommerce Sales ToolsNovember 24 2008

An Analysis Ninja, let’s call him Philip Walford, asked a delightful question. Philip wanted to know if the impact of a faith based initiative in his company, product demo videos, could actually be measured using data.

Hurray!

Faith is good. Data is better. : )

[And before you flame me: know that I love my religion more than you love yours. Wait. That did not come out right. Let me rephrase that.]

In this thanksgiving week 2008 post I’ll share Philip’s question about how to identify value of video product demos on an ecommerce site, and my answer about involving customers.

Here’s Philip. . . .

We are a large retailer with a lot of product on our site. In the past we have invested lots of dollars and time producing things like demo videos for our products, or adding other features and tools to our website to provide more information about a product. Our goal is to inspire customer confidence in their purchase (by giving them as much information is possible).

The question is, what are the KPIs of things like a demo video.

Experiment or Die. Five Reasons And Awesome Testing Ideas.November 17 2008

“Experiment or die, there is no try.”

That was my call to action, Yoda inspired, last week to a group of international C-level executives. And I meant every word of it.

There is a tendency to think experimentation and testing is optional. Ouch!

I fundamentally believe that is wrong. For a few simple reasons:

# 1 It’s Not Expensive!

You can start for free with a superb tool: Google’s Website Optimizer. It is packed with enough features that I have no qualms flogging it (even though I work closely with the team!).

If you want to help our economy and pay for your tools then that is absolutely fabulous. Both Offermatica and Optimost are pretty nice options.

[Just don't fall for their bashing of all other vendors or their silly claims, false, of "superiority" in terms of running 19 billion combinations of tests or the bonus feature of helping you into your underwear each morning.

You'll be lucky if you can come up with 5 combinations, and it is not that hard to put on your underwear.

Look for actionable uniqueness. For example I am quite fond of the fact that with Offermatica you can "trigger" tests based on behavior. That is nice, well worth paying for.]

# 2 Six And A Half Minutes. That’s it!