I am a great fan!
I am reading your book at the moment and WOW it is hleping me alot!
I have been doing Analytics for the past couple of months and I do my reports in the office for my clients sites.
I have a question for you…

Which is the best way to set up goals???
Do we write out the entire url for example http://www.netage.co.za/pages/online-quote/complete
or
/pages/online-quote/complete

Which is the correct way???

Avinash, I’m going to be taking the UBC analytics course. Are you still teaching?

I am enjoying your book thoroughly! Great topics and excellent writing.

Thanks,

Sonia

thanks

best regards

Frank

The problem that I saw the most is that people have the stats but don’t use them.

They have modern analytic software but fail to judge the results und take the right steps from there.

So often the problem is not located within the computer, but in front of it.

Keep up the nice work.

Here is a post I had written a while back:

Got Surveys? Recommendations from the Trenches

Thanks so much for the feedback.

-Avinash.

After reading the notes, I feel like this issue could be “solved” by a combination of clickstream data analysis and survey.

Clickstream analysis will help you segment the different customers based on their behavior. You can then select samples from each set and present them with a survey to “just ask” - nicely, ofcourse - how they currently use the site, and what would they like to use the site for, going forward.

To drive the point home (and that I like to harp on sometimes), you could survey the customers directly (read, blindly). But, when done after proper segmentation, it increases confidence in survey results - that they accurately represent the various segments of customers you have.

Makes sense?

I don’t care where you put it (I’m not trying to be flip).

But putting the question I proposed on the table does a couple of things:

1) [Hopefully] forces the business to think about what they know (and don’t know) about the customer’s decision making cycle, and

2) Makes Analytics think about what data they have (and don’t have) to help answer #1.

I strongly believe that at the end of the day, there isn’t going to be a neat, mathematical equation that answers the question I proposed. But part of developing strategies (marketing strategy, business strategy, whatever) is developing THEORIES about the way the world works.

Analytics can bring data to the table to help shape those theories. It’s OK if it doesn’t all fit neatly into an equation. Sr. execs are looking for ideas and theories about what will succeed — and if they can be backed up w/ data, all the better.

In my humble experience it can be, surprisingly, hard to be able to measure it with any degree of accuracy with clickstream data (which is what most web analytics applications have access to). No matter how hard you try, all you are doing is interpreting clicks (and sadly they don’t “talk” very well).

To answer exactly the question you have mentioned I have proposed measuring Primary Purpose (”Why are you here today?”) and measuring the Task Completion rate for each of those Primary Purposes (notice this is the customer’s rating so clearly the emphasis is on how they feel - how’s that for customer centricity!).

More on Primary Purpose on any one of these older posts:

Stop Obsessing About Conversion Rate


Measure the Real Conversion Rate & “Opportunity Pie”

Standard Metrics Revisited: #2: Top Exit Pages

Thanks so much for your comment and feedback, always appreciated.

-Avinash.

WHY are they here?

Whether we’re talking about a retailer’s site or a financial services site, or even a B2B firm’s site, it’s important for marketers to understand why customers and prospects are visiting the site AT THAT PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME.

What can analytics say about the INTENT of the site visitor based on that visitor’s behavior?

What can analytics say about the group of site visitors over the past month and what the top 3 reasons were for why they came to the site?

And how have these reasons changed (if at all) over the past year?

This is what I’m thinking of when I say that analytics needs to broaden its horizons from the micro to the macro in this post:

http://marketingroi.wordpress.com/2007/02/02/response-to-marketingnpvs-predictive-analytics-predictions/

Getting Started With Web Analytics: Step One - Glean Macro Insights

Avinash Kaushik does a brilliant job of laying out four questions to consider before diving too deep into your web stats:
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