Analytics Avenue

Back in August I wrote a post about using Yahoo's Assist attribution metric to help advertisers lower their CPA. This morning I came across a case study that showed how one marketer used assisted attribution to reduce their cost-per-acquisition 25.6% while also increasing sales for non-branded key terms by 15.2%!! AWESOME! Here's the link to the case study: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=31487 Here's the link to my August blog post: http://mattlillig.blogspot.com/2009/08/want-to-lower-your-online-cpa-then.html

Just an update to this post: http://mattlillig.blogspot.com/2009/12/use-yahoo-web-analytics-to-geotargeted.html I made the images clickable so you can view are larger and more readable. I also changed the 2nd image so you can see the steps I used to create the Custom Report.

I just finished reading an article titled: Forecast: Geotargeted display ads to reach $1.9 billion http://www.bizreport.com/2009/12/forecast_geotargeted_display_ads_to_reach_19_billion.html In the article it stated: "By geographically targeting ads to consumers marketers can substantially increase their ability to reach in-market consumers. For example, an auto dealer can now target consumers in specific zip codes or regions rather than blanketing an entire state or block of content sites." As I read this, I thought why not just get this geographic data out of your Yahoo! Web Analytics reports? After you've set up Yahoo! Web Analytics to track your campaigns, you can set up a simple Customized Report to see the traffic to those campaigns via zip code (click on image below). In the image example above, I simply selected the 'Demographics' report (from the left hand nav menu) and then selected the 'Zip Code' report in the dropdown menu. After that, I selecte...

I seemed to have drawn some interest in my last post titled "Why you should choose Yahoo! Web Analytics Over Google Analytics" . I checked my ClickTale traffic and noticed that post was definitely the most popular of late. It's simply a post that redirects visitors to a couple nicely developed presentations on the topic. But to be fair, I must say that Yahoo! and Google each have their own uniqe business strategies for their own solutions, so they probably shouldn't really be compared at all. But for those out there who enjoy comparing the two solutions, I say go for it because it never really hurts to get a little extra press, right?!?!?! :) And the more we hear about the topic of web analytics in general, the better for everybody!

Two new presentations are available that discuss why Yahoo! Web Analytics should be your free web analytics solution of choice. 1. Published by Insightr (Oct. 30 th , 2009): The most comprehensive comparison http://www.slideshare.net/insightr/insightr-insite-comparing-free-analytics-visual 2. Published by SallyKnows http://www.slideshare.net/SallyKnows/why-choose-yahoo-web-analytics-over-google-analytics?src=related_normal&rel=2381841

According to Dennis Mortensen's blog... http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2009/11/expanding-yahoo-web-analytics-consultant-network.html

For most search and display advertisers, reaching a low CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) goal is the holy grail of a successfull online campaign effort. But as most advertisers know from experience, it's easier said then done. Getting more visitors to convert for less money is not an easy task by any means. There are a lot of factors that have to take place in order for CPA to drop. For example, search and display ads can't be too expensive, the ads need to drive quality traffic and be relevant, the landing pages have to be relevant, there can't be any roadblocks on the site's path to conversion, visitors must be engaged with your product, sign up forms need to be easy to navigate, shopping carts need to flow, etc., etc., etc. As you can see, driving a lower CPA takes some effort. Too bad there isn't an easier way to lower that CPA dollar figure. Ahhhhh.....but wait. There actually is a way and it all boils down to how advertisers measure a conversion. If we take a step b...

For more information on the recent launch of the Yahoo! Web Analytics Consultant Network, you can visit the official Yahoo! Search Marketing blog.... Click Here

YAAAAAAAHHHHHHHOOOOOO! Click Image

More exciting news from the Yahoo! Web Analytics team. Dennis Mortensen notes on his blog that Yahoo! will be launching a monster consulting network for Yahoo! Web Analytics. Mr. Mortensen says, "This is a network of third party companies with expertise in deriving insight from Web Analytics AND deploying Yahoo! Web Analytics in particular." Once the consulting network site launches, you'll find a list of over 48 Yahoo! Web Analytics partner consultants to choose from! I've actually worked with a couple of of these partners in the past (such as EngineReady and Semphonic) and they are solid when it comes to helping you drive a higher ROI from your analytics solutions. And if you are interested in becoming a Yahoo! Web Analytics Partner yourself, here are some of the benefits you'll receive: Yahoo! Web Analytics FREE account creation rights (This is sexy eh?) Listing on Yahoo!’s Consultant Network web page Potential client referrals from the Yahoo! Sales team E...

Just added the Yahoo! Analytics Groups page to my new Yahoo.com homepage. It was really easy to add it as the Yahoo! homepage now lets you add any URL to your 'My Favorites' bar on the left hand side. Here is a snapshot:

My good friend Eric Hamilton, from Yahoo!, has just opened up his FREE Web Acadamy. Beginner courses will cover HTML/CSS/Graphics Design/Web Administration. Intermediate courses will cover Flash/PHP/MySQL/Analytics. Advanced courses will cover Yahoo! API topics such as Search Monkey, Yahoo! Maps and Yahoo! Fire Eagle. All courses are distance learning lead by a live instructor and the courses are FREE. I invite you to sign up for these free course by going here: http://www.thewebacademy.org Well done Eric!

Following up my recent post on campaign attribution a couple weeks ago, a new study is out showing the lift effects of display on search. The Online Publishers Association study titled, “ The Silent Click: Building Brands Online ” reported that when visitors are exposed to display ads: One in five conduct related searches and one in three visit the brands’ sites Users spent over 50% more time than the average visitor to these sites and consumed more pages Users spent about 10% more money online overall, and significantly more on product categories related to the advertised brands Higher income audiences visited the advertisers sites This is just one of many studies over the past few years that has stressed the importance of running both display and search campaigns as part of your online marketing strategy. But again, I stress that these studies only go so far in helping you (the advertiser) understand the value of display and search for your own online marketing efforts. While thes...

A new blessing has arrived!

Another great demo unleashed by Dennis Mortensen: http://visualrevenue.com/blog/video/yahoo-analytics-dennis-30-min-big-pg.html

....those people don't know what Yahoo! is all about. Here are the traffic results following the death of Michael Jackson....

If anybody is interested in reading up on the topic of "last click attribution", I just put together a very simple article mashup using Yahoo! Pipes (which is a very cool tool that not a lot of people know about!). You can visit my mashup here: http://pipes.yahoo.com/mattattributionarticles/IopWOO9Z3hGYXYAZfKAMnA What is Pipes? Pipes is a free online service that lets you remix popular feed types and create data mashups using a visual editor. You can use Pipes to run your own web projects, or publish and share your own web services without ever having to write a line of code. If you want to view the source for my simple pipe, you can go here: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.edit?_id=IopWOO9Z3hGYXYAZfKAMnA

Yahoo! Web Analytics 9.5 The Yahoo! Web Analytics 9.5 upgrade has launched....and it looks nice! For more info and snapshots of some of the new features, check out Dennis Mortensen's blog at: http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2009/04/yahoo-web-analytics-95-launched.html New features to the upgrade include: - New Demographic Dimensions - New Psychographic Dimensions - New Charting Capabilities - New Path Analysis - New Negative-Segmentation opportunities - New version 5 tracking code - .....and 30 other smaller updates like e.g. native PDF export, use up to 50 actions (goals), introduction of 38 custom fields - and purplefication of the tool (for that Yahoo! branding) New Yahoo! Web Analytics Facebook Group Jiri Brazda has set up a new Facebook group for Yahoo! Web Analytics. If you'd like to join, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92462054858 There's already 26 members and growing!

I've been receiving an increasing amount of Yahoo! Web Analytics ( formerly IndexTools ) questions lately due to the recent press on the CMS analytics study. While Yahoo! Web Analytics has not yet launched publicly, I wanted to send along some helpful links that discuss Yahoo! Web Analytics in more detail. I'm guessing that these links will only get people more antsy for the release, but it's helpful none the less. Yahoo! Web Analytics For Your Web Site Main Site: http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/ Video: 9 Minute Overview (by Eric Hamilton) http://www.detroitwideweb.com/temp/Yahoo-YWA-Reporting-Deck-EHAM.html http://eham1906.blogspot.com/2009/02/yahoo-web-analytics-reporting-overview.html Video: Same As Above: http://eham1906.blogspot.com/2009/02/yahoo-web-analytics-reporting-overview.html Video: 5 Minute Overview (by Dennis Mortensen) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yelzmWK64z0 Yahoo! Web Analytics For Your Yahoo! Small Business Store Video: Y!WA Set up for Yahoo! Store...

For those of you out there looking to find more information about Yahoo! Web Analytics ( formerly IndexTools ), another overview video has been created. This 9 minute video was put together by Yahoo's very own Eric Hamilton . It covers many of the high level reports that can be found within the Yahoo! Web Analytics interface. The video can be found at either of these two destinations: http://www.detroitwideweb.com/temp/Yahoo-YWA-Reporting-Deck-EHAM.html http://eham1906.blogspot.com/2009/02/yahoo-web-analytics-reporting-overview.html

This post is a bit off the web analytics topic but I found this type of analytics to be pretty cool none-the-less. Here's a snapshot report analysis of my home solar usage. I recently bought a new home in December that included some pretty cool (no pun intended) solar technology. This type of data will be very useful in helping me understand peak electricity usage, etc. For example, the tall grey bar (that is hard to read in the chart below) is my high electricity usage during Super Bowl Sunday on 2/1 (ouch)! The orange bars show how much electricity I'm using up. Based on this information below, I'm not using as much as I'm generating. What this means is that my extra electricity is going back onto the city grid. And let me tell you....it never gets old watching my electric meter outside run backwards! So far, my home has reduced emissions equivalent to: - Planting four mature trees - Not driving 476 miles in a standard car.

As a way to build some branding and self promotion for my blog, I decided it was time for a fresh new blog title. Introducing "Web Anali'llig". Definitely a play on names and MUCH better than the boring "Web Analytics: Information For the Average User" title!!!!