If The Wizard Is A Wizard Who Will Serve: Using Web Metrics To Accomplish Goals

For my final blog post, I am tasked with evaluating an online retailer’s web analysis tools and techniques. Since I do not have any contacts with online retailers, I located a case study highlighting how Discount Tire used Google Analytics to increase website performance and increase online sales. In my very first post, I said:

Many companies don't know where to start when it comes to web metrics; they don't even know what questions to ask. Others know what to ask, but they are afraid because they fear the answers might be beyond their reach. So, they "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" so-to-speak and maintain the status quo, never really moving forward or achieving their business goals (at least, not that they can track anyway). It's true that there are a lot of metrics and even more ways to apply them, but a basic understanding of key metrics can help a company evaluate their online presence and compare it to business goals and objectives (Nauman, 2012).

Before launching into the case study, I thought it was important to first determine the goals that Discount Tire was trying to accomplish when gathering and analyzing their web data since goals and objectives drive KPI’s and determine what data to collect. If Dorothy did not have a goal of going home, her visit to Oz would have been much different. Because she had a specific goal in mind, she was able to take the necessary steps to accomplish them, i.e. killing the Wicked Witch (obstacle) who was preventing her from reaching her goal. 

Case Study Overview

According to the case study (Google, n.d.), Discount Tire had clear goals of driving traffic to their website for both direct sales and for browsing before making an in-store purchase.

Online shoppers can try wheels virtually, seeing how wheels will look on specific vehicles with an Interactive Wheel System. They can also save time and money by ordering tires or wheels without paying for shipping, or by purchasing tires and making appointments for installation at their local store-all online (Google, n.d.). 

It was important to track more than just visits; they needed to determine how customers were arriving there, and what they were doing once they got there. By collecting this data, Discount Tire could create a positive web experience that would increase sales both online and in-store. 

Online advertising included a variety of search-based campaigns, including AdWords. These types of campaigns are critical for Discount Tire as it allows them to target specific customers with local, regional and seasonal messaging. They had tried a variety of web analytics tools to track and measure the effectiveness of Internet marketing efforts, with a full-time web metrics analyst and online marketing agency. Travis Unwin, Managing Director of Discount Tire's online marketing agency said “We've used everything from log file analysis to cookie tracking and pixel tagging to measure the effectiveness of our website and of Internet advertising. Unfortunately, they all had major shortcomings" (Google, n.d.). 

Working with the online marketing agency, Discount Tire implemented Google Analytics. The seamless integration with AdWords campaigns offered immediate, accurate results measurement. They were able to tag URLs easily, and set up conversion funnels and goals without having to add additional tags, which helps page load times. Unwin was able to track the progress of marketing campaigns, run keyword reports and demonstrate the value of online search advertising to Discount Tire’s bottom line.

After implementing GA, Discount Tire could see ROI on specific products, gauge customer purchasing patterns and view traffic patterns on the website so they were able to streamline customer interaction from landing page to purchase page. They also used GA when conducting A/B testing on site language to drive sales. For example, they discovered the most successful language for the checkout button. 'Purchase and make a reservation' resulted in a huge drop in sales, but changing the text to ‘check out and make a reservation’ produced a 14 percent increase in online sales in a single week (Google, n.d.).

Viewing metrics related to cart abandonment, they determined that cart abandonment rates went up when items were not in stock at a local store. By adding language to the page informing customers that out of stock items would be located and stocked at their local store, cart abandonment rates dropped and sales increased 36 percent (Google, n.d.).

My Recommendations

While the case study is not dated, language within it suggests it was written in 2005. A lot has changed since then and there are new tools that could provide additional value. Discount Tire is known for “fair dealing, reasonable prices, top-notch customer service and guaranteed satisfaction” (Jarman, 2011). With the employment of Social Media, including Facebook and Twitter handles, implementing a tool to provide a dashboard for the marketing team to quickly see the impact tweets and posts have on website traffic as well as monitor what customers are saying and be able to respond quickly would provide additional value. 

Eye tracking tools could offer insights into customer interaction with the website. While funnels provide an overview of pages users visit in sequence, eye and click tracking would offer a more detailed view of actual user experience. Data collected by this type of tool would pinpoint areas on the website that are potential stumbling blocks to actual sales, and could assist with page layout to ensure key information is accessible and visible to users.

Data related to visitor locations can help when determining new locations to open. If a lot of visitors from St. Louis, MO are searching the site only to discover there are no store locations nearby, a feasibility study might need to be completed to determine if it would be a good location for growth. Similarly, large percentages of users accessing the site via mobile device could indicate a need for a mobile site.

Finally, discounttire.com does not have a search feature. Adding a search feature and then tracking commonly searched keywords could offer invaluable insights into what customers are searching for. This data would indicate pages or information that may be best featured on the home page or perhaps even used in marketing. By comparing on-site search data with referring traffic, it could provide interesting data on how the homepage should be laid out for the optimal user experience.

Conclusion

Why was Dorothy going to see the Wizard of Oz in the first place? She wanted to get home. The Scarecrow wanted a brain, the Tin man a heart, and the Lion some courage. After allowing the Lion to accompany them on their journey, the group sings the line “If the Wizard is a Wizard who will serve, then I'm sure to get a brain, a heart, a home, the nerve!” (LeRoy & Fleming, 1939). In the case of Discount Tire, once they were able to get web metrics to work for them, they were able to accomplish, and I might say surpass, their goals.

References

Google. (n.d.). Discount Tire increased online sales by 14% in the first week using Google Analytics. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/analytics/customers/case_study_discount_tire.html

Jarman, M. (2011, January 2). After 50 years, service still drives Discount Tires. AZcentral.com. Retrieved from http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/20110102good-service-still-drives-Discount-Tires-0102.html

Nauman, M. (2012, November 1). Start at the beginning [Blog post]. Behind the Emerald Curtain. Retrieved from http://emeraldcurtain.blogspot.com/2012/11/start-at-beginning.html

LeRoy, M. (Producer) & Fleming, V. (Director). (1939, August 25). The Wizard of Oz [Motion Picture]. United Sates of America:  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Funnels, Filters and Goals (Oh My!): Finding the Courage to Take Action

Funnels, filters and goals, oh my! For the inexperienced web analyst, these terms sound scarier than flying monkeys, which are pretty scary! In reality, these terms are fairly easy to understand and extremely important to fully understanding web and business goals and successes. To start, I will briefly explain these concepts as they apply to Google Analytics (GA). 

Funnels 

A funnel is the set of steps or page views a visitor takes to achieve a goal. By tracking a funnel, you can see drop off points and determine what needs to be fixed. For example, on an e-commerce site, a funnel might be the shopping cart, payment page, and confirmation page. If a lot of traffic drops off on the payment page, there could be an issue with inputting payment date, or it could mean that visitors are leaving to go in search of a coupon. 

Filters

Filters will remove data that is not pertinent based on the parameters setup by the administrator. It is important to note that once filters are setup on a profile, the filtered out data cannot be retrieved and re-filtered. Because of this, it is recommended that a profile be maintained that includes all data. GA allows each domain to have up to 50 profiles. Many companies will use a filter to exclude their IP address, that is, their employees. If GA tracks all IP addresses, company employees who regularly hit multiple pages every day can skew reporting. 

Goals 

As I have mentioned previously, metrics are just numbers without human analysis. After determining which metrics are important to your business, you can set up goals within GA to track those specific metrics. There are four ways to measure goals (Lofgren, n.d.):

1. URLs – when a user lands on a specified URL, like a thank you page, PDF or confirmation page.
2. Time – When a visitor spends more or less than a specified amount of time on the site. 
3. Pages/visit – Tracks when a visitor has visited more than, less than or equal to a specific number of pages during a visit.
4. Events – When a visitor completes an event. The event is set up and then tracked once its been triggered. An event could be a download, social shares, time spent watching videos, etc. 

Once goals are setup in Google Analytics, they can easily be tracked and viewed in GA reporting.

So, how do these apply to a real company with real website goals? Following is an example of how these tools can be used at my place of employment, Greenville College.

Earlier this year, Greenville College sent a postcard to current teachers in their target market directing them to a landing page for information about degree programs that could help them advance their career. The preferred funnel was 1) the landing page; 2) one of four program pages; 3) request information page; 4) confirmation page. We also included a contact form on the landing page, but we expected recipients to click-through to more detailed information before submitting contact information. In order to track the effectiveness of this campaign, I could use funnels, filters and goals. 

With funnels, I want to see how many visitors followed the funnel to completion. If the report shows that only a few visitors followed that exact funnel, I can take a step back and see which users went from the landing page to the program page, and then follow where they go from there. In this case, most users clicked through to the program page then dropped off. There are a multitude of possibilities as to why they drop off at this point. It could be that the program was not interesting to them, or maybe the request info was not clear on the page (which I believe it is not). I can only hope that these users will come back again later, from either bookmarking the page, hitting the landing page again, or a simple Google search. In the future, I could use funnels to track A/B tests and determine which landing pages resulted in the better funnel flow (Alexander, 2012). 

Filters can be utilized to see where we had the most effective reach. 

1. Filter by state. To see interest in Illinois, I could filter out all states except Illinois. Or, I could reverse that to see if our message is effective outside Illinois. With state laws and certification requirements varying from state to state, this could be highly useful information.
2. Filter by city. Like point one above, seeing city-level data could help us determine where our message was most highly received. If the cities within a 30-mile radius are the most effective, we may want to focus our marketing efforts in that radius. Or we may find cities where we have done little marketing previously, that had a high response rate. 
3. Filter by technology. An interesting filter to utilize would be the mobile filter. This filter could help me determine how many users are accessing the landing page via mobile phone, and if it affects their traffic patterns.

There are a lot of possible goals to use in this scenario. 

1. I want to collect contact information from both the landing page and the request info page. I can set the confirmation page used on these pages as a goal and track.
2. If I want to know when visitors are downloading course descriptions for the programs, I can set this simple goal to trigger when visitors click on the link, which automatically downloads a PDF.
3. I also want to know any time a visitor directly emails the admissions representative from the website. In order to view this information, I would first need to set that action as an event, then set the event as a goal. 

Google offers a library of information about each of these topics, with detailed explanations on how to set them up on your website. For further reading, click here.

So, how can you use filters, funnels and goals (oh my!) in your web reporting? Can you muster up the courage to give it a try? If so, let me know how it goes in the comments below.

References:

Alexander, D. (2012, September 10). Google Analytics goal flow: More funnels with less work [Blog post]. Luna Metrics. Retrieved from http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/09/10/goal-flow-more-funnels/

Lofgren, L. (n.d.). 4 Google Analytics goal types that are critical to your business [Blog post]. Kissmetrics. Retrieved from http://blog.kissmetrics.com/critical-goal-types/