Google Analytics Gets Past First Touch Attribution with Multi-Channel Funnels

May 17, 2011 by 1BlizzAdmin

Most online marketers use and love Google Analytics. We get excited by the numbers and spend hours figuring what is working and what is not. Google Analytics is continually improving and rolls out new features regularly. The next new feature it is rolling out is exciting; multi-touch attribution and multi-channel funnels.

“Huh?” you say? Here is the problem: Google gives “referral” credit to the most recent referrer… so if yesterday a visitor finds your site a link at your chamber of commerce, and then today returns after searching for you by your business name in Google, and then books a room in your hotel booking engine… Google’s brand name search gets ALL the credit (assuming you are one of the 35% or so that actually track referrers for online bookings… see our online marketing benchmarks yourself.).

This last-touch referral drives marketers crazy. Adding “first” touch referrals is nice… but there are often other channel involved. Enter Google’s new Multi Touch Funnels which will give us reports on how all the channels work together. You can read about it at Google or watch this video:

Or, this video: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Analytics, Breaking News

Google URL Shortener for Your Long URLs

May 11, 2011 by 1BlizzAdmin

Now that you are making ridiculously long URLs with Google’s URL Builder you may have a new problem: those long URLs look stupid in many places…

If you want to make a quick short version, go to the Google URL Shortener and turn this link:

http://www.blizzardinternet.com/plans-and-pricing/website-marketing/consultation-plans/?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=cpc&utm_
content=Consultation%2BPlan&utm_campaign=Hotel

into

this link: http://goo.gl/J6xpw [Read more...]

Filed Under: Analytics, SEM, Toolbox

Google Analytics URL Builder

May 10, 2011 by 1BlizzAdmin

Tracking your referral sources accurately in Google Analytics is a big deal.

As the marketing person for a resort, you may increasingly rely upon the reporting that Google gives you to evaluate how your marketing efforts are working.

The problem with relying upon referral reports in Google Analytics is that:

Some or all of the data gets lost (Twitter can have this problem).
The referral website actually has several websites and your traffic gets spread around so it be hard to calculate.
The referral website has a paid and free component (like LinkedIn and Facebook) where your fee-based advertising gets lumped into the free version.
You are doing email marketing and the emails aren’t being tracked.
You are not tracking your 301 redirects or domain forwarding usage.

My favorite tool to solve this problem is the Google Analytics URL Builder which quickly and easily appends “campaign” data the URL I use in some of my (Blizzard Internet) specific advertising campaigns.

So, for my LinkedIn Pay-Per-Click campaign aimed at Hotels… and specifically, the ad where I offer a consultation plan would look like this:

This ad would send traffic to this landing page URL:
http://www.blizzardinternet.com/plans-and-pricing/website-marketing/consultation-plans/ [Read more...]

Filed Under: Analytics, Marketing Musts, PPC Pointers, Toolbox

Conversion Funnel Tracking with PadiTrack

April 28, 2011 by 1BlizzAdmin

PadiTrack lets you easily create conversion funnels from your Google Analytics data.

While it is true you can build conversion funnels in Google Analytics (through the goals area), PadiTrack offers a few advantages:

Retroactive funnels… unlike Google Analytics, PadiTrack will build historical funnel results.
Building funnels is easier and more intuitive in the PadiTrack interface.
In-depth reporting and easy segmentation is available. The funnels are visually effective.
Funnels from multiple accounts available via one login.

Give them a try if you want to get easy insights into your conversion funnels.

Filed Under: Analytics, Toolbox

ClickTale – A Valuable and Creepy-Cool Tool

April 14, 2011 by 1BlizzAdmin

ClickTale is at the top of our list of creepy-cool tools that you should check out if you want to improve your hospitality website.

ClickTale provides valuable website insight by recording visitor movement and actions on your site beyond the boring click paths and page views.

By recording website visitor interactions like mouse tracking, heat mapping, and in-depth conversion analytics, ClickTale can help you make better marketing decisions that will increase conversions.

At Blizzard Internet we use this tool for user testing and visuals of exactly why a website isn’t doing its job and what we can do to improve it.

Take a tour of ClickTale and learn how it is helping over 50,000 customers create online success, and how they can help you.

Filed Under: Analytics, Toolbox

Google Analytics White Paper

February 24, 2011 by 1BlizzAdmin

You can’t improve what you don’t measure; it’s as simple as that.

This month we have shared tips on getting the most out of your Google Analytics, which is the go-to tool to measure and improve your website’s performance.

When installed properly, Google Analytics can track the ROI of your ecommerce website and provide useful insights including how well your site is performing.

If you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your site, than you are missing the boat.

But not to worry, we have gathered our Google Analytics resources have created a white paper to get you started on the right path.

If you already have Analytics on your site, then this 17 page white paper will provide solutions for common problems and tips to get the most out of your Google Analytics data and reporting.

Get the White Paper now:

The Busy Marketer’s Guide to Google Analytics
How to Optimize Reporting and Get the Maximum Value from Your Google Analytics Account

Filed Under: Analytics, SEM

Which Test Won? Social Proof, Yea or Nay?

February 23, 2011 by 1BlizzAdmin

One of our favorite in-office games is playing Which Test Won.

Every week we receive and circulate an email with a featured A/B test, you’re tasked to review the test and vote for the version you think increased conversions. Red or Blue?

The results are more often very surprising. Some of us always vote the opposite of our gut, some vote with our guts – honestly I think the overall per-person success rate is generally 50% or less.

It’s amazing what we PERCEIVE to be the winner, and what actually does a better job of converting actual site visitors. The lesson is the same, time and time again, you wont know what works until you TEST it!

This week’s test was a pretty simple one – would a validator message on an email signup box increase signups?

Click the graphic below to go vote, then come back and let us know if you were right or wrong. We like to analyze the winners and decide where our reasoning went wrong. In theory this should make you BETTER at predicting user outcomes, although it seems like we’re not getting any better.

Just goes to show you, your site visitors are unpredictable AND your most effective focus group – use them to your advantage by setting up AB testing on your website today.

Social Poof – does it help convert? Click the Graphic below to vote: