Google Analytics Videos On YouTube

We have put a tremendous amount of effort into making Google Analytics more intuitive and easy to use. The hard part is teaching people how to use their insights to drive action. We hope to change that with the introduction of our very own Google Analytics Playlist on YouTube. Here you can check out full-length presentations on advanced analytics implementation, best practices, how to create a data driven culture and more.

We have a solid lineup of videos to start with taken on August 1st when we held our first ever Google Conversion University event. It was attended by 100+ representatives from major companies across all major verticals. Attendees got the chance to share ideas, meet with our team, and listen to some great presentations on optimizing their web analytics experiences. You will find those presentations, filmed live in August, now on YouTube.

Those of you who want to pick up a few quick tips might be interested in 'Bounce Rate: The Simply Powerful Metric ', 'Non Ecommerce Sites: Beyond Averages...', and ' Context and Actionability in Web Analytics' by Avinash Kaushik, our resident Analytics Evangelist, blogger, and author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day. We also have the complete sessions, including an introduction to Conversion University by Brett Crosby, Sr. Manager, which provides perspective on the evolution and direction of Google Analytics. Stephanie Hsu covers key reports for the optimal AdWords campaign. Alex Ortiz touches upon a number of advanced techniques such as segmentation through filters. And Tom Leung covered how to enhance your entire user experience using Website Optimizer.

In the future, you can expect more in-depth content about the Google Analytics product to be filmed and posted here in this Playlist. These videos are a great source of insight into how you can continually improve your web analytics practices, and even into our own team here at Google. We hope you enjoy them.

Posted by Christian Yee, Google Analytics Team

Old and New Media in the Multicultural Marketing Equation 2007

I am pleased to announce that The Florida State University Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication released today the first study of its 2007 series of reports on the Multicultural Marketing Equation. These studies conducted by Florida State University and DMS Research (an AOL LLC Company) highlight the commonalities and differences among major culturally unique groups in the United States in regards to important marketing issues. The first report of 2007 released today is entitled “Old and New Media Use.” It contrasts the use of television, radio, newspapers, and magazines with the use of the Internet, cell phones, and other new technologies by Hispanics who prefer English (HE), Hispanics who prefer Spanish (HS), African Americans (AA), Asians (A), and Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW).

I think this is a pioneer study because it emphasizes the complementarity between established and emerging media, and the degree to which the media habits are being driven by the soon to be new majority.

Key trends include:
Old media and new media share the attention of online consumers across different cultural groups. NHW tend to be laggards when it comes to new technologies while members of emerging minorities are venturesome and eager to explore. The typical alternative explanation for this is that these minorities are younger. This study, however, shows that after controlling for age, NHW continue to be laggards regardless of age.

The importance of the native language of consumers is evidenced in the degree to which A, HE, and HS use the media in a language other than English. They use these media in other languages proportional to their acculturation levels. That is not surprising per se but it does point to how the language of media offerings evolves and the importance that marketers have to place in going beyond language and more into connecting through other cultural avenues with these important emerging groups.

The report is available at http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu .

The study was conducted online with approximately 2500 respondents about equally divided by cultural/language group.

The Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University is a national hub for innovative research, education, and training of marketing professionals by means of a partnership between academia and industry. It is the primary source of knowledge and information about Hispanic marketing communication in the United States. The Center aims to promote a two way communication link between marketers and Hispanic customers.
Contact: Dr. Felipe Korzenny, (850) 644 8766

Reverting Back to Original "Average Time on Site" Calculation Today

We recently introduced a new way of calculating "Average Time on Site" that removed visitors who "bounce" from your website (people who hit one page of your site and then leave). This updated calculation attempted to give you a better idea of how long engaged visitors spend on your website. However, many of you prefer the original calculation: the total time on site for all visits divided by the total number of visits. So today we are changing it back.

Effective immediately, all current and historical Average Time on Site metrics are calculated using the original methodology. This ensures that your data-set is consistent. So if you compare data from today or tomorrow with data from two weeks ago, it will be an apples to apples comparison.

Two other updates in this release...

The number of Absolute Unique Visitors displayed in the Visitors Overview report previously did not match the number of unique visitors in the Absolute Unique Visitors report. This is because the Absolute Unique Visitor report shows data over time and was therefore summing daily unique visitors. The Absolute Unique Visitors report no longer sums the day by day totals but instead displays the absolute unique visitors metric that is displayed in the Visitors Overview.

Careful, this one's a bit geeky. We recently changed the way we ordered URL parameters. Why is this important? Take a look at the following two URLs:

www.google.com?rooms=3&beds=2
www.google.com?beds=2&rooms=3

Instead of considering these two URLs as a single URL: www.google.com?beds=2&rooms=3 (i.e. alphabetically ordered parameters), we now consider these as two separate URLs (i.e. without reordered parameters). We made this change to accommodate those of you with filters or goals dependent upon parameter order.

We are always seeking to improve the value you get from Google Analytics. We try to be right 100% of the time, but we're human.

Posted by Brett Crosby, Sr. Manager, Google Analytics

Smells Like Teen Spending

I was painting my deck and fence yesterday with some high school students that my wife recruited (one benefit of having a high school teacher as a spouse is that you are never at a loss for good baby sitters and cheap physical labor). As we were painting, one the girls whipped out her cell phone and started to hold a very public conversation with her friend about borrowing $10 so that she can put a Homecoming dress on layaway (“Borrow” $10?!?! I’m about to pay you much more than that in cash!)

That’s my point. Here is a teenage girl, an hour away from cash income, and she’s already working a “loan” to cover her spending. This is worse than a payday loan – it’s a post-payday loan.

In reality, aren’t these teens a fantastic market for us to target?
- Many have ATM/Debit cards
- Too many have credit cards
- They have nothing but DISPOSABLE income

But while targeting teens for checking and credit cards, I feel we have a responsibility to help them become more fiscally sound banking customers too! A few ideas came to mind as I lay in bed last night pondering this subject:
- Why not offer a special low balance, low interest credit card for teens. Too many companies take advantage of teens with 20%+ interest rates. If a card only has a $500-$1,000 limit, where’s the risk vs. the gain of building great relationships at a young age?
- Why not make students pass a written test about saving and credit before credit or debit cards are approved? If nothing else, it would help them to think about money in a new way and would differentiate our efforts in the minds of the student’s parents (and don’t we want to be hero’s in their eyes?)
- Many of us sponsor school activities, but how many of us really leverage them? Why not negotiate to hold a student focus group at the school. Use it to learn:
. - What percentage of students has a checking account?
. - Did they simply choose their parents bank or credit union?
. - Do they understand how interest works on credit cards
. - What features are they looking for (text updates, online banking, etc.)

I’ll have these students back tonight to finish the painting; maybe I’ll hold my own teen focus group and get back a little more for my investment than a beautiful back yard.

Cheers.

Customer Service at its finest!

Just when I thought I was out of things to talk about, I had a WOW experience!

Once a month, I travel to our corporate offices for some face-to-face time with the rest of the MarketMatch team. During my trip, I usually stay at a chain hotel that offers a great rate, a below average free breakfast and rooms that are pretty spartan (and not always very clean). Each time I stay, I usually end up switching rooms at least once because the room they originally gave me either smells like a smoke shop or is dirty enough to refuse to take your shoes off. But it's quiet, I feel safe and the staff is pretty nice. In my mind, that (almost) makes up for the shortcomings.

As I prepare for my October trip, I learn that the new Hampton Inn has opened and is ready for my reservation. I am already a HUGE fan of Hampton properties (well, Hilton in general is great, but I love the Hampton price point!) so it took me all of half a second to look into their rates.

Imagine my disappointment when I realized that their rooms are, on average, $30 per night more expensive than the previously mentioned not-so-clean chain hotel. To me, that $30 would be worth it, but in the interest of being economically responsible, it would be best to stay at the cheaper place. But just in case, I asked to speak to the manager.

I told the Hampton Inn manager (his name is Jason) of my experiences with the other hotel down the street and that while I am already a HiltonHonors Silver VIP member, I will have to continue my relationship with the other hotel because of his price. And that's when it happened. He offered me the AARP rate that split the difference. Now we're talking. A better night sleep, better breakfast, double dip points (that's what Hilton calls it when you earn hotel points AND airline miles in the same stay) and the peace of mind that the hotel is clean...it is brand new!!! No more sticky comforter!

I did however hesitate in that he didn't match the price, he only split the difference. Jason immediately noticed my hesitation and quickly jumped in with, "how about this...you stay here in October at this rate and when you get here we will talk about a permanent negotiated rate for all people who travel to this hotel for your company." DONE!!! I was so happy I could hardly stand it.

So, here's the obvious question...how does this relate to what you do? And the answer is...VERY CLOSELY.

While we all know that, as bankers, we never want to negotiate price, BUT, as bankers, we also know that our best customers can be tempted by the price down the street. And while our customers will still continue to do most of their business with us, when it comes to those customers who are business owners (or in my case, an employee) they will do what they have to in order to do what is best for their business. Even if that means they settle for mediocre service, no frills and fewer choices. In order to be economically responsible they sometimes have to settle for less to save more.

So here's my question to you...is it worth splitting the difference to get the business and fill the room? An occupied room at a lower rate is better than a vacant room. Or in your terms, a big loan at a lower rate is better than no loan at all...apply this to deposits...an account at a higher rate is better than no deposit at all.

I know that this is, essentially, negotiating a rate. However, I would argue that it is more about managing a relationship than negotiating price. And this may not be right for everyone...maybe just your VIP customers. And it really boils down to empowering your employees to do what is right to get the business and enhance the relationship with your best customers.

Your competition wants what you have...YOUR CUSTOMERS...especially your BEST customers. What will you do to keep them?


Not sure where to start? Call me. I'll tell you!

And to all of you ABAMN members, see you in Baltimore!!!

Jenna

Website Optimizer Gets an Update

Today, we are happy to announce the first major update to Website Optimizer. (For those who are unfamiliar with Website Optimizer, we've blogged about it before here and here.)

The first feature that we've added is a wizard for creating A/B split experiments. A/B tests are ideal for testing how well different page layouts perform and for pages that don't get a lot of traffic. Although you can perform A/B testing in Google Analytics, using Website Optimizer simplifies the process and makes it really easy to set up experiments and view results. Watch this demo to learn how to set up an A/B experiment.

We've also improved the experiment list display. Your most recent experiments appear at the top and you can now delete experiments.

Finally, we've added My Client Center Access Manager. Now, with permission from their client accounts, agencies can access Website Optimizer directly through the My Client Center.

We've published a testing strategy that details how to set time on page as a conversion goal and an article describing how we look at full factorial versus fractional experimental data analysis.

For more details, visit the Website Optimizer site or read the Inside AdWords blog post.


Posted by Peter Harbison, Website Optimizer Team