If you're like most email marketers, the size of your email list is an important metric to measure. The problem is that there’s no perfect size for an email list. It varies based on industry, audience and business. However, most marketers can, and do, measure the monthly rate of growth using their own numbers as a benchmark. If you’re currently doing this, I’ll show you two new ways to measure the growth of your list using data from third-party competitive intelligence tools -- so you can be not only best in class, but also be better than your competitors. 1. Benchmarking List Growt [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Email Marketing | Email Marketing

I have a couple of cool tools in my kitchen: The Aero Press and the Vitamix. I love them both. The Aero Press is a convenient way to make a great cup of morning coffee. It helps me accomplish a habitual practice I engage in each day. But, the Vitamix (a high speed blender) has shifted my understanding and approach to food. I’ve learned to use different types of raw foods to fuel whatever activity I’m about to engage in (tip: try kale for mental clarity). This shift has improved my performance and productivity both mentally and physically (some in my family even point to a sunnier dis [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Marketing Day | Marketing Tools: Analytics | Marketing Tools: Social Media

Last week, in the midst of  Google I/O, Google announced two upcoming updates to mobile app analytics. Google Play Integration Google Analytics will fully integrate with Google Play and allow marketers to get a full view of Google Play's sales funnel. The new report will use flow visualization to facilitate further analysis of any aspect of the funnel. The report will include: Google Play traffic sources: understand which traffic sources and Google search keywords account for most new users.  Google Play views: see how many views your app is receiving in Google Play from each [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Analytics | Google: Mobile

As we move into an age where personal computing is dominated by mobile devices, there has been a push across the advertising industry for hyper-local advertisements. Targeting consumers with ads tailored to their locale increases the relevance of advertising, focusing on markets that pertain to the environment around the user. However, when it comes to local advertising, not all locations are created equal. The value of locally targeted ads depends heavily on who is searching for what -- and where. Frequency & Efficacy Of Local Ads To gauge the value of locally targeted advertisements [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics

[caption id="attachment_37768" align="alignright" width="300"] Image via Shutterstock[/caption] Often, you want to look at your metrics over a longer time period than usual in order to identify long-term trends. This is especially true if your metrics are "jagged" and move around a lot. You have two choices: You could use a larger time period. If you usually watch daily metrics, switch to weekly. Or monthly. Or quarterly. This will smooth out your data and will also smooth out directional trends emerging from your data right at the time when you want to catch such changes. You could u [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Statistics: General

One of the five predictions in my recent 2013 mobile predictions post was that mobile analytics and measurement would get a seat at the "adult table" this year. In particular, one of the areas in which I am seeing tremendous growth is location-based listening and analytics. As more and more companies adapt a listening strategy -- in many cases, using advanced tools like Sysomos and Radian6 (now part of Salesforce.com's MarketingCloud) -- some are starting to look at the possibilities of going deeper. During a recent interview with colleague and co-author of Digital Marketing Analytic [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Local | Check-In Services | Facebook: Mobile | Foursquare | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column

The path from clicking a search ad to a conversion -- buying a product, downloading a brochure, locating a store -- is well understood and widely accepted today. Because a search ad relates to an intent expressed by the person doing the search, click-through rate serves as a good proxy for conversion, and cost-per-click (CPC) is a reliable guide for buying search ads. In search, optimizing for clicks is essentially optimizing for conversions because they’re so closely aligned. Online display advertising, however, is a different story. People go to websites for information, entertainment a [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising

Google is introducing "The Customer Journey to Online Purchase" analytics report today, a new benchmarking tool that provides insight into the various elements impacting a single campaign. Leveraging data from 36,000 of their largest advertisers across 11 different industries in seven countries, Google's new interactive analytics tool offers advertisers a broad view of online buying behaviors and interactions. Using information from Ecommerce and Multi-Channel Funnels, the benchmark data illustrates how buyers move toward a purchase and the length of time it takes to make an online buying de [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Top News

Almost 70% of all messages in people’s inboxes are non-personal, meaning they are marketing offers, social updates, receipts and more. This is both good news and bad news for marketers. The good news is the inbox is now more of a marketing channel than ever before. The bad news is there is more competition, and marketers need to work extra hard to stand out. Luckily, measuring email campaign performance is moving beyond opens and clicks. New measurements are available that can tell you not only how your campaigns are faring but also what’s working for your competitors. Email Forward [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Email Marketing | Email Marketing | Marketing Metrics

Want to understand all the ways that Google Analytics can help you learn how people are interacting with your site? A new "periodic table" may prove useful. Created by Jeff Sauer, the table from his company Jeffalytics covers everything from "As" (AdSense Reports) to even stuff Google Analytics can't report -- "Np" for Not Provided. Here's a look: Be sure to visit the actual Periodic Table of Google Analytics page, where you can get a PDF version of the chart to print, embed code to put the chart on your site plus an interactive version that lets you hover over an element to underst [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Infographics

As social media becomes an increasingly vital component of marketing strategies, agencies are getting more comfortable with associated social data. For example, analyzing brand mentions and sentiment data is becoming fairly common practice, even among smaller shops. But, as I’ve pointed out earlier, social listening data is just the tip of the iceberg. The variety and volume of data available to marketers keep getting bigger -- and more interesting -- each day. Agencies that know how to harness and use social data creatively will profit and grow; those that do not will be left behind.� [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Social Media Marketing

"Negative" metrics -- you might prefer the term "De-optimization Metrics" -- can be just as important to your continuous optimization efforts as your positive ones. The purpose of a negative metric is to isolate for you the deleterious effects you may inadvertently be having on your positive metrics. A negative metric is not necessarily something you want to get less of. For example, one might mistake "reduce bounce rate" as a negative metric -- but really, it's just a more convenient way to refer to the positive metric of "increasing the un-bounce rate." Rather, a negative metric is someth [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics

After publishing a study last year that measured the speed of websites around the world, Google compared recent Site Speed data to the 2012 data to determine if the Web is getting any faster. While numerous improvements have been made to the core infrastructure of the Internet, there has not been a significant change in speed for desktops because of the increasing size of webpages. Since 2012, Google reports webpage sizes have increased by over 56 percent. In contrast to desktops, mobile access speeds have increased approximately 30 percent compared to 2012 with the addition of several L [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Google: Mobile | Statistics | Statistics: General | Statistics: Web Browsers

It's an ongoing challenge for marketers: users say they don't like to be tracked, but they also say they prefer getting relevant ads and messages as they use the Web. This battle over data extends into several marketing areas -- search, social media, email and more. Part of this mix is third-party tools that get in the middle by letting users prevent websites from tracking their behavior. One such tool, Disconnect.me, just announced a substantial upgrade: The second version of its app -- an extension that works in Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers -- lets users see and block more than [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Consumer | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Every holiday comes with its own traditions and methods of celebration. Whether it be Fourth of July cookouts, Halloween trick-or-treating, Christmas gifts or Valentine's Day flowers, each has its own set of festivities and a culture around it that strongly influences how people elect to spend it. Given the commercialization surrounding the winter holiday season, this is generally a very tempting time for advertisers. With so much consumer interest in procuring the perfect holiday gift, it is little wonder that the season drums up a lot of advertising interest. But, what of other holiday [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics

A couple of weeks ago, Danny Sullivan noticed the Compare Sites feature in Quantcast had vanished. Today, we got word that the feature is back up and updated. The Quantcast Compare Site feature now allows site traffic comparisons of up to four publishers, instead of just two. The comparison view shows tabular graph results for uniques, people, visits, and page views, as well as a table view of the previous month's data. To access the Compare Site functionality,  go to any site’s profile page and click on the grey “Compare Site” button to the top right of the graph. Enter up to [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Marketing Tools: Analytics

Google Analytics just stepped up their real-time reports by adding four new features: an events report, content breakdown by device, a real-time versus overall data comparison report, and shortcuts to real-time visitor segment views. Events Report The real-time Events report lets users filter on top events as they occur and on particular event categories and actions. By seeing if particular segments of visitors trigger different events, a user can debug event deployment in real time. Content Breakdown By Device Another new feature is the ability to segment real-time reports by device, [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Top News

I’ve spent over two years developing a social media measurement platform. One of the most important things I’ve learned during that time is that what counts as good and valuable measurement is unique to almost every client. While there are some commonalities between companies in similar industry verticals, my experience suggests strongly that there simply is no “cookbook” for social media measurement that applies universally. [caption id="attachment_37296" align="alignright" width="302"] Image via Shutterstock[/caption] What this means is that you can’t simply watch what the [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Social Media Marketing

Wouldn't it be great to get weekly website performance updates as a simple, easy-to-read graphic? Now you can go beyond the Google Analytics dashboard with a new creative  - and free - tool by Visual.ly. The New Google Analytics Report tool automatically delivers an infographic depicting your favorite metrics right to your desktop. Below is a sample of a full infographic that is generated. To be clear, this report isn't meant to replace regular analytics dashboards, nor does it report beyond page views, visitors, time on site, organic traffic and social traffic. You also may be tra [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Infographics | Top News

Google's Universal Analytics product is now available to all. Universal Analytics launched last October as a beta product that was primarily intended for enterprise-level GA users. It offers APIs that make it possible to integrate offline data into Google Analytics to combing online/offline tracking. Google's blog post offers some specifics on how to add Universal Analytics to your account. It involves getting a new analytics.js code snippet and setting up a new property in the account. (Google says a migration guide for those using ga.js is on the way.) This developer guide looks like a [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Top News