DIGITAL MARKETING NOTES

MBA IV SEMESTER
UNIT 4

Amit Kumar Bhanja

Assistant Professor,
SMS, Varanasi.
Introduction to Web Analytics

Web analytics is a process through which statistics about website use are gathered and
compiled electronically. An analytics program can be used as a tool to help you get to know
your users—who they are, where they are coming from, and how they use your site. Ultimately,
having access to information about your users helps you to make appropriate decisions about
your site, whether those decisions apply to major redesigns of your site or to ongoing tweaking
and minor changes reflective of shifts in customer usage or in your own current programs and
services. The origins of web analytics are from commercial website design, where tracking
users’ behaviors and actions directly relates to consumers’ purchasing behavior. However, web
analytics can be just as valuable for a nonprofit website as for an e-commerce site. One
approach is to monetize your website goals, applying a dollar figure to certain activities such
as user visits or online program registrations. Essentially, however, librarians should simply
translate the theories of profit-based customer usage into the goals and situations that are
specific to your organization. No matter the kind of organization, the website should seek to
understand the visitors’ experience and be responsive to their needs.

Combining Quantitative with Qualitative Data

Perhaps the best known name in the field of web analytics is Avinash Kaushik. In addition to
two books, Kaushik writes an excellent blog, Occam’s Razor, and has numerous videos online
regarding best practices of web analytics use. As mentioned previously as typical of web
analytics literature, much of Kaushik’s work focuses on e-commerce, as his own history in the
field is from work with several major commercial companies. Today he is the Analytics
Evangelist for Google. Kaushik’s enthusiasm for web analytics is contagious. It’s difficult to
read his books, read his blog, or watch any of his numerous web instruction videos without
also becoming passionate about web analytics. But one of Kaushik’s overriding philosophies
about web analytics is that the raw data tells only a portion of the story: the “what.” To get at
the “why,” and even the “how,” you must get into the mindset of the user. As Kaushik says,
you must ask them (the users), using methods such as electronic surveys, focus groups, and
user testing. One method of asking for users’ feedback is to automatically direct users to an
online survey, using a tool such as SurveyMonkey or Zoomerang. Kaushik writes that three
open-ended questions are enough:

1. “What was the purpose of your visit to our website today?”

2. “Were you able to complete your task today?”

3. “If . . . not, why not?”

If the visitors can compete your survey in just a few short minutes, they are much more likely
to offer you feedback about their website visit. The answers to these questions will provide you
with a wealth of information and will put your analytics data in context. For a more intensive
user feedback project, consider a formal usability study.

What is Web Analytics?

Web Analytics is the methodological study of online/offline patterns and trends. It is a

technique that you can employ to collect, measure, report, and analyze your website data. It is
normally carried out to analyze the performance of a website and optimize its web usage. We
use web analytics to track key metrics and analyze visitors’ activity and traffic flow. It is a
tactical approach to collect data and generate reports.

Importance of Web Analytics

We need Web Analytics to assess the success rate of a website and its associated business.
Using Web Analytics, we can:

 Assess web content problems so that they can be rectified

 Have a clear perspective of website trends

 Monitor web traffic and user flow

 Demonstrate goals acquisition

 Figure out potential keywords

 Identify segments for improvement

 Find out referring sources

Web Analytics Process

The primary objective of carrying out Web Analytics is to optimize the website in order to
provide better user experience. It provides a data-driven report to measure visitors’ flow
throughout the website. Take a look at the following illustration. It depicts the process of web
analytics.

 Set the business goals.

 To track the goal achievement, set the Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

 Collect correct and suitable data.

 To extract insights, Analyze data.

 Based on assumptions learned from the data analysis, Test alternatives.

 Based on either data analysis or website testing, Implement insights.

Define
Goals

Implement Build KPIs

Web Analytics
Process

Test Collect
Alternatives Data

Analyse
Data

Key Metrics

You need to find a few key metrics for your business. You have a website and it has a tracking
code in it. Now, you need to make sure what are you going to measure. Analyzing may help
you retain your customer and hold them.
What to Measure

Audience

• Pageviews - Pageviews is the number of views of a page. Multiple pageviews are

possible in a single session. If pageviews is improved, it will directly influence AdSense
revenue and average time on website.

• Bounce rate – Bounce rate reflects the percentage of visitors returning back only after
visiting one page of your website. It helps you to know how many visitors do so. If the bounce
rate of a website increases, its webmaster should be worried.

• Pages per session – Pages/session is the number of pages surfed in a single session. For
example, a user landed on your website and surfed 3 pages, then the website pages/session is

• Demographic info – Demographic data shows Age and Gender. With the help of
Demographic Info, you can find the percentage of Male/Female visitors coming to your
website. Analyzing the ratio of this data, you can make a strategy according to genders. Age
group data help you find what percentage of age group visiting your website. So, you can make
a strategy for highest percentage of age group visitors.

• Devices – This data shows the devices info. In devices info, you can easily find how
many percentage of visitors come from mobile, how many come from desktop, how many
come from tablets, etc. If mobile traffic is high, then you need to make your website responsive.

Acquisition

• Traffic sources – In the acquisition, you have to check all your sources of the traffic.
Major sources of the traffic are:

1) Organic traffic is the traffic coming through all search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing)
2) Social traffic is the traffic coming through all social media platforms (like- Facebook,
Twitter, Google+)
3) Referral traffic is the traffic coming through where your website is linked.
4) Direct traffic is the traffic coming directly to your website. For example, typing the url
of your website, clicking on the link of your website given in emails, etc.
Web Analytics

• Source/Medium – This metrics gives you an idea of the sources from where you are getting
traffic (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Direct, Facebook...).

Site Content

• Landing pages – Landing pages are the pages where the visitors land first (normally, home
pages of the websites are the landing pages). With the help of this metrics, you can find the top
pages of the website. Using this metrics, you can analyze how many pages are getting 50% or
more traffic of the website. So, you can easily find which type of content is working for you.
Further, based on this analysis, you can plan the next content strategy.

• Site speed – Site speed is the metrics used for checking page timing (average page load time).
Using this metrics, you can find which page is taking more time to load, how many pages have
high load time, etc.

Data is being generated at an ever-increasing pace. According to Statista, the total volume of
data was 64.2 zettabytes in 2020; it’s predicted to reach 181 zettabytes by 2025. This abundance
of data can be overwhelming if you aren’t sure where to start. So, how do you ensure the data
you use is relevant and important to the business problems you aim to solve? After all, a data-
driven decision is only as strong as the data it’s based on. One way is to collect data yourself.

Here’s a breakdown of data types, why data collection is important, what to know before you
begin collecting, and seven data collection methods to leverage.

WHAT IS DATA COLLECTION?

Data collection is the methodological process of gathering information about a specific subject.
It’s crucial to ensure your data is complete during the collection phase and that it’s collected
legally and ethically. If not, your analysis won’t be accurate and could have far-reaching
consequences.

In general, there are three types of consumer data:

 First-party data, which is collected directly from users by your organization

 Second-party data, which is data shared by another organization about its customers (or its
first-party data)
 Third-party data, which is data that’s been aggregated and rented or sold by organizations
that don’t have a connection to your company or users
Although there are use cases for second- and third-party data, first-party data (data you’ve
collected yourself) is more valuable because you receive information about how your audience
behaves, thinks, and feels—all from a trusted source.

Data can be qualitative (meaning contextual in nature) or quantitative (meaning numeric in

nature). Many data collection methods apply to either type, but some are better suited to one
over the other.

In the data life cycle, data collection is the second step. After data is generated, it must be
collected to be of use to your team. After that, it can be processed, stored, managed, analyzed,
and visualized to aid in your organization’s decision-making.
Before collecting data, there are several factors you need to define:

 The question you aim to answer

 The data subject(s) you need to collect data from
 The collection timeframe
 The data collection method(s) best suited to your needs
The data collection method you select should be based on the question you want to answer, the
type of data you need, your timeframe, and your company’s budget.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA COLLECTION

Collecting data is an integral part of a business’s success; it can enable you to ensure the data’s
accuracy, completeness, and relevance to your organization and the issue at hand. The
information gathered allows organizations to analyze past strategies and stay informed on what
needs to change.

The insights gleaned from data can make you hyperaware of your organization’s efforts and
give you actionable steps to improve various strategies—from altering marketing strategies to
assessing customer complaints.

Basing decisions on inaccurate data can have far-reaching negative consequences, so it’s
important to be able to trust your own data collection procedures and abilities. By ensuring
accurate data collection, business professionals can feel secure in their business decisions.

Explore the options in the next section to see which data collection method is the best fit for
your company.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS USED IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS

1. Surveys

Surveys are physical or digital questionnaires that gather both qualitative and quantitative data
from subjects. One situation in which you might conduct a survey is gathering attendee
feedback after an event. This can provide a sense of what attendees enjoyed, what they wish
was different, and areas in which you can improve or save money during your next event for a
similar audience.

While physical copies of surveys can be sent out to participants, online surveys present the
opportunity for distribution at scale. They can also be inexpensive; running a survey can cost
nothing if you use a free tool. If you wish to target a specific group of people, partnering with
a market research firm to get the survey in front of that demographic may be worth the money.

Something to watch out for when crafting and running surveys is the effect of bias, including:

 Collection bias: It can be easy to accidentally write survey questions with a biased lean.
Watch out for this when creating questions to ensure your subjects answer honestly and
aren’t swayed by your wording.
 Subject bias: Because your subjects know their responses will be read by you, their answers
may be biased toward what seems socially acceptable.

2. Transactional Tracking
Each time your customers make a purchase, tracking that data can allow you to make decisions
about targeted marketing efforts and understand your customer base better.

Often, e-commerce and point-of-sale platforms allow you to store data as soon as it’s generated,
making this a seamless data collection method that can pay off in the form of customer insights.

3. Interviews and Focus Groups

Interviews and focus groups consist of talking to subjects face-to-face about a specific topic or
issue. Interviews tend to be one-on-one, and focus groups are typically made up of several
people. You can use both to gather qualitative and quantitative data.

Through interviews and focus groups, you can gather feedback from people in your target
audience about new product features. Seeing them interact with your product in real-time and
recording their reactions and responses to questions can provide valuable data about which
product features to pursue.
As is the case with surveys, these collection methods allow you to ask subjects anything you
want about their opinions, motivations, and feelings regarding your product or brand. It also
introduces the potential for bias. Aim to craft questions that don’t lead them in one particular
direction.

One downside of interviewing and conducting focus groups is they can be time-consuming and
expensive. If you plan to conduct them yourself, it can be a lengthy process. To avoid this, you
can hire a market research facilitator to organize and conduct interviews on your behalf.

4. Observation

Observing people interacting with your website or product can be useful for data collection
because of the candor it offers. If your user experience is confusing or difficult, you can witness
it in real-time.

Yet, setting up observation sessions can be difficult. You can use a third-party tool to record
users’ journeys through your site or observe a user’s interaction with a beta version of your site
or product.

While less accessible than other data collection methods, observations enable you to see
firsthand how users interact with your product or site. You can leverage the qualitative and
quantitative data gleaned from this to make improvements and double down on points of
success.
5. Online Tracking

To gather behavioral data, you can implement pixels and cookies. These are both tools that
track users’ online behavior across websites and provide insight into what content they’re
interested in and typically engage with.

You can also track users’ behavior on your company’s website, including which parts are of
the highest interest, whether users are confused when using it, and how long they spend on
product pages. This can enable you to improve the website’s design and help users navigate to
their destination.

Inserting a pixel is often free and relatively easy to set up. Implementing cookies may come
with a fee but could be worth it for the quality of data you’ll receive. Once pixels and cookies
are set, they gather data on their own and don’t need much maintenance, if any.

It’s important to note: Tracking online behavior can have legal and ethical privacy implications.
Before tracking users’ online behavior, ensure you’re in compliance with local and
industry data privacy standards.

6. Forms

Online forms are beneficial for gathering qualitative data about users, specifically demographic
data or contact information. They’re relatively inexpensive and simple to set up, and you can
use them to gate content or registrations, such as webinars and email newsletters.

You can then use this data to contact people who may be interested in your product, build out
demographic profiles of existing customers, and in remarketing efforts, such as email
workflows and content recommendations.

7. Social Media Monitoring

Monitoring your company’s social media channels for follower engagement is an accessible
way to track data about your audience’s interests and motivations. Many social media platforms
have analytics built in, but there are also third-party social platforms that give more detailed,
organized insights pulled from multiple channels.
You can use data collected from social media to determine which issues are most important to
your followers. For instance, you may notice that the number of engagements dramatically
increases when your company posts about its sustainability efforts.

What is Web Analytics?

Web analytics refers to the process of tracking, collecting, reporting, and analyzing website
data related to website usage and visitor behavior. It aims to understand user behavior
and optimize the website’s overall performance to improve user experience.

Web analytics covers various aspects of a website's performance and user interactions to gain
insights into how users engage with the site. It is a powerful tool for website owners, marketers,
and data analysts to make data-backed decisions to achieve revenue, engagement, and other
goals.

Website analytics platforms package various tools and features for businesses to analyze their
websites comprehensively. Some features include traffic sources & analysis, conversion
tracking, user engagement, site speed and performance, campaign tracking, and more. With
website analytics, you can measure the following:

 Visitor data
 Traffic sources
  Page views and navigation
 Bounce rate and time-on-site
 Conversions, click-through-rate, and more

It helps answer key questions about your website performance and user interaction, such as:

 What is the demographic information of the visitors (age, gender, location), and what
devices and browsers are visitors using to access the site?
 Are there pages with slow loading times and broken links or error messages that deter
users?
 What are the most visited pages on the website?
 What paths do users take through the site before converting or leaving?
 Which marketing campaigns or channels are delivering the best results in terms of
traffic and conversions?
 Which types of content (blog posts, videos, infographics) resonate with the audience?
 What design, layout, or content changes could enhance the user experience?

Why is website analytics important?

In essence, website analytics empowers businesses and website owners and transforms how
websites are managed and optimized by providing actionable insights. In a digital landscape
where competition is fierce, understanding your audience and making informed adjustments
based on data is essential for success.

1. Understand your website's visitors

Web analytics offers insights into your visitors' demographics, location, devices, channels, and
browsing behavior. This information helps you understand your audience better and tailor your
content, design, and marketing strategies to match their preferences. You can create a more
personalized and engaging user experience by knowing who your visitors are.

2. Analyze website conversions

With website analytics, you can perform conversion tracking to measure the success of your
website's goals, such as sign-ups, purchases, downloads, or any other desired actions.
Conversion rates allow you to determine which pages or elements drive the most conversions
and optimize those underperforming.

3. Boost your search engine optimization (SEO)

Analytics tools provide data on the keywords that drive traffic to your site and show how well
your pages rank in search engine results. By analyzing this data, you can identify keywords
with high potential, optimize your content to align with user search intent, and improve your
site's visibility in search engines. These efforts lead to increased organic traffic and better
overall SEO performance.

4. Understand top-performing content

You can identify which content resonates most with your audience using analytics
platforms. You can measure metrics such as page views, time spent on the page, and social
shares to determine which articles, videos, or other content pieces generate the most
engagement. In other words, it helps you create more content your audience finds valuable and
appealing.

5. Understand and optimize referral sources

Web analytics tools enable you to track where your website traffic is coming from, whether it's
search engines, social media platforms, other websites, or direct visits. By understanding
referral sources, you can allocate resources effectively. If a particular source is driving a
significant amount of traffic, you can invest more in optimizing your presence on that platform.
Similarly, you can reassess your strategy for that channel if a referral source isn't performing
well.

What are the two main categories of web analytics?

Website analytics is broadly categorized into the following two categories, referring to different
aspects of website and user behavior data. Both on-site and off-site web analytics are essential
for understanding the complete picture of your website's performance.
1. On-site web analytics

On-site web analytics focuses on gathering and analyzing data related to user interactions and
behavior while they are actively navigating your website. It tracks user engagement within your
own website's environment. Some key aspects of on-site web analytics include:

 Monitoring page views, bounce rates, and time on site.

 Analyzing user paths and navigation through your website.
 Examining conversion rates and tracking goal completions.
 Assessing the performance of individual pages and content.
 Understanding how users interact with forms, buttons, and interactive elements.

2. Off-site web analytics

Off-site web analytics involves tracking and analyzing data related to activities outside your
website but still impacting its performance. It focuses on measuring the effectiveness of your
website's presence on external platforms and how those platforms drive traffic to your site. Key
elements of off-site web analytics include:

 Evaluating the impact of search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and search engine
rankings.
 Monitoring referral traffic from other websites, social media, and online campaigns.
 Analyzing the effectiveness of external advertising campaigns and their click-through
rates.
 Tracking social media engagement, shares, and mentions of your website or content.
 Measuring the impact of email marketing campaigns and click-through rates.

What are the processes of website analytics?

The website analytics process has the following essential steps.

1. Setting goals

The first step is to define your website's objectives and set specific goals. These goals could
include increasing sales, growing the subscriber list, improving user engagement, or enhancing
brand awareness. Clear goals guide your analytics efforts and help you focus on the metrics
most relevant to measure.

2. Collecting data

In the second step, you implement tracking mechanisms to collect data on user interactions and
behavior on your website. It often involves using web analytics tools like Usermaven, Google
Analytics, or other third-party solutions. Data collection involves capturing information about
page views, clicks, conversions, user demographics, referral sources, and more.

3. Processing data

The next stage is the processing of collected data. Data processing prepares the raw data for
meaningful analysis. The collected data is stored in a database or analytics platform before
cleaning. Data cleaning involves removing inaccuracies, duplications, or irrelevant information
such as bot-generated or spam traffic and handling missing data points. Next, the cleaned data
goes through a transformation to make it more suitable for analysis and validation, which
involves cross-checking it against expected results to ensure accuracy.

And finally, at the data retention and privacy stage, in compliance with privacy regulations,
some data needs to be anonymized or removed after a certain period to protect user privacy
and adhere to legal requirements. After all the data processing steps, it gets ready for analysis.

4. Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs)

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are essential for conducting website data analysis because
they provide a clear and quantifiable way to measure the success of your website. KPIs are
specific metrics that align with your business goals and provide insights into your website's
performance. These metrics vary based on your objectives. For instance, if your goal is to
increase e-commerce sales, KPIs could include conversion rate, average order value, and
revenue. Identifying relevant KPIs helps you measure progress and assess the success of your
efforts.
5. Developing a strategy

You can develop a strategy to optimize your website's performance based on the insights gained
from analyzing data and identifying KPIs. This strategy might involve improving specific
pages, adjusting content, refining user experience, or refining marketing campaigns. Data-
driven decisions enable you to tailor your approach to what works best for your audience.

6. Experimenting and testing

To refine your strategy, experimentation and testing are crucial. To experiment with your
strategy, you must implement changes (such as A/B testing different page layouts, headlines,
or calls-to-action) and monitor how these changes impact KPIs. Testing helps you understand
what works best for your audience and fine-tune your approach. Website analytics is an
ongoing process. By following these steps, you create a continuous cycle of improvement.

Which are some example metrics to track with web analytics?

As established already, tracking metrics provides valuable insights into your website's
performance, user behavior, and the effectiveness of your online strategies. Let’s look at some
widely used metrics considered a standard for measuring website performance.

1. Page visits / Sessions

Page visits or sessions represent the total number of times users interact with your website. A
session includes all the pages a user views during a site visit. This metric helps you understand
how engaged your audience is and how often they access your content.

2. Source of traffic/Customer acquisition

This metric reveals where your website traffic is coming from. It categorizes traffic into
different sources, such as direct (users typing your URL), organic search (users finding your
site through search engines), referral (users clicking from other websites), and social (users
coming from social media platforms). Understanding traffic sources helps you allocate
resources effectively and optimize your marketing efforts.
3. Total website conversion rate

The total website conversion rate represents the percentage of users who take a desired action
on your site, such as signing up for a newsletter or purchasing. It's calculated by dividing the
number of conversions by the total number of visitors and multiplying by 100. A higher
conversion rate indicates that more visitors are completing your intended goals.

4. Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after viewing only
one page. A high bounce rate might indicate that visitors are not finding what they're looking
for or that your landing pages need improvement. Lowering the bounce rate often involves
enhancing user experience and providing relevant content.

5. Repeat visit rate

The repeat visit rate tells you how many website visitors are returning users. High repeat visit
rates indicate your content is engaging and valuable, encouraging users to return. It's a measure
of user loyalty and satisfaction.

6. Monthly unique visitors

The monthly unique visitors metric counts the number of distinct individuals visiting your
website within a month. It provides a monthly overview of your site's reach and popularity over
time.

7. Unique e-commerce metrics

E-commerce metrics focus on online sales and revenue. Some unique e-commerce metrics to
track include:

 Average Order Value (AOV): The average amount customers spend in a single
transaction.
 Cart Abandonment Rate: The percentage of users who add items to their cart but do not
complete the purchase.
 Product Performance: Metrics related to how well individual products sell, such as best-
sellers and low-performing products.
Popular web analytics tools:

There are plenty of web analytics tools available to implement website analytics. Let’s look at
the top 10 tools with a brief overview of their features and the primary focus on choosing the
right option for your specific goals.

1. Usermaven

Usermaven is a privacy-friendly web analytics tool hosted in the EU. It focuses on user
experience optimization with a wide range of features, such as codeless event tracking, no
cookie banners, and white-pixel labeling. It offers real-time insights into user behavior and
website interactions to help businesses enhance their websites for better engagement and
conversions.

2. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a widely used and comprehensive analytics platform offered by Google.
While powerful, GA4 introduces a more complex setup due to its event-driven model and
focuses on user-centric measurement, offering insights into user journeys and interactions
across devices.

3. Yahoo web analytics

Yahoo Web Analytics is designed to help businesses understand user behavior and optimize
marketing efforts. It provides insights into website traffic sources, visitor demographics, and
user paths.

4. Clicky

Clicky is a real-time web analytics tool offering features like live tracking, heatmaps, and
detailed visitor data. It's known for its user-friendly interface and focuses on delivering
actionable insights quickly.
5. Mint

Mint is a lightweight and self-hosted web analytics tool that provides a simple yet effective
way to track website traffic and user interactions. It offers real-time data and customizable
reporting.

6. Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics specializes in customer behavior analysis and conversion optimization. It tracks

user behavior across different devices and offers insights to improve engagement and retention.

7. UserTesting

UserTesting is primarily a user research platform that helps businesses gather qualitative
insights by allowing real users to interact with websites or prototypes and provide feedback
through videos and recordings.

8. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg offers heatmap and user behavior analysis tools to visualize how users interact with
a website. It helps identify areas of improvement, optimize user experience, and increase
conversions.

9. Amplitude

Amplitude is a product analytics platform that focuses on helping businesses understand user
behavior, engagement, and retention within their digital products. It's particularly suited for
mobile apps and SaaS products.

10. Twitalyzer

Twitalyzer is a tool specifically designed for Twitter analytics. It provides insights into user
engagement, influence, and social reach on the Twitter platform.

Common issues with website analytics?

Implementing website analytics is essential to track its performance, but it is not uncommon to
face issues related to website analytics that can cost you time, energy, and resources. Below
we discuss some common challenges with website analytics that you need to be aware of to
avoid them.

1. Keeping track of too many metrics

While tracking various metrics can provide valuable insights, monitoring an excessive number
of metrics can lead to information overload. It becomes challenging to focus on the most
relevant metrics that directly align with your goals. To address this issue, it's important to
prioritize the KPIs that are most meaningful to your business objectives. Focusing on a
manageable set of metrics ensures you're not overwhelmed and can take actionable steps based
on the data.

2. Data Accuracy

Data accuracy is crucial for making informed decisions. Inaccurate data can lead to misguided
strategies and incorrect conclusions. Common sources of data inaccuracy include tracking
errors, technical issues, and improper implementation of analytics codes. Regularly audit your
tracking setup, validate data against other sources, and ensure your analytics tools are correctly
configured to maintain data accuracy.

Choose the data analytics tools that do not need to be blocked by ad-blockers because of cookie-
based tracking. Most analytics tools (including Google Analytics and Mixpanel) provide
inaccurate stats because roughly 27% of users block tracking scripts with
adblockers. Useramven’s pixel-white labeling technology bypasses adblockers; you get 99%
accurate stats.

3. Data privacy is at risk

With increasing concerns about data privacy and regulations such as the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), it's crucial to handle user data responsibly. Collecting
personally identifiable information (PII) without proper consent or security measures can lead
to legal and ethical issues. Implement data anonymization, provide clear privacy policies, and
adhere to relevant regulations to protect user privacy and build trust. Usermaven offers privacy-
friendly analytics and is hosted in the EU, which means you don’t have to worry about losing
your user's trust as it is compliant with GDPR and CCPA.
4. Data doesn’t tell the whole story - execution of data is important

While data provides insights, it's essential to remember that data itself doesn't automatically
lead to improvement. Execution is key. Simply having data doesn't guarantee success; how you
interpret and act on the data matters. Data should inform your decisions and guide your
strategies, but successful execution involves taking tangible actions based on insights gained
from the data.

Multi- Channel attribution in digital marketing?

Multi-channel attribution is an analytical method that helps businesses understand the

effectiveness of their marketing channels by tracking and assigning credit to every touchpoint
along a customer’s journey.

Unlike single-touch attribution, which only credits conversions to the first or last touchpoint,
multi-channel attribution aims to provide a more comprehensive and holistic view of the
customer journey.

Multi-channel attribution starts by collecting data on all the touchpoints that a user interacts
with before making a purchase or conversion. This includes email, display ads, social media,
search ads, etc.

Once the data is collected, a multi-channel attribution model is applied to determine how credit
should be assigned to each touchpoint.

There are various attribution models, including linear, time decay, and position-based models,
each with their own rules for assigning credit (we’ll discuss these in more detail shortly).

After credit is assigned to each touchpoint, businesses can leverage the insights from multi-
channel attribution to:

 optimise their marketing mix and allocate resources more efficiently to improve overall
marketing performance and ROI.

 gain insights into the customer journey and see what role different channels play in
driving conversions and revenue. This is handy as 51% of companies today use at least
eight channels to interact with customers.
  make data-driven decisions about their marketing campaigns and improve their overall
marketing strategy long-term.

 better allocate their marketing budget and resources to achieve a maximum return.

Different multi-channel attribution models:

To recap, multi-channel attribution models are frameworks that accurately identify how and
where your users engage with your marketing channels before completing a conversion or goal.

Related: What are marketing attribution models, and why are they important

There’s been an explosion of multi-touch attribution models in recent years, but we will briefly
walk you through seven of most used models in digital marketing.

 Linear
 Time decay
 Position based (u-shaped)
  W-shaped
 Full path
 Custom
 Data-driven

Linear attribution model

Linear attribution is a multi-touch attribution model that assigns equal credit to each touchpoint
in a customer’s journey. In other words, every touchpoint is given an equal share of the credit
for a conversion or sale.

It’s often used as a starting point for companies that are just beginning to implement multi-
touch attribution.

In the example above, linear has divided all of the credit for the conversion equally across all
of the touchpoints.

Linear attribution takes into account every touchpoint in a customer’s journey, giving you a
more complete understanding of how users interact with your brand.
Time decay attribution

With time decay attribution, the credit for a conversion or sale is divided among all touchpoints,
but the credit for each touchpoint decreases as the time between the touchpoint and the
conversion increases.

In the example above, the time decay model has attributed the credit to all of the touchpoints
but has given more credit to Facebook and organic search. The idea behind this model is that
the closer a touchpoint is in time to the conversion, the more influential it is in the customer’s
decision to convert.

Position-based attribution model (U-shaped)

For position based attribution assigns the majority of the credit for a conversion or sale to the
first and last touchpoints in a customer’s journey, and splits the remaining credit among the
middle touchpoints.
In the example above, position-based has allocated 40% credit to the Google ad and Facebook
ad. The remaining touchpoints share the remaining 20% credit.

Position-based attribution is useful for companies that want to understand the impact of their
branding and awareness campaigns (first touchpoint) and their conversion-focused campaigns
(last touchpoint), as well as the impact of touchpoints that occur in between.

W-shaped attribution

The W-shaped attribution model is a multi-touch attribution model that assigns credit for a
conversion or sale to three key touchpoints in a customer’s journey: the first touchpoint, the
middle touchpoints, and the last touchpoint.
In the example above, W-shaped attribution has allocated credit to the Google ad, Google
search and Facebook. Like U-shaped attribution, the W-shaped model is best for companies
who want to understand the role of their brand awareness and conversion-focused campaigns.

Full path attribution

Full-path attribution is a multi-touch attribution model that assigns credit for a conversion or
sale to all touchpoints in a customer’s journey, from the first interaction with a brand or product
to the final conversion.

In this model, each touchpoint in the customer journey is given credit for the conversion, and
the total credit for the conversion is equal to 100%.

In this case, 25% of the credit is given to four points:

 First touch (where the customer first interacted with your brand)
 Lead-generation touch (where they became a qualified lead)
 Opportunity-creation touch (where they became sales-ready)
 Customer close touch (the final touch where they became a customer)

Custom attribution
Custom attribution is a type of attribution model that is designed and customised to fit the
specific needs of a particular business or organisation.

Unlike other attribution models, which use predefined rules to allocate credit to different
touchpoints, custom attribution models are tailored to the unique customer journey of each
business.

In a custom attribution model, a business can define their own set of rules for allocating credit
to different touchpoints based on their own understanding of their customer journey.

For example, a business may want to give more weight to touchpoints that occur on mobile
devices, or they may want to give more weight to touchpoints that occur in specific geographic
regions.

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to multi-channel attribution, and each model has a
series of pros and cons.

All of these attribution models will generate unique results, as they measure the importance of
your touchpoints differently. The attribution model you choose will depend on the nature of
the channels and campaigns you are tracking.

Data-driven attribution
What are the challenges with multi-channel attribution?

Multi channel attribution is a significant challenge for many businesses. The data backs it up.
Statistics show that only 45% of marketers in the US and UK are using multi-touch attribution
to measure marketing effectiveness. .

1. Changes to privacy regulations and tracking technologies

Changes to privacy regulations and tracking technologies have had a significant impact on
multi-channel attribution. The cookie apocalypse and iOS 14.5 are mostly to blame.

In the wake of iOS 14.5, Apple users are now prompted to allow or deny tracking when they
open an app for the first time and can change their settings at any time in the app’s privacy
settings.

According to data gathered in March 2022, the overall ATT opt-in rate by iOS users worldwide
was 46%. This shift in data collection means businesses now have fewer data points available
for analysis, and marketers have no choice but to attribute conversions and revenue based on
incomplete and inaccurate data. And let’s not forget about third-party cookies. Third-party
cookies have historically been an important factor for multi-touch attribution, as they allow
advertisers to track users across multiple websites and devices.

However, third-party cookies are being phased out. Safari and Firefox have already taken the
plunge to remove third-party cookie tracking, and Chrome has said it’ll block third-party
cookies in 2024.

As third-party data becomes obsolete, many marketers are focusing on building up their first-
party data. With first-party data, marketers can continue to track user interactions and attribute
conversions across various marketing touch points.

2. Digital attribution can’t track offline interactions

Multi-touch attribution was developed to measure the impact of your digital touchpoints, such
as website visits, ad clicks, and conversions. Digital attribution fails to take into account offline
and invisible touchpoints, which also play a significant role in the customer journey (e.g. in-
store visits, phone calls, TV and radio.)
Online interactions can be easily captured through website pixels, ad tracking, and other digital
tools, which provide a clearer picture of how users interact with your website and brand.

But the same can’t be said for offline touchpoints.

These are significantly harder (often impossible) to pin down. For example, a user may see a
TV ad and a few days later search on Google to make a purchase. The online interaction can
be tracked through cookies, pixels, and other digital tracking mechanisms. But there’s no way
to link the search query to the TV ad using traditional multi-channel attribution. To address
this limitation, businesses have turned to alternative methods of measurement, such as brand
lift studies and marketing mix modeling, to understand the impact of offline media on
conversions and revenue.

How to get started with multi-channel attribution

Multi-channel attribution is a must-have solution for many marketers, but without the right
strategy and tools, it can get a little overwhelming. Below are three steps to help you get started
with multi-channel attribution.

1. Track website visitors on an individual level

2. Store your data in a single location
3. Feed your data into other sales and marketing tools

1. Track website visitors on an individual level

Aggregated data on your visitors is great for providing a general overview of traffic coming in
and going out of your website. But when your visitor data is aggregated, individual-level details
are lost. This loss of granularity makes it difficult to identify specific touchpoints and
opportunities along the customer journey. To leverage the power of multi-channel attribution,
you need to focus on capturing individual visitor data instead.

Tracking visitors on an individual level allows you to monitor and measure the movements of
specific visitors and gain a clear picture of their journey from start to close.

There are three ways you can collect individual data, which are often used in tandem.

1. JavaScript tracking. You need to collect data through JavaScript tracking. This involves
adding a tracking code to your website so that you can capture data on your user’s interactions,
such as clicks, page views, and other interactions.
2. UTM tracking. Adding UTM parameters to links can help you identify the source, medium,
and campaign that drove the traffic to your site, which can be used to attribute credit to each
touchpoint in the customer journey.

3. Third-party attribution tracking. Good attribution software allows you to map every
touchpoint that a user engages with across multiple channels and campaigns. Take Ruler
Analytics, for example. Ruler is a multi-channel attribution product that evidences every step
a visitor makes in their journey and matches revenue back to your marketing.

2. Store data from multiple sources in a single platform

The next step is to store your leads and marketing attribution data in a single location. In our
opinion, a CRM is the best option to store and manage your prospects, customers and marketing
interactions. A CRM provides a central location to store all your sales and marketing data. Most
CRMs come with customisable fields. You can use these fields to capture your lead’s
interactions, marketing campaigns, and visitor data alongside your sales information.

Here we use Insightly to track and store sales data. We’ve integrated Insightly with Ruler to
enrich our leads, opportunities and deals with attribution data.
In this record, we can see that this lead converted after completing a PPC search and converted
on our marketing attribution product page.

Without Ruler’s data, chances are our CRM would attribute leads to “Online” or “Web”.

But now, we can track the effectiveness of specific ads and campaigns at every stage of the
funnel and spot opportunities and risks well ahead of time.

3. Feed attribution data into other sales and marketing channels

To make the most of multi-channel attribution data, it helps if you feed the data into other
marketing tools.

Sharing marketing attribution data between tools helps reduce data silos and provides a unified
view of marketing and sales performance. This ensures that all teams are working from the
same page and collaborating as much as possible.

For example, we feed multi-touch attribution and CRM data into Chartmogul.
If you’re not familiar with ChartMogul, it’s a cloud-based analytics platform that provides
subscription and recurring revenue metrics for businesses. Enriching our Chartmogul with
attribution data allows us to track leads across the customer lifecycle and identify the amount
of revenue each marketing-acquired lead generates over time.

In ChartMogul, we’ve set up custom fields, and marketing source data is passed from our
attribution solution and CRM.

This allows us to:

 measure which channels brought in the most closed sales, not just conversions.
 track which channels have the best influence of lifetime value metrics.
 see how much revenue we’re generating from each marketing channel every month.
 gain a single source of truth for the success of our sales and marketing activity.

Types of Tracking Code Structures

Tracking codes make it possible to analyze your campaign performance, monitor user’s
engagement with apps and web pages, and more. However, setting this functionality up can be
a challenge. Indeed, many teams find their classification systems are not suitable for the
metadata that makes this possible. In this post, we will explain how to make informed decisions
to maximize the benefits of tracking codes.

What is a tracking code?

A tracking code simply refers to small snippets of code that are typically implemented in
JavaScript. They are found in source code for apps and websites and are amazing for people
like webmasters, marketers, and advertisers. Ultimately, tracking codes allow anyone who is
interested to track user activity on their own apps and websites. However, when they are used,
privacy policies need to be updated as they capture personal information about your customers.

Tracking codes are usually added to the source code of the head-area of a web page for analysis.
They send useful information across networks such as IP address, number of clicked URLs,
and how long a site visit lasted. Other things they can track include:

 Tracking events & campaigns

 Measuring engagement with written content
  Monitoring visitor page attention
 E-commerce analysis
 Advertisement clicks

Are there different types of tracking code?

There are 2 main ways to implement tracking codes. Here, we outline how each of these
tracking codes is used and the benefits and pitfalls of each method.

1. Long Tracking Codes

These codes are used to collect data on how users engage with your webpage and are typically
appended to a URL. Long tracking codes are also used to generate different reports based on
set parameters. They work with Google Analytics and Adobe to produce reports that
demonstrate campaign performance. You can also view other performance metrics depending
on the metadata in and about your campaign.

Some of the benefits of using long tracking codes include:

 Improved data quality

Long tracking codes are easily readable to the human eye. This makes it easy to filter by
different tracking codes and easier to work with.

 Improved segmentation

Audience types and product names can be used in long tracking codes. This can make
segmentation and personalization much easier.

 Avoids FTP or API

It works well with things like Rule Builder and means you don’t have to think about FTP or
API.

Some of the pitfalls of using long tracking codes include:

  URL errors

Long tracking codes are more susceptible to URL errors. This is because long URLs are
sometimes cut off by analytics tools, including Google and Adobe. If there are multiple
tracking codes applied to a single URL, this can soon become an issue. Indeed, if the code is
cut off, the tracking data will not have been captured.

 Readable to users & competitors

Whilst some people find the readability of long tracking codes a benefit, for others it is a
potential commercial risk. Given their appearance in the URL and their readability anyone can
understand them. Ideally, you don’t want your audience segment to know how they are being
targeted. Competitors may also be able to use your data to understand your marketing strategy.

2. Obfuscated Tracking Codes

Obfuscated codes help to keep your tracking data hidden from view and/or unreadable to the
naked eye. This can be done in both adobe analytics and using Google’s campaign URL builder
(using custom dimensions). This approach also allows you to collect more data for reports than
Google typically allows, whilst preventing anyone from being able to interpret your tracking
codes.

Some of the other benefits of using obfuscated tracking codes include:

 Shorter URLs
 Being less error-prone
 Keeping commercial and marketing information private

Some of the pitfalls of using obfuscated tracking codes include:

 Personalized ad content is not as simple to set up (although it is still possible)

 Codes are harder to read which can make data governance more challenging

As you can see, tracking codes have numerous benefits. However, it is important to give careful
consideration to how you implement them. The type of tracking code you choose needs to suit
your needs as well as your team’s needs and abilities. Whilst readability is a major benefit of
long tracking codes, this also leaves them open for exploration by potential competitors,
meaning obfuscated codes are often preferable where possible.

Actionable Web Analytics: A Three-Step Process

As Web analysts, your customers and their needs can vary greatly. One minute you are leading
an analysis that will influence strategic decisions, the next you are distributing reports to folks
who will never use them, but just have to have them. Sometimes, in the darkest hours, it can
become more of the latter. That’s when you risk falling into a routine; when you risk forgetting
the real power of Web analytics—effecting change.

At its best, Web analytics is progressive and actionable. It’s about testing hypotheses and taking
action based on your findings. Yes, your customers will have vastly different goals, but by
asking just a little bit more of them, you can really maximize the benefits of working with your
Web analytics program.

“OK, sounds nice,” you might be saying, “but where’s the substance?”

Fair enough. So, let’s talk about three critical elements to actionable Web analytics:

1. The goal-KPI relationship

2. Hypothesis
3. Action
1. Goal-KPI Relationship

The next time someone asks you for a Web traffic report, ask them to articulate their goals first.
“Why is this report important to you? What are you trying to improve?” In other words, demand
accountability.

Once you can clearly define the goals, you will need Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to
measure success. Basically, KPIs are the metrics best suited for measuring how well customers
meet their goals. If a metric merely provides context, it may be suited for a dashboard or report,
but it’s not a KPI.

Here’s an example:

Goal: Improve the website’s search functionality

Potential KPI: Percentage change in the Exit Rate on search results pages

Ideally, everyone who performs a search on your website selects a result. So, once you establish
the current (baseline) Exit Rate, you can begin brainstorming ways to improve search.

Also remember that KPIs need not be based entirely on standard metrics found in tools like
Google Analytics (GA). In fact, some of the most effective KPIs draw on data from multiple
sources.

Here’s an example:

Goal: Increase the cost-effectiveness of our Web applications

Potential KPI: Cost per user

In this example you have two variables on which to take action. In addition to trying to increase
Web traffic, you can strategize ways to reduce costs.

2. Hypothesis

KPIs must have a target. One approach is to set the target as a modest increase from the baseline
(e.g. increasing sessions to the agency blog by 10%). What’s missing from this approach,
however, is responsibility. Why will sessions increase? More importantly, if they do, what will
it have meant?
Ask the customer what they are going to do to meet their goals. “What changes are we testing?”
Failing that, suggest some hypotheses on their behalf.

Here’s an example:

Goal: Increase content consumption on the agency blog

KPI: Percentage change in sessions to the agency blog

Hypothesis: Getting 12 partner organizations to link to the agency blog will lead to a 10%
increase in total sessions.

Having a hypothesis to measure is more important than where you set the target. The process
is iterative, but it’s better to be testing based on actions and assumptions, rather than complete
ambiguity.

3. Action

Not only do you need to ensure the customer takes whatever actions are defined in the
hypothesis, but try to get a commitment for follow-up action as well. “If the hypothesis is
correct, what are your next steps? If it’s wrong?”

The more you reinforce the need for action, the more you will enhance the perception of your
Web analytics program.