Performance Tracking and Metrics

The great thing about the online ecosystem is that it actually allows us to measure how things are going while we’re at work engaging audiences and imparting value. Metrics tracking is an essential part of your infrastructure. Everything – all of your various strategies and tactics – will be pulled together by tracking. You’ll want to get metrics for two reasons. One is simply that you’ll need metrics to further the relationships with publishers and partners. And second is that you’ll be using metrics yourself to adjust your ecosystem tactics. Metrics can tell you where the greatest ROI is now, and then show you change in ROI over time as the ecosystem gains steam.

That said, while analytics are important, the numbers themselves are not always critical. Their importance is determined by what kind of company you want to be. Do you want to be a marketing company relying on efficiency or a company that serves up a compelling value? Focus on the intelligence you get out of metrics more than meeting some arbitrary benchmarks for traffic levels or click-through rates. Ultimately, less volume of more qualified traffic is always better than more volume of less qualified traffic.

With the dizzying array of measurable bits and bytes available, it is no wonder that companies often get mired in not only analytics implementation, but also in coming up with a process for reviewing, analyzing and presenting metrics that initiate change in an organization. New methods of turning analytics into action pop up all the time, but typically, we are making this more complex and arduous than it needs to be.

The change curve (combination of business strategy, brand position, product/service, user needs, and site changes) for most organizations is still evolving too fast to benefit from analysis of arcane data that may improve conversion by 2% if and only if all other variables stayed the same. Instead of getting swept away with sexy pie charts and the newest analytics buzz words, focus on what matters. Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) based on absolutely critical business metrics. Ask real questions like, did the average sale increase? Is our cost per acquisition increasing or decreasing? Where exactly on a contact form are we losing people?

If your site is not transaction-oriented, your questions may revolve more around brand exposure or time. How long is the average session? What was the interaction level and time with the AJAX/Flash application? How many visitors were repeats?

Do yourself a favor and ignore everything except your key performance indicators. Keep focused on the questions that matter. I have seen way too many managers at good companies stall on progress because they get caught up in worries about conflicting data points. After much debate and a lot of wasted time, most end up going with their gut anyway.

It’s also a good idea to make sure the analytics tools you put in place are able to get you what you need, not more. The sheer effort required to get complicated metrics tracked accurately with a plethora of moving parts surprises most companies.

A few of the well-known, enterprise-level packages are WebTrends and Omniture. But don’t discount a simpler solution like Google Analytics (GA.) GA was adopted quickly by a lot of small and medium-sized companies because it was free, but larger organizations are considering it, too. It’s hard to ignore the simplicity of integration combined with a focus on metrics that really matter.

While they may lack some of the bells and whistles (like funnels and conversion-oriented tracking) many of the analytics packages that come with hosting services are actually quite sufficient for many companies. Add in the Google Analytics tracking code and you will probably be able to satisfy some of the most demanding KPIs.

The most important thing to remember as you build out your ecosystem is that you’re making a long-term investment here. You’ll want to come out of the box with the best-architected and designed ecosystem you can – creating an ideal user experience across the entire ecosystem that really ties in with the brand experience and employs the best set of tactics, applications and utilities to engage users. But, chances are, you’re going to have to do this incrementally. You’re going to have to show stakeholders that there are high levels of engagement and that your acquisition costs are better than previous campaigns. You’re going to have to defend the ecosystem until it starts proving itself.

This is where metrics really come in handy. The numbers can help you make an argument against wasting advertising dollars. Yes, the real reason you want analytics data is for continuous improvement of messaging and user experience. But metrics will also show you ways to optimize the tactics you use and help you figure out which tactics work best for your brand. Like a living organism, the ecosystem is a very flexible, malleable thing. As trends change, tactics can change in response. As new opportunities arise, new mechanisms can be added.

When you can justify this all from a metrics standpoint you’re going to find that you enjoy your job more. Creating a positive, brand-reinforcing effort will be imparting more value to your users, bringing more value to the market in general and lowering marketing costs in the long run.

Ultimately, what we’re looking for the ecosystem to improve marketing by making a positive impact on the economy in general, the individual economies of companies and the cultures within those markets.