© Rich Gordon 2013

What Gets Measured Gets Done:Web and Social Analytics for Publishers

Local Media Association – May 15, 2013

Rich Gordon

@richgor

© Rich Gordon 2013

The problem for publishers

• The Web: “the most measurable medium ever”

• We are awash in measurement data

• What should we keep track of?

• Publishers have unique measurement needs

Use of phrase “Key Performance Indicators” in books 1990-2008

Source: books.google.com ‘ngram viewer’

© Rich Gordon 2013

Key Performance Indicatorsfor publishers

• Based on three years of classes in which I had Medill students examine “networked audience development practices” – and metrics – for locally focused websites:– Links & content referrals– SEO

– Social media

• Based mostly on Google Analytics

• A work in progress – I welcome your feedback

© Rich Gordon 2013

Propositions for today

• Every publisher should have a set of KPI’s that are tracked consistently and regularly

• These KPI’s should be shared throughout the organization

• Performance on KPI’s should be factored into personnel decisions

• KPI’s should align to business goals – they will be different for every publisher

© Rich Gordon 2013

Data point: Nielsen Net/Ratings counts4,600 news & information websites

• Top 7% of sites (300) …

… get 80% of traffic

Source: http://stateofthemedia.org/2010/online-summary-essay/nielsen-analysis/

© Rich Gordon 2013

Why are category leadersso dominant?

• Network effects from links, search, social media: “the rich get richer”

• Networks tend to produce “power law distributions” of attention

• The “80/20” rule: A small fraction of the total number of nodes in the network gets a disproportionate share of the attention

© Rich Gordon 2013

Basic metrics

• Which of these metrics is best for measuring audience over time?– Size/scale– Loyalty/frequency

– Audience engagement

© Rich Gordon 2013

User clickson link,

requests page

Contentserver

delivers page

Ad requestsgo to

ad server

To understand online metrics and audiences,consider how the technology works

© Rich Gordon 2013

Your browser assembles files,presents them to the user as a page

Each server that delivers a file(HTML page, image, ad banner, Google Analytics code) can also deliver a “cookie”

© Rich Gordon 2013

Audience vocabulary,for starters

• Unique Visitors (Unique Audience): The total number of unique persons visiting a Web site at least once in a time period (usually one month). Persons visiting the same site more than one time in the reporting period are counted only once.

• Visit (Session): A continuous series of URL/page requests. A gap of 30 minutes between URL requests ends a session/visit.

• Page views: The total number of times a Web page is requested by a user. Counted only when page fully loads in browser window.

• Bounce Rate: Portion of visits that are exactly one page view.

computers visiting

© Rich Gordon 2013

Unique visitors vs. visits• Remember that what’s really being counted here

is cookies• A visit happens any time the server delivers a

new cookie or reads an existing cookie on the user’s computer.

• Unique visitors are counted each time a cookie to a new user/computer (or a user/computer the server believes is new)

• A new visitor is a computer/browser that has not been seen before in the given time period (typically a month)

© Rich Gordon 2013

Among basic metrics,consider …

• Size/scale: VISITS• Loyalty/frequency: % NEW

VISITS• Audience engagement:

PAGES/VISIT

© Rich Gordon 2013

Problems with other metrics

• Unique visitors: Each browser has its own cookies! – Users with four browsers on one computer – or a

work PC, home PC, tablet and smartphone – are counted as four separate visitors.

• Pageviews: Easily manipulated – can reward site practices that users hate

• Bounce rate: More appropriate for direct marketing campaigns ... but strive for improvement over time

© Rich Gordon 2013

The problem with ‘unique visitors’:a newspaper example

Unique visitor numbers look impressive …

Source: “The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism” (Columbia U. / Tow Center 2011)

© Rich Gordon 2013

… but most users don’t visit very often

Number of visits per month 1 2 3-6 7-9 10+

Source: Nielsen Company and PEJ Research

© Rich Gordon 2013

Newspaper example:core users drive vast majority of traffic

Source: “The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism” (Columbia U. / Tow Center 2011)

(>2 visits/week)

(1-2 visits/week)

(2-3 visits/mo.)

(1 visit/mo. or less)

25% of the visitorsgenerate 80%

of the page views

Page views per mo.

143

31

10

3

© Rich Gordon 2013

The real sizeof the core, loyal audience

Source: “The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism” (Columbia U. / Tow Center 2011)

© Rich Gordon 2013

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2008/01/standard-metrics-revisited-time-on-page-and-time-on-site.html

The problem with visit duration:How it’s calculated

© Rich Gordon 2013

Visit duration with browser tabs:How it’s calculated

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2008/01/standard-metrics-revisited-time-on-page-and-time-on-site.html

© Rich Gordon 2013

Where does site traffic come from?Search, links, social media

© Rich Gordon 2013

Where does site traffic come from?

• Search: from Google, etc.

• Referral: links on other sites

• Direct: type URL or bookmark

• Campaigns: you define in GA; often an e-newsletter

Traffic Sources | Overview

© Rich Gordon 2013

“Branded visits”: Direct + search for <sitename>

• A significant share of search-driven visits are really direct visits “in disguise”

• Add these to Direct, deduct from Search

Traffic Sources | Sources | Search Overview | Keyword

© Rich Gordon 2013

Referring visitsfrom social media

• Percentage of referral visits (and all visits) driven by:– Facebook– Twitter– Other social

sources

Traffic Sources | Sources | Referrals Social | Overview

© Rich Gordon 2013

Which referrals are most valuable:Pages/visit by source

Traffic Sources | Sources | All Traffic

Compare pages/visit from:•Direct

•Search

•Social media•Other key referring sites

© Rich Gordon 2013

Engagement:Visits starting on home page

• Visitors arriving on the home page should view more pages and not “bounce”

Content | Site Content | Landing Pages

© Rich Gordon 2013

Engagement:Mobile vs. computer

• Pages/visit for mobile will likely be lower• Mobile-friendly (“responsive”) design should

reduce this difference• Can drill down to specific devices (phone vs

tablet)

Audience | Mobile | Overview

© Rich Gordon 2013

Social media:Facebook Insights

• Total reach: People who have seen any content associated with your page

• People talking about this: People who have created a “story” (like, comment, share, answer question, respond to event)

© Rich Gordon 2013

Social media:Facebook Insights

• Engaged users: People who have clicked on your post

• Virality: People talking about this divided by total daily reach

© Rich Gordon 2013

Social media:Facebook Insights

• Likes

• Growth in likes

• Likes per 1,000 visits

• Over 28 days:– Engaged users– People talking

about this– Virality

© Rich Gordon 2013

Social media:Twitter

• Followers

• Growth in followers

• Followers per 1,000 visits

• Retweets / month

© Rich Gordon 2013

Social media:Twitter

Follower : following ratio•High: Many people are listening to you

– Using Twitter mostly for distribution

•Low: You’re listening to many people

– Using Twitter to monitor your community

© Rich Gordon 2013

Social media:“Influence” scores

• Klout

• TweetLevel

• PeerIndex

• Many others

Each seeks to measure your “influence” on social media channels

© Rich Gordon 2013

Thank you!

richgor@northwestern.edu

@richgor