Settling for Packaged Metrics and Reports Can Be a Dangerous Game

If you were a kid once, and I suppose we all were, you may have learned that no single manufacturer of bikes got every part right. So, in order to improve the quality of the finished unit, you have to purchase and install superior components which lighten the bike, make it operate more efficiently, offer comfort or convenience to the skillful rider. In the end, you might have upgrades and customization over 30-35% of your bike. The same idea applies across the board for just about everything.

So, why then, settle for the factory state of your web analytics tool?

Looking around for people to discuss many of their calculated metrics can be difficult. Joseph and Eric and their ongoing banter on “Engagement” certainly merits its share of attention. This was the primary topic recently at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in San Francisco and a tremendous panel discussion between the aforementioned as well as Gary Angel from Semphonic and moderated by Robbin Steif from Lunametrics. Aside from the ubiquitous topic of Engagement, there is so little available on what to do to hammer stats together for better understanding. People seem to guard their special configurations very closely. A few resources, however, are making their way into the world.

Dustin Wallace is at least one resource whom appears to want to share. Dustin is, according to what information is available on his posts, a relatively new blogger working in analytics at Sun Microsystems. 2 of his 5 posts available discuss manipulating packaged metrics for a better understanding of performance indications. In these, he discusses a formula to help draw comparisons over particular time frames and goes in closer on Bounce Rate (he breaks these up into ‘Exit Rate’, ‘Soft Bounce’ and ‘Hard Bounce’ and lays out there craft and execution in Omniture SiteCatalyst).

Another guy, Vijay Bathula, is doing analytics for Hewlett-Packard, publishing a blog discussing ‘advanced web metrics‘ and trying to develop some interesting concepts. A particularly attractive metric which Vijay brings to light is what he calls ‘Time2Click’. He states:

“Time2Click is the metric that tells the average amount of time that was taken in order to click a link on a web page. This metric helps web masters and marketers on how much time at an average, visitors are taking for making a decision to click a link or button on the web page. This metric is simple to calculate and great use to optimize the call-to-action buttons, positioning, anchor text in the links and much more without using any other expensive Split-Testing or multivariate testing tools.“

This promotes a clever angle for thinking about testing and a great sense of what I’m trying to relay by posting here. Formal metrics a great for the purpose of executive reporting, however, when being used by the analyst, especially one involved in heavily process-oriented practice, thinking outside of the box means going beyond what comes in the box.

An Invitation to a Discussion and Pending Project to Build Collaborative Set of eCommerce Calculated Metrics

My work recently, and in the context of this highly charged discussion of engagement, has focused on trying to build a series of powerful calculated metrics to try to get a better understanding of how people are interacting with eCommerce websites. It has brought me to the point where I’m willing to assert that, with regard to online retailers, a series of operations and statistics can be gathered and placed into major commercial reporting interfaces to ad value to the suite as well as promote a more complete functional model of interaction.

Among these I have decided to research, study, and pursue defining the following:

• Appraisal - This is the behavior of seeking information on product queue for a potential purchase. These are broad strokes in navigation based on general term and phrase usage, non-transactional focus and
• Acceleration - The point where the brain begins to move from a general information processing state to a more focused channel. During acceleration, a subject should (ideally) only move toward action and curtail further lateral navigation.
• Impulse - Having collected and been presented with one or several points where a call-to-action or option to execute an objective occurs, the confidence and slightly adrenal motivation carries a subject through an action and transition to a state of risk assessment.
• Commitment - Acting on the information and the excited state of having executed a checkpoint in a system of obligation; this measurement should seek to imply reduced regressive states when continuing through to additional actionable areas and streamlined return to transactional navigation due to acquired trust and familiarity.
• Conviction - The completion of the desired final action. Conviction should be measured by the degree to which a subject does or does not participate in building trust by gathering information as to policies, security, examining financial options, and other potentially pertinent information associated with going forward with a purchase.
• Affirmation - Presumed to be existing in both a natural and provoked state, affirmation is post-transactional and is the return to the site with an abbreviated or non-existent appraisal process. The degree to which the initial experience was positive and powerful should, hypothetically shorten time to accelerate and kindle the impulse state.

I have spent a fair amount of time looking into how these particular points work into the process of making a decision to invest money in return for a product with a perceived value. My resources in being able to do this, at this time, are limited. For that reason, I would love to hear from anyone who is willing to allow me or our team to look at site metrics and frequencies to identify these points in their business model and help build support for a larger, more universal application of these proposed transcendant metrics.

Anyone who is interested, please comment or write to me directly using the contact information provided. Any company who submits for the ability to aggregate and scruitinize data will receive a complementary copy of the publication as well as promise that any sensitive data used in the studies will be protected by the appropriate legal instrument.

According to Isaac Newton’s Naturalis Prinicipia Mathematica, there are three laws which define motion, momentum, velocity, and force (at least with respect to the known gravity of earth). These are the simple principles which often comprise the first 10 minutes of any self-respecting introduction to physics. Many people recite them though they rarely think of the source, much less the value of their broad application. 

Briefly stated, the three laws are:

1. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by a net force, and an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by a net force; this is also known as inertia.
2. Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration.
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. ¹

Recently, I read about a merger between two web analytics commercial reporting and services providers. Newton and his principles came to mind. I read on.

Omniture is a behemoth. It boasts 2,200 clients based on a recent write up in Forbes.² This was mentioned along side major players like AOL/TW, Wal-Mart and General Motors and about 3 inches beneath a table which stated their market capital currently exceeds $2 billion. Oh, did I mention that they also serve up analytics reports for the single most used online shopping system in the world – eBay. This, in sooth, was actually where I first became aware of them. When I got to CableOrganizer, I was reintroduced to their more complete SiteCatalyst tool as well as the other platforms. So, yeah, Omniture was big before they started gobbling up service and solution providers around the planet.

On a personal note with respect to the company and its co-founders: I actually sat and talked with John Pestana at the Summit in Salt Lake City this spring, while en route to a stand-up performance by Frank Caliendo. It was surprising how accessible and personable a man he was. That was before Discover 2.0, the TouchClarity and Offermatica acquisitions, and certainly long before Visual Sciences was a dancing partner. That was also just prior to Mr. Pestana’s announcement of his resigning his post, but remaining on the board.³ Congratulations to John and Mr. James on gracefully handling some big moves. May the force be with them….alright…back to work.

Considering all that has been kicked around in that arena, its interesting to see how Omniture is building its machine. In previous acquisitions and deals, there was a clear purpose. Offermatica brought an important piece of the testing puzzle into the statistical mix. TouchClarity produced a bridge to an entity structured on behavioral targeting. That particular area I find fascinating in scope, application, and potential. The Instadia deal was clearly a stake in foreign markets. So, what is the real deal with Visual Sciences.

As I see it, this acquisition, should it be approved by the FTA and SEC, is the web analytics industry equivalent of an object in motion. The snowball started rolling and its just picking up everything that is in its path. There does not appear to be a ‘net force’ out there which exists to impede its momentum except for possibility of the alphabet agencies raining on their parade, or the apocalypse.

In this instance, Omniture doubled its customer base and sliced its viable competitors in half. Earlier this year, Visual Sciences was acquired by Web Side Story (WSSI). In a few months, the Web Side nameplate was traded in for the Visual Sciences (changing their stock symbol to VCSN) moniker.⁴ I thought that was a good move considering the ‘Broadway Drama’ allusion to a Leonard Bernstein musical didn’t really illicit the image of a sophisticated, analytical software provider. Now, of those three companies eager to set the pace for the next stage of analytics practice, only Omniture exists.

Once the ball rolls through Visual Sciences it remains to be seen what is on the horizon for analytics practitioners. Omniture, of course, having brought all these major aspects of interest to an analyst into a single venue, has the greatest potential to become a company efficiently empowering the “numbers-geeks” (like me) out there, or to ultimately become the next black shroud in the evil empire of IT conglomerates. The snowball continues gains mass, and acceleration.

With the complete web analytics package, you have to wonder what other worlds there are out there to conquer. Should MicroStrategy, Business Objects, and Cognos be keeping a close eye yet? I think so. I think integration is the next great frontier before this thing gets way out of control. Depending on your revenue model, you either view web analytics as a single science practiced independently of BI, or, you view web analytics as a proportion of a comprehensive business intelligent suite. If I had to hedge a bet on the next big move, I would look to see one of the companies above start to ready resources to counter and contain Omniture or to befriend them in hopes of meeting the recipe for their best-of-breed acquisition model.

Equal and Opposite Reaction

The reaction to Omniture is ultimately in the hands of the people out in Orem handling the business and the services associated with their product. Currently they list under 500 employees on Wikipedia ⁵, 531 on Yahoo!’s finance profile⁶. That’s 1 employee per 8 clients by my count. This poses a difficult customer service logistics problem.

As it stands right now, Omniture has had trouble meeting all the demands we (myself, Paul, and others at CableOrganizer.com) have put on them. Granted we’re an impetuous group absolutely obsessed with knowing and growing. But if they can’t roll with us now, how are they going to service their contracts when they absorb only a portion of what Visual Sciences can bring in with respect to live help. Even if they counted every employee from VSCN⁷, as well as existing employees, it only adds up to just over 800 employees. This moves the ratio back to 1:5. Still, this is difficult to manage while accounts continue and the level of practice sophistication is elevated.

When the approval is through, the snowball will have reached critical mass. Josh James, co-founder of Omniture with Pestana, mentioned in the press release that a main goal of this purchase (merger/acquisition/whathaveyou) was to help “accelerate…investments in advanced solutions that drive customer success as well as create further opportunities to cross-sell (their) growing portfolio of products.⁸ That is going to take a huge effort to back up as well as maintain. My hope is, IF it clears approval, they’re up to the task and can find the right amalgam of services to blend and offer to those of us on either side of this deal. Further, I hope whatever the name of this monster, it stays friendly and helpful.

Sources:

1. Newton, Isaac, Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Laws of Motion,

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_laws_of_motion) (30 October 2007)

2. Associated Press: Forbes.com, Visual Sciences, Omniture Surge on Deal, published 26 October 2007, available: 30 October 2007. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/10/26/ap4269064.html

3. Omniture Press, Omniture Press Detail: Omniture Co-Founder John Pestana to Resign Position ,omniture.com, Posted: Orem, UT 28 March 2007

Available 30 October 2007, http://www.omniture.com/press/333

4. Watson, Frank ; Omniture Buying Visual Sciences, SearchEngineWatch.com

Available 30 October 2007, http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/071025-172520

5. Wikipedia: Omniture, Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

Available: 30 October 2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omniture

6. Yahoo! Finance, OMTR: Profile for OMNITURE, Inc. , Finance.Yahoo.com

Available: 30 October 2007, http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=OMTR

7. Yahoo! Finance, VCSN: Profile for VISUAL SCIENCES INC, finance.yahoo.com

Available: 30 October 2007, http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=VSCN

8. Omniture Press, Omniture Press Detail: Omniture to Acquire Visual Sciences, omniture.comPosted: Orem, UT and San Diego, CA 25 October 2007

Available 30 October 2007, http://www.omniture.com/press/417

In the fair cities of New York, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco…even Charlottesville, its easy to have an elevated, challenging conversation about Web Analytics. These cities have a significant common factor which helps promote this ideal: Each has a significant level of business innovation driven by academia. In the southeast, at least in Florida, there appears to be an apparent void of buy-in, advanced practice adoption, and process integration for web analytics decision. The purpose of this post is to begin explore the possibility of a deficiency, cite reasons one might exist, and to get the attention of practitioners in the area to begin having discussions on what we know.

If you are a practicing web analyst, business intelligence analyst, or quantitative strategist in Florida (South Florida would be great) please leave me a comment or a note to tell me who you are, where you are, and when we can talk.   I’d be interested in getting something going for a Web Analytics Wednesday.  Further, I’d be really interested in comparing notes and seeing what we can learn from each other.

For those of you not in Florida, I’m interested to see where you hang your shingle too. Please feel free to contact me with any info or any subjects you’d like to discuss.