Comments on: Contemplating Conversion: Why the “Measure for Conversion” Mantra Isn’t Simplistic Science http://www.adotas.com/2006/09/contemplating-conversion-why-the-measure-for-conversion-mantra-isnt-simplisting-science/ Where Interactive Advertising Begins Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:07:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Peter Cohen http://www.adotas.com/2006/09/contemplating-conversion-why-the-measure-for-conversion-mantra-isnt-simplisting-science/#comment-20645 Peter Cohen Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:36:13 +0000 http://www.adotas.com/2006/09/contemplating-conversion-why-the-measure-for-conversion-mantra-isnt-simplisting-science/#comment-20645 Gary: The point you make on why conversion rate is not great but then your proposal is still very fragile based on "behaviour identification" based on page views. This can be wrong for many reasons (think SEO directing people deeper into sites, where they don't want to be, or wrong clicks becuase of bad navigation and many others). Occam's Razor blog by Avinash Kaushik had a very good post on "Stop Obsessing About Conversion Rate" which also proposes a much better metric to replace conversion rate: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/07/stop-obsessing-about-conversion-rate.html That blog also has a post on how to measure conversion rate for maximum impact: Conversion Rate Basics & Best Practices http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/07/excellent-analytics-tip5-conversion-rate-basics-best-practices.html -Peter. Gary: The point you make on why conversion rate is not great but then your proposal is still very fragile based on “behaviour identification” based on page views. This can be wrong for many reasons (think SEO directing people deeper into sites, where they don’t want to be, or wrong clicks becuase of bad navigation and many others).

Occam’s Razor blog by Avinash Kaushik had a very good post on “Stop Obsessing About Conversion Rate” which also proposes a much better metric to replace conversion rate:

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/07/stop-obsessing-about-conversion-rate.html

That blog also has a post on how to measure conversion rate for maximum impact:

Conversion Rate Basics & Best Practices

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/07/excellent-analytics-tip5-conversion-rate-basics-best-practices.html

-Peter.

]]> By: Nós na Medida » Blog Archive » A conversão e os objetivos relativos e absolutos http://www.adotas.com/2006/09/contemplating-conversion-why-the-measure-for-conversion-mantra-isnt-simplisting-science/#comment-19537 Nós na Medida » Blog Archive » A conversão e os objetivos relativos e absolutos Tue, 12 Sep 2006 01:16:12 +0000 http://www.adotas.com/2006/09/contemplating-conversion-why-the-measure-for-conversion-mantra-isnt-simplisting-science/#comment-19537 [...] Leia: Why the "Measure for Conversion" Mantra Isn't Simplistic Science [...] [...] Leia: Why the “Measure for Conversion” Mantra Isn’t Simplistic Science [...]

]]> By: Matthew Roche http://www.adotas.com/2006/09/contemplating-conversion-why-the-measure-for-conversion-mantra-isnt-simplisting-science/#comment-18502 Matthew Roche Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:07:19 +0000 http://www.adotas.com/2006/09/contemplating-conversion-why-the-measure-for-conversion-mantra-isnt-simplisting-science/#comment-18502 Gary, Love the article, and appreciate the points you are making. But you seem to be both rejecting and embracing the idea of the "site". You clearly don't believe that sitewide conversion is precise enough, but you don't seem willing to embrace the idea that you should simply stop measuring the site and start measuring campaigns only. Check out my blog, <a href="http://www.siteisdead.com" rel="nofollow">The Site is Dead</a>. I try to address this issue from multiple angles. I would also add that conversion rate is a lousy proxy because it does not contemplate lead value. For ecommerce, you really have to measure revenue (hard) and even for publishers and other web properties, you should establish value proxies for critical user events. Matthew Roche Offermatica Gary,
Love the article, and appreciate the points you are making.

But you seem to be both rejecting and embracing the idea of the “site”. You clearly don’t believe that sitewide conversion is precise enough, but you don’t seem willing to embrace the idea that you should simply stop measuring the site and start measuring campaigns only.

Check out my blog, The Site is Dead. I try to address this issue from multiple angles.

I would also add that conversion rate is a lousy proxy because it does not contemplate lead value. For ecommerce, you really have to measure revenue (hard) and even for publishers and other web properties, you should establish value proxies for critical user events.

Matthew Roche
Offermatica

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