Advertising and marketing budgets are being slashed left and right. Focus often turns to taking specialized marketing services out of the hands of an agency and forming or hiring an in-house team. For those considering taking SEM management in-house to cut the perceived higher costs of an agency, here are some reasons why you should reconsider.

To begin, consider the disciplines your team needs to cover. First, you need a visionary – someone who not only understands all things Interactive Marketing but equally understands any business implications of the various tactics and strategies recommended. You need a strategist, someone who will immerse himself in your business to truly appreciate your value proposition and then help you navigate a path through the competitive landscape. Then you need various tacticians.

An experienced PPC Analyst who can expose inefficiencies and outmaneuver the competition. A seasoned SEO Analyst who can chart a course to the top of the search rankings. Analytics folks who can help you optimize conversions and better merchandise your offerings. Creative talent to develop messaging strategies and create provocative design elements. In all cases, you get what you pay for, and top talent in each of these areas does not come cheap.

Typically, when a company decides to hire an in-house team, they choose from a collective pool of talent that has emerged from boot camp (the agency world). These guys and gals are fully charged. They have had their hands in campaigns that range from B2B to B2C, products to services, and small cap to large. They have benefited from access to expensive research tools and trade groups. They’ve gone to SES, Ad:Tech, the DMA show and more. At each conference, they sit through mind-numbing presentation after presentation on specific tactics to improve results. They speak a big game, but are constantly supported by the collective pool of talent an agency brings to bear for its clients. In short, they are a fully charged battery with no way to recharge.

The agency is the charger and the individuals are the batteries! Once out of the agency world, their access to information dwindles and new tactics and strategies pass them by. The small, incremental gains that agencies string together to produce compelling results go away. You end up maintaining results that will inevitably decline as new competitive pressures emerge and costs continue to rise. Sure, you can partially make up for this by sending them to several trade shows and subscribing to all available tools and resources, but you then lose the cost benefit.

When you make the decision to bring SEM in-house, you are essentially choosing a direction. The person, or people, you choose will essentially set the direction for your campaigns. Because SEM combines traditionally left-brained elements like exhaustive data crunching with more right-brained endeavors like creative messaging strategies, you will be bound by the limitations of your chosen team.

should preface this by saying I have seen successful in-house SEM operations. They typically occur in organizations with a strong marketing culture and a general command of the online space. These operations are usually large-scale and involve a team of people, that when combined, run the gamut of necessary skill sets. Typically, these teams are managed by people who are in their own right experts in the field of Interactive Marketing. But even most of these companies end up using agencies for specific tactical strategy and execution.

It is not uncommon for Fortune 50 companies to have separate agencies for PPC, SEO, affiliate management, online display and other marketing elements. Each agency then answers to an internal ombudsman who has the ability to speak each of their languages and hold them accountable for the results the business desires.

For any company with a serious desire to tap the online marketplace, big dollars will flow that way. Aggressive PPC marketing alone can account for six figure investments each month, and the prospect that these budgets are controlled by people with little stake in the outcome is scary. Sure, it may be easy to say I am biased because I’m on the agency side. But the reality is I’ve been on both sides. I’ve built out and managed in-house strategies, and in some cases, it is necessary. But my preferred approach was always to develop and mature a strategy to a point where it made sense to leverage agencies to execute various tactics. Who wouldn’t want to benefit from a fully built out team – from visionary right through to tactician – all with no overhead, no turnover concerns and full accountability!

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Brands, products and people are discussed ad nauseam with very little regard for the imprint being made on a reputation. With relative ease, I can join a discussion and watch my comments rise to prominence. For example: I had dinner out last night and the service wasn’t very good. As a matter of fact, it was pretty bad.

I can go online and post comments about my experience. The next time someone Googles that restaurant, there is a good chance my comments will be found. With that one simple move, I can forever alter the perception and equity of that restaurant. No ID check and no validation I really ate there, all hidden behind the cloak of my online alter ego.

The social world, with its roots in forums and chat rooms of the past, is meant to foster discussion and the exchange of ideas. But in many cases, what is found is more of a diatribe than a two-way conversation. Let’s also not kid ourselves into thinking it is not being manipulated. Any solid brand manager with a modicum of online experience is engaged. They’re out there rebutting claims against them and starting new conversations about their strengths and the weaknesses of their competitors. Of course when they do this, they rarely leave their name and title!

So how do you combat this? You can’t remove it, and in most cases, rebutting each claim against you does not really undo the damage. What you must do is look at the inherent weakness of the attack against you. Think back to my negative restaurant review. I can write it. I can be as mean and as vengeful as I need to be to assuage my irritation for dropping $200 on a mediocre dinner for two. But in the end, the ability of my comment to have a meaningful effect on the business requires that it be found. In other words, you can’t remove the, um, filth, but you can cover up its stench!

So how do we go about truly combating the negative conversation that is taking place? We don’t. We simply engage in a louder, more orchestrated, positive one. My agency has been engaged in online reputation management services for some time. As an offshoot of our SEO offerings, we help companies that face the occasional negative commentary stay hyper-engaged.

What does this mean? Instead of focusing on gaining rankings for just the client’s website, we focus on a stable of assets that may include upwards of 25 web properties. We’ll use social sites like YouTube and MySpace. We’ll penetrate industry blogs and trade groups. We’ll even go after personal assets like the alumni page of a key executive. In the end, what we are trying to do is provide Google a multitude of positive options to choose from when deciding who to award the top 10 spots.

Once you have established the foundation and have a portfolio of assets all penetrating the top organic results, you simply monitor the landscape and react when necessary. When done properly, you end up engaged in the most social of exchanges; a dance. And while you may not lead the dance, you must skillfully respond to each movement and make it all look natural. The strategies vary widely.

Negative videos need to be countered with other video assets. Consumer review sites and sites that handle petitions require unique strategies. Blogs can be countered in a number of ways depending on how they operate. There is no single silver bullet and there is no way to make it all go away.

What is needed more than anything is a keen awareness by the business that customers are making decisions based on the reviews and comments of anonymous “experts”. These days, anyone can seem authoritative and strike fear in your constituencies, impacting whether or not someone transacts business with you. It is your obligation as a steward of the business to bury the, um, filth, as deep as you can, so its stench has no opportunity to penetrate the noses of those who seek you out.

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Everyone I talk to outside of online marketing assumes we should be hurting right now. They assume that since business in general is hurting, that must mean we are. But we’re not. When it comes down to it, our clients are diverting budgets to online marketing. As an agency, we continue to hit record months for our clients in both spend levels and the return they are getting from that spend.

It is becoming all too common for a client to approach us to say they want to take their catalog or print budget and divert most, if not all, of it to online when 2009 arrives. So what is it about online marketing that is driving this trend? They’re steering away from ad models that have them paying for eyeballs and towards models that provide direct response and ROI.

To end the year and ring in the new, I thought I would pay homage to online marketing and some of the top reasons I believe it will continue to thrive in 2009 and beyond!

It’s Trackable

Unlike offline advertising, all the actions produced as a result of online marketing can be watched, scrutinized, digested, and tested against. Whether you buy search media on a CPC basis, pay an affiliate a flat fee per sale, cultivate demand through a contextual or behavioral campaign, or watch leads roll in from an organic SEO campaign, you can track exactly what results from your investment.

It’s Measurable

Equipped with all of the data gathered above, you can slice and dice that data to determine what is working and what is not. Forget about general ROI. You can measure how a single keyword performs by time of day, day of week, and specific venue. You can see which ad you tested produced the most clicks, which landing page converted the most visitors, and what the average order value was of newly generated sales. This can then all be tied back to what was invested to measure the outcomes and determine what made sense and what didn’t.

It’s Accountable

When setup properly, an online marketing campaign becomes a very large compilation of mini-media buys. Every variable along the way can be held accountable to producing ROI. So if keyword A in your Google campaign falls below ROI targets on Tuesdays, turn it off. If one of your affiliates is playing an arbitrage game and causing you to pay too much for your own conversions, exclude them. And, if one specific placement in your content network campaign does not meet CPA goals, remove it.

It’s Empowering

Equipped with granular tracking data, solid ROI measurements and reports showing you what works and what doesn’t, you can pick your battles and mold your strategy. The days when marketing investments could only be measured in esoteric terms are over. Marketers are now empowered to target their investment to meet specific goals and objectives.

In these times of economic uncertainty, when every investment dollar is scrutinized, you can be sure it is this level of accountability and empowerment that will continue to make online marketing the darling of the advertising world.

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As the Internet video age matures and more interactive content is consumed, the metrics behind how people engage, and why, get better. We’re beginning to learn what causes people to respond to different types of content, allowing us to serve up more relevant, more engaging content. This leads to increased conversions and improved response metrics on your site.

Video arrived with a bang. YouTube came out of no where to grab headlines and put video on the map. Suddenly everyone with a camera had a voice. As major studios and networks moved their content online, new models emerged for advertising within that content using video.

Broadband penetration is ushering in the days when our content will all be consumed using the same pipe and the same device. With acceptance of dynamic content through the roof, online marketers can now explore engaging the website audience in exciting new ways. I’m not advocating a resurrection of self serving Flash intros. I’m saying as long as you give people what they came for, you can package it, and control the message, in powerful new ways.

We began a few years ago by advocating video content. Product demo videos, testimonials, and feature and price comparisons were some standards. Some of it played on load, others required people to click to consume the content. By and large, the content was fairly straightforward video – standard video frame with basic controls. And it was a success, playing a role in helping clients raise conversions by as much as 47%. But over time we noticed (and it was supported by research) that the less traditional the video looked in size and appearance, the higher the initial engagement.

The concept of banner blindness has been on online marketer’s radar for quite some time. This lead to an evolution in the size and nature of banners and ultimately brought us to the point where banners now expand when rolled over, play video on load and open portals into new worlds with out ever leaving the page you were on. But does video blindness exist?

I’m not sure video blindness is quite accurate; however, I do believe that most people have now engaged video. They know what a video looks like and they know what to expect from it. So the mind moves on. It no longer stops the eyes in their tracks. The novelty has worn off and now video must compete with all other forms of content. However, switch up the format and things improve. Instead of a video embedded on a page, how about a video compilation that is integral to that page and looks like the page was built around it? How about video with its own navigation and purpose? How about video that engages the user in a way that even the best flat photography never can?

So far, the results have been good when removing video from the typical video box. Animated features, video and interactive elements can all coexist to truly allow entry into your value proposition. With web pages, people control how they consume the content. They choose the order and they choose when to stop reading. With video, you take back some of that control. Using the captivating, powerful combination of audio and motion visuals, you can grab their attention and then walk them down the path to what they are looking for – making sure to point out key points of differentiation along the way.

As long as it is not too self serving, and as long as you are giving them what they want, you can take more control over your message by deploying video as an integral part of your website. Just make sure to remove it from the box first.

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While ads are a necessary and accepted part of a website by most, they are typically slotted immediately as just that. To overcome this, all sorts of widgets, games, puzzles, videos and other elements are embedded to make the ad stand out even more. Stroll though Yahoo and a Ford is likely to drive across the screen while you play Tic-Tac-Toe inside a Dove ad. Sure, these engagements are valuable and all of these elements help in the branding process, but the venue plays a big role in supporting the delivery of the message.

With the content networks, things are a bit different. This audience is more focused. They are reading about your industry, researching options, and in general, consuming specific types of content about a specific subject matter. It also goes beyond search. These people did not just look for your product or service. In cases where the subject matter of the page is very specific and targeted, we’ve found that unobtrusive banners that appear to be an integral part of the page often work best.

Imagine you’re on a tech related blog getting the latest info on new IT security threats. What are you more likely to respond to, an ad with beautiful graphics including professional product photography that introduces a new security software suite, or a simple ad with an appealing yet toned-down color palette that says click here to view the latest threat matrix and most recent security threats? The latter often outperforms.

The key is understanding the behavior of your audience as it relates to the specific sites you are targeting. In other words, what are they doing there? What are they looking for? The more specific you can be in what you put in front of them and the more it relates to the content they are already consuming, the more likely they will be receptive to your offer and respond to your ad.

And it is for this reason that we say design for the sake of beautiful design does not always equal maximum return. Sometimes, simple, clean and to the point wins the day. So as usual, test, test, test and see what works best!

I remember the day very clearly. I returned to the office from seeing a client and there was a palpable energy in the office. The head of the agency I was now a part of was acting like he had discovered gold. We would find out over the next few years it was pretty close. Our office happened to be a mere block from where GoTo started; and that morning, they had paid us a visit.

The new model of advertising they were pushing seemed to provide what our clients – mainly ones with a direct marketing focus – needed. An opportunity to place small media buys on certain keyword searches, follow the click to the point of conversion or abandonment, and then do the math to determine if that media buy made sense or not. It was transparent, accountable, adjustable, and the beginning of our transformation from an Internet services consultancy to an interactive agency.

Fast forward to today, and I find myself espousing the virtues, and value, of display advertising. Sure, we call it the content networks or contextual advertising, and Google and Yahoo are the ones offering it, but it is display pure and simple. Ads, whether they’re simple text or elaborate banners with multimedia, are placed on a variety of websites where your target audience works, plays, does research and engages with the web. The goal is to funnel them to your website with the hopes of converting them to a meaningful piece of business.

So what changed? Why do we now consider it an essential growth strategy almost everyone should consider? The answer lies in the empowerment that Google has provided. Matter of fact, in the early days of the content networks, we were naysayers. Our clients mainly charge us with direct response goals, and the numbers just were not there. But Google listened. Now, through the performance placement reports, site targeting capabilities and their aggressive discounting based on quality of traffic, incremental revenues are there for the taking.

We recently co-authored a case study with Google about a skin care client that was able to pick up 15% incremental market-share at a 13% lower cost per acquisition. How’s that for direct response prowess! The answer of course is not to simply opt your regular search campaign into content. This move will most surely lead to you joining the chorus of folks who insist content can’t work. Like any new venue, it needs its own strategy.

Different creative messaging is needed because these people didn’t search for you, they stumbled upon you. Different CPC’s are warranted because these clicks will perform differently. Thorough tracking must be in place because some sites will produce clicks but no conversions and others will out-convert search. But it can be quite fun!

Finally, those of us in the highly analytical SEM space can begin to flex the muscle power of the right side of our brain. We’re testing Flash banners with video content, creating new campaigns tied to interactive elements and cultivating new landing page engagements. We’re doing it all bound by strict CPA and ROI goals. Banners are back from the dead!

Despite the emergence of robust tracking systems, strong analytical tools and a library of best practice data to help people properly structure their PPC campaigns and target their SEO efforts, I continue to see major advertisers making incorrect conclusions about the value of their branded and general keywords.

A recent campaign audit my agency conducted clearly illustrates this point. The prospect came to us seeking volume growth and complaining that sales had steadily declined over the past year. While the sales that were being generated provided positive ROI, they simply were too few in number. As we always do, we immediately added our tracking code to begin collecting data from the existing PPC campaigns, allowing them to continue running while we developed a new strategy and built out new campaigns. We also dug into historical campaign data to see what lead to the decline and where we saw opportunity for growth.

One thing immediately jumped out at us. Over time, we noticed the campaign’s concentration of branded keywords increasing. Every month, more and more general terms were excluded because they were deemed of little or no value. Although clicks were generated, typically at much lower CPC’s, Google wasn’t tracking any conversions associated with those clicks. Seems like a no brainer, right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong! Within the first week of our tracking system being in place, we were able to justify the fact that general terms were converting…indirectly as assists. We knew the commercial intent of many of the general terms was in fact quite high. In other words, those searching for general terms were looking to purchase. We explained to the prospective client that those searchers simply were likely to be higher up the buy funnel, still considering options and comparison shopping.

We now had data to support our hypothesis. Let’s say somebody conducts a general search today and becomes exposed to your brand and your products. Then tomorrow, they search for your brand or product name using the search engines to help them relocate your site and make the purchase (i.e., convert). In reality, that general term searched for yesterday is directly responsible for the conversion today.

What happened in the accounts of this prospect is not all that uncommon. Systems that overwrite the tracking cookie with the last touch point miss the boat on being able to demonstrate the entire buy funnel. To win in SEM, you need to appreciate all touch points and account for metrics like assists, latency and the relationship between PPC, SEO, affiliates, etc. A user may search for a general term today and click on your paid search ad, but not convert. Two weeks later, that same user conducts a follow up search that is now a little more detailed or long tail. This time they click on your organic result. Again, they don’t convert. A week later, that same user Googles your brand, clicks on your paid ad at the top of the page and converts. Don’t you need to appreciate this entire funnel?

Understanding the value of assists is fairly easy. But appreciating latency can be key to maximizing ROI. For example, keywords that generate interest with an average conversion cycle of four weeks can be sent to a landing page that doesn’t overtly try to get visitors to buy, focusing instead on directing them to download a comparison guide or register for product updates. These mini-conversions become critical tools to help you maximize the percentage of those people that ultimately convert into a sale.

The search engines provide a rich opportunity to build market share. While the navigational side of search is valuable, marketers cannot overlook this opportunity. Every day, potential customers are researching and evaluating products and services to meet their needs. They can only consider those competing for their attention.

So far, most of the success that stems from marketing through social media has been at the hands of major brands with major dollars. We all know of the occasional viral hit that propelled an unknown name onto the scene, but we also know how difficult – and serendipitous – that was to achieve. How, then, does the average mid-size company that sells a quality product or performs an outstanding service invest in the social media world? Are there opportunities for gaining market share? Enterprising marketers are finding ways to do just that by exploiting the platforms where people socially interact.

Leverage Your Assets

My agency mainly focuses on clients with direct marketing goals. When these clients discuss social media with me, they are ultimately seeking to invest in new growth strategies that will provide solid ROI. Most are loathe to unleash their troops to “play” on social sites but realize those same troops strikingly resemble their customers. What they need is a strategy, some accountability and someone who will protect the integrity of the brand they are cultivating.

One client we developed a social strategy for plays in the specialty apparel space. They mainly manufacture for private label retailers but also maintain their own online outlet for overstock and excess inventory. Through effective SEM strategies, the outlet has become a meaningful part of their bottom-line. With their appetite whetted and the smell of revenue in the air, we began to discuss additional Internet marketing strategies. Because their marketing lead is no slouch, social media marketing quickly became top of mind.

In reality, social already played a role in their campaigns and we were ready to advance the ball. From a tactical SEO standpoint, we had already become involved in various blogging activities and were seeking new opportunities to boost link popularity and create new assets to rank. So we began to discuss what role various types of social sites could play. After some discussions, we focused in on a few assets their organization possessed that could be leveraged. Those centered around a large portfolio of high-quality photographic content and the lead designer responsible for those designs. I think you can guess what came next. We setup a Flickr account to display and optimize the photos and recommended a “Meet the Designer” program on MySpace. In the end, we ended up achieving our primary goal of improving rankings – in some cases they control 3 or 4 of the top results for important general keywords – while also lighting the social fire within their organization.

Play to Your Strengths and Stay True to Your Brand

Some clients are much better suited for an easy transition to social. Another client I work with that is tailor-made for the space produces a fitness product they sell through DRTV. With an energetic, appealing spokesperson, celebrity endorsements, tons of video content and a huge amount of offline buzz, the social world is theirs’ for the taking. For other clients, the opportunities are not so clear and the goals need to be more realistic. I often talk about the fallacy of the “viral” success story and my opening comment about the video of the CEO jumping up and down on his products is not a big stretch from what has actually taken place. Unfortunately, lacking a clear strategy and short on results, many marketers have steered away from social media.

It’s important to stay true to your brand and be honest and engaging. The backbone of the social world is predicated on the ability of the social web to sniff out the truth. This in turn creates what will become your reality. Watch how quickly a virus will spread if you’re caught being dishonest or disingenuous. My colleague who heads up our SEO team was recently published discussing the lasting effects of negative publicity online. The last thing you want showing up when your brand is Googled is a blog post from some guy who caught you posing as your own customer making false assertions about your products.

The questions are much easier to answer if clearer delineation exists between the strengths of each side. Both tend to possess strong creative skills, even though applied to a different medium. Both should be espousing the segmentation, messaging, testing mantra. Both should have a true appreciation for direct response metrics and have the systems in place to track and justify the results.

But obviously the paths diverge. Online marketers should be well versed in all things technical, and equally comfortable around terms like Ajax and Web 2.0 as they are CPCs, CTRs and CPAs. They should have an understanding of testing modalities like the Teguchi method yet still have a solid grasp on the nuances of writing effective copy for text ads. They need to be able to dig through and digest volumes of granular data and find ways to produce actionable items. Because of this, online marketers often take on a technical persona, which is not advantageous to the growth and protection of their markets.

Traditional direct marketers on the other hand, are seen as stewards of the business. They’re supposed to understand all channels and appreciate the total marketing mix, often becoming an integral part of a client’s overall operation. When the Internet came along, and certainly as it has matured, the ownership role of direct marketers blurred.

Through my agency work, I’ve recently noticed an uptick in the amount of offline agencies reaching out to discuss potential partnerships. We’ve experimented with many models over the years and have established some solid partnerships. In all cases, we learned from working with joint clients what we need to do on our respective sides of the aisle to produce to client expectations and continue to progress. The one theme that has run through all of these engagements is the need for transparency.

For obvious reasons, the knee jerk reaction when forming a partnership is to protect one’s hold on the client. What usually follows is a desire to private label good online work by an offline agency. While this sounds easy enough, without a command of the space – and the language that accompanies it – communication with the client becomes strained. From one side you’re getting positive numbers like increased CTR and lower average CPCs. From the other side, you’re getting “but my lead quality is declining”. Imagine not just watching a tennis match, but having to catch the ball and personally deliver it each time it moves back and forth.

We have found that transparency is key. We know interpretation of the results, not just the data, is crucial to driving a project forward. For our direct clients, the above conversation would immediately turn to one about messaging, testing of new creatives, and working on the landing page. Without direct access to the client, this becomes more difficult, takes much longer and the client suffers. Remember, the goal is to protect share. Lack of transparency can easily have the opposite affect.

With transparency comes role clarity. With role clarity comes collaboration. With collaboration comes success. This is the model I espouse. As an example of collaboration, to be effective, online marketers need content. Whether it’s for continuing content generation to keep a website fresh or for tactics to increase visibility and credibility online, direct agencies are already in the business of producing top quality content. Press releases for SEO and PR benefit, article content for syndication and distribution, video content for viral applications, photographic content for social applications are all needed, and welcomed, weapons in the arsenal of an effective online marketer.

The benefit to the client goes much further. A true picture of the interdependency of various campaigns is a good start. I don’t know how many times a client has mused the results we produced through an online marketing campaign were potentially the result of some new offline ad campaign or press mention. Working collaboratively, online marketers become more empowered to own the results. Additionally, too often the image being crafted offline and the image portrayed online, are not congruent. Every time a potential customer interacts with a brand, the client needs to know it is enriching the prospect’s experience and moving the potential customer further along the buy cycle.

What are the downsides to transparency? In my experience, they are few and far between. These days, online marketers, the good ones anyway, have a solid marketing pedigree. They understand how online marketing fits and complements the overall marketing strategy of the business. With some due diligence, a direct marketer can insure the online partner introduced will be able to represent a referral quite well. It doesn’t take many trade shows and conferences to realize that clients are boning up on their own, so the risk of inaction is great.

When all is said and done, it comes down to the value a client perceives it has received from its marketing partners. A cohesive, side by side pitch that demonstrates a complete solution to market the client through all available media gives the perception of total ownership and accountability. Both online and traditional direct marketers know they’re fishin’ from the same pond. Joining forces and truly appreciating each side’s strengths will allow us to raise our glasses in celebration of bigger fish and clearer waters!

Online advertisers are leaving money on the table by under-utilizing or overlooking the impact of Web analytics. Opportunities for incremental gains are not isolated and tapped. Those who do recognize the potential often don’t know what a complete and proper analytics program should look like. What data needs to be gathered? How do you turn that data into actionable intelligence? How do you find the gold?

First things first

While it sounds simple, collecting the right data is where many analytics programs begin to run off the tracks. A few things come up time and time again as inhibitors to the proper collection of data. For instance, an analytics system should be set up to account for all campaigns — visitors generated from an e-mail drop need to be tagged so they don’t look like a direct-to-site visitor. You also want to make sure you track at the most granular level. I often see Google Analytics programs setup to track at the transaction level, but not the individual product level. Assuming your system does not limit you from doing this, granularity is key to finding wins through analytics.

To ensure you are collecting the right data, make sure you set up the right goals. Tracked goals can be prioritized and assigned different values. You’ll want to closely follow the path to a sale or lead conversion, but a newsletter sign-up or white paper download is also a meaningful engagement. By setting up proper goals, you can allocate resources accordingly to focus first on improving those things that will provide the highest return.

Panning for gold

Once a system is in place gathering the needed data, mine that data for red flags and optimization opportunities. There are obvious things to look for like pages with high bounce rates or conversion rate fluctuations, but it is how you dig into those issues that decide what you get from them.

Let’s take the high bounce rate as an example. After a proper setup of Google Analytics, an advertiser finds that a key page within their site has a bounce rate much higher than the site-wide average. The page seems to appear just fine. What could the problem be? The short answer is many things, and in that short answer lays the science of analytics.

Maybe you’re looking at the page in IE and it has a Firefox compatibility issue. A simple browser by browser comparison will point to this. Maybe a look at campaign data reveals a spike in traffic that leads you to uncover that dubious traffic was directed to this page through a paid search campaign. You can then take appropriate steps to modify that campaign and possibly even get a refund. Maybe you discover a messaging disconnect between the campaign driving the traffic and the page itself. In this case, testing ad creatives might better filter your audience leading to more targeted visitors and improved “stickiness” of the page.

Eureka!

The goal of a successful analytics program should be to identify opportunities to improve results. Typically, online marketers are looking for ways to up the engagement level, or user experience, on their site leading to increased conversions and more revenue. Once you have an analytics program that is gathering the right data and helping you identify red flags, you have what you need to start making positive changes.

There is no magic formula for how you move through the gathered intelligence, but it is important that time and resources are allocated to the effort. I like to go with a “highest and best use” philosophy. Where are my resources best allocated to gain maximum return? Typically, you begin investigating one thing that leads to another and another.

A recent client that began a basic analytics program with my agency charged us with isolating opportunities each month to make improvements that would provide lift. After an audit of the setup and necessary changes, we started by looking at a site overlay that told us where people clicked and what the common paths through the site were. Following these various paths lead us to a set of recommendations that ranged from minor messaging changes on certain pages to a complete overhaul of other pages. We were equipped with the data to show that client our recommendations were based on something more than creative differences.

We in the interactive world owe it to our clients to equip them with the tools they need to compete and win. I talk with large companies every day that still endeavor to redesign a site without a true understanding of what is wrong with the current site. Through a small bit of education and an investment in analytics, we can empower them to truly move the needle. Not to mention it is much easier to sell an investment in incremental gains. All we need to do is help our clients find the gold!