Search Engine Strategies – Analytics the Avinash Way
Search Engine Strategies – Analytics the Avinash Way
There is something always very entertaining about Avinash Kaushik and the manner in which he presents. He bounded around the room engaging with the audience not in a Q&A fashion but, more because the room was packed with people very interested in hearing what he had to say.
He even survived the constant interruptions from the late arrivals and even having someone walk infront of him and his presentation to find a seat.
Attribution
Avinash questions why in the data rich age in which we live are people still making decisions or suppositions based on crap. Examples would be the agency dervied attribution model on personal opinions about Bing and Google.
“I am assigning a higher attribution ratio to Bing because I don’t like Google.”
Now I am sure that most of us have heard management say similar things. In my experience its people coming to my desk and asking how many ‘hits’ we’ve had. Yes, I want to stand up and scream at them. I merely give them the famous Jim Sterne-ism “How Idiots Track Success”.
Avinash gives great examples of how to understand different behaviours, paying for branded terms may not be a good idea in the long run but who knows, “Test It”. How about the long tail are people coming on obscure search terms less likely to convert or are they more likely to convert and you benefit from a massive reduction in the CTC rate (cost to conversion).
Keyword Analysis
Ok how many of us go into the detail of keyword analysis as Avinash demonstrated? Not many I would imagine. Avinash plug into the various analytics API tools and is able to extract the search information and create keyword clouds. This is a fantastic way of understanding what people KNOW you for and not what you THINK you are known for.
Avinash also uses various other tools to visualise this information. Must be great for management to see and yes analysts too. We all like pretty pictures. Which moves me onto my next comment..
Mark and Spencer underwear.
Wherever in the world Avinash is he appears to make a beeline for the nearest M&S to stock up on his favourite brand of underwear. However, what a faux-pas for Marks and Spencer. Go to google.co.uk right now and type in ‘marks and spencer underwear’. Look at the top sponsored link (see screengrab below). Who would have known they were ‘award winning’. However, this pay-per-click campaign certainly isn’t that.
Does this link actually take us to a underwear related page? Nope, in Avinash’s example it was a Valentines related landing page (flowers) and re-creating the error right now in the Speaker’s Room at Search Engine Strategies I come up with:
Ok – so Avinash wasn’t able to get his pants and the landing page wasn’t optimised. However, then what does he get (I didn’t as it happens). A eDigitalResearch survey (asking for 10 minutes of his time)! Avinash quoted around 40 pages of questions.
Want a tool which will not only let you optimise your paid search activity but also help you optimise your SEO programmes too? Well this is here and it looks at Google data aswell!!!
Lets not forget to look at the long tail when looking at search – it may prove to be more profitable in the long run. Ten or Fifty clicks may convert at 0.05p per click whereas you may be spening £5.00 per click on a premium keyword. Sorry – simple logic here:
Optimise your search campaigns
Optimise your SEO programmes
Review the Long Tail
Monetise everything
Related Links:
Occams Razor – Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics Blog
Search Engine Strategies – Register for Next Year or the Next City]
