Measuring success
Monitoring your web site’s performance with a programme to track visitors is vital, not only to see which marketing methods are most successful, but also to find any weaknesses in your site.
Monitor changes one at a time
When you make a change to your site, always aim to measure the success of that change. This will show you what works best for your target market. Try not to change more than one thing at a time. Otherwise, it will be difficult to assess the impact of each individual change.
Moving goal posts
When you are actively marketing your site, you will be regularly changing it. This means that you have to measure something that is constantly evolving, with content and links being added or changed, and pay-per-click campaigns being run. It may be difficult to make like for like judgements, but your findings will still be worthwhile.
You should measure:
- most popular pages
- top entry points
- top exit points
- referrers – search engines, directories and other links
- keyword phrases used to access the site
- unique (one-off) visits
- average time spent on site during a single visit
- number of repeat visits
- path taken by an individual visitor when navigating the site (if available)
Measuring profitability of pay-per-click campaigns
You will want to earn more from pay-per-click than you spend, so have a measurable goal in mind before you start spending money. Once your pay-per-click campaign is up and running, you should measure:
- total number of clicks
- average cost per click
- pay-per-click fees
- number of orders
- conversion rate (how many clicks are needed to make a sale)
- average order value
- total sales revenue
- net profit before fees
- net profit after fees
- return on investment
Carry on marketing!
Online marketing is never-ending, and no web site is ever complete. Unless you stop offering new products or services, you can never finish your marketing campaign. There is always room for development, improvement and further testing.
Once you are actively marketing, go back to the start of this section and do it all over again, based on what you have learned and the response you have got!
