FINDING VALIDATION IN SITE TRAFFIC REPORTING - Omniture

FINDING VALIDATION IN SITE TRAFFIC REPORTING
THE AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION DRILLS DEEPER INTO THEIR DATA TO
INCREASE ACCURACY, KEEP INVENTORY IN STOCK, AND MAKE FUTURE PLANS FOR
WEB DESIGN CHANGES.
Marketing is the process of planning
and executing the conception, pricing,
promotion, and distribution of ideas,
goods, and services to create
exchanges that satisfy individual and
organizational objectives. Marketing is
not an exact science. What works for
one organization doesn’t translate to
another. Marketing is a process.
Because of the nature of the industry,
one of the best sources for marketers is
information. That is where the
American Marketing Association
comes in. The American Marketing
Association is one of the largest professional
associations for marketers with
over 38,000 members worldwide
covering every aspect of marketing. For
over six decades they have been an
essential resource in providing relevant
marketing information that experienced
marketers can turn to.
Through AMA’s web site,
MarketingPower.com, they have expanded
that information to include research,
case studies and best practices in
marketing. The main objective is to help
marketing professionals succeed in their
jobs and careers.
THE CHALLENGE
“We are not unlike many other
businesses with an online presence,”
said Bob Wallach, Chief Executive
Officer of MarketingPower.com. “It is
critically important for us to understand
user utilization of our site; what
sections visitors are going to, what
information they are interested in. We
use this information as a key gauge of
customer satisfaction.”
Besides gaining a greater understanding
of customer usage, another
important factor for MarketingPower
was to have an accurate representation
of traffic for advertising sales. “We
found we were running out of inventory
faster than we should have been,”
Mr. Wallach stated. “We needed to
validate the information we were
receiving. We wanted to make sure we
were being accurate in our statements
to advertisers and in the selling of our
inventory.”
Like many other online businesses,
MarketingPower.com utilized a log-file
based web analytics solution. “It
wasn’t that we were necessarily
unhappy with the solution we had been
using, it was more a need for greater
granularity of data,” said Wallach.
INDUSTRY: BUSINESS SERVICES
TOPIC:
ACCURATE WEB TRAFFIC REPORTING
BY SITECATALYST
RESULT:
DISCOVERED THAT OLD LOG FILE
SOLUTION OVER REPORTED PAGE
VIEWS BY 500%
CASE STUDY UNIQUE
QUESTIONS, PRECISE ANSWERS

THE SOLUTION
After an extensive evaluation of analytic
vendors, MarketingPower decided upon
Omniture’s SiteCatalyst. “We were
impressed with the level of data available in
real-time,” Wallach stated. “The idea that we
could use the product to report on the overall
level of utilization was important as was unique
visitors, visit frequency and page views. But
being able to drill down deeper beyond this
information into each individual content area,
was what we really wanted to accomplish.”
The implementation of SiteCatalyst went
smoothly, but it wasn’t long before Mr. Wallach
started to notice some significant discrepancies.
“Needless to say, we went through quite
a shock after the implementation of
SiteCatalyst when our page views dropped
from 5 million a month to 1 million a month.
To be honest, I was really hoping that the
problem was with SiteCatalyst. Unfortunately
and fortunately, it wasn’t.”
After an exhaustive analysis where the AMA
reviewed all information page by page, they
discovered that the SiteCatalyst reporting was
indeed quite accurate. “We were one of those
cases where our traffic had been dramatically
over reported by our previous analytic
solution,” said Mr. Wallach. “One of the things
I’ve learned through this process is that there
can be lot of noise in the system. Most people
who rely on other analytic solutions for their
analysis are not aware of the garbage in their
data. In the end, we were able to get closer to
the truth about our traffic.”
IMPROVED PERFORMANCE
The AMA is currently in the process of introducing
a second version of their MarketingPower
web site, and plans to use SiteCatalyst to
decide whether or not to keep certain areas.
“In fact, there was an area of our site that I was
wondering if people used and whether or not it
warranted keeping. It turns out a lot of people
are using it,” said Wallach.
The biggest change AMA has seen since utilizing
SiteCatalyst is accuracy. Mr. Wallach
stated, “We don’t wonder whether or not the
data we receive is correct. We also don’t run
out of sales inventory like we did before. We
have found validity in our site traffic reporting
and are now beginning to explore other
aspects of how to utilize the service.”
NEEDLESS TO SAY, WE WENT THROUGH QUITE
A SHOCK AFTER THE IMPLEMENTATION OF
SITECATALYST WHEN OUR PAGE VIEWS
DROPPED FROM 5 MILLION A MONTH TO 1
MILLION A MONTH... WE WERE ONE OF THOSE
CASES WHERE OUR TRAFFIC HAD BEEN
DRAMATICALLY OVER REPORTED BY OUR
PREVIOUS ANALYTIC SOLUTION.
ABOUT OMNITURE Omniture, Inc., headquartered in Orem, Utah, is the pioneer of next-generation web analytics
technology and is the most experienced provider of adaptable solutions to large, complex web sites. Omniture develops
and markets SiteCatalyst, which has been designed specifically for the needs of enterprise companies to monitor visitor
and commerce activity, identify specific points of change, and drive business decisions that increase ROI. Cutting-edge
technology has resulted in an impressive client list, which includes AOL Time Warner, General Motors, Hewlett-
Packard, Gannett, Microsoft, Maytag Corporation, Half.com, and Media News Group. For more information, call
Omniture at 801-722-7000 or visit http://www.omniture.com.
ABOUT SITECATALYST SiteCatalyst is the
leading web analytics solution for large,
complex sites. Providing real-time, actionable
data, SiteCatalyst measures the effectiveness of
a company’s web site and online and offline
marketing initiatives. SiteCatalyst reveals how
visitors interact with the web site through a
flexible architecture that quickly lets managers
identify and track any factors that uniquely
affect their web site success. This equips online
marketing managers with the insight they need
to optimize their marketing efforts and drive the
company’s online business success.
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