As times change and content on the
web becomes ever more participatory, the collection and importance of various
metrics is likely to change as well.
According to Marc Poirier, Chief Marketing Officer of Acquisio, a company that specializes in
assisting in media buying, the five most important metrics to follow presently
include a website’s bounce rate, average page views per visit, average cost per
page view, average time on site and rate of return visitors. The reasons for which are many but include
the following:
Bounce Rate
A “bounce” from a website is equal to
a visitor browsing over and then leaving without exploring other sections of
the same domain. This can be a byproduct
of both direct and organic or paid search traffic, but a high bounce rate is
often times a signal that an organization’s online content is not nearly as
engaging as it could be, and that it fails to entice users over to other parts
of the website. How this affects
decisions related to online advertising is in deducing which ads or keywords
result in higher bounce rates. While a
high bounce rate might often result in changes to in-page content, Poirier
recommends letting low-converting and low bounce rate pages live on as they
signify an interaction with a consumer that could be “…more
important than you may have first anticipated” (2012, Poirer).
Average Page Views Per Visit
A metric such as average page views
per visit provides a true estimate of visitor engagement. The common understanding is that the more
interesting the content is, the more likely a visitor is to traipse on within the
same domain, or possibly through a related sister website. While these page views may not yet equal a
true conversion, they do provide an indication of your work’s influence. As Poirer states, “When people find content
that means something to them, they keep going deeper, and we know that the
trend leans towards them sharing content they enjoy with their friends. These
are people who may actually end up influencing more sales, and knowing what
keywords are successful in this endeavor will help you to build an even larger
customer base” (Poirer).
Average Cost Per Page View
When engaging in the purchase of
media for online advertising purposes, it’s extremely important to understand
how much it costs to attract a page’s visitor so that it can be directly tied
to your eventual ROI. Buying media
should eventually result in a positive profit margin and assigning a level of
profit can be done by knowing how much it cost to bring in visitors versus what
of those visitors resulted in a conversion.
Average Time on Site
As another important measure of
engagement, average time on site provides qualitative data including the trust
your brand instills in consumers, as well as an overall level of curiosity
about your product offering. As Poirer
states, “Use this metric in combination with
bounce rate and page views per visit for a complete picture” (2012).
Rate
of Return Visitors
If
a website hosts an engaging level of content, it is more likely to not only
attract new visitors, but garners visits from previous visitors. In terms of ecommerce, Poirer equates these revisits
to consumers “browsing the aisles” of a classic retail store. To enhance the level of return visits, Poirer
recommends engaging in a necessary level of two-way conversations with visitors
in order to show them that you are willing to invest as much in the customer as
you want them to invest in your business.
This establishes trust with the consumer and can result in a greater
level of returns.
References
