Re: Repeat visit rates?

From: Alexis D. Gutzman <alexisg_at_marketingsherpa.com>
Date: Fri 14 Jun 2002 21:33:15 -0500

> Would anyone happen to know if what the average repeat visit rate per day
or
> per month is for content web sites? And what repeat rates are desirable?
> While I realize the bottom line for advertisers is the conversion rate, I
> would think there would be some correlations between repeat visits and
> conversions as well as between specific ads and conversions.

It completely varies by industry. What's your favorite news site? How often
do you visit? How about your favorite virus-information site? How often do
you visit? Does that mean that you're less likely to spend money on the
latter? Probably quite the opposite. I think advertisers would also identify
the virus-information site (with its less-frequent visitors) as a better
source of qualified prospects for comparable technologies.

The questions you're asking are just too general to be answered. I'm not
even sure what conversion rates you're asking about. FoxNews also sells
t-shirts and mugs. Do you think they measure success by how many visitors
"convert" and buy a mug? I'd be shocked! Many content sites consider a
visitor signing up for the daily/weekly/monthly newsletter to be a
"conversion." CPM for focused newsletters is better than the comparable Web
site.

Even if we told you that the average for a "content site" was once every
13.2 days, would that be useful if you're a general news site? How about if
you publish a gardening information site? Some information sites don't
update but weekly. If you update daily, or hourly, is it valuable to compare
your repeat visit rate to those of sites that update less frequently?

Consider three sites with (among) the highest number of paid subscribers:
ConsumerReports.com, FreeCreditReport.com, and AmericanGreetings.com (for
eCards). I'm not sure how "frequency of repeat visitors" correlates to any
of these (possibly AmericanGreetings).

If you can clarify what you're getting at, we might be able to help you
more.

Regards,
Alexis

---
Alexis D. Gutzman
Managing Editor, Reports, MarketingSherpa
Tech Editor, ContentBiz (http://www.contentbiz.com) <== Content Industry
Case Studies
http://www.sherpaweekly.com <== Free "Top 10 eMarketing Mistakes" Report
Author, _The E-Commerce Arsenal: 12 Technologies You Need to Prevail in the
Digital Arena_, named one of the 30 best business books of 2001





Received on Fri Jun 14 2002 - 21:33:15 CDT