NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> most valuable info you can get from clickstream data
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> most valuable info you can get from clickstream data
Douglas B. Spink, Athletica (doug_at_athletica.com)
Tue, 23 Dec 1997 16:33:21 -0800
At 11:27 PM 12/21/97 -0600, "Blakney, Glenn" <GBlakney_at_Engagetech.com> wrote:
>What is the most valuable information that Web marketers can glean
>from anonymous(unregistered) clickstream data?
Both in dealing with our own commerce site and in helping clients who
engage us for clickstream analysis, we've come up with some rules of thumb.
First, what is NOT important/useful/possible:
1. 3d visualization-based "pathing" of how people move through the site.
Most clients assume there is some "magic box" that can allow them to
visualize clickstream data all at once, with no numbers or other messy
stuff. If such a tool exists, I've sure never seen it. Further, I suspect
that creating such a tool would be all but impossible.
2. Demographic segmentation of user behavior. Clickstreams are anonymous,
ergo doing demo segmentation is not possible. Pretty simple to understand.
However, I had a client who spent a fortune and waaaay too much time trying
to "match back" clickstream data to demo data. Why? Well, basically they
thought it'd be cool, so why not?
3. Intra-visit analysis. Would be cool to know what people do not just when
they visit the site today, but when they come back tomorrow or next week.
However, only registration-based sites can do this (sure, cookies could
theoretically be used, but practically I've never seen it work well for
this kind of analysis). Even so, while it would indeed be "cool," I
actually care more about what segments of customers *buy* than how they
surf around the site over time. Finally, I really don't know how one could
graphically present such data in an intuitive manner, even if it were all
available.
OK, that's the unimportant/impossible stuff most of my clients ask for.
Now, what *we* think is both important and readily actionable:
1. Referrer profiling. Simple, but effective. Where do people come from?
2. Point of exit analysis. Good to know where people are *leaving,* since
one can then take on the task of 'plugging the leaking holes' to keep folks
around longer at the site.
3. Standard, DM-like purchaser analysis. Who they are, where they came from
(SOURCE CODES!!), what they look like demographically. We know this since,
once someone *buys* something, they cease being anonymous.
Anyway, that's my long-winded answer to a question that was most likely
posed with the assumption that someone would give a far less verbose response!
Happy holidays,
dbs
---------------------------------------------
Douglas B. Spink
Athletica
The world's best place to get name-brand sports nutrition stuff
http://www.athletica.com
503.647.9264
503.647.9958 fax
doug_at_athletica.com
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