Paid Search Analysis and Optimization - Yahoo! Web Analytics - page 290

now, repeat the custom report exercise from earlier, but this time think about
whether the individual engine is a growth or an effectiveness opportunity. i suggest you
look at Visits as the primary traffic share metric, with an eye to revenue or other suc-
cessful conversion metrics.

Figure 11.5 Custom campaign summary with the search engine dimension added

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my next suggestion is to look at the split between engines. i suggest you create a
table like the one shown here, comparing site share and market share:

Search Engine Site Share Market Share

Google 67% (22,921) 64%

Yahoo! 26% (8,906) 21%

AOL 7% (2,322) 4%

this table (which takes the numbers from Figure 11.4, using the three most pop-
ular search engines) concludes that their search programs are very much aligned with
the overall market distribution.
as we have done with the traffic channels and search engines, comparing the
sourcing rates by engine can help us identify growth opportunities. most sites should
expect their numbers by engine to track reasonably to the overall market share by that
engine. if the site numbers deviate from this, there's a potential for either growth or
improved effectiveness. For example, if Google provides you with only 30 percent of
your paid search traffic, you have a traffic growth opportunity.
these types of numbers form the background for the deeper analysis that will
help you achieve most of your detailed optimization tasks. these tasks involve group-
ing this information on such dimensions as campaigns, ad groups, landing pages, cre-
atives, and so on (see Figure 11.6). and, with access to custom fields, you can attach
additional campaign attributes to a specific campaign, which will give you an even
greater opportunity to do detailed analysis.