Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the prevalent mistake in paid search optimization is to optimize toward more
traffic. We keep coming back to the obvious conclusion that less costly traffic is likely
to be less valuable.
So what to do? i am sorry to revert to the engagement metric, but this time, let
me try to simplify it by suggesting that you use the following elements:
t
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ime spent on site > 2 min.
•
P
age views per visits > 3
V
•
isits per visitor > 2
these might seem simple and almost naive, but they could be great engagement
proxies for your site. if you are optimizing your paid search campaigns on visits only
today, any of these optimization metrics, or a simple combination, is sure to yield a
remarkable increase in performance.
a question comes to mind: When do you know you have picked the right engage-
ment metric? this is probably not something we can measure within our web analytics
application, but it is something that can be solved by using surveys and other panel
measures.
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Tips for Choosing Your Optimization Metric
Choosing your optimization metric is one of the most important things you'll ever do in paid
search. Keep the following in mind:
Does the chosen optimization metric truly reflect your site's success?
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Can the optimization metric be captured by your web analytics tool? Can it be captured and
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used in real time?
Is the optimization metric destined to be biased?
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These two posts discuss using KPIs for media and social networking sites, respectively:
http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2007/07/what-and-how-to-measure-media-and.html
http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2007/07/what-to-measure-on-social-networking.html
Balancing Paid Search with Organic Search
this is a chapter about paid search, so why am i writing about organic search? Because
there is a strong correlation between what happens in organic and what happens in
paid search, and vice versa.
i believe this can be summed up in one word: cannibalization. the more aggres-
sive you are on paid search, the more traffic you are destined to take away from organic
search. this is one of the low-hanging fruits of any nonoptimized paid search campaign:
making sure a natural balance exists between paid and organic search.
