Archive for December, 2009|Monthly archive page
Testing Versus Measuring
Filed under: Analytics & Statistics, Keyword Research, PPC Marketing, SEO vs. PPC, Uncategorized |
Leave a comment Companies know the value of testing, but are often remiss about measuring what they have tested. You may ask, how can you test if you don’t measure? The answer is, you cannot.
It isn’t enough to run one campaign against another and then measure visits. This merely touches the surface of the information necessary to make accurate decisions ongoing.
Company A runs a PPC campaign Monday – Friday from 8:00 am – 12:00. Week 2, Company A runs the same ads 1:00 pm – 4 pm. They were delighted to see a 7% increase in traffic in week 2.
As a result of this brief test, Company A elects to continue running the campaign from 1:00 – 4:00 ongoing. Had they thoroughly evaluated the data, they would have come to a different conclusion.
| Week1 | Week2 | |
| Impressions | 137,450 | 156,802 |
| Clicks | 4,398 | 4,704 |
| Click rate | 3.2% | 3.0% |
| Bounce rate | 42.0% | 53.0% |
| Net Visits | 2,551 | 2,211 |
The data clearly shows although the number of gross visits were greater in week 2, however the number of true visits (Gross visits less bounced visits) were 14% higher in week 1. Additionally, week 1 showed a higher click rate and lower bounce rate which means the market segment was also more targeted.
It is essential to thoroughly evaluate your findings before a conclusion is drawn. A few more hours of analysis can make a world of difference in future revenue potential.
