E-commerce: Measure Post-Click Value to Determine a Web Surfer’s Worth

On the Web, data rules. The trick is to not allow it to rule you. To do that particularly when you’re trying to figure out just what customers, prospects and surfers do when they’re clicking around your site, the key is to measure the post-click value. So said John Marshall, chief executive officer of ClickTracks, a Web analytics software provider, during a session at last week’s DM Days New York conference.

He offered several tips on Web analytics and tracking:

* Determine the minimum amount of data you need for statistical relevance. He suggested that with fewer than 500 visitors, “you can’t get the type of data you want to get.”

* When measuring value, don’t simply rely on return on investment (ROI). “... ROI is too black-and-white,” he cautioned. “ROI only tells you what worked and what didn’t work, with a moderate degree of accuracy. But it doesn’t tell you why some things worked or didn’t work. And some search campaigns are so data rich.”

In measuring Web activity, look at the average amount of time spent on your site. “It’s a simple thing to do, and almost any tool can do it,” he pointed out. No ROI measurement can give you this kind of data.

* Gauge surfer’s ins and outs. In tracking customers’ activity on your site, consider the following: “People read stuff, they click around, they go away, they come back, go away, click around, delete cookies and do it all over again,” he said. So people aren’t “that deterministic. They show certain preferences, and getting your hands around this data is tricky.”