Using Web analytics just to churn out reports for management is like driving a Porsche in bumper-to-bumper traffic. You’re not putting the pedal to the metal and using it for all it’s worth.

If you want to start improving your marketing campaigns, I encourage you to do more than just compile data on the number of visitors and conversions. Instead, think about where those visitors came from, what they actually did on your site and why they did it.

This requires moving from a reactive, reporting mindset to a proactive, analytical mindset. Go beyond quantitative questions ("How many visitors showed up?") to asking questions such as, “Do my organic-search visitors have a higher conversion rate than my PPC visitors?” and “How and why are my site metrics changing over time?”

Take conversions. Using the reporting mindset, you may only look at your average conversion rate. With an analysis mindset, you segment to figure out who converted and why.

Far beyond merely providing a static set of reports, segmentation gives you a way of testing your theories on who showed up, what they did on your site and why.

And don’t think segmentation is an advanced feature that's for other people (super geeks or folks at bigger companies) and not you. Segmentation is something you can start doing today, and when you use it with an eye on business goals, it can help you turbo charge your marketing campaigns.

Use the Power of Comparisons

Individual metrics – such as knowing that the average user time on your site was 62 seconds – don’t give you much to work with. Comparing the same metric for different groups or the same metric over different time periods can bring far more actionable information.

For example, if you know that the average time on the site is 20 percent higher for PPC visitors than for organic-search visitors, you can take steps to improve your Web copy and navigation for organic visitors. Or, if you see that the average time on the site increased from 62 seconds to 78 seconds in the last two weeks, you can pin down which Web-page redesign accounted for that increase in reader engagement.

Good Starting Points for Visitor Segmentation

There is a multitude of ways to segment visitors. Some basic visitor segments include:

• First-time visitors
• Returning customers
• Visitors who signed up for something
• Visitors from certain marketing campaigns
• Visitors who reached you from partner sites
• Visitors who responded to a promotion on your site.

Consider how visitors found your site. There is a difference between someone who Googled your brand name and someone who saw your Google ad for pet supplies because they just happened to be reading a blog about dog training. Using Web analytics to segment visitors by referral sources, you can uncover high-quality sources you hadn’t considered before, such as product-review sites or blogs that link to your site. You can also more easily spot suspect affiliate networks and potential click fraud.

When it comes to keywords, it pays to group related keywords into themes instead of evaluating individual phrases. For example, you could create a dog-lovers segment for dog food, dog toys and 10 other dog-related keyword phrases, and a cat-lovers segment for corresponding cat phrases. Then, you can compare the different navigation, engagement and conversion behavior of those two groups, and improve your site accordingly.

Even simple time-based data can lead to valuable insight. If segmentation shows that weekend traffic volume is forty percent less than weekday traffic, and further analysis shows that two PPC campaigns are underperforming on the weekend, you might want to turn those campaigns off on weekends.

Your Good Judgment Matters

When segmenting visitors, your expertise and common sense matter even more than when you’re just running standard reports. One metric evaluated in isolation can be a false indicator, so you should always examine data in context.

For example, if a certain landing page features a prominent phone number, visitors may call you instead of clicking a link. The page is spurring the user to take action – just not the action you anticipated. But if you simply evaluated that page's high exit rate in isolation, it would never occur to you that the page might be driving phone calls.

Remember, the point of segmentation is not having fun by crunching more numbers; it’s gaining actionable insights into what's working and what's not. When used in combination with your expertise and good judgment, segmentation provides insights to help you more effectively and frequently achieve the goals for your site.

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About The Author

Dan Miller is professional services and sales engineering manager at Lyris. He helps companies adopt data driven marketing techniques to improve their ROI.

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