By Kathy Scott, Marketing Associate
ROI Revolution is happy to announce our new home!

We settled into our brand new digs on June 30th, 2008. The new office will better fit our space needs and allow us to grow (we even have a real kitchen now, instead of a 'snack food closet'!). We are excited to welcome new team members soon to better serve demand. We're thrilled with the arrangement and are working on memorizing our new address and phone number.

If you want to get in touch with us, the new contact information is below:

Thank you for your continued readership over the years and don't hesitate to call with any questions regarding our ever evolving services!

By Jeremy Aube, Google Analytics Support Tech

A few weeks ago, Shawn wrote an article on true time on site and how you can calculate it. You may also know that for a while, Google Analytics actually calculated time on site using this method before reverting back to the calculation method used now.Several weeks ago I came out with an article on a GreaseMonkey script I'd written which added several segments to the usual segment drop down.

I'm about to tie all of these together.

Introducing, the Google Analytics Report Enhancer!

UPDATES:
1. The script should now work for Firefox 3. Just re-download the script and you should be all set. Thanks for pointing this out, Alex!
2. Showing 100 profiles now works for filters and users. This matches the functionality of John's script. Thanks again, Alex!
3. Fixed several issues with column sorting. Thanks, Shawn!

Continue reading "Google Analytics Report Enhancer" »

By Katherine Anderson, PPC Specialist

If you have ever wanted to pull your hair out over Yahoo's Search Marketing interface--I definitely have--than you know that the interface is not nearly as user-friendly as Google's. For those of you looking for a quick, go-to guide, I have just the one for you: Yahoo Smart Start.

Although Yahoo's blog claims that Yahoo Smart Start is a guide for beginners, I would say that the guide is definitely geared more to those who have some experience with pay-per-click advertising but are not experts. However, the guide would be extremely helpful to show to clients who were curious about the yahoo interface and wanted to understand what they were really getting into with advertising on Yahoo.

The book walks you through the ten helpful chapters below.

• Building a Foundation with Strong Keywords
• Organizing Ad Groups for Success
• Writing Effective Ads
• Making Sure Your Ads are High Quality
• Matching Your Keywords to Your Customer's Searches
• Determining Effective Bids
• Targeting Your Ads Geographically
• Advertising on Content Sites
• Tracking Your Results

Each chapter begins with an opening question from Sharon Goodsense, a character PPC advertiser, such as, "I'm lost on the match type thing. I see there are two options, but I don't understand why I would ever want to use the Standard match type, when the Advanced match type shows my ad for more searches on my keywords. Shouldn't I just always use that option (Yahoo Smart Start 41)?"

Continue reading "Yahoo Smart Start - A Handy Guide For Yahoo Advertisers" »

By Meredith Smith, Director of Marketing

ROI Revolution is making "Module #1: Introduction To Google Analytics" from the Google Analytics Training Course available completely for free!

"Module #1: Introduction To Google Analytics" is 65 minutes long and chock-full of really great information, such as:

• General Web Analytics Strategies


• Introduction to Web Analytics


• Case Study: Carolina Rustica


• Introduction to the Google Analytics Interface


• Interface Features


• The Dashboard


• Date Range Manipulation


• Sharing Data

Why Are We Offering The First Training Module for FREE?

For several reasons....

1.) All of our Google Analytics Training Courses come with Online Course Recordings, and this is a great way to show people exactly how convenient the course format is. It's hard to picture if you haven't experienced it for yourself!

2.) We think our Google Analytics Training Course is chock full of great, practical information and we decided the best way to convince you was to just let you see for yourself how valuable the information in this course is.

Sign up today in order to get "Module #1: Introduction To Google Analytics".

Once you have a chance to watch "Module #1: Introduction To Google Analytics" please let us know what you think!

By Page Christenbury, PPC Specialist
Do you pay enough attention to the AdWords Editor Updates? If your answer is no, I recommend that you start. There is usually some really good stuff, that unless you take the time to read the Editor release notes, you probably would not know about.

Each new version of AdWords Editor is accompanied by release notes, which I highly recommend reading. I will save you some time by highlighting the best, most beneficial updates from the latest version(AdWords Editor 6.0.)

Append Keywords : This tool allows you to add a word/phrase to the beginning or end of any text within the account. I have found this VERY useful in creating local campaigns. Simply take a general campaign and append the city name to all keywords (then tweak the ad text of course.) It is also useful for adding offers to headlines, or changing display URLs.

Get Recent Changes: There is a new option to include minimum bid changes. Before you had to re-download the entire account to get this data. This is very useful in accounts that have keywords that often go inactive. Also when you download this, the changes are highlighted so it is easy to spot the keywords that have recently gone inactive.

Duplicate Keywords: Finding duplicate keywords is now easier! You can now quickly select all the duplicates that meet certain criteria. For example, you can choose to select all the duplicates with the lowest CTR, then delete them. This tool was always handy, but you had to delete the duplicates manually in order to keep keywords with the highest CTR.

Drum roll please!

Continue reading "AdWords Editor Updates - Pay Attention!" »

By Meredith Smith, Director of Marketing

Is your current website a couch potato and not exactly pulling its weight? Do you secretly wish there was some way to whip it into shape?

Well, you are in luck!

At the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle, Google announced the Website Workout contest to help businesses pump up their websites.

Any U.S. business can enter to have a webpage optimized for free by Google's team of consultants to boost sales, sign-ups or leads.

Interested businesses can enter the contest by visiting the Website Workout contest site, http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/workout.

In the coming weeks, Google will select four of the businesses that enter. Using Google Website Optimizer, Google's free website-testing tool, the consultants will then work with the winners to test which combination of text, images, graphics and other content drives the most business.

Of course you don't have to enter the contest to get started with Google Website Optimizer - ROI Revolution offers a free 6-Episode Video Course Guide to Google Website Optimizer!

By Erin Skinner, PPC Specialist
Are you sure that the conversions you see tracked in the Google AdWords Campaign Summary page are really the conversions you're hoping for? How do you know what types of conversions your AdWords campaigns are generating if you have the AdWords Conversion Tracking script on many of your site's success pages?

It's best practice to send a searcher to a landing page that has one clearly defined action that you would like them to take, say filling out a Contact Us form. But what happens when that Contact Us page links to another page on your site with a completely different desired action, say a newsletter sign up? If the searcher clicks on an ad that takes them to the Contact Us landing page but somehow moves over to the newsletter page and signs up there, you've still got a conversion reported for your Contact Us campaign. The problem is that it's the wrong type!

Now, when you look in your Contact Us campaign, you think you're only generating leads for people raising their hands to be contacted, but you've actually got people who are just interested in reading your newsletter lumped in there as well. It can be very misleading.

Google AdWords has created a way to track your conversions by type.

Continue reading "New and Improved: Google AdWords Conversion Tracking by Type" »

By Shawn Purtell, Google Analytics Support Tech

Ah, Average Time on Page and Average Time on Site - what strange metrics. They sound so simple, but as I hope to point out in this article, both must be treated with caution. Due to the way Time on Page/Site are measured, there is a certain amount of error that goes along with them. Fortunately, there's a way to measure this error.

In the interest of getting to the point, I've provided two versions of this article. The first version is the short version. No proof, just the final answer. For those of you who demand proof (as I hope you do) - I've also provided the long version, with diagrams and Algebra and everything. Feel free to choose the version that suits you!

SHORT VERSION

Time on Page is more credible when a page has a lower Exit Rate, and Time on Site is more reliable when a source/medium/etc. has a lower Bounce Rate.

Confidence in Time on Page
Applies only to a page or group of pages

Example: The Exit % for my home page, /index.htm, is 30%, so confidence in Time on Page is 70%.

In other words, the Time on Page only applies to 70% of my home page views, and I know absolutely nothing about the other 30% - other than they all resulted in exits.

True Time on Site
Applies to any source, medium, campaign, keyword, ad, or user defined value

Example: My AdWords traffic has a Bounce Rate of 40%, and Google Analytics has my Avg. Time on Site for AdWords as 00:01:00 (1 minute)

So:

True Time on Site is 1/(1-.40) = 1/.6 = 1.67 = 1m 40s

My True Time on Site is 1m 40s, which represents 60% of my AdWords traffic.

Also, the Time on Site is unknown for 40% of my AdWords traffic.

END OF SHORT VERSION

I don't expect anyone to take my word for any of this, and I love to talk about these kinds of things, so I've provided a longer version for those that might be interested in how I came to the above conclusions.

Continue reading "Time on Page and Time on Site - How Confident Are You?" »

By Timothy Seward, CEO
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 6:00pm EST, Eric Peterson, the Chief Executive Officer & Principal Consultant at Web Analytics Demystified, Inc. will be presenting at SAS.

Eric is the author of Web Analytics Demystified, Web Site Measurement Hacks and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators. He is a long-time member of the web analytics community and a frequent speaker who is often cited in articles about web analytics.

Eric will be here for our own Web Analytics Wednesday. He will be giving a presentation on The Future of Web Analytics and taking questions from the audience followed by food and drinks.

SAS Institute, Inc. has graciously agreed to sponsor this event! It will be located in the SAS Atrium Located in Building R on SAS Campus and beer, wine and light hors d'oeuvres will also be provided by SAS.

The host of this event is none other than Richard Foley, the World Wide Product Manager at SAS, and Former President Web Analytics Association.

Join us. Register today if you live in the Research Triangle Park, NC area.

Directions:
Getting to Bldg R
Go through the main gate located near Umstead Hotel, take the 3rd right (just follow the signs).
Go over a bump and take the next Right into the main parking lot. (You are there)
Enter the tall white building and welcome to the SAS Campus Bldg R
(If you experience problems finding the building call Richard Foley at 919-624-7163)

By Kathy Scott, Marketing Associate
How could your 2008 summer be the best summer EVER? Possibly by combining Google® Analytics Training and a family vacation? Yes, it can be done! This June, Tuesday, June 24th and Wednesday, June 25th to be exact, ROI Revolution is presenting Analytics Seminars for Success in Orlando, Florida!

We know how important it is to be able to use and implement Google Analytics, so we tried to think of a great location to work… but then we remembered that we like to have fun too, so we wanted a location to play… voilá, Orlando! I mean, if you can write off the flight to business (tax deduction), but still spend some time on vacation, why not, right?

And there you have it: June 24th is the Introduction and User Training Seminar and June 25th is the Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar, pick one or both depending on your needs, so that you can work during the week and then take an extra day or two off plus the weekend to relax on vacation!

--About the Training--
Analytics Seminars for Success will help you better leverage the insights found in your Analytics report by covering topics such as setup tips, best practices, and analysis techniques. Seminar leaders will use in-depth course materials, hands-on exercises and valuable tips from their years of managing Analytics accounts to teach you how to achieve your goals.

We can't wait to share our Google Analytics knowledge with you in person, so register today! Don't miss out on this great event designed to help you get the most out of your website's traffic!

--Location and Cost--
ORLANDO, June 24-25: The seminar will be right by the Renaissance Orlando Hotel Airport is located in Orlando, Florida, minutes away from the Orlando International Airport (MCO). If you will be staying overnight at the Renaissance, please call 1-800-228-9290 and ask for the “ROI Revolution, Inc. rate” for a discount.

Each day costs $249 or $498 if you register for both sessions. Each seminars will be a full day from 8am to 5pm EST. Register at least one week in advance to receive a $50 AdWords™ credit* per session (i.e. attend both days and get two $50 AdWords™ credits) that Google graciously offers to all Seminars for Success attendees!

Sign up quickly as registration will be limited due to space and the supplies that come packaged with the training seminar such as workbooks and tasty snacks during breaks. Space is restricted but we want YOU, so click over to register for the Seminars for Success!

You can register right away, because even if you have to cancel, we can offer you a full refund up to 8 days before the event. After that you can transfer your registration to someone else if necessary.

--Last Chance--
Just in case you hadn't already heard, the Analytics Seminars for Success will be in CHICAGO, June 2-3!

See the original blog post for Chicago here. There's still time to register if you can't wait until late June for your in person training or if you prefer the Chicago location!

*Promotional credit must be applied to an AdWords account within 30 days of attending a seminar and is valid only for Google AdWords customers with self-managed signup. Advertisers will be charged for advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the Google AdWords Program standard terms and conditions. The promotional credit is non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Google Inc. One promotional credit per AdWords account. New advertisers with self-managed signup accounts are subject to an $5 activation fee that will be deducted from the promotional credit. Expires 30 days after Advertiser's registered seminar session. Void where restricted or prohibited by law.