The Case for Client-Side Omniture Implementations for Mobile

Any client-side data (details you cannot discern from the HTTP headers of the request to gateway) that you want to capture in the future, like the device’s screen size, color depth, image support, etc. requires development and testing. Any tracking of your own page features, like popup layers or JavaScript controls on a custom video player, require development and testing. There comes a point of diminishing returns where it becomes more cost-effective to switch to the AppMeasurement library because the logic has already been thoroughly thought-through, developed, and tested across devices.

The decision to make that switch depends on your business requirements. Right now your requirements maybe simple and your apps consist of simple pages. If either get more complex you may require client-side code.


Server-side tracking gateway pros:
1) One central code base to upgrade or fix to correct all mweb and mobile app tracking issues at once.
2) Client-side code is minimized to avoid technical differences and limitations across thousands of mobile devices. If you do enhance the client-side code you’ll have to test that it works on all devices.
3) Client-side code is minimized, which reduces page load time.

Server-side tracking gateway cons:
1) Any user interactivity that does not result in them loading the next page is not tracked without installing client-side code to handle that interaction and make a call to the gateway. This means developing server-side logic that has to be tested across all mobile devices.
2) Server-side tracking typically doesn’t account for cookie concepts, like persisting values for use on later pages, or counting the page number of the user’s visit.
3) Testing the data of sever-to-server calls is difficult. Drew and Ajay are discussing exposing details of log files already dedicated to the SiteCatalyst calls. Adam needs this to validate installations and troubleshoot defects.


Data points/features that cannot be obtained/achieved without client-side code:
* You do not need the AppMeasurement libraries for these but the library does handle them out-of-the-box

Device details:
- screen size
- color depth
- audio/video support
- image support

App usage details:
- Installs
- Upgrades
- Launches
- Crashes
- App ID

User interactivity:
- Click map / heat map
- Any clicks that don’t go to a full page, including file downloads and exit links
- Form error details, such as which field contained an error (assuming that you don’t handle form validation server-side).
- Custom video or audio player controls
- Slideshow controls, carousel scrolling
- Cookie-based tracking, like counting the page number (useful for identifying entry pages), or persisting values for later pages.

Omniture ClickMap and Mobile Sites

ClickMap will not function without the JS library (the s_code.js file) running on the page. ClickMap relies on the click detection built into that file and sets and retrieves cookies as the user goes from page to page. Some mweb sites do not include the s_code.js file, but instead rely on the mobile gateway to send calls from the web servers to Adobe's tracking servers.

You may come across other features that don't work with server-side tracking. Some features you can replicate to some degree by recreating the logic in your server-side code. But, some will require JavaScript to capture user interactions. If you are interested in recreating the logic within the mobile gateway, clearly define your business requirements. You may find that you don't need to replicate the visual overlay ClickMap provides. You might just need to know which links are clicked the most.

The AppMeasurement library is the way to go, be it JS, Flash, or for mobile apps. Server-side calls are limited and force you to recreate a lot of functionality.

Thanks to Adobe Consulting for this information!
Adam Berlinger

Google Analytics Training

Hi everyone! Check out http://www.webucator.com/WebDev/ANA10a.cfm for Google Analytics training.

Site Visitors and Marketing Campaigns

I was talking to a friend of mine who happens to be a program director for a very large advertising agency here in Chicago. We were swapping notes on Web analytics vs. TV advertising when she made a very important statement: “I can’t stand it when I’m on a site on all these banner ad’s keep popping up on my screen.” Let’s think about that for a moment. How can we get the right message to the right people without annoying them? Have marketing campaigns turned into white noise that our end-users are starting to ignore? You bet they are! We can compare this to the phenomenon of a car alarm going off. Since no one pays attention, the alarm serves no purpose. This article attempts to overcome that.
In order to executing a successful Web campaign, we need to break things into some high-level components: (this is by no means an exhaustive list, just some high level items to get us on the right track!)
1. What is the goal of the campaign?
2. Who are we targeting?
3. How are we going to measure success vs. failure?
What do we want the campaign to accomplish? Driving more traffic to our site vs. selling off products on sale poses two completely different concepts and will require different types of campaigns. Perhaps an email marketing initiative would be more appropriate for driving closeout sales vs. an aggressive paid search on Google to drive more traffic to the site. See the difference? The important take-away here is to have a well thought out goal with baselines/benchmarks to compare the incoming data to.
Who are the end-users that you are trying to target? Are they Male runners? Fire arm owners? Teenagers? Visitor segmentation seems to be the most often ignored aspect of online marketing campaigns. Either that or it’s just not done correctly. The more we know about our intended audience, the more successful our campaign will be. Once you have defined your segment, research where your targeted audience “lives” and, thus, where best to launch your campaign. With me so far? Great!
How are you going to measure the click-throughs from your campaign? Your Web analytics package will need to be configured so that you can track each visit session from your campaign. In other words, are your visitors doing what you intended them to do once they landed on your site and is the content relevant they are looking for? Bringing visitors to your home page where they’ll have to hunt for the product/theme of your campaign is not strategically sound. Also Remember, that a landing page has a unique query parameter that identifies it as the “front door” to your site via your marketing campaign. Below is an example when I Googled “Hotels” and clicked on the paid search ad.

/App/ViewHotelSearchgcid=S11287x431&keyword=hotels_e&WT.mc_id=e2530&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.srch=1&DCSext.mc_kw=hotels
Lastly, some business analysis needs to be conducted before the campaign is pushed live that will determine the ROI of the campaign. In other words, constitute success or failure from a business perspective, not a technical one. Then start to tie in those that have converted to your backend systems so you can show your company how your campaigns are making money for your organization...not just driving traffic to the Web site. All of my points will need to be answered in an on-going manner. As such, make sure you have data that is easily accessible to you and your business stakeholders.

Thanks

Online Visitor Behavior, Offline Purchases and the Brand

Hello everyone, it's been a while since my last posting. Today I want to talk about online behavior towards offline purchases for the luxury watch maker, Rolex. Check it out, it's one of the most beautifully branded experiences on the Web. Please note that I'm not trying to promote the site as I no longer with for the agency that manages it.

Every month or so there would be a new watch promoted on the home page. For instance, today you'll see the Date Just 31 MM. We could not understand why women's watches weren't generating significant traffic...even when those that where promoted on the home page. My 1st conclusion was that not a lot of women were buying Rolex watches for themselves or that men weren't buying them as gifts. Was it the brand? Rolex is worn by successful BUSINESSMEN and men seem to covet their Rolex watches more than women. Or do they?

What we discovered via some due diligence with the Rolex dealers and social media was that women love Rolex watches and buy plenty of them. But they're purchasing the men's models for THEMSELVES! It turned out that women liked the larger dials on the men's watches and therefore did not purchase the watches meant made for them. See how the brand can sometimes poison/determine our conclusions? Thus, the visitor behavior (in this case) accurately represented offline purchases. Please share your experience and input to this article!

The Most Expensive Search Keywords

Mesothelioma. Law firms pay hundreds of dollars, as in Benjamins, per click for the hopes of landing cases that pay millions in compensatory damages. The context here is demand. The stronger the pull on specific key words, the more the customer is going to have to pay for them. Never forget that the time of day/night is a very factor as well. Google has a great tool to help you search for CPC for Keywords. Check out this site for a more complete list of the most expensive search terms and Xendant for the most profitable. There are many other sites and blogs that discuss this very interesting topic in detail.

"It's cost/day (keyword price X clicks/day) that makes you rich, not keyword price itself," Xendant.

108 lbs of Gasoline??? Applying visits to pages...

...is like gaging gas consumption by pounds. Would you fill your car up with 100 LBS of gasoline? I bet you're scratching your head or clicking over to Google to find out how much a gallon of gasoline weighs, 6 - 7 LBS depending on the tempurature when you weigh it and if its deisel or not. Lots of different factors can effect the weight of gasoline; similar to the multi-faceted aspects that determine an actual visit. Not to mention our frame of reference, we're supposed to deal with liquids in terms of volume. And we're supposed to compute page usage via page views.

Let's not get confused with "Single Page Visits," visit sessions where visitors only view one page. Just my thought on a Thursday night.