Weighty Ways To Raise The Web Measurement Bar

Brent Dykes Director of Industry Consulting Adobe Systems

Last week I discussed how people are still confusing metrics with other data types, such as dimensions and reports. But being able to discern between what is and isn’t a metric isn't enough. There is more we can do to improve how we use metrics in Web analytics.

A big problem with some metrics is they are not specific, clear/intuitive, or actionable. We say “garbage in, garbage out” when it comes to data collection and reporting. Similarly, fuzzy metrics lead to weak adoption, poor decision-making, and frequently inaction. If your metrics are nebulous or unclear, then you’re doing a disservice to yourself and your company. I’d like to propose four ways you can improve your metric usage and avoid metric abuse.

1. Be specific and avoid vague metrics: One of my least favorite metrics is traffic. When you hear someone say he wants to increase traffic to his site, what does he really mean? Traffic could mean page views, visits, daily unique visitors, monthly unique visitors, etc. We should have eradicated referring to traffic as a metric a long time ago, but it still regularly comes up in articles, white papers, and conversations to this day.

Another vague metric example is engagement. As a metric, what is engagement? There has been much debate in the Web analytics community about engagement (Neil Mason, consultancy director at Foviance, provides a good summary), and whether it is actually a metric. I believe the problem with referring to traffic and engagement as metrics is that they aren’t tied to a single, standardized metric -- they are really an area of analysis where several metrics or approaches could apply. You could develop a custom engagement index or track a combination of different metrics to measure customer/visitor engagement, but in and of itself “engagement” isn’t a metric.

I also cringe each time I hear the word “metric” associated with new (and ambiguous) social media terminology, such as buzz or influence. Are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes with the latest social media metric du jour? A guaranteed way to make a metric less actionable is to make it vague. We need to ensure our metrics are specific.

2. Properly define new metrics: All the cool kids are doing it. Lots of new, exciting-sounding metrics are being introduced all the time, especially in the social media space -- e.g., Buzz Velocity, Brand Amplification, Influencer Impact, etc. (though they might sound familiar, but they’re 100% fabricated). Unfortunately, many of these buzzword metrics end up being generally meaningless to most people and companies. Why? Too much effort is spent on hyping the metrics and reporting, and not enough time is spent on adequately defining the new metrics and explaining how they can be useful.

As marketers, we’re trained to differentiate and build excitement for our brands. In the case of metrics, it shouldn’t be about differentiation and hype, but instead standardization, clarity, and utility. We don’t need more jargon that is pretentious, convoluted, or vague. It doesn’t move us forward; it sets us back. Rather than creating more buzzword metrics, I’d prefer more descriptive names and increased emphasis on better defining and documenting new metrics for end users. In many cases, a fancy name hides the fact that the metric is just a repackaging of a commonly used metric or actually a report and not a metric at all.

3. Be careful with acronyms: We have lots of popular abbreviated metrics in online marketing and Web analytics: AOV/AOS, CPC, CPA, CTR, ROAS, etc. Having worked in the high-tech industry for more than a decade, I know how susceptible high-tech firms are to using acronyms. Don’t follow our industry’s bad example! You need to be careful when using acronyms, especially when it comes to Web metrics. Overzealous and premature usage of acronyms can impede metric comprehension.

At a conference I attended last year, the presenters used the metric “PVV” on a few different slides. For maybe 20 to 30 seconds I struggled to identify a metric I had used hundreds of times before -- page views per visit. When it dawned on me what they were talking about, it made me wonder what people outside of the Web analytics team would think of this abbreviated metric. Would they automatically know what this acronym stood for, or would they pretend they knew but not truly understand what was being discussed? Abbreviations are acceptable only if they are widely used and understood.

Next: When less is more.