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Adobe is purchasing Omniture

Hot off the wire!

Adobe to Acquire Omniture

Today is a very exciting day as we have announced that Omniture has signed an agreement to be acquired by Adobe Systems, one of the largest software companies in the world. I am very excited about this announcement and the opportunity it presents and want to provide you with some context around what this means for you.

Over the last 13 years, our core mission has been to help our customers measure and optimize every digital interaction to increase their revenue and competitive advantage. Along the way, we have achieved many key milestones: serving more than 5,000 customers, measuring more than one trillion customer interactions every quarter, launching the Online Marketing Suite and emerging as a leader in online business optimization. We are all extremely proud to be your partner in your online business success.

By joining forces with Adobe, we can accelerate our vision to optimize every digital interaction (across media types, devices and applications) because of the unique synergies that exist between our two companies:

Adobe’s products are a ubiquitous component of digital content creation and playback. By integrating our technology with Adobe’s, we will be able to more quickly deliver our solution and “complete the loop” of content creation, delivery and optimization–enabling our customers to provide more effective online content and experiences.

Adobe also has the global operational scale and reach that will enable us to more quickly penetrate new geographies and new markets. We will be joining forces with a company that generates over $3B in annual revenues that can get us to market faster, and at a time when the market is looking for a digital marketing platform it can make a bet on for years to come.

As is customary in these situations, this transaction is subject to government approvals and is expected to close before the end of the year. As we progress toward closing the transaction, we look forward to sharing more details with you about our integration plans and the many exciting synergies between our companies.

I realize this is a significant development in Omniture’s history; as such, I want to assure you that it is “business as usual” at Omniture and we believe this only adds to our ability to evolve with you and be your trusted partner for decades to come.

Sincerely,

Josh James
CEO and Co-founder
Omniture

Creative Uses For Google Site Search

Collecting as much information about your site visitors in a common format provides you with the data you need to make accurate business decisions about your internet marketing.

The folks over a the Google Analytics Blog recently posted about creative uses for the Google Site Search feature. What makes this tool so useful is that the search data is integrated in your Google Analytics account. Now you can view the data from visitor searches on your site alongside your analytics data.

One of my favorite implementations of Google Site search is combining the traditional data collect from analytics with very specific site search data. In effect this gives you unlimited “User-Defined segments”.

Here is what they wrote:

If you’ve been using Google Analytics for a while you may well have run into the fact that, currently, only one user-defined segmentation cookie value can be set at any given time. There are plenty of “alternative methods” to try and work around this reality one way or another. And note: this should not be confused with the recently released Advanced Custom Segments tool which is extremely powerful and can be used to create any number of custom segments. The user-defined and advanced segments features work as they are designed: however this method provides an additional way by which you can further extend your use of Google Analytics.

The Scenario

Let’s say that you want to classify your visits by expressed industry and product interest based on the input of a form. Using standard user-defined segmentation would not work for this as it would only support industry or product interest. However with creative Site Search analysis, an unlimited number of “industry” and “product” interests can both be tracked for each session. A practical use of this would be tracking responses on a lead generation or sign-up form that had check boxes or select options for “Industry” and “Product”.

How to make it happen:

1. In the example above (tracking fields in a form to create Site Search segments) you’ll need to generate a virtual pageview with a defined Request URI syntax. For this example use:

   pageTracker._trackPageview(’/custom/lead-form/segment.html?segcat=[segment type]&segterm=[segment value]‘)

   Where “segcat” is the identifier for a Site Search “category”, “segterm” is the identifier for the Site Search “term”, “[segment type] is either “industry” or “product”, and “[segment value]” changes depending on the form field value.

2. For each industry and product field option on the form, create an “onclick” element that calls the pageTracker script with the corresponding values for “segment type” and “segment value” defined for that field.
3. The result will be a “pageview” hit each time a visitor selects a form option. Let’s say you have 5 industries available and 10 products of potential interest, the resulting data would show which industries are most commonly selected and in what order, as well as which products are most desired, and how the products relate to each other via the Refinements report.

Why not use use Event Tracking for this?

It’s a worthwhile question and has some merit, however at the time of this writing, you still need to request access to the Event Tracking beta before you can use it. Furthermore, Event Tracking can’t be used in Advanced Custom Segments or Custom reports at the time of writing, nor does it have the Refinements analysis options and the “start pages” and “exit pages” reporting.

I encourage you to read the entire article and find out even more creative uses for Google Site Search.

Google Analytics IQ Results

If you caught my latest post from a few days ago, you will know that Google recently announced an individual qualification program for Google Analytics. I had intended to write the test a few days ago but the riggers of travel to and from New York made it difficult. The irony was that I was in New York for some Omniture implementation training… another, very powerful analytics program!

I wrote the test last night and passed with an 85% making me Google Analytics Qualified (individually). The test wasn’t that hard, I ended up marking about 15 questions to come back and review but my first hunch was usually the correct one. They give you 90 minutes for the test, I was done after about 30.

I really didn’t see much about some of the new aspects of GA like motion charts, custom reporting etc. There seemed to be an abnormally large amount of questions about linking Google Analytics and Adwords together, the importance of it, how to do it, why to do it etc.

Have you taken the test? I would be eager to hear your thoughts. Post a comment and let me know!

Google Analytics Individual Qualification - NEW!

Google announced a new Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) today on their Analytics Blog. For anyone who has a background in PPC, you will no doubt know the difference between obtaining the Google Adwords Qualified Individual certification vs. Google Adwords Qualified Company certification. If you aren’t familiar with these certifications, you can review the differences here

You can see a list of both Google Adwords Qualified Individuals and Companies here

Spark’s Adwords qualification is verified here

For quite some time, a company could become a Google Analytics Qualified Company by completing the following tasks:

- Provide comprehensive details of 3 verifiable, paid, expertly deployed Google Analytics projects with 3 different clients we can contact for reference. Case studies must demonstrate a familiarity with the full range of Google Analytics features, most notably ecommerce reporting, filters/funnels, advanced segment use, custom reporting etc. Please also provide examples of customizing code for your clients. Case studies should include ample text to convey the work undertaken and your methodologies for approaching such projects.

- You offer a range of stand alone paid services related to Google Analytics, including implementation, configuration, training, and consulting. Please list your current Google Analytics services and the approximate prices charged. (Also please include any training materials you present to your clients when doing GA training. This could include the agenda and course materials your clients can take home to use as reference after the class.)

- You must have a proven expertise in web analytics. Please list any speaking engagements at conferences, influential blogs, white papers, management bios, ad campaigns, marketing programs, and/or other evidence
demonstrating your expertise with analytics and your ability to evangelize web analytics.

- Provide a link to your website that prominently describes your stand alone Google Analytics services.

- If accepted into the program, you agree to send at least one employee to the Google Analytics Authorized Consultant summit at your own expense (generally held once per year over 4 days in Mountain View, CA, USA, covering technical, marketing and business topics as deemed appropriate by the GAAC team).

- You will provide a report (sent by Google to successful applicants) by the last day of each calendar quarter summarizing all Google Analytics projects you have worked on during the quarter (listing client names and results achieved).

- Have Professional Indemnity/Liability insurance as appropriate for your jurisdiction ($1m in the USA) - if this does not apply to your region, please disregard.

- You must represent a business (individuals do not qualify) and be legally incorporated to do business in your locality.

- Electronic customer support ticketing system to manage customer support requests.

Today, you can now take an individual test and qualify as - what I would call - a more “power user.” This is a great move for Google and encourages individuals to take their online training and write the exam. I expect Google will add a minimum level of users who have passed their IQ into the requirements for Company certification soon. Our plan will be to have a minimum of two of our internet marketing team members qualified.

Quick Points:
You need a 75% or above to pass (same as Google Adwords).
There is a “certificate” you can download at the end in .pdf format, no sign of a logo you can use yet :(
Certifications are valid for 18 months

You can register for the test here ($50)

I plan on taking this tonight and hopefully will be certified by tomorrow!

How to Un-Link a Google Analytics Account from an AdWords Account

This post might be for more MCC managers and those people with multiple clients… Fair Warning.
If you have ever created a Google Analytics account from within Google AdWords or incorrectly associated a GA account with the wrong Adwords account… well, Google has now made it easier to correct your mistakes. Before this new addition, one had to call into Google and have a “Googler” take care of this issue… well hang up the phone my friend!

Step 1. Access your Google Analytics account from within AdWords
Step 2. Click the “Edit Account Settings” link from the first page
Step 3. Click “Unlink your account from Analytics”

Vola - your done…

For the record, if you do this in error and want to re-link - that is not a problem but your AdWords data will be erased from the account. Also… be careful of the link below as you can completely delete your Analytics account!

My Favourite Google Analytics Plug-ins, Hacks, Tips & Tricks

I have been getting very heavily into Google Analytics. It is really amazing what this simple, free program can do for you business. It does, as we all know, have its limitations and things that make you want to scream “GOOGLE… Why couldn’t you just add this (insert function here) into this dang system!” Anyway… I got a little side tracked there :)

There are plenty of great plug-ins and “hacks” that are available from some very smart, wicked cool people. I present, for your review gentle reader, my list of great plug-ins, hacks, tips & tricks.

1. Notes for Google Analytics:
Notes for Google Analytics

This one is gold! It allows you to write notes on a GA profile of events or things that you deem important. For example, you may have changed a goal slightly - you can note this for future reference. Each user who views the GA account (AND HAS THIS INSTALLED) can view, edit and add notes. Notes can also be exported to excel.

2. Multiple Profile Viewer:
Multiple Profile Viewer for Google Analytics

This will allow you to switch between profiles from the same section of GA. For example, if you are looking at Goals in the root client profile and want to see how it compares to a different profile with different filters - you can switch using this and not have to start at the dashboard and navigate your way to the goals. The date range will also remain the same.

3. Unusual Trends (VERY COOL)
Unusual Keyword & Referring Traffic Trends

This tool will help you to see some unusual keyword trends in GA. After you install it, open GA, navigate to keywords and look for the button called “who sent me unusual traffic” - click it. You should now see a couple of new graphs which show keywords with a 20% increase in traffic and a 20% decrease in traffic. It is a good way to see progress for SEO keywords you are working on. By the way… if you haven’t subscribed to Joost’s blog - you really should. This guy really knows his stuff and posts some excellent Wordpress stuff.

4. Goal Copy Extension
Goal Copying Extension for Google Analytics

I met John (the author of this plug in) in New York at a session on advanced Google Analytics implementation. Great guy, really knows his stuff and was innovative to create this great plug in that allows you to copy a set of goals from one profile and past them into another. No more typing everything twice! Thanks John.

I have more… but I will have to separate this post… but I have work to do.

Google Updates GA Account Management Pages

Google releases improvements to Google Analytics interface!

Google today announced an update to the Google Analytics Account Management pages. The changes Google has been making to GA lately have been very useful and certainly improve our ability to see at a glance how websites are performing. These new round of changes are indeed welcome! Here are some examples of new features:

• Easily navigate from account to profiles by just clicking on the account name (and back with Overview)
• Better understand the hierarchy relationship between accounts and profiles and quickly find their webproperty ID
• See key loyalty and success metrics for all your accounts and profiles, and sort by any of these metrics
• Use the “Find Profiles” locator box or “starring” functionality to quickly find and navigate to a desired profiles and accounts, regardless of how many there are. No need to sift through pages of irrelevant content.

For the full article I encourage you to visit the Google Analytics blog post!

Search Engine Optimization: Business Owners Should Get In The Habit Of Writing Fresh Web Content

Business owners looking to improve their search engine optimization should get in the habit of writing new web content for their website.

It should come as no surprise, but then again, perhaps it will, that HTML text is the only way to get a website to rank in the search engines and even then only for the words you’ve written. Then why do so many business web sites have very little text and much of it does not speak specifically to the services that people are looking for with precisely the combination of keywords their using in the search engines? There really is no good reason other than the fact that most business owners create a website, and then forget about it. They consider it “finished” and no further work is necessary. The exact opposite is true. Once the website is created, it’s just the beginning of an ongoing process of reviewing analytics to fully understand your visitors behaviour and expectations and then writing new content or optimizing existing content to meet their expectations!

Here is a simple process you as a business owner can repeat every month and it will surely improve your rankings and decrease your bounce rates. Keep in mind this is just about content, and bounce rates - there is a lot more you can be doing besides this.

1. Install analytics on your site - Google Analytics is free and easy to integrate
2. After one month of collecting data review the analytics to understand which keywords they are using and what the bounce rate is for each keyword.
3. For each keyword that has a bounce rate over 20%-25% you should identify which pages they are landing on for that keyword and then review the copy on that page.If the page is not really about that keyword - then create a new page (naming it with the keyword combination separating each work wit an underscore or hyphen). Make sure to mention the keyword in the title, description, H1, H2 and body content of the page.Link to this page from your home page using the keyword in question as “Anchor Text” to the new page.
4. Repeat these steps for each keyword that has a bounce rate above 20%-25%.
5. Wait another month, and start all over again at Step 2!

As you continue to do this month after month you’ll begin to see your bounce rates decreasing for the relevant keywords you are trying to optimize for. In addition, because your adding more relevant content to your site for each keyword your ranking for that keyword will improve and will continuously draw in more traffic!

Google Analytics Conversion University Video Series on YouTube

A few weeks ago Google launched a YouTube playlist of videos they produced as part of their “Google Conversion University”. These videos are aimed at helping users of GA get the most out of it with as little difficulty as possible. Below is the Google Conversion University Introduction by Brett Crosby. Below that is a link to the 11 videos currently in the playlist.

Here is the complete list of videos:

1. Google Conversion University Introduction by Brett Crosby
2. Google Analytics - Non-Ecommerce Sites: Beyond Averages
3. Google Analytics - Rules for Revolutionaries
4. Google Analytics - Bounce Rate: The Simply Powerful Metric
5. Google Analytics -Context and actionability in web analytics
6. Google Analytics - Optimal AdWords Campaigns
   
7. Google Analytics - Optimizing Customer Experiences
8. Advanced Techniques in Google Analytics
9. Creating a Data Driven Culture by Avinash Kaushik
10. Successful Web Analytics Approaches by Avinash Kaushik
11. Other Data-Focused Marketing Products from Google

Google Analytics Launches New Analytics Tracking Code

On October 16th Google announced it’s beta program for the new Google Analytics Tracking Code called ga.js. This new tracking code will replace the old urchin.js which was the sole remaining component of Urchin that Google had not re written since they acquired it in 2005.

The new ga.js includes features such as a event tracking (so you can see how users interact with dynamic elements such as Ajax and Flash without artificially inflating your page views), outbound link tracking (so you can track the clicks to links outside of your domain), and finally ga.js will track site search activity if you’re using Google custom search on your site. This will allow you to see what users are searching for on your site - the keywords used, and the pages accessed.

Here is a little more from the Google Analytics posting:

We’ll begin a limited beta test of the new Google Analytics Event Tracking capability. These new reports are designed to help you understand how people use and interact with Ajax, Flash and multimedia on your site without artificially increasing your page-view metrics. In order to provide a way for you to define and track a wide variety of applications and interactions, there will be a new tracking module called ga.js. Using ga.js on your site instead of urchin.js means you can continue to take advantage of the latest advanced tracking enhancements (such as Event Tracking) as we release them. Although we suggest everyone upgrade to the new JavaScript, if you aren’t interested in Event Tracking and you’re already getting all the information you need from Google Analytics, you don’t need to change your tags.

Not everyone needs to upgrade yet though - it’s still in BETA. According to Google they will not be retiring the old urchin.js code for another 18 months or so. We’ll be sure to migrate customers to the new tracking code only when the time is right!