How to Video: Getting Started with Website Optimizer is Easy

November 20, 2009

Google’s website optimizer is an amazing tool, at a great price point – free. It allows you to do A/B testing or multivariate testing of your pages to see which ones increase conversion rates.

It sounds complicated – and on the backend it is. However, it’s not that hard to get started with website optimizer and get tests up and running. Google recently did an hour and a half webinar on the Website Optimizer with a live demo of creating actual experiments so you can see how to get up and running.

If you haven’t used the optimizer yet, or you are scared to use it as it sounds too technical – then this is a great video for you to watch. It’s pretty long, so if you just want to see an actual experiment being created jump to minute 41.

If you are reading this post outside of the blog (such as in email) you may need to click through to the website to view the video.

Written by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper · Filed Under Blog, Conversion Optimization, Video | Leave a Comment

Integrate Phone Call Tracking and Google Analytics with Mongoose Metrics

September 21, 2009

I recently wrote a long article at Search Engine Land on the advantages and disadvantages of different types of phone call tracking solutions. Many companies are spending a significant amount of dollars on PPC, SEO, banner ads, etc and do not understand how many phone calls those marketing channels bring in. To really optimize your advertising efforts, it is essential for most companies to track phone calls.

The article generated a lot of buzz among phone call tracking providers; which was good as it enabled me to finally catch up with Mongoose Metrics; a solution that lets you see phone calls in Google Analytics as well as other analytics solutions. I had originally heard about Mongoose Metrics from the Google Analytics blog post on GA integrations.

I talked to one of the co-founders, Jeff Tirey, who will also be speaking at Pubcon this year if you’d like to talk to him directly about their solution; and found their approach quite unique.

While some companies use a reverse proxy solution, correlate phone numbers to campaigns, or use a 1 phone number to 1 campaign solution; the conversation always comes back to pricing.

Unique Pricing Approach

Mongoose Metrics has taken a very unique approach to their pricing strategy which gets away from the cost of total phone numbers, and minutes used: it’s a session based pricing model.

This means that you do not have to determine how many numbers and minutes you will use. You can choose what types of sessions you wish to track, and then on those sessions show a call tracking number. The implications?

You can track:

PPC by keyword, ad copy, landing page, or anything you desire
SEO by keyword, engine, etc
Banner buys
Email blasts (once they hit your website)
Or any channel you desire

To determine pricing, determine an estimate on the number of user sessions that occur for which you wish to track, and then talk to Mongoose about pricing and implementation. It’s pretty easy.

Once a user calls one of your call tracking number, Mongoose Metrics will serve a user session to your website with your defined parameters. This lets you see your phone calls within your analytics system. You do not need to marry up a phone call tracking interface with your analytics system, their system will do some of the work for you.

If you are a small company who can’t afford a large implementation, you might consider using it for a few months – determining exactly what keywords, ad groups, engines, etc are leading to phone calls and then turn it off.

If you’re a large company; this is a solution you should at least price versus other possibilities.

Their pricing model alone makes then an interesting player in the space. Their solution (which I have not tried yet) looks like it might solve issues for many businesses attempting to understand what makes a user pick up the phone and call them.

Optimizing for No Phone Calls

During our call, Jeff mentioned an interesting approach one of their customers’ is using to not receive phone calls. Yes, they do not want phone calls. The customer is a web based knowledge help system. Their goal is for their customer’s to find their answers on the web based system and not have to call in for help. Therefore, they examine the searches and pages which are resulting in phone calls in order to make their knowledge based system better. Creative.

Mongoose Metrics Screenshots:

Phone Call by Keyword (Click to enlarge):

Phone Call data in Google Analytics (Click to enlarge):

If you’re in the market for a phone call tracking solution, I’d recommend including Mongoose Metrics in the conversation. They do have an API; but I didn’t go into much details as to it’s specs.

As with all website optimization solutions, you need to determine what you need to learn to make actionable business decisions – and then find the best solution that helps you gain the proper insight. They won’t be the best fit for everyone; but if you want an easy pricing model, phone call tracking, and/or analytics integration; include them in the conversation.

As usual; none of these posts are paid endorsements. I found the solution interesting and thought it was worth raising awareness of a different type of call tracking solution.

Written by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper · Filed Under Blog, Conversion Optimization, PPC Tracking | 1 Comment

4 Hours of Video that Will Increase Your Conversion Rates

September 16, 2009

Google has quite a few excellent YouTube channels that are relegated to the back corner of YouTube in favor of short, non-informational clips. If you ever want to see all of Google’s YouTube Channels, you can subscribe to the bgTheory YouTube channel, and look through our subscriptions as we subscribe to all the official Google channels.

There are four excellent videos that range from 30 minutes to more than an hour, which contain excellent tips on creating, testing, and analyzing landing pages to increase conversions. Learn form both experts in the field to Google employees about possible ways to increase conversion rates.

The first video is by Tim Ash. If you like the video and would like to learn more, Tim, Brian Massey, and myself are conducting a training session at Pubcon in November.

Enjoy the videos.