Advertising Analytics

							 Website
 Analytics
   and
Algorithms
    WEB ANALYTICS DEFINED
                       From Wikipedia
   Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis
    and reporting of internet data for purposes of
    understanding and optimizing web usage.
   Web analytics is not just a tool for measuring website
    traffic but can be used as a tool for business research
    and market research.
   Web analytics applications can also help companies
    measure the results of traditional print advertising
    campaigns. It helps one to estimate how the traffic to the
    website changed after the launch of a new advertising
    campaign.
   Web analytics provides data on the number of visitors,
    page views, etc to gauge the traffic and popularity trends
    which helps in market research.
     Analytics Types
   There are two categories of web analytics- off-site and
    on-site web analytics.
   Off-site web analytics refers to web measurement and
    analysis regardless of whether you own or maintain a
    website. It includes the measurement of a website's
    potential audience (opportunity), share of voice
    (visibility), and buzz (comments) that is happening on the
    Internet as a whole.
   On-site web analytics measure a visitor's journey once
    on your website. This includes its drivers and
    conversions; for example, which landing pages
    encourage people to make a purchase. On-site web
    analytics measures the performance of your website in a
    commercial context. This data is typically compared
    against key performance indicators for performance, and
    used to improve a web site or marketing campaign's
    audience response.
Analytics- How it Works Examples
   Historically, web analytics has referred to on-site
    visitor measurement.
   However in recent years this has blurred, mainly
    because vendors are producing tools that span
    both categories.
   Google Analytics in a Nutshell (video)
   Placement Targeting (video)
   E-commerce Tracking (video)
          Content Algorithms
 Internet content providers are developing
  software programs that better indicate what
  people are interested in reading and accessing
  on the web
 If successful, such a formula translates to the
  kind of stories that entice users to click and
  companies to advertise
 Learning what people are clicking on, searching
  for, and interested in now, today, and tomorrow
  can be a good thing– in the competition for
  online eyeballs
              The AOL Example
        Source: Columbia Journalism Review, Nov./Dec. 2010

   AOL is at the forefront with a program called
    Demand/ROI- currently in Beta mode, it will be rolled out
    soon for use by AOL News and rest of AOL’s 50-plus
    niche sites or brands
   Demand/ROI does two main jobs
   It scours databases and social networks to discern user
    interests- through search and other behavioral data
   And it monitors how readers are responding to a story or
    aspect of a website in real-time
   The program not only reports on a story’s success, but
    predicts the degree of success and even how much
    revenue it might thus generate
   This information is potentially useful to those assigning
    and producing content and to those advertising
    alongside it
      Content “Opportunities”
   AOL executives say Demand/ROI is so adept at
    assessing content “opportunities” that eventually the
    algorithm may be used to post some basic assignments-
    automatically- in areas such as Seed.com, AOL’S new
    professional-amateur site, which offers low-pay
    assignments for freelance writers, photographers, and
    soon, videographers
   Editors pull up “heat maps” on a screen, a program that
    tells them what’s hot and what’s not on websites by
    tracking where people are clicking
   Headlines, copy and visuals/art can be quickly changed
    to try increase appeal
                   AOL Redefined
   Divorced from a rocky 10-year marriage to Time Warner at the end
    of 2009, AOL is in a race to reinvent itself
   Its core dial-up service continues to retreat before the march of
    broadband
   AOL is seeking to become more of a content and advertising
    company
   In June 2010 AOL pledged to hire as many as 500 journalists over
    the next year
   The company has been posting hundreds of openings, primarily but
    not entirely in its fast-expanding Patch.com community news
    network
   AOL is investing $50 million this year in Patch, a spreading network
    of hyper-local community news sites
   Patch operates in communities of 15,000-50,000- in mostly middle-
    class to affluent bedroom communities where demographics are
    attractive to local and national advertisers
   Patch news operations emphasize original reporting, from local high
    school graduations to town/city council fights over taxes and zoning
       Patch Pay and Perks
   Local Patch editors range from fresh
    journalism/communication school graduates to 20-year
    veterans
   Salaries (with benefits) are in the range of $35,000-
    $50,000
   Every editor gets a Blackberry, laptop, digital still/video
    camera, and a police scanner to monitor breaking news
   No office space is provided- they work out of their homes
    and are encouraged to work out of local coffee houses or
    other public venues where they are supposed to be in
    touch with their neighbors- and the local news
   They are 24/7-foot soldiers and they work hard at
    cultivating their Patches
   More AOL job and internship opportunities HERE