Proof vs Faith

Michelle — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:36:12 +0000

This week there’s a conference going on in New Orleans where people from advertising are debating the fate of the industry. There’s one group who predicts online ad shrinkage and another group who insists that online ads are the only accountable ad form. There’s even one group who thinks Twitter will replace Google Search.

PPC advertising has already demonstrated some shrinkage due to the economy. But why would businesses cut back on an ad model that’s almost completely transparent and has nearly total accountability in favor of “traditional” ad methods like television, print and direct mail, which are largely faith-based efforts? You got me – I don’t get it.

Proof

Google Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, puts it this way:

“Don’t let your opinions get in the way of your success… part of the beauty of Web sites is their ability to be proven wrong fast.”

What does he mean?

There are two parts to this – first is the web site, second is the online ad. Because of the nature of analytics and online ad media, you can literally follow a shopper from the ad click to the point where they either complete the sale or leave the site, assuming you’re willing to put in the necessary effort to implement that level of technology.

The Ad Medium

If you put up a billboard on the highway, how do you measure its effectiveness in sending you qualified traffic? If you run a commercial on radio or television, how can you know which, if any, of your customers showed up as a result of those ads? With correctly implemented online advertising, this is never the question… you know within days if your online ads and your web site are getting the job done. So why doesn’t online advertising always work?

There’s the other part of the equation – the web site itself. Your PPC account might have the mightiest CTR ever but if 90% of the people who hit your web site bounce right back out, you’ve wasted all that traffic, not to mention the money it cost to get them there. In Kaushik’s words, a bounce rate is the shopper’s way of saying, “I came, I puked, I left.” How do you know what percentage of users simply bailed? That’s the analytics’ job.

Web Analytics

Analytics provides the proof that the web site either works, or needs work. Your television ads might blast your web address all over the screen but that station can’t track who comes to your web site as a result, nor can it tell you if they did anything else after that. Online ads are, by their very nature, completely trackable.

However, online advertising only retains this level of accountability when it’s correctly integrated with an analytics plan of some sort. Whether you use Google Analytics, Omniture, Woopra, phpMyVisites or some other next great thing, you need to take advantage of the fact that online advertising (including email) is practically the only fully accountable form of advertising out there.

When push comes to shove, businesses should be spending the most money on ad models that provide proof of return, and reduce spend on faith-based advertising models. You’ve got to be accountable for the money you spend – shouldn’t your ad model also be accountable?

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Proof vs Faith