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Unlocking B2B Web Analytics Black Box
Unlocking the B2B Web Analytics "Black Box" E
At a time when virtually all businesses are facing lengthening sales cycles, reduced D
budgets and staff cut-backs, it is imperative to both keep leads flowing into the I
business and do so at a lower cost. Over 93% of B2B companies, however, are in danger of having their best intentions come back to haunt them. As they follow the U
conversion and ROI metrics in their third-party web analytics program, or trust their instincts to lead them in the right direction because they have no metrics on which to G
rely, there is a danger of optimizing online marketing campaigns into worse performance, not better. N
This is the conclusion of a study of over 27,000 B2B web sites we conducted in March, 2009 to better understand why Business.com advertisers were increasingly asking us a very specific question throughout late 2008 and early 2009 - can O
Business.com provide a simple conversion tracking tool that will enable me to see the I impact of my Business.com campaigns on conversions because my web analytics program won't show it to me? T
The combination of the recession and increasing pressure to deliver measureable U
results is driving B2B marketers to dig more deeply into what their web analytics programs are telling them. Many are realizing what web analytics pros have known L
for years - the most popular programs only show the impact of the "last click" preceding a purchase or other conversion, leaving marketers blind to the value of O
keywords or campaigns the customer encountered during earlier stages of the buying process. This blind spot is problematic for B2B even in good times, and has turned S
into an unmanageable "black box" in today's economic environment where prospects may respond to many more online campaigns before converting than they may have in the past. In our review of over 27,000 B2B web sites, we found that: . 93% cannot see the influence that multiple online campaigns/keywords have on conversions . 49% use a third-party web analytics program which only provides basic web site traffic data or which, by default, uses the "last click" method for connecting a prospect action (e.g., clicking on a banner ad or link in an email newsletter) with a conversion such as purchase or event registration. . 44% use no web analytics or, in rare cases, use a custom in-house solution Most importantly, we found small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) changing their paid search campaigns on general search engines in very different ways depending on whether their web analytics solution attributes a conversion to the "last click" or shows the influence of multiple campaigns on conversions. These SMBs were acting exactly as you would expect from the data they see, but that data implied very different actions depending on how their web analytics solution measured conversions. The remainder of this guide details B2B web analytics challenges and solutions.
© 2009 Business.com, Inc. Business.com is the "must buy" for targeting business buyers online. All Rights Reserved. To learn more, visit www.business.com/advertise. 1 Unlocking B2B Web Analytics Black Box
The Problem: Optimizing Online Campaigns in a Recession E
According to BtoB Magazine, "B-to-B marketers are facing the most difficult business climate in decades." Additionally, MarketingSherpa recently identified five major ways D
that B2B marketers are adapting to the recession: I 1. Longer sales cycles and reduced margins increase the need for nurturing 2. Top priorities are client retention, analytics and finding new prospects U
3. They're attracted to Web 2.0/social media but unsure how to integrate 4. Their top pain is "doing more with less" G
5. They're focusing on low-cost, high-return marketing tactics Multiple studies are also showing an accelerating shift of B2B marketing budgets to N
online media, and 80% of B2B online marketers expect to be held more accountable for the results of the online marketing programs they manage than they were in 2008. O
I In this pressure-cooker environment, B2B marketers can't just spend more online and hope all goes well. They need some way to accurately assess the impact of the T
increased spend. They need reliable guidance that will help them optim... [download for more]
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