Google Analytics Real-Time

Announced September 29th, this was a real ‘oh, wow’ moment for me. Still in beta, this feature lets you see how users are interacting with your website right now, and while it lacks some more advanced features I would like to see (Real-time ecommerce tracking for example) it’s still insightful and slightly addictive!

If the new feature is available to you, you’ll find it under the ‘Home’ tab on the left hand side navigation. If it’s not, you can apply for early access here.

Please note that you’ll need to be an administrator of the account to access this data.

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Google Webmaster Tools Integration

Next up we were given the ability to integrate Google WMT with Analytics which can be accessed in the left hand menu shown here. This was announced October 4th.

For those familiar with Google WMT the data here is nothing new but the ability to see it from within your analytics account certainly streamlines the process when you’re digging deep and trying to understand problems.

You’ll need to be the administrator on both the Google Analytics account and WMT account to connect the two but otherwise this feature is available to all.

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Google Flow Visualisation

Flow visualisation is a powerful new feature that was announced by Susan Wojcicki and Phil Mui at the Web 2.0 Summit, October 19th and gives website owners and analytics users the ability to see users flow through their website with easy to understand graphical visualisations.

At the moment the feature provides two basic report types; visitors flow and goal flow but you’re able to apply any advanced segments you’ve created to them.
Of all the new features announced to date, this is by far the most useful to those looking to maximise the ROI seen from marketing activity, so I’d strongly recommend checking out the original post over on the official Google Analytics Blog.

The visitors flow visualisation can be found on the left hand side navigation under the visitors section. You can find the Goal Flow visualiser in the Conversions > Goals section of the “Standard Reporting Tab.”

Check out the original post

But wait, I don’t see these new features!

As all of the new features discussed here are so new, it’s going to take a little time for them all to be rolled out to every analytics user so it’s possible you’re yet to see these available in your account. Sit tight but keep an eye out and trust me; they’re all worth the wait!

The Struggle for Existence:
In nature, creatures produce a large number of offspring so that at least a few of them will survive the dangerous journey to adulthood long enough to reproduce. We can apply this notion to the current struggle that a growing number of businesses are facing in order to get their product or service recognised in an environment where customers are still wary about their spending.

The collapse of big brand names such as Woolworths, MFI and Habitat within the last few years no doubt caused businesses all over the UK to react with caution and dread. The closure of these companies proves that no businesses however large or small are invincible when times are tough.
It takes some careful decisions to allow a business to stand out from the crowd and be chosen over their competitors. This is a process that Digital Clarity marketing agency takes very seriously. They understand that within the digital marketing arena, they are simply one among a large number of agencies who are offering the exact same services. They understand that in order to survive, they need to have a striking attribute that sets them apart from other competitors.

Variation:
Over generations, gene mutations can greatly alter the constitution of a particular organism. This can result in either a defect or strength in this organism.
The business industry is incredibly similar to Darwin’s concept of evolution. If a business does not possess the qualities and strengths that it requires in order to be successful, it simply will not survive. Businesses need to display some sort of variation that will make them stand out from competitors and appeal to their target audience.
With the digital revolution now in full swing, we are witnessing tremendous improvements in the ways that businesses are able to promote to their customers. With an intelligent strategy in place, and the right amount of support from a reliable digital marketing agency, businesses can fully grasp this complex and ever-changing medium to ensure that their campaigns will succeed.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and businesses need to make sure they have what it takes to stay ahead of the game.

Survival of the Fittest:

There is a constant threat for businesses that they could get swallowed up in the vast range of companies selling the exact same product or service. It is a case of survival of the fittest and it is up to businesses to adapt or perish in the current conditions.

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire -08/22/11)- RTG Ventures, Inc. (OTCQB: RTGV)

Digital Clarity’s Managing Director, Reggie James, commented: “This is an exciting development for the company. The mobile device is now core to any company’s business strategy and online, the world is thinking more about apps than websites right now. Having the ability to create mobile and web apps in-house is an important addition to RTG’s capability as well as a massive revenue opportunity for Digital Clarity. Simply, opening up app development will accelerate our growth path and take us into more strategic areas of our clients’ businesses.

“World Mobile Applications Market reported in January 2011 that the mobile app market is currently worth $6.8 billion. The same report says that it will grow to over $25 billion in the next four years, while Gartner forecasts $29.5 billion by 2013 and IDC forecasts $35 billion by 2014. There is consensus among the world’s leading analysts that this market is due to grow by around 30 per cent a year between now and 2015. It’s clear that we had to enter the market to establish a footprint and leverage our experience from related markets.”

On February 15, former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, reported that Smartphone sales had surpassed PC sales. Digital Clarity is consulting its current and prospective new clients on how they should best be looking to adopt a mobile-first strategy if they’re to position themselves competitively for the future. True forward-thinking companies will be questioning whether their strategy should be ‘smartphone first’ or ‘tablet first’ to engage and sell to this growing user group.

Though currently focused on Apple’s iOS Developer program, Digital Clarity will be extending its capability further to include the Google Android app market as well as focused RIM/Blackberry applications.

About Digital Clarity

Digital Clarity is a specialist Digital Marketing Agency that has been at the forefront of online marketing for over 7 years. Specializing in Search Engine Marketing, Social Media & Digital Measurement, the company works with both major brands and medium sized companies to help leverage online brand presence and customer acquisition. Digital Clarity also delivers consultancy and strategy planning for both client companies and advertising agency partners.
www.digital-clarity.com

ABOUT RTG VENTURES, INC.
RTG Ventures, Inc. is a fully reporting company (OTCQB: RTGV) offering a turnkey media monetization solution to rights owners of music video content. At the heart of RTGV’s total product offering is a Monetization Platform which allows rights owners to define and tag media content in detail, set and enforce rights management and distribution rules, receive payment on distribution and obtain detailed analytics in real time. For further information, see http://www.rtgventures.com.

London 22nd August 2011

Leading Online Marketing Agency Digital Clarity today announced sponsorship of Ashleigh Foulser, Powerboat Racing’s first female National Offshore Champion and her Powerboat B-92. Ashleigh won the Class 3B National Championship along with her father and co-pilot, Adrian Foulser.

Currently a student at Bournemouth University, Ashleigh commented, “I am delighted that Digital Clarity are sponsoring both myself and the boat, we have decided to call the Powerboat and Race Team, Digital Clarity.

Managing Director, Reggie James commented, “Ashleigh has achieved great things in a short space of time and like the team here at Digital Clarity understands that only hard work and dedication can make the leap from mediocre to brilliant.”

James added, “Powerboat racing is a specialised and competitive sport and we would like to wish Ashleigh all the best for the up-coming World Championships.”

Ashleigh Foulser and Team Digital Clarity will be appearing in Torquay for the world championships being held between the 1-4 September aswell as Coniston at the World Records Week to try and break the world speed record.

Along with being the 2010 national champion Ashleigh has recently won the 2011 National Championship making her the offshore powerboat national champion for the second year running, and is currently getting ready for the world championship that is starting in just over a week, where she will be racing against competitors from Norway, Sweden, Guernsey and many other countries.

Quora’s service provides a platform that allows users to ask and answer questions on all topics, there are additional features such as ‘upvote’ or ‘downvote’ answers. Users can also follow other users as well as specific topics.

So is Quora a threat to Twitter? Well not exactly, as they are used for different purposes, if anything they work well together.

Twitter is used to allow people to communicate and share information with their followers on what they may be doing or have done, it also allows them to share news or information in an immediate way via computer or mobile. Their follower’s can then “re tweet” to their followers and therefore creating a social network. Whereas, Quora is solely based on asking questions and answering them on any topics, which people can then start to socialise.

Quora aims to co operate with other social networking sites, allowing users to pull in posts from their Twitter and Facebook accounts and allowing you to share any questions you have posted on Twitter or Facebook onto Quora.

I think it will be a case of ‘watch this space’ to see if Quora has the rapid growth of some of the other social platforms.

Although I think this makes the process more complicated than clicking the mouse. I guess there may be occasions where this could be useful. The table navigation could save time as it can be useful to scroll down through campaigns,  ad groups or keywords.

After having a play around with the shortcuts I actually found it could save some time albeit a few seconds, if you use the AdWords interface day in day out then that can add up to minutes and even hours saved. Try for yourself:

Google Global navigation:

• g then o: Go to All Online Campaigns
• g then c: Go to Campaigns tab
• g then r: Go to Ad groups tab
• g then a: Go to Ads tab
• g then k: Go to Keywords tab
• g then n: Go to Networks tab
• g then u: Go to Audiences tab
• g then s: Go to Settings tab
• ctrl+right arrow: Go to next campaign or ad group in sequence
• ctrl+left arrow: Go to previous campaign or ad group in sequence

Google Table navigation and actions:

• j/k: Next/previous row
• o/enter: Open current row (campaign or ad group)
• x: Select current row (shift+x for multiple rows)
• p: Pause selected rows
• n: Enable selected rows
• d: Delete selected rows
• l: Download

Editing ad groups and keywords:

• e: Edit selected rows
• ctrl+arrows: Move between editable fields
• ctrl+s: Save changes
• esc: Cancel edit mode

From all at Digital Clarity – http://bit.ly/hmGXbU

It seems that Google is releasing new AdWords tools every week at the moment. First we saw a huge overhaul of the reporting functions within the User Interface and now optimisation seems to be the hot topic.

There have been a few blogs and articles doing the rounds questioning whether these developments mean that the days of 3^rd party optimisation tools are numbered. If your main interest is Google, then maybe.  If you run campaigns across multiple search engines then it’s important to understand what Google are offering before making any major changes to your approach.

So what are the recent AdWords enhancements?

New Keyword Tool – Until recently, users could switch between the old and new versions of the keyword tools – not any more. The benefits according to Google are that the new version of the tool incorporates the Search Based Keyword Tool. Where previously the keyword tool made suggestions based on your URL, and the Search-based tool would recommend keywords and searches related to your landing pages, the new keyword tool incorporates both these elements as well as enabling you to source keywords by category.

Bid Simulator – Those of you managing AdWords accounts on a daily basis will be fully aware of the Bid Simulator. This tool allows you to estimate the effect of an increase in CPC. Previously the data only supplied estimated clicks, cost and impressions, but Google have recently added Estimated Top Impressions. This refers to the estimated number of impressions for ads displayed above the Google main listings, not the right-hand side.   What it should allow you to do is to identify whether an increase or decrease in CPC will affect your traffic volumes and help you to reach your specified goals.

Campaign Experiments – This tool allows advertisers to test a change in strategy by modifying settings on part of the traffic and comparing the results. For example if I want to test and increase in CPC from £0.50 to £1, normally this would mean running the change for a comparable period of time and try to decipher if the CPC change was responsible for any change in performance. The challenge here a whole range of factors come into play, ranging from seasonality, weather, current affairs as well as other changes to the account or website may also have led to a change in performance. This leaves you unsure as to whether the change really had the desired effect. With Campaign experiments Google delivers half of the impressions with the current strategy and the other half to the new strategy allowing you to analyse the performance in a much more controlled environment.

Product extensions –This is a new feature of Google AdWords which allows advertisers to link to their Google Merchant Centre in order to highlight your products with images and prices within your AdWords ads. This would then allow the ads to link through to specific products that are displayed when a user searches on a relevant keyword.  The benefits of this are the ability to include multiple pricing and product landing pages within one ad text.

But why are Google rolling out these tools? Surely they don’t have to keep offering us more and more, we have very little choice, but to use Google to advertise – Yahoo! and Bing are nowhere near the level of Google yet.

Google have always emphasised continual development of their AdWords platform -  it does generate the majority of their revenue, after all. If they start to take their foot of the gas there are many other platforms out there just waiting to seize the opportunity. By offering advertisers ways to improve their campaigns, coupled with the release of Google Instant, the bet is that advertisers are likely to spend more if they can see their strategy is working more effectively.

Where does this leave 3^rd party tools? For a start Google is unable to tell you how well your Yahoo! clicks are converting and how much it has cost you.  Equally, Bing  will probably never allow Google access their search data for inclusion into their reports. Most 3^rd party tools allow you to manage campaigns across all three engines with only one login. You can run reports, make manual or automated bid changes and set CPA optimisation to mention a few of the available functions. More importantly you can analyse keywords from each platform alongside each other in order to make intelligent decisions to improve the performance of your account.

Google’s new tools offer a competent level of functionality and as such are a good free option for advertisers. However if you are looking to manage multiple campaigns across multiple platforms and get the most for your money, the the cost of investing in 3rd party technology remains the right route.

This article first appeared in The Wall Blog on 10^th November 2010  http://bit.ly/czXPAT

The eagle eyed among you may have seen the BBC’s intentions were announced around a week in advance to give people warning and a slideshow explaining some of the new features to be included – an excellent way to ‘soften the blow’ for the average user who’s become use to the existing layout.

Reaction to the redesign has been mixed as you may expect; change is always frustrating at first and while the BBC have made every effort to cater for everyone there were always going to be issues people would like resolved.

Rather than discuss the pros and cons of the redesign I wanted to provide a number of resources to the BBC team behind it, their thoughts and explanations of what’s gone on and why they believe the decisions they made were right. As a collection, the following links give a great insight into the thought processes behind the redesign of such a large website; not just for the latest stage but the development of the BBC’s new Visual Language.

Steven Herrman – BBC News Website Editor

• BBC News website redesign (1)
• BBC News website redesign (2)
• BBC News website redesign (3)
• BBC News website redesign (4)

BBC Internet Blog

• BBC News website redesign: telling the story (Paul Sissons)
• A new global visual language for the BBC’s digital services (Bronwyn van der Merwe)