Presentation from eMetrics London on how publishers can use Digital Analytics to inform their actions and improve their bottom line. Covers the detail on the information to capture through to how the information should be used based on practical experiences.

1. Analytics for Publishers
28th Oct 2015

2. G’day, I’m Peter
This all keeps me busy…
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 2
I run an Analytics consultancy
28th Oct 2015

3. What I am going to talk about
 Analytics for Publishers /
Content Websites
 Why did I choose this topic?
 In the past year been speaking
on more big picture topics as
can be seen in this video
 Wanted to give a more tactical
presentation
 Have worked with SciDev,
News UK, Hearst Magazines
and Euromoney over past 3
years
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 3 28th Oct 2015

4. Why are publishers special?
 Most websites have a funnel
 Publishers – you dip in, get what you want & dip out again – there
is no funnel
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 4
Photo Credit: silverfish13 via Compfight
28th Oct 2015

5. Photo Credit:
HikingArtist.com
via Compfight cc
What I am going to talk about
 Analytics for Publishers/Content Websites
 E.g. Magazines, newspapers, blogs
 Understand
 Performance of content
 Drivers of traffic
 Growth in number of readers
 Inform actions of stakeholders across company
 Marketing
 Editors
 Content Creators
 Product Managers
 Senior Management
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 5 28th Oct 2015

6. How publishers make more money
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 6 28th Oct 2015

7.  Reports Business Questions
What do publishers use Digital Analytics for?
 Reports
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 7
 Reports Business Questions Business Actions
 Target is to be Data Informed
 Making the right decisions on actions such as:
 Selecting content to feature on
 Homepage
 Newsletter
 Social Media
 Identifying content where can write follow up articles
 Deciding on the type of content to produce
 Whether to invest more in website tools, widget & features or if they need
to be improved
 Deciding on optimal page layout
28th Oct 2015

8. First step – high quality data
1. Basic page tag only but with
accurate data
2. Page naming convention and
macro conversion actions
3. Additional content & visitor
information plus micro
conversion actions
4. Wider range of variables and
actions being recorded
5. Comprehensive tracking and
integrations in place
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 8
5 Platinum
4 Gold
3 Silver
2 Core
1 Basic
What tracking do we need to get
in place (ideally)?
28th Oct 2015

9. More information about the content
 May get title and category from the URL
 Not enough – I want more information
 Content ID
 Additional categorisations
 Author
 Language
 Contains images, videos, etc
 Access Method (how was this content found)
 Publication date, Days since Publication & most importantly
Recency
 Number of Words and better still, Length
Page 9 @peter_oneill #emetrics 28th Oct 2015

10. Example of content information
 Title: chinas refined nickel imports rise 59 in september
 Content ID: 3500554
 Category: base metals
 Author: ellie wang
 Language: english
 Image Flag: no
 Video Flag: no
 Access Method: homepage article list
 Publication Date: 2015-10-26
 Days since Publication: 2
 Recency: new
 Number of Words: 265
 Length: medium
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 10 28th Oct 2015

11. Recording visitor interactions
 What we get by default is simply Views
 The interactions I want to know as well are:
 Read (time on page)
 Read (scroll to end)
 Share
 Comment
 Download/Print/Save
 Next Page (when multi page articles)
 Next Photo (for photo galleries)
 A range of Video interactions
Page 11 @peter_oneill #emetrics 28th Oct 2015

12. Must have good campaign tracking
 All links controlled need to have campaign tracking
 Email and Social Media are key channels
 Need the granular detail e.g.
 Social Media
 Type of Social Media (broadcast, paid, shared, organic), Social Media
Network, Type of Post, Content Identifier, Person posting
 Email
 Type of Email, Distribution List, Campaign Name, Email Name, Date
Email Sent, Link Identifier
 Also any paid marketing, content marketing, sister websites, etc
Page 12 @peter_oneill #emetrics 28th Oct 2015

13. Some key metrics for publishers
 Page Views – simple to understand and proxy for ad venue
 Read Rate – which content is being read, not just viewed?
 Engagement Score – better content is shared, commented upon, etc
 Entry Rate – is this content being discovered on site or off site?
 % Traffic from Source X (e.g. Facebook) – what is the traffic driver?
 % Sessions view Article – initial success for traffic source
 Article Views per Article Session – more articles = more revenue
 Understand Readers – is your reader base growing over time?
 Frequency – number of sessions in date range
 Depth – number of articles viewed
 Engagement – whether engaging with these articles or just viewing them
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 13 28th Oct 2015

14. Can then create content reports
 Note multiple tabs on this Excel file
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 14 28th Oct 2015

15. Content reports should be very actionable
 Article #2
 Not actually
that good
 Article #11
 Promote
everywhere
you can
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 15 28th Oct 2015

16. And you can get visualisations of reader base
 Most people visit once or twice and view a single article
 Most money is generated by visitors who view a lot of articles
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 16 28th Oct 2015

17. My learnings around analytics for publishers
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 17 28th Oct 2015

18. Traffic sources for content websites
 Typically new content is promoted, older content is discovered when
there is a need
 But to maximise revenue, older content can be promoted too
 Using data to identify what to promote
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 18
Old
Content
Organic
Search
New
Content
Facebook
Twitter News
Email
28th Oct 2015

19. What people say vs what people do
 You can’t always optimise for all metrics
 Especially with Facebook
 Some stories are read, others are shared
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 19
Clicks
Likes/Shares
28th Oct 2015

20. What’s important for Social Media
Page 20 @peter_oneill #emetrics
Location
Location
Location
Timing
Wording
28th Oct 2015
Use the Social Media networks that
your readers are using.
Understand readers won’t just click
through during your work hours, they
may be looking online all day & night
– post accordingly.
Different links will work best at
different times of the day, understand
the motivations of your readers.
While people may laugh at the term clickbait, it has a purpose, people must want to click
through. Use lists and teasers to promote interest. One website doubled pageviews for the
entire month by reposting a photo gallery with different wording.

21. The World Cup & Cosmopolitan Netherlands
Why not try it again?
Reposting it drove even
better results
And the Dutch coach
allowed kids on the field,
we immediately let our
readers know.
First post was a real hit.
Here’s the Man of the
match of the 3rd game- our
readers wanted to know.
Man of the match also had
a rap song online!
@peter_oneill #emetrics 28th Oct 2015
Created a
single piece
of content
initially
The data was
positive which
triggered
creation of
more content
Learnt from
the data the
most successful
type of content
The result was a
string of related
content driving
more pageviews
and generating
more revenue

22. Mobile is taking over
 This is becoming a very
familiar sight
 Does vary depending on type
of content and country
 Presents a few tracking
challenges
 Mobile websites vs responsive
vs mobile apps
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 22
 Think when and why people are using their phone
 Travelling? Waiting for a friend? Linked to traffic source?
 Need to ensure content can be consumed & shared on mobile
28th Oct 2015

23. Photo galleries are a challenge
 Is each new View of a Photo
 a Page View?
 an Event?
 a Photo View?
 What is the photo gallery equivalent of a “read”?
 How do you compare performance of Photo Galleries of varying
lengths?
 So I trigger a new Page View for every Photo View (ad revenue)
 New metrics to use
 Photo Views per Gallery View
 % Consume Gallery (view at least 5 photos)
 % Complete Gallery
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 23 28th Oct 2015

24. Do people even see the content?
 Common behaviour is
to open multiple tabs
 When should the view
be triggered?
 Or time on page?
 What are that read
event?
 These solution from
experts are great
 I say do it…
 …once you are doing
everything else
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 24 28th Oct 2015

25. The value of Real Time analytics
 Real Time does matter for Publishers
 They can react quickly to changing trends
 Look for top stories and traffic sources
 Both tools also use heartbeat method
 More accurate count of visitors
 I am not a fan of chartbeat – it’s too immediate
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 25 28th Oct 2015

26. The Guardian’s analytics tool
 In Sept ‘14, I attended a ProductTank on Analytics
 One talk was the Guardian about their Analytics tool (called Ophan)
 Came from a hack day 3.5 years ago
 Has gradually expanded use (now 950+ users)
 Why? Because it is useful!
 Features are built only if they will drive actions
 Key uses include
 Deciding which stories make the front page
 Identifying when conversations about content is happening
 Deciding how to best promote a story
 Understanding what tools readers are using & therefore need to create for
 Watch this video and read article1, article2 & article3 for more
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 26 28th Oct 2015

27. An idea to explore, the article life cycle
 Can you predict total PVs of an article based on initial curve?
 Can you bring an article back to awareness to drive more PVs?
 Can you predict success of old articles if they were re-promoted
based on initial performance?
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 27 28th Oct 2015

28. So what have I achieved with Analytics for my clients?
 A lot of frustrations and grey hairs for myself
 Some clients were only short term projects – life of a consultant
 Have had some successes
 Analytics was driver in increasing Social Media traffic
 Some wins around the type of content being produced
 Isolated cases of editors, marketing and product managers using analytics to
make decisions
 Still encountering a lot of Barriers to the Use of Digital Analytics
 Getting closer to achieving success
 Starting to get more titles to implement our content tracking solution
 Training up teams to use data to inform their decisions
 I am confident of great case studies within another year…
@peter_oneill #emetricsPage 28 28th Oct 2015

29. THANK YOU
I can be found at
• peteroneill@l3analytics.com
• @peter_oneill
• +44 7843 617 347
• www.linkedin.com/in/peteroneill
28th Oct 2015Page 29 @peter_oneill #emetrics