Most web site analytic tools and Google Analytics in particular present a pretty impressive picture on how your online marketing campaigns are performing. That is if you have implemented everything as it should be and if you have had the discipline of defining and using relevant campaign tracking code.

In a recent article Jonathan at Lunametrics discusses the use of "vanity URL's" as a good way of capturing online traffic generated by offline campaigns. In summary he advises using and promoting nice, short, easy-to-remember URLs like for example "www.grid14.com/radio" that allow you to track results based on the incoming URL used by your visitors.

The content that will appear after typing in the vanity URL are pages that actually live somewhere on your site — maybe just your homepage, or even better, a dedicated landing page for the promotion. That measn that our example URL www.grid14.com/radio is in reality referring to a specific landing page.

By using a 301 redirect on the landing page, you can even add Google Analytics campaign tracking code that will show up in your campaign reports, right alongside your online advertising.

We are currently implementing a similar strategy where we promote the client's .com web site address in all online communications and his .co.nz URL in all offline campaigns. Even though this is a pretty crude way of distinguishing between the two traffic generating initiatives, it gives us a reasonable insight in how people found their way to the web site.

In New Zealand thousands of dollars are wasted on Adwords every hour of every day. You may well think this is a bit of an exaggeration but bear with me and you'll catch my drift. I would like to share with you some of the observations made when analysing the use of Adwords in New Zealand. Let's take a real life example and let's also agree that this example is a random choice and believe me, I could have picked many others for that matter. The only purpose is to illustrate the points made so let's try not to focus on this specific brand or campaign.

Right, so you have decided to go online and spend some marketing dollars on getting eyeballs to your web site by using Google Adwords as a channel. You have even prepared some specific content that somehow relates to the expectations raised in the Adword copy. The agency has been briefed, media recommendations on keywords and click costs have been approved. Great. Now let's have a look at what happens once the online part of the campaign kicks off.

Recently we have been asked by one of our clients to analyse the performance of their online recruitment site. New Zealand has a real problem in finding candidates for certain positions and the Internet proves to be a very powerful tool in convincing potential recruits to send their CV your way as one of the ponds to fish in are kiwi’s currently working overseas.

In the process we were thinking about what KPI’s we could define for the recruitment site. Are they things like number of visitors or number of applications, or a combination of both?

In their last book "Web Design for ROI - Turning Browsers into Buyers & Prospects into Leads", Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus give a perspective on the influence of design on the effectiveness of online properties in general and Web sites in particular.

There is one chapter that is an absolute must read for anyone who wants to discuss online metrics and certainly if you are interested in discussing the right metrics.

“How does your web site contribute to your organisation’s objectives? If your answer includes the word ‘hits’ take a moment to close this book and whack yourself in the head with it. There. Now remember that every time you are tempted to use the term again.”

This quote summarises what many in the web analytics community often see as a big warning light indicating that anyone asking about ‘hits’ most probably hasn’t got a clue what he or she is talking about. The quote sets the tone for the remainder of the book.