The importance of knowing how to measure
Understanding how to measure what truly matters is essential for making informed decisions. Without reliable data or proper insight into the right metrics, it’s highly likely that you’ll make poor choices, affecting both strategy and outcomes.
Often, we focus on generic metrics like the number of unique monthly visits, video views, or social media likes. While these figures are easy to track, they don’t tell the full story of user behaviour or what drives those numbers. To make informed decisions, you need to dig deeper and understand the "why" behind the data.
Practical example: Looking beyond surface metrics
Imagine your website gets 1 million visits per month to the homepage. Out of that million, 200,000 users immediately leave, while 800,000 continue browsing and eventually reach paid content, only to encounter a paywall. At this point, they also leave the site.
If you were to look solely at the surface, your analytics might show a 20% bounce rate, which at first glance seems quite low and perhaps even a positive result. However, if you dig deeper, the reality is that you have a 100% bounce rate for users encountering the paywall.
Breaking it down further:
- 20% of users leave due to lack of engagement or other reasons (e.g., slow load times).
- 80% leave because they do not want to pay for the content or were not expecting to encounter a paywall.
By only looking at a general metric like bounce rate, you miss out on the nuanced understanding of user behaviour. It’s essential to segment the causes and analyse why users are leaving at different stages of their journey. Without this deeper analysis, the decisions you make might be based on incomplete or misleading data.
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)
CRO, or Conversion Rate Optimisation, is all about improving the percentage of visitors who take the desired action on your website, whether that’s subscribing, purchasing, or engaging with your content. This process involves optimising various elements of your website, including design, content, technology, and structure, to maximise conversions.
There’s a wealth of literature available on CRO techniques, ranging from A/B testing and user experience improvements to personalisation strategies. While I won’t dive into the technicalities here, it’s crucial to understand that CRO should be a key part of your digital strategy. By focusing on improving conversion rates, you can ensure that you’re not only driving traffic to your site but also turning visitors into loyal customers or subscribers.
Final thoughts
Measuring the right metrics and understanding the reasons behind the numbers are vital to making informed decisions for your business. Surface-level metrics like bounce rate or page views often don’t provide enough insight into user behaviour. By segmenting data and analysing deeper causes, you can uncover critical insights that will help improve your strategy.
Additionally, investing in Conversion Rate Optimisation is essential for getting the most out of your website traffic. While increasing traffic is important, optimising conversions ensures that your business sees real results from that traffic.
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