More Than a Quarter of Web Marketers 'Flying Blind'

By Sean Michael Kerner, The ClickZ Network, Aug 11, 2005
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Web marketers lack both the confidence and analytics to properly assess results, according to a study from WebTrends.

Confidence in marketing efforts varied among those surveyed. Only five percent of marketers were very confident in the measurement of their current online marketing efforts. Just over a quarter (26 percent) admitted they were flying blind, while the same percentage (26 percent) was moderately confident. Forty-three percent indicated they were fairly confident with their efforts.

WebTrends asserts the low confidence comes from a lack of knowledge when it comes to measurement. Only one in five respondents indicated they have a complete handle on their conversion, marketing ROI, and revenue metrics. Twenty-three percent reported they don't currently have any metrics, and 29 percent rely on clickthrough rates alone.

Worldwide Metrics Used to Measure Marketing Campaign Performance May 23 June 5 2005
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The study also finds 39 percent have no idea what method of user identification they use for their online marketing efforts. True first-party cookies were reported by 19 percent, while vendor-supplied first party cookies were used by eight percent of those surveyed. Identification by IP address was reported by 13 percent, and 10 percent went a half-step further by identifying users based on IP and agent. Ten percent reported using third party cookies.

Worldwide_Methods_for_Identifying_Unique_Web_Site_Visitors_May23_June5_2005
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Third party cookies are increasingly rejected by Web users. WebTrends reported in a quarterly update on cookie rejection that in June 2005 the overall rejection rate for third party cookies was 13.2 percent, a 5.2 percent increase over April. JupiterResearch reported 28 percent of users in its own study claim they have rejected third party cookies selectively.

Most Web marketers (76 percent) know where users enter their Web sites, a point that WebTrends calls inflow, and nearly half (48 percent) know the point at which their site is abandoned. Forty-five percent were aware of their site's fall out point, a term that describes users not moving from one step to the next within the conversion scenario.

The detours users take within a site after leaving a conversion scenario were only known by 20 percent of respondents, and only fourteen percent were aware of the non-linear paths a site visitor takes during a conversion scenario (what WebTrends calls step jumping).

WebTrends collected the data for the survey between May 23 and June 3, 2005 as an element of a free webcast.


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