Brent Dykes - Web Analytics Action Hero: Using Analysis to Gain Insight and Optimize Your Business

Using Analysis to Gain Insight and Optimize Your Business

Brent Dykes

This Adobe Press book is published by Peachpit.
For information on Adobe Press books, contact:

Peachpit
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
510/524-2221 (fax)

For the latest on Adobe Press books, go to www.adobepress.com
To report errors, please send a note to
Peachpit is a division of Pearson Education.

Copyright 2012 by Brent Dykes

Associate Editor: Valerie Witte
Production Editor: David Van Ness
Developmental Editor: Linda Laflamme
Copyeditor: Linda Laflamme
Proofreader: Liz Welch
Composition: WolfsonDesign
Indexer: Joy Dean Lee
Cover Illustration: Hemera/Thinkstock
Cover Design: James Arrington, with Mimi Heft
Interior Illustrations: Hemera/Thinkstock and James Arrington
Interior Design: Mimi Heft

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact .

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

Trademarks

Adobe Test&Target and Adobe SiteCatalyst are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names, characters and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-79401-7
ISBN10: 0-321-79401-X

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

To my family.
To anyone who has aspired to be an action heroon the playground, in a company, or in a community.

Action heroes are frequently portrayed in films as working covertly and independently on their missions. Ive discovered that writing a book requires a small army, and I feel fortunate to be surrounded by so many great people who willingly supported me in so many different ways. Id like to start by thanking the entire Peachpit team, especially my development editor, Linda Laflamme, who patiently guided this first-time author throughout the entire writing process. My friend James Arrington (www.pukrufus.com) worked tirelessly on the books illustrations and diagrams. Its rare to find a designer so talented and equally patient and easy to work with. A few people who went above and beyond in terms of reviewing the material for this book deserve special thanks: Andrew Anderson, Jeff Terry, and Sami Iwata. I really appreciated their critical eye, pushing me and my ideas every step of the way. The content is the better for it.

Thank you to Dave Kirschner for encouraging me to write this book in the first placeWeb Analytics Action Hero probably would have remained just an idea without his urging. Thanks as well to all of the super-sharp web analytics practitioners who agreed to share insights from their wealth of knowledge and experience: Joel Wright, Jen Frigault, Jed Elliott, Tim Munsell, Mitchell Schuler, Laura MacTaggart, and Sandy Martin. Id like to recognize and thank all of the other clients that have inspired me over the years. In addition, I couldnt have created this book without sage advice from Chad Greenleaf, David Sigerson, Justin Grover, Katrine Kieldsen, Michael Halbrook, John Bates, James Hodges, Matt Langie, Cam Barnes, Tucker Christiansen, Marc Koif, Brian Au, Billy Budnovitch, Adam Egbert, Rhett Norton, Ben Robison, Caleb Silvey, Chris Haleua, Laura Chase, Derek Tangren, Kevin Willeitner, David Hebel, Jared Lees, Chad Teuscher, Maria Corcoran, Mike McVey, Russell Lewis, Siri Manukonda, Ellie Gates, Dean Snell, Carolyn Colbert, Daniel Wright, Drew Phillips, Chris Luka, Jared Vestal, Jim Anderson, Curtis LeBaron, and the entire Adobe Consulting team (its a pleasure to work with some of the brightest people in the business).

Thank you, too, to Matt Belkin for his expert knowledge and sharp intellect. It was a pleasure to serve under his leadership and work along beside him when the Best Practices group at Omniture first got off the ground. Id like to thank all of the web analytics thought leaders over the years for their insights and inspiration in the form of presentations, blog posts, podcasts, videos, or books: Tom Davenport, Avinash Kaushik, Eric Peterson, Neil Mason, Adam Greco, Stphane Hamel, Jim Sterne, Jim Novo, Ben Gaines, and others. In addition, how could I have written a book on action heroes without all of the inspiration from the many, many action films I saw in my youth with my three brothers? Id like to thank all of the movie studios, writers, directors, actors, and stunt men who made all of those films so memorable.

Most of all Id like to thank my wonderful family for being patient with me during this entire grueling process. They sacrificed a lot so that this book would be possible. Special thanks to my wife Libby for all her love and support as well as each of my five children (Lauren, Cassidy, Linden, Peter, and Josh) for their understanding and willingness to give up their Dad for a time. I am truly blessed to have you all in my life. Thank you for believing in me.

Brent Dykes has been focused on enterprise-level web analytics for more than seven years. He was one of the first business consultants hired by Omniture in 2004 and has worked with such industry leaders as Microsoft, Sony, EA, HP, Dell, Comcast, Nike, Allstate, Cisco, Redbox, Samsung, Nintendo, and USA Today. In his time within the Omniture Business Unit at Adobe, he has led industry-specific consulting teams for multiple products (Adobe SiteCatalyst, Test&Target, Insight) and now leads a team focused on strategic areas such as predictive analytics and web governance.

Brent has been involved in online marketing for more than ten years, including positions at Blast Radius (WPP), Lands End, and Microsoft. Brent has a BBA (Marketing) degree from Simon Fraser University, and graduated from Brigham Young Universitys MBA program, where he was a Hawes Scholar. Brent is an active blogger for Adobe on web analytics and has delivered presentations at web analytics and online marketing conferences around the world. Besides his passion for web analytics, he also runs a popular Microsoft PowerPoint tips and tricks blog at www.powerpointninja.com.

Web Analytics Action Hero is a wonderful and playful guide to the web analytics behaviors that will improve your marketing and create business value. Its clear, concise, and clever, and you will never get lost in technical detail or marketing jargon. Despite the playful terms and acronyms, however, Brent Dykes adopts a very pragmatic tone that puts action and improvement above theoretical considerations. And since virtually every business and organization today has a website, it is difficult to imagine the enterprise or businessperson who wouldnt find the book a useful guide to web analytics.