The web analytics wednesday in London last night was useful, interesting and fun. There must have been 40 web analysts who worked for well-known companies such as RBS, Morethan, BT, Boden, Total Jobs and analytics consultants, agencies and providers. Thanks to SCL Analytics for organising it all so well and the free drinks!

The meeting kicked off with a group discussion on general trends in the industry and then broke up into smaller group discussions.

Here were a few of things discussed. Please add it to this if you feel I have missed a few out. 

Offline versus online integration. As we move from traditional web analytics to marketing performance management MPM (apologies for the acroynm), differentiating offline and online we are realising is less than meaningful as they are both contributing dire ctly and indirectly to the site’s performance. Why not call it non-line instead?

The value of surveys in web analytics – short three question surveys with a free text area prove most effective. In terms of usability, most visitors will be scared off by forms or surveys that look too long. In one client’s case, their site was achieving 50% completions of the short 3 question survey from the confirmation page.

To find what level you feel comfortable with your data, whether that’s 10% or 90% and then make decisions accordingly. Each analytics solution measures data and sessions in slightly different ways. Combined with the fact that we can not always get all the information from where conversions originated, ie phone conversions that originated from the web.

Gaps in the data which do not have a short term solution. For example, online test drive requests that result in car sales at the dealer which for various reasons primarily the nature of the dealership itself are near impossible to accurately track, for example Saab.

Price comparison sites/aggregators as significant sources of business to online insurance companies for example. In the case of Morethan, 17% of their conversions were from aggregators. Then a classic problem of how to maintain the loyalty of such a price-consious customer develops along side questions of when and how is the best way to contact them to encourage renewal of their annual insurance.

Social networks as meaningful referring sources to job sites for example Total Jobs. And developments in how to track and assess the importance of comment flow on a social network to directing traffic to a company and affecting conversion rates – the halo affect.

The importance of analysing PPC effectiveness by financial value rather than cost per acquisition (CPA).

And just a great feeling of being amongst fellow compatriots and friends whilst we shared our war stories. No photos (sorry). www.webanalyticsdemystified.com is the place to go for when and where all the WAW are happening across the globe.