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A recent article published by JJ Bannasch points out that not all search metrics are created equal. While they are all important, metrics can easily be misconstrued. This can lead to marketers making optimization recommendations on a incomplete picture of campaign health. Here are is an excerpt from the article–

“If someone is not intimately familiar with the ins and outs of paid search management, it is easy to misinterpret data when agencies report unnecessary information without much context. It makes it difficult to understand cause-and-effect optimizations and the true value of hiring an agency or expert.

To minimize confusion, it is essential for paid search professionals to sort through the performance data and provide a framework to summarize reports. This way, clients are not blindly reporting a sheet of numbers/metrics back to their organizations. They should have the data they need to address C-level executives and present a clear understanding of how their campaigns are performing. While clients do range in paid search knowledge, an agency should never assume that everyone can fill in the context around a paid search campaign and the implications of performance fluctuation” (iMedia Connection, 10/20/10).

Click here to read the  entire article that investigates how clicks, impressions, #1 rankings, click thru rates and keyword strategies should be viewed so marketers can succeed in their paid search efforts.

I was watching Blue Chips the other day, the movie with Nick Nolte and Shaquille O’Neill.  As an aside, he never should  have signed on with the Celtics. Back to the film, it contains one of the most clichéd sports analogies. To paraphrase, it went something like:

“I’ll give them the play book. They can know our offense, they can know our defense, all that matters is how we execute.”

This quote can be applied into many aspects of our professional and personal lives.

By way of example, I’m applying it to conversion rate optimization since it’s what a performance analyst does best.

Typical questions around conversion rate optimization are: “What are your top tips for improving a site,” “Do I need to change my button colors,” “Should I put different images on my website,” or “What font is best?”

What people fail to understand is that it’s not just one thing, it’s about the overall execution. It’s an over simplifaction to think that one can make random tweaks to a site, and have it magically improve conversion rates. There is a method to the madness, and an execution of the method. When I’m working on a client’s conversion rate optimization, I go through the following steps:

1. Make sure tracking is set up, as this is the crux of your data. Without it, you can’t make any educated recommendations on which changes to test.

2. Remember and focus on the user. What brings them to your website? What needs or problems do they want solutions for?

3. Analyze the data and how people found your site. What are the hot keywords that attracted the most visits?

4. Work off of a check list of what you should consider testing on the site. This can include content, calls to action and value props. Then run the tests, and analyze the data before making a test recommendation.

Each conversion professional has his or her own process. This is just my way of channeling my own conversion rate madness into a methodology that delivers the results my clients expect.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG