Hack99.Key Performance Indicators for Business Sites (Lead Generation)

Hack 99. Key Performance Indicators for Business Sites (Lead Generation)

It is extremely common that the activity that a web site wants the visitor to take is as simple as taking the next step. Especially for products or services with long and complex sales cycles, getting a qualified lead is as good as gold. Business sites like these have just as good key performance indicators as direct-to-consumer online models.

The majority of business sites on the Internet don't sell anything directly via the Internet; they exist to provide information about their products or services. Automobile manufacturers like Nissan and Porsche, well-known brands like Purina and Procter & Gamble, and even software as service companies like Omniture and Coremetrics, each have a vested interest in providing you information in trade for some personal information (the lead).

The general strategy for lead-generating sites is to provide just enough information to help determine that they're the right solution and then provide multiple contact channels so the visitor can get more engaged (for example, talk to someone in sales). There are, of course, a handful of key performance indicators for lead-generation sites to look for opportunity and monitor for problems.

7.10.1. Basic Key Performance Indicators for Business Sites

The following key performance indicators should be considered core to the regular reporting for any lead-generating site. Each assumes a constant period of time unless otherwise noted.

7.10.1.1 Lead generation conversion rate.

The fundamental measurement of how good a job you're doing. Defined as the number of leads generated divided by the number of unique visitors, your lead generation conversion rate is a strong indicator of the quality of your audience, message, and site design. This KPI does depend on being able to measure when a lead comes in and so is much easier to measure for site-generated leads than leads generated over the phone or via email. Still, keeping track of your "online" lead generation conversion rate is an excellent place to start and is highly recommended.

7.10.1.2 Average visits per visitor.

Simply defined, the ratio of visits per visitor can give you a sense of how interested people are in your products or services. In general, the larger the result, the greater the interest, but keep in mind that you may want to look at a longer timeframe than a day or a week.

For extra credit, segment visitors based on whether they generated an online lead or not, looking at average visits per visitor. Depending on what you're selling and the complexity of the product or sale process, you'll likely see a higher average for visitors submitting leads than those who have not. In this case, you can reasonably determine that people need to spend some time getting to know you before they're willing to ask for more information.

7.10.1.3 Percent new and returning visitors.

The percent of new and returning visitors are numbers calculated by your web measurement solution and describe how much of your audience you've managed to get to return at least one time after their first visit. If, for some reason, your application doesn't provide the percentages I recommend using, simply divide the number of new or returning visitors by the total number of visitors to get each percentage, respectively.

These ratios function much in the same way they do for advertising and content sites [Hack #97]. The more you're spending on marketing, the greater the percentage of new visitors you expect. The more complex the sale, the greater the percentage of returning visitors you expect.

Always keep in mind how KPIs are designed to be used [Hack #94]the specific numbers you're getting are less important than how those numbers change over time. Remember to tie KPI movement to the marketing and site design changes that you're making to better understand the effects of these changes.

7.10.1.4 Ratio of new to returning visitors.

This ratio, simply defined as the total number of new visitors divided by the total number of returning visitors, provides another view of your audience mix. The calculation yields a number between zero and n (with n being some positive integer that can, in theory, be very, very high if nobody ever returns to your site). This indicator quickly tells you whether you're acquiring, retaining, or basically neutral regarding your visitors.

Smaller numbers indicate that you're retaining more visitors than you attract, something commonly referred to as visitor retention mode. The smaller the number, the better the job you're doing at retaining visitors. Larger numbers indicate that you're attracting more visitors than you retain, something referred to as visitor acquisition mode. Say, as an example, the calculation yields a ratio of new to returning visitors of 2.0this tells you that for every visitor you retain, you acquire two new visitors.

For lead-generating sites the ideal ratio is nearly always greater than one, usually 2.00 or 3.00, since you're major goal is attracting new prospects who will hopefully submit a lead. If yours is a very simple processsay you're offering a newsletter subscription to pet ownersthis number can be very high since people don't really need to return and think about your offer. The more complex the process, the lower the result of the calculation.

7.10.1.5 Average time spent on site.

Similar to the percentages of new and returning visitors, the average time visitors spend on your site is calculated by your measurement application. The average time visitors spend is a simple indicator of how interested they are in your products or services and whether they're actively reading information.

If you're concerned that visitors may be struggling with your presentation, consider building an average page views per visit KPI [Hack #98] similar to that used for the customer support model. If you have a high average time spent on site and a high ratio of page views to visits, you can be reasonably assured that visitors are clicking around on your site. If you have a high average time spent but a low ratio of page views to visits, likely visitors are getting confused somewhere (and you should the look at your time spent on pages report for pages on which visitors spend an inordinate amount of time).

7.10.2. Advanced Key Performance Indicators for Business Sites

The following metrics are more advanced but should be seriously considered in addition to the basic indicators.

7.10.2.1 Average hours to response (online inquiry).

One of the single most frustrating things for anyone in the sales process is having to wait for information.

Especially if you've done a good job of providing information on your web site and managed to get the visitor engaged, then interested, and finally committed, making him wait a day or more after submitting his lead is a mistake that often leads to a loss in purchase momentum.

While you'll have to get the data for this key performance indicator from another system, likely your customer relationship database, including it with your online KPIs will help you stay focused on the ultimate goal: getting visitors interested and engaged in the sales process as quickly as possible.

7.10.2.2 Percent of visits less than 90 seconds.

The percent of visits under 90 seconds is a valuable indicator of the interest your visitors have in your content; in general, the higher the percentage the greater the number of uninterested visitors to the site. I use 90 seconds as a rough proxy for the minimum amount of time a visitor needs to do or learn anything meaningful on the average site, you may want to lower the threshold to 60 or even 30 seconds. While the visitors may not truly be uninterested, when they spend very little time, it's unlikely they're going to spend enough time to truly connect with your brand.

To make the calculation, you'll need to find the "time spent per visit" or "time spent on site" reportthe report that tells you the number of visits broken down by time spent (see Figure 7-9 and "Key Performance Indicators for Online Retailers" [Hack #96] for the details).

7.10.2.3 Percent interested visits.

Depending on your particular sales process, a visitor can be said to be "interested" when she looks at more than a small handful of pages during her visit. As a starting point, consider a visit "committed" (see below) when a visitor looks at more than 10 pages, and "interested" when she looks at five to nine pages: enough pages that she's moved on past just browsing, but not so many that she's totally engaged, working to make sure that your solution is right for her.

Most measurement applications provide the data you need to calculate this KPI in a "path length" or "depth of visits" report (Figure 7-14). To make the calculation, simply add up the number of visits over your particular threshold and divide by the total number of visits.

Using Figure 7-14 as an example and assuming we had 1,000 total visits to the site and a threshold of five to nine page views during the visit, the calculation would be:

(135 Visits to 5 Pages + 110 Visits to 6 Pages + 74 Visits to 7 Pages + 35

Visits to 8 Pages + 21 Visits to 9 Pages) / 1.000 Total Visits = 0.375 =

37.5% Interested Visits

Figure 7-14. Depth of visits report

While you can adjust the thresholds that define "interested" depending on your site and sales process, I would encourage you not to change the calculation once you've made it. The relationship between "uninterested," "interested," and "committed" visits is usually an exponentially declining curveyou have a great number of uninterested visits, a smaller number of interested visits, and a much smaller number of committed visits at any given time.

7.10.2.4 Percent committed visits.

Committed visits are those visits where a visitor is looking at a relatively high number of pages, usually more than 10 for business sites. Most measurement applications provide the data you need to calculate this KPI in a "path length" or "depth of visits" report (see "Percent Interested Visitors" above for the details about making the calculation). For most lead-generating sites, the greater this percentage, the better the news.

7.10.2.5 "Stickiness" for key pages.

The stickiness of the first page in a visit should keep the visitor interested and encourage him to click more deeply into the site. Built from two page reportsthe entry page report, describing the number of visits that begin at a given page, and the single-access pages report, describing the number of visits in which the page is the only one a visitor seesstickiness is one minus the ratio of single access to entry pages:

1.00(Single Access Page Visits / Entry Page Visits)

The result of the calculation will be a percentage, and higher percentages are better than lower, indicating greater stick on the page in question. It is highly recommended that you make this measurement only for important landing pages like your home page, your campaign landing pages, and the top five percent of entry pages from search engines [Hack #43].

Like many of the other KPIs described in this hack, page stickiness provides an indicator of changes in audience make-up. If the "stick" of a key entry page drops suddenly, many of your other KPIs will likely be affected. Also, make sure not to just set-and-forget this listkeep an eye on your entry page report and make sure to adjust which pages you track if you change your marketing campaigns.

7.10.3. Other Important Measurements

In addition to the KPIs discussed here, you should track the number of visits you're getting from your top 10 referring sites, your top 10 entry pages, and the top 10 search keywords visitors are using to find your site. If you have internal search, track the top 10 internal searches as well.

All of the aforementioned measurements, while not technically KPIs, are important enough to content sites that they should be delivered with the performance report. For a sample key performance indicator worksheet, built in Microsoft Excel from the measurements recommended in this hack, visit the author's web site at http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/kpi_worksheet.