I am one of the few people who really appreciate the Revenue Per Click metric for paid (cpc) keywords and ads. In fact, I heart it. I may even carve the Tree of Luv with “RPC + JT” for Valentine’s Day. 🙂
So, what is this Revenue Per Click metric that makes my heart flutter? It’s simply the average revenue for each individual click on all of your pay-per-click keywords and ads. When your Google Analytics account is synced with your Google AdWords account – and “Destination URL Auto-Tagging” and “Cost Data” are enabled – the AdWords sub-section of reports within the Traffic Sources section becomes enabled. Within that first “AdWords Campaigns” report, you should see a new 4th tab in the main report area, named “Clicks”. This is an import of all of your top-level Google AdWords data, just as it appears in the AdWords interface.
Because Google Analytics is so awesome, the good engineers at Google have thrown in three metrics in the top row of metrics on the report table that are not available in AdWords. These are ROI (Return on Investment), Margin (which is Goal Value + Ecommerce Value, minus Cost, divided by Revenue; which I also really like), and my favorite of the three, Revenue Per Click.
As our loyal readers and subscribers to our blog will tell you, I am not a big fan of taking actions, or even thinking about taking actions, based upon the results of one metric or one statistic, with Bounce Rate being the only exception to this rule. Knowing this, you may be thinking “well, if that’s the case, how can Revenue Per Click help me?”
I like RPC in contrast to Average Cost-Per-Click, or CPC. Since you can do this in Google Analytics at the Campaign, Ad Group, or Keyword levels, you can very easily compare the two metrics side-by-side, and quickly determine the ratio of money spent (CPC) vs. money earned (RPC). This will allow you to quickly discover which Campaigns, Ad Groups, or Keywords are responsible for your (hopefully) high profit margin, or which parts of your AdWords marketing efforts need to be optimized.
For example, you may see an average CPC of $0.17 for one of your top keywords, with a click-through rate (CTR) of 9.45%. This sounds good so far, but when you look over at the RPC column, you may see $0.21, which means you are just barely breaking even in terms of profit. Having the RPC metric right there in front of you, you’ll be able to quickly glean this insight and work on figuring out why this keyword isn’t performing anywhere near as well as your other keywords (perhaps you need some landing page optimization?).
In another example, you may see an average CPC of $0.43 for a newer, product-oriented keyword, with a good 8.89% CTR. It’s RPC is literally through the roof at a high-flying $22.48! The math is pretty simple here: on average, you make $22.48 for every $0.43 that you spend. This now becomes a very subtle call-to-action that reads: “Focus more money here right now!!!
Start using Revenue Per Click today! Log-in to your Google Analytics account, click on “Traffic Sources”, then click on “AdWords >> AdWords Campaigns”, and click on the “Clicks” tab to begin making your analysis life a bit easier from now on!
When talking about Google Analytics or Web Analytics in general, some metrics and reports get seemingly all the attention (and rightfully so). Metrics like Bounce Rate, while loved by Web Analysts on all corners of the globe, are just too popular. In fact, Bounce Rate is now trendy! Do you think it’s become a buzzword as well?
Anyway, while Bounce Rate, Revenue, Goal Conversions, and Transactions are as popular as your local high-school’s starting quarterback / class president / homecoming king, there are other metrics to look at in Google Analytics, you know! These next five metrics are probably some that you’ve seen before in reports, and probably available in SiteCatalyst, WebTrends, ClickTracks, and other Web Analytics programs, although they could be known by another name in those programs.
1. $Index – This metric basically tells you what the average value of each page is on your website. It takes the amount of either Ecommerce Revenue or Goal Value that each page was responsible for, and divides it by the number of Pageviews for each page to give you a financial value in your currency of choice. You can find it by going to the Top Content report in the Content section, all the way to the far right of the report table. Log-in to GA and bring this report up in your profile, and check out what the $Index is looking like for each page. The values may be as small as a couple of dollars, to as high as a few hundred dollars per page. The Goal here is to find that page or two that has a higher $Index than most of the other pages, that also has a good amount of Pageviews. It could benefit you greatly to further optimize that page, or, to create some special offers or promotions directly on that page.
2. % Search Exits – If you have an internal search function on your website (and if you don’t, why not?), this metric calculates the percentage of people who left your website altogether, immediately after they performed a search. These people did not go any deeper into your website, or did not refine their search at all – they simply left. Think of % Search Exits as the “Bounce Rate” of your search function. Now, there is the possibility that they found exactly what they were looking for and they are going to come back later. However, if a lot of people are doing this, chances are your search function isn’t working properly, or serving up relevant results. Our loyal readers of this very blog know that that is a pet peeve of mine.
3. Per Visit Goal Value – Another interesting economics-oriented metric, found toward the right-hand side of the main report table, underneath the Goal Conversion tab. Use this type of micro-analysis to evaluate how valuable each and every one of your website’s visits are (so basically this is $Index for your Visits, instead of for the pages on your site). And, much like $Index, this number can either be very small or very large, depending on your Goal Values and how valuable each visit is to your website.
4. Revenue Per Click – Are you noticing a trend here? If you’re advertising with Google AdWords and if both your AdWords and your Google Analytics accounts are properly synched up, this very small number can tell you exactly what the name of the metric reads – the revenue that each click on your ads generated for you. This will allow you to say “Hey, Ad “C” or “Keyword X” is delivery $0.87 a click!” This can definitely place your click management strategy under a whole new light
5. Abandonment Rate – This metric is available via the Goal Abandoned Funnels report within the Goals section of your Google Analytics profile. Having the ability to view this metric should not be an issue – because every profile SHOULD have Goals and Goal Funnels. This statistic is telling you the percentage of people that are leaving your Goal Funnel at some step along the way. Chances are that they are leaving your Goal Funnel, and not coming back to complete and match your Goal. If this number is very large, you need to evaluate the way people can get to your Goals (every page along the way). Even if this number isn’t very large, you should stay on top of the path that your visitors take to reach your Goals. It’s actually very surprising to me that this metric, and even this train of thought, is very under-utilized in Web Analytics, so I feel compelled to add it to this list.
Now log-in to your profiles and check these out for yourself!
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