CJU Course: Doing More With The Traffic You Already Have

Posted on Nov 1, 2011 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

Many publishers spend the majority of their time and resources trying to increase the volume of traffic they receive. In this session, the focus was on how to get more performance out of the traffic you already have. The ValueClick Brands division shared the tips and tricks developed during its ten year history; highlighting what, why, and how each optimization can have impact. The speaker was:

  • Steve Neufer, General Manager, ValueClick Brands

This was pretty informative.  I really liked the direct way Steve presented the information, and it made me realize just how important usability testing is to everyone!  Steve was an engaging speaker, funny, and used great analogies to make his points.

Bullet Point Review!

  • Steve Neufer at CJU 2011Increasing traffic to an under-performing website is like adding more water to a leaky bucket.
  • What we say is we want more traffic, but what we mean is we want to earn more.
  • Traffic is a tool, not a goal.
  • Understanding your traffic.
    • A little bit of information allows you to create a hypothesis and do more.
    • What percentage of your current traffic is “productive”?
    • Where is your productive traffic coming from?
    • Resources: Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, session level conversion reporting.
    • This is easy, doesn’t necessarily cost a lot of money or take a lot of expertise.
  • Understanding your users
    • If you’re not observing actual user behavior you are missing the boat. Usability testing is a must!
    • Myths: expensive, complicated, requires expertise.
    • Resources: UsabilityTest.com, Family/Friends
    • Testing Scenario: go to Google, perform search for “Kohls coupons” and try to find a coupon that you can use the save money on your online order.
    • Testing Results: tested 20 users, most visited 8 sites, 2 successfully found a coupon, most common initial response was confusion, most common descriptor used was spam (pretty much means they’re weary).
  • Designing for Productive Users
    • Them not us: you are not your users, your users are asymmetrically savvy, your users are asymmetrically patient, trust is an issue.
    • Sophistication level may be very low but apprehension level is high, so we have to talk to them with sophistication to gain trust.
    • Unfamiliar terms: SKU, S&H, merchant, related searches, promo, next, sponsored, post.
    • Familiar alternatives: item, shipping, store, popular searches, promotion, next page, advertisement, news.
    • Be concise: what is the user supposed to look at here?
    • Be safe: why do you need my info before you answer my question? Give first, ask later.