I have always been fascinated with conversion optimization on a person to person level or essentially combining the physiology of the user along with real conversion data on at scale. To verbalize this clearer, conversion data is the essentially the effect behind a marketing campaign whereas user psychology is the cause.
An example of this is if a job.com pay per click campaign, so far its converting as an example at $2 cost per action. The cost per action is the effect of a certain set of traits displayed by the user upon visiting the job.com site. Pulling out and optimizing the site based the traits that certain users are exhibiting while visiting a web site is the challenge.
The initial variables I started to conjuring up were to really optimize on a user level are the following:
(A) Where exactly the user initially found and interacted with the brand aka banner ad, organic search results etc
(B) How long a user spends scrolling through the site?
(C) Precisely how long it takes the user to fill out a form once the cursor is in the box?
(D) How long (exact time) it takes them to share a piece of content from my site with their friends?
(E) How long they stay on the site upon making an action or filling out a lead? This is filed under post conversion data.
All these are example of variables that can be factored into a new terminology I like to call User Based Traffic Grading or in other words Click Grading. Tracking users that come to a site based on specific behavior traits that can be measured.
This type of technology would fit amazingly well in the direct response online marketing industry , in most instances agencies will communicate to a traffic vendor that the traffic is terrible purely based on the conversion percentage of your leads to a post conversion action like percentage of users from a marketing campaign going through the full process to receiving a car loan.
I am a firm believer that you can measure the quality of user coming to your sites before hand and then almost predict the back end conversion ratio’s based on user engagement traits.
A direct response lead is a lead that needs to be double sold, once on the front end web site and then on a call floor and some variables for conversion ratio on a call floor include”
(A) How long it takes your call rep to call that particular person.
(B) Your call reps ability to influence that person on the phone to make an action.
(C) Time of day your calling that person or your ability to just get person on the phone.
The next question you should probably ask after reading this post is how do I track the “Interest of user driven to my web site from an external marketing campaign”. This obviously can’t be measured from 6 steps away in a call center it needs to be measured in real time and on the site and at the exact point a user reaches your site.
So many times all people care about is conversion statistics such as 10 out of 100 users converted to a lead this is important but shouldn’t be the only determining factor in judging traffic quality.
If you optimize your acquisition campaigns on just the acquisition, yes you will generate more leads but you have no way of measuring the quality of individual/click committing the action without having a call center call the lead up after making the action.
Would it not be amazing to have some understanding of the users intent or overall interest in your product? On top of that, tracking that interest back to specific traffic sources that you are buying media from? Also compiling all the insight without calling that lead or without sending that lead on to your client? I am conceptualizing a raw judgment or a basis of understanding of these particular users that are coming to your site from a specific traffic source and seeing some of their actions that they are making on your site such as
(A) Scrolling
(B) Calculated Time Spent reading an article
(C) Highlighting something on the page.
Then use this new found strategic information make a determination, to beyond a doubt know if the majority of these users that are coming to your site are actually real people or not.
A user is equal to a click whereas a conversion is equal to the user being “sold” on your product if it is indeed a “real user” which if you come from the online marketing space you understand that there a lot of “fake users”.
There will be a tool very soon that will measure traffic quality by user quality/user interest and not by conversion statistics six steps away from the initial point of interest. More to come in the future.
