Michel Fortin SEO Consulting - Latest Comments in There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Cathy — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:38:55 -0000

great article, you find this a lot with beginners who don't know how to see the bigger picture value of what they're doing. Similar to sticking with a high paying cpa offer because you like the idea of getting 10 bucks per sign up when in reality a lower but better converting offer will earn u more in the long run.

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Nicholas — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:32:42 -0000

Awesome article. Thanks! :-)

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Michel Fortin — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:32:30 -0000

Maher,

Thanks. You're absolutely right. And I mentioned it two comments ago (before yours):

http://www.michelfortin.com...

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Maher — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:30:13 -0000

Great article, I would like to mention Google Analytics.. I have success stories utilizing the Goals Tool where you can Funnel and track the conversion so easily.

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Ray Edwards — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:35 -0000

Calculating customer value is definitely an overlooked metric for a lot of online businesses... and as your article demonstrates, overlooking this can be a big mistake.

Thanks for another clear, concise, and informative article.

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Work from Home Guru — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:04:36 -0000

Michel, you bring up some very good points. I have been making money online for a while now, and have tried a little bit of everything. In the past I have ran both scenarios listed here successfully, that is both the free and $1 trials. I can't stress enough that it really does come down to tracking and product. Some products convert 10 times better with a paid trial while some won't convert at all with a paid trial. Its really an impossible question to answer with one direct response, as there are just to many factors that would determine it. Thanks for the article, it really helped to refresh my thoughts a lot.

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Michel Fortin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:40:08 -0000

Not sure what your question is, Joshua. But if you're asking if Google Analytics can track this, the answer is "yes." It's one way.

In Google Analytics, click on "goals" and set up a conversion goal. In the "The Defined Funnel Navigation" section, it asks you to list the various steps (i.e., URLs) people must go through to reach a desired goal. (In this case, the "thank you" page after a purchase.)

For URLs, this includes the opt-in page, the sales page, the order form page, any upsell page in between, and the thank you page.

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Joshua U — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:32:54 -0000

How do we use this information? Would setting up multiple Google Analytic tests achieve this?

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Increase Sales Coach — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:14:25 -0000

Great point about tracking and measuring.

Another issue is that it's hard not to allow yourself to get married to a particular message or offer, and procrastinate on making the changes you need to make to produce the results you want.

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Kevin Dawson — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:39:42 -0000

Hey Michel,

My mentors constantly hammered home the #1 rule of Copywriting: don't make assumptions.

Thank you for the reminder of the necessity of tracking each element thoroughly, until you uncover the actual root cause, not just the causes you assumed it would be. This just can't be done unless you are willing to thoroughly track end-to-end.

Once again, the little extra effort, going one step beyond the normal, pays huge dividends.

Re: There’s More to Tracking than Conversion

Fred — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:56:39 -0000

Great post Michel,

All to often we get lulled to sleep with generalizations and forget that you have to test everything. Also, having the insight to look to lifetime value will give you the ability to set yourself up to dominate your market because of how this sets things up to where you can, in essence, give away the front end and drive up costs for your competitors that don't follow the concept of determining that lifetime value. Again testing is the key to getting that data.