Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy, Revised and Updated

HOW EBAY USES ANALYTICS TO INFORM WHAT THEY SHOULD DO, NOT JUST SHOW WHAT THEY’VE DONE

eBay has one of the largest websites in the world and, judging by the paid search ads served up with nearly every query, is one of the largest bidders on keywords. Between the paid search data about what people are searching for and what they click on and information about how visitors navigate the site, eBay has one of the largest data sets on user behavior of any site on the Web. A few short years ago, those at eBay threw most of that information away after only six months. In 2006, they realized they had a gold mine of data that could help them better understand their customers, build better buying and selling experiences, and improve eBay. Now, they protect that data vigilantly and have realigned business processes and goals to prioritize analytics throughout the organization.

According to Greg Fant, vice president of customer insights and marketing, analytics data don’t just tell eBay how it has done; they tell what it should do. Decisions that used to take weeks of one person’s opinion versus another are now data-driven. The site’s testing platform helps confirm the decisions. Using data to drive strategy was an organizational shift in solving problems that didn’t come easily. But the benefits were huge. Fant says those at eBay used to be blind to problems but now they can see issues as they pop up. Issues that used to take three to four months to track down can now be found in a week. ...