Web Site Measurement Hacks

Key Performance Indicators for Advertising and Content Sites

Companies that make money from online advertising should be primarily focused on depth of visit, visitor retention, and loyalty.

Content sites generally make money by selling other companies access to their visitor base, usually in the form of some type of advertising unit impression. Regardless of the specific strategy for presenting the ad—banners, rich-media, text, email—advertising buyers always look to get their message in front of the right audience the right number of times to generate that all-important “click.”

Because the audience is so important, the key performance indicators for content and advertising sites are primarily focused on visits and visitor loyalty. Build a report similar to Figure 7-10 that you automate and send out to anyone responsible for the relationship you have with your audience or your advertisers.

Figure 7-10. Advertising KPIs and raw data

Basic Key Performance Indicators for Content Sites

The following key performance indicators should be considered core to the regular reporting for any content or advertising site. Each assumes a constant period of time—for example, the previous day or the previous week, unless otherwise noted.

Average pages viewed per visit.

Defined simply as the total number of pages viewed divided by the total number of visits to the site, average pages viewed per visit ...