Posted Response:

While in principle I disagree with Matt, I see where he is coming from with the “engagement” metrics being very subjective. But as Steve pointed out, “As a consultant using your tools it’s our responsibility to make or save our clients money. I often find that in order to do that I have to do a lot more than simply measure conversion funnels because all that does is show low hanging fruit which will only give you so much (and only works for some sites).”

One can test until they are blue in the face, but at some point we have to answer the questions: “why is this not working”. You cannot do this without measuring some form of engagement. Leaders in this industry don’t become leaders by just giving up after the last test; they figure out a way to answer questions. They try to understand the why.

While I agree with Matt’s statement about building a better mouse trap, you also can’t catch a mouse without looking at the right information….all of the right information. While 1 metric can determine absolute success (how does this make me money), it can never answer the questions “why”, “how”, or “so what.”

As Steve said, looking at the problem through on KPI is worthless. I would also add looking at them without the right context is also worthless. Is 5 seconds or 5 minutes the right time-on-page? The answer completely depends on the context. 5 minutes on a checkout page or spending 5 seconds watching a 6 minute video can both give insight into how a person engages with the content/website.

Someday the discussion of what defines “engagement” will become a thing of the past and be replaced with the next new idea. The methods themselves will stay and evolve as we test, evaluate, and test again (basically how web analytics itself has evolved). Again, at some point logic must take part and realize that by nature “engagement” is somewhat subjective, but can be qualified when put into the right context. If web analytics were as simple as just conversions, most web analytics platforms would be a single page with a pass/fail reading.

The world is not always as black or white as we might like. It is our responsibility to make sure that we maximize our client’s money. As thought leaders in the industry, it is also our responsibility to make sure that we are looking at new ways of explaining what is happening on the website. The most recent way of doing that is by trying to define and measure engagement. It’s not a fad; it is an evolution of the industry… the fad is more likely the way we view/measure engagement.

Look for other post around the individual topics addressed in the response (why engagement metrics matter, why we can’t rely on just one, and data – context = no data) in the future….as soon as I have them hammered out.

Technorati Tags: Web Analytics, web site engagment

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