Announcing Yahoo! Web Analytics 10.2

We have just released Yahoo! Web Analytics version 10.2!  This major release includes a number of new features and enhancements:

Publish Segments Specific to Network or Advertiser Entities

Previously, all segments published from Yahoo! Web Analytics to the Right Media Exchange were network-entity segments (even if the ad channel was associated with a specific advertiser entity). With version 10.2, ad channels can now be defined as specific to an advertiser level entity.

In the Right Media Exchange, segments are either associated with a network entity or an advertiser entity.

• Network entity segments can be used to target campaigns for any advertising entity and can be shared between networks using the Right Media Exchange’s audience sharing capabilities.
• Advertiser entity segments can only be targeted by campaigns for that entity (unless they are later promoted to a network entity segment).

To specify the entity of exported segments, choose Settings > Ad Channel > Ad Channel Configuration, then either add a new Right Media Exchange ad channel (if you have not yet created one) or edit an existing channel (to change it from a network to an advertiser level segment).

Redesigned Custom Report Wizard

The Custom Report Wizard has been redesigned for greater flexibility, with both aesthetic and usability enhancements. Enhancements include:

• A visible sample data grid, populated as you add dimensions or metrics.
• Metric incompatibility (notifying you if you try to create a report with incompatible metrics).
• Color coded target boxes, showing valid targets when adding dimensions or metrics to custom reports.

Progress Indicator on Reports

When generating or updating reports, a progress indicator may be displayed when appropriate.

Bulk Deletion of Downloads in Volume Export Download Center

For users who had accumulated a large number of downloads in the Volume Export Download Center, deleting each download individually was time consuming.

Users can now go to Settings > Volume Export Download Center > Download volume export reports and choose multiple downloads to delete. For each table (My Downloads, Shared Downloads, and Scheduled Mail Reports), users can now:

• Use the checkbox on the report header row to select all downloads in that table
• Select individual downloads for deletion using the checkbox at the beginning of each row

After selecting some or all downloads, click on the Delete button to remove the selected downloads.

New Report: Campaign Assists

Version 10.2 introduces the Assist Rate metric, available in both the Custom Report Wizard and the new Campaign Assists report. Each Action (whether default or user-defined) will have a corresponding Assist Rate metric. So, the Product View Action (for example) will have a corresponding Product View Assist Rate metric.

The Assist Rate metric is calculated as Assists divided by Aggregated Clicks displayed as a percentage, where Aggregated Clicks is the sum of click data imported from contributing ad systems. When Aggregated Clicks isn’t available, Clicks CCL (clicks landed) will be used instead.

The Campaign Assists report helps you understand the full “mix of campaigns” that visitors viewed or interacted with up to 45 days before performing a conversion action on your website. While other types of campaign reports credit exactly one campaign with each conversion, the Campaign Assists report reveals the series of campaign events experienced by visitors before they convert. Understanding these dependencies can help you determine the relative effectiveness of different campaigns and inform your buying decisions for future brand campaigns.

Expand Segment Targeting to Include Yahoo! Premium Display

Segments can now be published to two targets:

• Right Media Exchange – select this option to export to the Right Media Exchange.
• Yahoo! Premium Display – all segments are exported to this target by default. This option can only be modified by Yahoo! Account Management.

Read more in the Audience Definition Guide.

New Dimensions: Exit Link & Exit Link Domain

Version 10.2 introduces two new dimensions for creating segments:

• Exit Link
• Exit Link Domain

These dimensions can be used to build a custom report or to modify an existing standard report.

Please see this Product Bulletin for the complete list of changes and enhancements to the Yahoo! Web Analytics from this release.  Should you have any questions or encounter any issues please do not hesitate to leave a comment here or contact us through our Help Center.

Three Is a Magic Number

Three years ago Yahoo! Web Analytics was born out of Yahoo’s acquisition of Indextools.  During that time we have steadily worked to establish YWA as a leading enterprise web analytics solution.  This week’s 10.1 release of YWA continues that trend and the response has been tremendous!

We would like to thank all of our clients and partners for their continued support over the years.  Additionally we would like to thank all of the Yahoo! employees that have diligently worked behind the scenes on YWA.  These Yahoo’s are located throughout the world, from offices in Budapest, NYC, Boston, Hillsboro, Sunnyvale and Carlsbad.  Without their passion and dedication none of our success would be possible.  Happy Birthday to us!

YWA Version 10.1 Has Been Released

We are proud to announce that version 10.1 of Yahoo! Web Analytics is now live on all accounts.  This release of YWA includes a number of new features and enhancements.  For starters, you will see the new version listed next to your active projects in the Control Center of your account:

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Online Marketers Listen Up. There’s Gold In That Data!

Note: This is a cross-post originally from Matt Lillig’s personal blog, Matt is the Senior Analytics Lead at Yahoo!

It happens way too often and it’s painful to watch.  Extra revenue being flushed down the toilet because online marketers aren’t taking a close enough look at what their web analytics reports are telling them.  They’ve spent the time to properly implement their tracking solutions but they aren’t spending enough time in their solution looking for insights.

For online marketers, there could be a whole slew of reasons as to why they’re not paying closer attention to their web analytics data:

• Perhaps a new rep was hired and he/she didn’t realize they had the data available
• Perhaps they have a 3rd party agency managing their data for them
• Perhaps they don’t know how to analyze the data and need a consultant
• Perhaps they’re just lazy and don’t care

While there’s always reasons why one hasn’t looked closely enough, the bottom line is that you have to pay close attention to what your data is telling you so that you can capitalize on it!  Web analytics data isn’t just a bunch of numbers on a page (though it may look like it to some).  Web analytics data provides you with insights such as: who your target audience is, where your roadblocks are, whether or not you’re turning a profit, and who you should be spending your online budget with.

With that said, I want to introduce you to a good example of an online marketer who hasn’t been paying close enough attention to their search engine referral report data.  And because of this, they’re missing out BIG TIME on driving additional revenue to their bottom line.

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Yahoo! Sponsors Web Analytics Wednesday

On March 30th 2011, Yahoo! Web Analytics sponsored a Web Analytics Wednesday event for the very first time.  The event took place in the Yahoo! office in Budapest, Hungary and was host to a couple of “firsts” in web analytics social networking.

Web Analytics Wednesdays were founded in 2005 by  Eric Peterson of Web Analytics Demystified, and have become very popular in the digital measurement sector. They are organized by local hosts, paid for by generous sponsors, and enjoyed by over 10,000 people worldwide.

Speakers

Emer Kirrane, a manager at Yahoo!, spoke about community efforts in the Web Analytics industry, specifically the Web Analytics Association (WAA) and the Analysis Exchange.
Yahoo! is a founding member of the WAA, which supports education through a certification program and discounted university courses.  It also helps to drive standards and help the community shape the industry.
The Analysis Exchange works to provide free on-the-job experience to students of web analytics, or to those who want to get more experience in gaining insights from web measurement. This is done by providing free website analysis to not-for-profit organisations while the students are helped by experienced mentors.

Lefty Balogh, an SEO and PPC manager at Synchronica, spoke about mobile tracking, stressing that, with mobile becoming such an integral part of our lives, it is very important to investigate mobile measurement and supporting mobile visitors to websites.
Lefty also spoke about finding new ways to report findings to upper management – for example, have you ever considered presenting a video report?
Finally, he touched on the importance of training and gaining experience in the web analytics industry.

Áron Szanitter, project management lead at Allegroup, presented a case study on improving customer service through various web analytics tools and techniques.   He showed the attendees various ways of looking for answers to such questions as:
“How effective is each help page and section – how can we improve them?”
“Which pages and features generate the most visits to help pages – which of those visits end on the customer service online contact form?”

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