Tracking Mobile Device & Carrier

Version 10.3.18 of Yahoo! Web Analytics has added the ability to track, customize reports, and filter/segment based on device type. These options are available as dimensions for visitor, session, or tracking scope metrics, which should enable users to better understand and optimize the traffic received across the following four device types:

• Mobile
• Tablet
• TV
• Desktop

Additionally, as a Yahoo! Web Analytics user, you can now track, customize reports, and filter/segment based on specific carriers, makes, and models of devices.

Sample carriers and makes might include:

• Carrier: Verizon, Vodafone, China Mobile Hong Kong
• Make: Apple, HTC, Motorola
• Model: iPhone 3G, Droid, iPad 2

Tracking Mobile Operating System and Version

Yahoo! Web Analytics now supports tracking versions of the Android or iOS operating system.
These values have been added to the existing Operating Systems field (which already reflects desktop operating systems for Windows or Macintosh platforms.

Sample operating system and version combinations might include such examples as iOS 4.0.1, iOS 5.0, Android 3.1, and so forth.

New Mobile Reports

You no longer have to use custom fields and custom reports and try to approximate your mobile traffic. We’ve introduced some great new reports:

• Device Type > System > Device > Device Type
• Device Type > System > Device > Device Carrier
• Campaign by Device > Marketing > Campaigns > Campaign by Device

Note: The Campaign by Device report appears just below the Campaign by Type report, already on the menu.

Users can see Visits, Visitors, Page Views, & Actions by:

Device Type
—-Device Type
——–Device Make
————Device Model

Device Carrier
—-Device Carrier
——–Device Make
————Device Model

Campaign by Device
—-Campaign Vendor
——–Campaign Type
————Campaign
—————-Device Make
——————–Device Model

Yahoo! Web Analytics users can customize these new reports, adding or removing dimensions and metrics.  See below for a couple of examples.

—Device Type report—

—Device Type report—

Getting a facelift

We’ve taken on board feedback from users on our User Interface and we’ve made a couple of small changes. We want to make a cleaner workspace for our users and, while this is a work in progress, we’ve made a couple of changes in this release. We hope you like them!

Before

After

Since this change is a reality, we analysts need to deal with it and one of the first steps we can take is to calculate what percent of our Google search traffic is encrypted and thus not providing any keyword data.  This new metric can be called “Lost Keyword Data” and is something that should be tracked over time and included with your keyword reports.

To calculate this “Lost Keyword Data” in YWA we will create two custom segments that we will compare against each other.  One will show traffic generated by Google that doesn’t provide keywords and the other will show the total traffic sent by Google.

Start by creating a custom segment and adding two dimensions: 1. “Search Engines equals “Google” 2. “Search Phrases is empty.”

Then save this custom segment so that you can quickly apply it to reports across YWA:

Using the same technique we’ll create and save a segment for all Google searches:

Now I can use the “Compare Segments” functionality of YWA along with the two custom segments I created to directly compare the impact that encrypted searches has had:

Here is how these segments compare on a basic Visits report for the previous 12 week period:

Next we’ll export this table to Excel to calculate the percentages:

I have now quantified exactly how much impact this change by Google has had on my site.  In this instance I can see that the percentage of encrypted Google searches (Lost Keyword Data) has gone from a 1/2 percent to 6 percent from October to November!  This is certainly a trend I’ll be keeping an eye one and falls in line with what has been seen by other analysts on the sites they monitor.

General example (click on image to see full size):



However, we have not been able to support all the currencies our customers have requested and have not regularly updated the conversion rates.  We’re changing that!

This Thursday (November 10th), we’ll begin supporting all currencies tracked by Yahoo! Finance and we’ll update our rates on the first business day of each month.  We wanted to let you know in advance of the release so that you’re aware of how the change will work if you operate in more than one currency.

Note: These changes will apply to data collected from November 10th onwards and will not apply to historical data.  The Sales Details report will be unaffected.

Above your reports, you will see a new tab, called “Currency Rate”.  With the upcoming release, this will be displayed to all customers, but in future, we’ll display this only when the base currency differs from the reporting currency.

On this tab, you will see a link to the “Currency Rates used in this report”.  Clicking on this will expand the tab to display the relevant currency rates applying to the reporting period chosen.

We’re confident that this is a great step in improving our currency support at the request of customers and this move is part of our continuing progress in accuracy.

On November 17th, we’ll remove the “Look and Feel” customisation section from the YWA Consultant account settings and replace it with a “Customise Client Interface” feature which we feel is a simpler and better way of co-branding with us.

If you look in your Consultant account (in the Settings section), you will see that this feature is already available – so you can make your changes now and have them take effect following the release.

To customise your clients’ interface is simple.  You can:

• Link to your company’s logo (please note that this must be securely located – i.e. https://, not http://)
• Add some header text.
• Add links and information in the footer, such as company or support information.

We feel that this will allow us to maintain consistency across our Consultants’ accounts and make co-branding much easier.  We hope you like the change!

Note:  Following the release on November 17th – any change made through the old feature will be replaced by the standard YWA branding, so it is important to use this new function if you currently co-brand.

Customers using Yahoo! Web Analytics and importing their AdWords cost and impression data into the campaign reporting  via the AdWords API will have noticed that this data has been missing for several weeks.  Initially, we believed our developer token was expired and we re-applied for the token – this placed us in a 3-week queue.   Due to a communication break-down with Google, we have only just discovered that we missed a change in the terms of usage with the AdWords API and this has been the actual source of the delay in rectifying the problem.

We are working on rectifying this as a priority and and we are very sorry for the inconvenience we know this has cause to several customers.   We will update this post as soon as we have further information.

Update [Nov 16]: We have made a submission to Google and are awaiting their approval and re-activation of our token.  This may take a couple of days.

Using the Gender Report in conjunction with these segments, Location3 Media was able to determine some interesting statistics about this particular client’s website users.

Data from 5/01/11 – 9/30/11 from Yahoo! Web Analytics with a 95% confidence level.

It was generally known that the client’s prospective customers are typically about 55% female and 45% male, so a similar distribution would be expected for their website’s online traffic. However, the statistics from Yahoo! Web Analytics demographics data showed that western states like California and Colorado leaned towards a more even distribution between male and female web visits, while mid-western states like Georgia, Illinois and Virginia swayed much more heavily towards female visits. This is especially revealing when noting that the conversions for Virginia are still very equally distributed between male and female visitors, indicating that there may be an opportunity to better tailor offerings and information to the female demographic in Virginia.

What was even more interesting is the combination of age and gender demographic data from Yahoo! Web Analytics.

Data from 5/01/11 – 9/30/11 from Yahoo! Web Analytics with a 95% confidence level. (Conditional formatting added from Microsoft Excel 2010).

With this highly segmented data, Location3 Media can now look at their client’s data from a much more holistic perspective. Not only is the gender distribution different by region, it is also different by age range. In most regions, females have a higher percentage of 25-34 age visits and 18-24 age inquiries, whereas males tend to be slightly older, with mostly 35-54 age visits and 25-34 age inquiries.

Another interesting insight gleaned from this data was that across almost all regions, visits tended to be from older age ranges than that of inquires. This can give some insights as to various web behaviors. For example, older web users on the client’s website may be more comfortable calling for more information rather than filling out a form – phone calls would not register as an online conversion with the current setup. Knowing this, Location3 Media can suggest bolder, easier to find phone numbers with phone tracking for the client’s landing pages, specifically for campaigns targeted at an older demographic. Similarly, Location3 Media can explain to the client that campaigns targeting younger demographics with landing pages that feature simple contact forms and possibly an online chat feature would be ideal.

In addition to providing the client valuable insights on their online web user behaviors, this type of knowledge is incredibly useful for fine-tuning targeting within the Yahoo! network. For search campaigns, Location3 Media can experiment with different ad copy targeting different age ranges and genders for specific regions. For Yahoo! Network Plus, Yahoo!’s display network, Location3 Media can also do some specific targeting based on the web behaviors of these demographics.

To learn more about Location3 Media’s web analytics services, please visit their website or contact sbedford@location3.com.

We also have a special prize to give away!  We’re offering a one-day eMetrics pass worth $900 for October 19th!  Members of the Yahoo! Web Analytics team will also be attending on that day, so feel free to come and meet us and ask us any questions you have about the product.

To enter our competition, just tweet us on Twitter (@YWebAnalytics) and tell us you want to win, post your interest in reply to our Facebook post.   It’s that easy!  We’ll draw a winning name at random on Saturday October 1st.

Note: You need to be in New York or able to travel there for the conference on October 19th.  Travel expenses are not included in the prize.  The pass may not be exchanged for cash.

Please see this Product Bulletin for a listing of all the UI changes to YWA made in this 10.2.1 release.

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.