Tobi explains -
Web tracking to measure success
After we have dealt intensively with search engine optimization (SEO) in the last few posts in our blog series "Tobi explains" and shown how it can be used successfully, we are now looking at another important area of online marketing: web tracking.
In this blog post, you will find out what web tracking is, how it works, what advantages it offers and what systems are available. We use two questions to explain how web tracking can help evaluate marketing activities.
You can find the video to accompany the blog post here:
What is web tracking?
Web tracking refers to the recording of the behavior of visitors to a website. The aim is to understand how they move around the website, what content they consume and whether they perform desired actions (conversions) that are considered important. A conversion can be, for example, the registration for a newsletter.
Web tracking is based on the use of so-called cookies. These are small text files that are stored on the user's end device and send data to the provider's web tracking tools and servers.
These cookies store various information about the user's website visit. This includes, for example, the pages visited, the time spent on the site, the device used and possibly also demographic data, if this is available. In addition, cookies can also collect information about the origin of visitors, such as whether they came to the site via a search engine, a link on another website or an advertisement.
This collected data can then be used to make changes to the website, improve user-friendliness or optimize the targeting of marketing campaigns.
Incidentally, since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)came into force in the EU, it has been mandatory to obtain user consent for the use of cookies and the collection of data. To ensure this, websites must provide clear and transparentcookie policies. They must inform users about the type of data collected and the purpose of its use. Users must be able to give or refuse their consent and change their preferences at any time.
If you want to analyze and subsequently optimize your marketing activities, there is no way around web tracking.
In most cases, companies are faced with two fundamental questions:
How can I tell whether my marketing campaign was successful?
Measuring the success of a marketing campaign depends on the objectives and expected results. Web tracking tools can help to analyze the success of marketing campaigns and identify optimization potential.
For example, data such as the number of products sold generated by advertising, the number of product lists and product detail pagesviewed, the average basket value and popular products can be analyzed. This data provides information on the website's potential for improvement.
In B2B, the focus is often on lead generation. Calculating the return on investment (ROI) can be more complex here. If the aim is to generate leads via a contact form, the average number of completed formsrequired to close a sale should be determined.
In this way, it is possible to determine the value of a completed form and compare it with the costs of advertisements and working time. Of course, the value of the completed forms should exceed the value of the ads and working time.
To further optimize the campaigns, you should also analyze which advertising campaigns and pages visited were most important before the forms were filled out.
How can I tell if my SEO efforts have been successful?
Measuring the success of search engine optimization (SEO) is not as easy as with advertising campaigns, as the results are often long-term. To evaluate the success of an SEO strategy, the web tracking tool can be used to examine the keywords entered that led visitors to the website. Ideally, these keywords correspond to those for which content has been optimized.
An indication of successful SEO efforts is a growing number of visitors who arrive at the content via search engines and use the desired keywords. In addition, the number of conversionsfrom visitors who have reached the site via search enginesshould also increase.
Now that the importance of web tracking and how it can be used to optimize marketing campaigns has been explained, it makes sense to look at the various web tracking systems available.
What web tracking systems are there?
Google Analytics
This is one of the best-known and most frequently used tracking tools that provides extensive data about websites and users. Google Analytics is sometimes criticized for not being compatible with the General Data Protection Regulation, but this applies to all cloud-based software products from the USA. With Google Analytics 4, IP addresses are encrypted so that data storage can be kept very low.
Matomo (formerly Piwik)
Matomo is an open-source alternative to Google Analytics that takes greater account of user data protection but has limited functionality.
Adobe Analytics
This is a comprehensive solution for large companies that offers detailed analyses and segmentation options, but is subject to a fee.
To summarize, web tracking is an indispensable tool in online marketing. It enables website operators to use a suitable web tracking tool to gain valuable information about the behaviour of their users in order to optimize their marketing activities.
In the coming weeks and months, you can expect more exciting articles from all areas of online marketing. From content marketing and SEA to social media marketing, we want to provide you with comprehensive knowledge and show you how online marketing measures need to be designed to be successful.
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All posts in the "Tobi explains" knowledge format on the topic of SEO can be found here: