Referral Sites

Consider the marketing process. A client approaches an ad agency to help them sell more products. The agency works for weeks coming up with an integrated marketing plan to achieve the client’s goals. Everyone agrees the creative elements of the campaign are brilliant; the ads are eye-catching, the slogans are spot on and the brand is well represented. Ads, promotional materials, social strategy and email marketing calendars are all in place across a wide variety of channels. The campaign launches and sales start soaring. Obviously the client is happy, but what happens next? Does the client shake the hands with the agency and just say, “see you next time?” No! Creating the campaign is only half the battle. Sure, the results may be obvious, but now the question becomes: why?

An integrated marketing campaign is really only as good as the analytics – and subsequent analysis - that comes out of it. A concept and strategy may seem brilliant, but the data simply don’t lie. Of all the strategic places an ad was placed, which worked the best? Why did one place generate more traffic than another? This is where referral analytics come into play.

The Web Analytics Association defines a referrer as “the source of traffic to a page or visit” (2008). Essentially, this is any digital source that compels someone to visit a particular site. This can be anything from a search engine, Facebook ad, email client, or miscellaneous hyperlink hosted on another website like a blog or review. The web of potential referral sites can be huge, so it’s important for advertisers to know what’s working so they can measure and evaluate ROI across all channels.

Special Olympics New Jersey has only recently started experimenting with Google Analytics to collect data for its fundraising event websites. Without a dedicated data person on staff this has been difficult to analyze to its fullest potential, but the results so far have been interesting. Most recently, Google Analytics were installed on the organization’s Dodgetoberfest dodgeball tournament site. Event organizers only had budget for a very limited online advertising – links on SONJ’s main website, a Facebook campaign, email blasts and listings on local event websites.  

A recent article from Mashable.com explains that online advertising must meet three criteria in order to have a chance at being successful: it must be clean and simple to use, offer a clear call to action and robust incentives and include attractive, click-ready creative (Stanley, 2013). In the case of Dodgetoberfest, the online marketing pieces varied in how successfully they met these criteria. According to the Google Analytics, other than direct visitors to the Dodgetoberfest site (hosted on Kintera.org), Facebook generated the most traffic, followed by the main Special Olympics New Jersey website and finally a local township website. 

   

These referral rates indicate that the Facebook campaign did indeed generate significantly more traffic than any other source, suggesting the ads were simple, had a clear call to action, were creatively eye-catching and were appropriate for the channel/target audience.  

 

Compare that ad to the information found on the Robbinsville Township website:  

Intuition says that the Facebook ad is easier to comprehend – the Robbinsville Township ad has a lot more going on with a less clear call to action. Of course the sources themselves vary in terms of potential traffic they could generate (Facebook obviously has much more sophisticated audience targeting than a local township website), but the bottom line is that the data supports intuition.

                So why does all of this matter? For next year’s Dodgetoberfest event SONJ can look back at the data and decide exactly what sorts of places are worth investing advertising dollars online. Facebook appears to be a clear winner, but what could paid search generate? Tracking referral traffic turns intuition into hard, measurable, interpretable data that ultimately helps guide decision-making. Not only can SONJ evaluate the best sites to place their advertising, they can also adjust the creative elements to suit each channel in the most appropriate way.