{"id":256,"date":"2016-09-02T09:02:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T08:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/?p=256"},"modified":"2023-04-25T13:07:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T13:07:02","slug":"measuring-increased-traffic-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/measuring-increased-traffic-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring Increased Traffic Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content standard\"><div><\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h1>9<\/h1>\n<h2>9.2: Measuring Increased Traffic Generation<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/sponsored-by-sap.png\" alt=\"Sponsored by SAP\" width=\"113\" height=\"65\"><\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h3>One of the easiest ways an online community can attract new customers is by increasing traffic to the organization\u2019s website. This can happen in several forms. It might come via ranking highly in search engines, including links in relevant places to product items or corporate information, or simply through offering a single click-through to a place where members visit the brand\u2019s site.<\/h3>\n<p><div class=\"tweet\">\r\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=One+of+the+easiest+ways+a+online+community+attracts+new+customers%3A+increasing+traffic+to+the+organization%E2%80%99s+website&amp;url=https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/measuring-increased-traffic-generation\/\" target=\"_blank\">\r\n\t\t<h3>One of the easiest ways a online community attracts new customers: increasing traffic to the organization\u2019s website<\/h3>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"tweetButton\">&nbsp;<\/span><p class=\"tweetLink\">Click to Tweet<\/p>\r\n\t<\/a>\r\n<\/div><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"boxout\"><\/p>\n<p>One of the most common mistakes here is to use direct tracking. Here, an organization tracks how many of those who click on the organization\u2019s website from the community buy a product. This is a mistake. This is likely to include customers who would buy from the organization anyway (and could, indeed, be buying <em>less <\/em>from the organization).<\/p>\n<p>Instead, we want to measure whether the community is bringing in <em>new visitors<\/em> (e.g. people who have not visited your organization\u2019s website in the past). This shows us <em>additional value. <\/em>We then need to determine if this traffic is as likely to convert into customers as other traffic.<\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Remember here that we\u2019re not just tracking the value of whatever a first-time visitor buys. We\u2019re tracking the value of a customer over their entire lifetime with the company.<\/p>\n<p>To calculate this metric, we need to collect seven distinct metrics. All of these are relatively easy to collect:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Direct visitors from the community (shown below).<\/li>\n<li>Percentage of first-time visitors to the community (also below).<\/li>\n<li>Average conversion rate of these users into customers.<\/li>\n<li>Average order value.<\/li>\n<li>Average purchase frequency.<\/li>\n<li>Average gross margin.<\/li>\n<li>Average customer retention rate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><div class=\"cta spreadsheet\"><div><h3>Community ROI Template<\/h3><\/p>\n<p>You can drop this data into <a href=\"http:\/\/roi.feverbee.com\/\">the spreadsheet here<\/a>. We have also outlined the process below.<\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n<section class=\"content flipped\"><div><\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-909\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Measuring.png\" alt=\"Measuring\" width=\"326\" height=\"467\"><\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h2>Step One: Measuring Increase in New Traffic Attributable to the Community<\/h2>\n<p>First, we need to measure the increase in traffic to the organization\u2019s website that came from the community (or community pages). This data can be pulled from referral traffic data directly from the community over a period of time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Screenshot-2016-08-10-13.51.50.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"screenshot alignnone wp-image-482 size-full\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Screenshot-2016-08-10-13.51.50.png\" alt=\"screenshot-2016-08-10-13-51-50\" width=\"851\" height=\"353\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Very often, searching for a word within the url (e.g. community) will highlight all traffic from this source. While it might be tempting to use the number of sessions from this source, this would be wildly misleading. This would include people who have already visited the organization\u2019s website in the past and may be regular visitors.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, we wish to capture the number of new users from this source. These are additional people the community has brought to the organization\u2019s site. Using an example of a large online community which sends hundreds of thousands of visitors, but only a small percentage of them are new to the site, we can create a simple table below.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Screenshot-2016-08-10-14.00.04.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"screenshot alignnone wp-image-481 size-full\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Screenshot-2016-08-10-14.00.04.png\" alt=\"screenshot-2016-08-10-14-00-04\" width=\"1016\" height=\"113\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n<section class=\"content standard\"><div><\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"cta questions\"><div><h3>Any Questions?<\/h3><p>Don\u2019t understand? Need some help? Ask a question in FeverBee Experts.<\/p><p><a class=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/experts.feverbee.com\/t\/roi-testing-title-change\/4041\">Ask a Question<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h2>Step Two: Measure Average Conversion Rate and Deal Size<\/h2>\n<p>Now we can measure the average conversion rate of these specific visitors (or use the entire web traffic as a whole). It is far better to calculate this for this specific group of visitors as opposed to the entire site. The quality of traffic from the community might be significantly better (or worse) than current traffic to the site.<\/p>\n<p>To measure conversion rate, we can usually track this group directly using Google analytics. This won\u2019t reveal users who browse first and buy later (sadly), but it will give a good indication of the conversion rate. Next, we want to know the average spending of this group within either the year or a specific time period.<\/p>\n<p>This figure is the number of orders placed divided by the number of users who place an order via the website during this time period. This shows us the conversion rate.<\/p>\n<p>We then need to know the <em>average deal size<\/em> or total annual spending. Average deal size is usually easier to measure. You can use the average deal size (revenue\/orders per year) or ask the community how much they estimate they spend per year and use that figure.<\/p>\n<p>If we\u2019re using average deal size, we then also need to know <em>purchase frequency<\/em>. This tells us how often a member will purchase from the brand per year. Again, calculating this for community members is most accurate, but using the current customer metrics would also give a good indicator.<\/p>\n<p>We can then multiply all of the above figures to calculate the total average lifetime value of each visitor from the community, as shown below.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Screenshot-2016-09-01-11.19.13.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"screenshot alignnone wp-image-480 size-full\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Screenshot-2016-09-01-11.19.13.png\" alt=\"screenshot-2016-09-01-11-19-13\" width=\"1011\" height=\"151\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This tells us that every new visitor from the community in the first year was worth $7.71 to the community. This makes the calculation quite simple.<\/p>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n<section class=\"content flipped\"><div><\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"cta share\"><div><h3>Add Suggestion<\/h3><p>If you have a suggestion for us in this area, please let us know!<\/p><p><a class=\"button\" href=\"mailto:richard@feverbee.com?subject=Suggestion\">Get in Touch<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h2>Step Three: Multiply by Number of Users From the Community<\/h2>\n<p>Finally, we can multiply this figure by the number of users from the community to determine the total value created from increased traffic from the community, as shown below.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Screenshot-2016-09-01-11.20.17.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"screenshot alignnone wp-image-479 size-full\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/Screenshot-2016-09-01-11.20.17.png\" alt=\"screenshot-2016-09-01-11-20-17\" width=\"1013\" height=\"229\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, we know the 14,487 new users to the community are worth $111,621 to the organization (probably more, as many will purchase on the second or third visit).<\/p>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n<section class=\"summary\"><div><article><h2>Summary<\/h2><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Communities can acquire new customers to the community via traffic generation. Most community professionals should measure this as an additional benefit.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t measure users from the community, as this will include a lot of existing customers. It\u2019s important to multiply this figure by the % of these who are new visitors.<\/li>\n<li>Calculate the lifetime value of each visitor (conversion % x average order value x frequency of purchase * retention * gross margin).<\/li>\n<li>Now multiply this figure by the number of new users per month from the community to get a total value.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><\/article><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}