Apartment Marketers, Do you know your web site conversion numbers?
If so, what are you tracking? It is refreshing to see apartment marketers taking stock and owning their web site traffic. Some are even creating their own Branded Media. As internet marketing continues to permeate the apartment industry we need to look at web site analytics and conversion ratios. While analytics are an important starting point, web site conversions are the key metric to manage.
What Are You Going to Measure Exactly
What’s the difference between clicks, visits, visitors, pageviews, and unique page views? The visitor data in your Analytics account can be easy to misinterpret due to the many similar terms used in different reports. Below you’ll find a more detailed explanation of the terms that most often lead to questions.
Absolute Unique Visitors and New vs. Returning
Among the vast array of reports that Google Analytics provides, “Absolute Unique Visitors” and “New vs. Returning” are two that give information on what percentage of visitors your website retains. If you’re trying to understand the difference between these reports, read on.
Absolute Unique Visitors
This report counts each visitor only once and then classifies the visitor as “First Time” or “Prior Visitor.” The question asked is, “has this visitor visited the website prior to the active (selected) date range?” and the answer is a simple yes or no. If the answer is “yes” the visitor is categorized under “Prior Visitors”; if it is no, the visitor is categorized under “First Time Visitors.” Visitors who have returned are still only counted once.
New vs. Returning
This report classifies visits (sessions) by the visitor type (new or returning). So when somebody visits your site for the first time, the visit is categorized as “Visit from a new visitor.” If this user has browsed your website before, the visit is categorized as “Visit from a returning visitor.”
In other words, Absolute Unique Visitors counts visitors, whereas New vs. Returning counts visits. Still wondering? Here’s an example:
Assume the date range is May 1-31.
User A visits www.domain.com for the 1st time on May 5th and then returns to the website on 12th and 17th of May.
User B visits www.domain.com on April 8th and then again on May 5th and 12th.
Results:
In Absolute Unique Visitors: User A will be counted as a First Time (New) Unique Visitor on May 5th, and User B will be counted as Prior (Returning) Unique Visitor. User A and User B will not be counted as a Unique Visitor (either first time or prior) for any subsequent visits (May 12 and 17th).
In New vs. Returning: The visit on May 5th from User A gets counted as a visit from a “New” visitor. Subsequent visits from User A (May 12 and 17th) get counted as visits from a “returning” visitor. All of User B’s visits are counted as visits from a returning visitor.
To sum it up, Absolute Unique Visitor report counts visitors to your website (counting each visitor only once in the selected date range) whereas New vs. Returning classifies all visits (sessions) in the date range by the visitor type. The new visitor number may seem especially large if you are looking at a large date range, or if you have just recently installed Analytics on your site.
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience. He also established The Urbane Way, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured inEntrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine
Eric Brown
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience. He also established Urbane Media, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine. You can connect with Urbane_Media on Twitter. Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications; Multi Housing News Social Media Examiner Search Engine Guide
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Great points Eric!
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