Inaccurate, unfiltered, unsegmented data and the failure that follows

Flowers

a 3-minute read

Analyzing data might seem intimidating. Reams of data and endless numbers can be overwhelming even to look at, let alone to try and understand. But what if we told you that by ignoring website data, you are also ignoring opportunities for increasing revenue? 

Interpreting data does not have to give you a headache. Here’s why: if you cannot pin down what is going on, it is usually because of one or more of these three reasons: 

  1. Your data is inaccurate
  2. You are not filtering your data
  3. You did not segment it

Inaccurate Data 

Inaccurate data means you are not tracking your conversions correctly. For example, it could be a code that:

  • Is not triggering,
  • Is over-triggering on a web page,
  • Is not being tracked at all. 

Businesses that invest millions of dollars into their sales funnel, without correctly setting up their analytics, are wasting resources. Furthermore, they will never achieve the outcome they are hoping for. It’s like buying a Ferrari and then driving it blindfolded, hoping you will make it to the grocery store. You are simply not going to make it. 

The same applies to your sales funnel. You could have an advanced omnichannel conversion funnel that will wow everyone who sees it. But if you did not set analytics correctly, it won’t bring you any closer to achieving your goals.

Unfiltered Data

Unfiltered data is just as bad as inaccurate data. This problem happens more often with businesses prone to investing heavily in social media marketing and broadly-targeted advertising. With time, they start seeing an inverse correlation between their traffic and their conversion rates. This means that their traffic is increasing, but their conversion rates are dropping. 

This problem occurs when we don’t filter bounce-traffic from non-bounce traffic. Social media channels and brand awareness paid campaigns often bring non-targeted, low-intent traffic to your website. Consequently, this dilutes your conversion rates and makes it look like they are going down.  If you want to get an accurate picture of what is really going on, you need to filter out non-bounce traffic. 

Unsegmented Data

Unsegmented traffic is probably the biggest reason why people fail to boost their conversion rates. We almost don’t want to share it because it’s one of our secret weapons for finding optimization opportunities that no one ever looks at. But, since you are a part of our inner circle of special members, we have decided to let you in on our trade secrets.

Your customers are not all the same. They come from different channels, campaigns, and countries. They use different devices, browsers, and so on. Sometimes, you might have a segment that drags down the overall conversion rate of your website. One of the most important things when analyzing data is segmentation; remember that averages can be false friends

Let’s dive into an example:
Standard reports on demographics display the data of our overall traffic. This makes it easy to assume that those who visit our site the most are also our target markets and our actual customers. Segmenting our data by converters can tell us a different story.

A chart displaying the number of sessions' dependence of the age of visitors.

The “Sessions” chart clearly shows that most traffic comes from users under the age of 45. If we act on this data alone, we would be in for a sharp surprise. Check out the other chart.

A chart displaying the E-commerce conversion rate dependence of the age of visitors.

The “Ecommerce Conversion Rate” chart shows, on the other hand, that the strongest conversion rates are from those above the age of 45 and in particular those aged over 65! 

If our goal is to improve conversion rates, a more focused targeting of 45+ demographics would in fact be the way to go. Following the data from Chart 1 would have sent us hurtling in exactly the opposite direction.

Some Final Thoughts

The deeper you segment, the better you’ll understand what’s causing sales conversion rates to be what they are. Dig deep into your data – that’s the home of your hidden revenue opportunities.

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