What Is An API & What Are They Good For? [Technology Explained]

 Varun Kashyap On 23^rd August, 2010
Offbeat Stuff, Technology Explained

Application Programming Interface and they say that APIs are the underlying aspect of Web 2.0.  But what does it really mean – what is an api? Let’s try to demystify the term a little.
The word to really pay attention to is “Interface”. If you have any experience at all with programming, all kinds of abstractions and contracts must be coming to your mind when you hear the word “interface” but we are more interested in the classical meaning of the term.
An interface is a common boundary between two separate systems. It is the means or the medium via which these two systems communicate.

Definition

An API is the interface implemented by an application which allows other applications to communicate with it.

Why Is It Needed?

In one word – communication. You might ask why communication is so important. Just imagine Notepad couldn’t copy-paste to and from Microsoft Word or Google Chrome. Imagine having to type each and every time although the text is already there in some other application. This is only one of the examples of communication between applications and all this communication is made possible via APIs.

What Is It Really?

You cannot run an API like you would run say a Notepad application. This is because APIs are generally invisible to the end users like you and me. APIs are carefully thought out pieces of code created by programmers for their applications that allow other applications to interact with their application.

APIs are specially crafted to expose only chosen functionality and/or data while safeguarding other parts of the application which provides the interface. Creating an API is indeed time well spent, because ultimately the more applications that interact with your application the more popular it becomes.

An excellent example is Twitter. Most people prefer their favorite Twitter client instead of the web interface. You can interact with Twitter whether you are using a mobile phone, a smart phone, an iPod or a computer. This has been made possible by the excellent Twitter API.

What Is It Good For?

As we have seen, APIs facilitate communication allowing different applications to communicate effectively with each other. So these are really well suited for extending a platform and for mashups. We have already seen Twitter as an example of how APIs are useful in extending a platform. When you combine data or functionality from more than one application to create another application, you have essentially created a mashup.

Such mashups are extremely popular on the Internet these days. The Internet thrives on communication so it is an ideal place to take advantage of APIs. It is a common practice to expose part of your functionality or data as an API to others on the Web. They can then tap into what you offer, combine it with what they (or someone else) offers and then provide improved and added functionality to their users.

Yelp for example has data on restaurants, hotels, shopping destinations and other local services but it would be a wasteful and tedious job if they set out to create their own Maps engine to let users know where the various destinations are. So instead they tap into the Google Maps API and plot their data on top of it, thereby increasing the utility of their service to the end user. This is a typical use of an API.

Popular APIs You Can Use Or Try

APIs are all over the place. The most popular ones are the Web APIs like Google Maps API, Twitter API and the Flickr API. These are not the only ones though. You can find a complete, classified and searchable directory of APIs at Programmable Web and WebMashup. Here you can see the level of interest in an API, what services are provided by the API and which services are making use of the API.

How you actually use an API depends upon your needs and your level of expertise. You might want to create the next big thing on the Internet, in which case you would most likely need to program for the Web using languages such as PHP, ASP.NET, Java or Python. A good starting point is to visit the official API page for the service you choose. Look for libraries others have written in the language of your choice. Usually these libraries make your job a lot easier and faster. Twitter for example mentions a number of these libraries on its API wiki. You can also find tutorials, official documentation and best practices on these pages.

APIs have existed in one form or another for a very long time. The first communication between cooperating applications may or may not have been through an officially documented API, but nowadays they are an important component of your application especially if yours is a Web application.

Have you ever created or used an API? We would love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS)

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) is a descriptive term for symptoms purportedly caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields.^[1] Other terms for IEI-EMF include electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), electrohypersensitivity, electro-sensitivity, and electrical sensitivity (ES).
Although the thermal effects of electromagnetic fields on the body are established, self-described sufferers of electromagnetic hypersensitivity report responding to non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (or electromagnetic radiation) at intensities well below the limits permitted by international radiation safety standards.
The reported symptoms of EHS include headache, fatigue, stress, sleep disturbances, skin symptoms like prickling, burning sensations and rashes, pain and ache in muscles and many other health problems. Whatever their cause, EHS symptoms are a real and sometimes disabling problem for the affected person.^[2]
The majority of provocation trials to date have found that self-described sufferers of electromagnetic hypersensitivity are unable to distinguish between exposure to real and fake electromagnetic fields,^[3][4] and it is not recognized as a medical condition by the medical or scientific communities. Since a systematic review in 2005 showing no convincing scientific evidence for it being caused by electromagnetic fields,^[3] several double-blind experiments have been published, each of which has suggested that people who report electromagnetic hypersensitivity are unable to detect the presence of electromagnetic fields and are as likely to report ill health following a sham exposure, as they are following exposure to genuine electromagnetic fields, suggesting the cause to be the nocebo effect.^[5][6][7]

Contents

• 1 Symptoms and severity
• 2 Prevalence
• 3 Scientific evidence and etiology
  • 3.1 World Health Organization
  • 3.2 Studies
• 4 Diagnosis
• 5 Possible treatment and symptom alleviation
• 6 Conferences
• 7 See also
• 8 References

Symptoms and severity

A 2001 survey found that people related their symptoms most frequently to mobile phone base stations (74%), followed by mobile phones (36%), cordless phones (29%) and power lines (27%). The survey was not designed to find any causal connection between electromagnetic field exposure and ill health.^[8]
A report from the UK Health Protection Agency said that self-described "electrical sensitivity" sufferers have symptoms that can be grouped into two broad categories: facial skin symptoms and more general, non-specific symptoms across a range of body systems. The facial skin symptoms and their attribution to visual display units was mostly a Nordic phenomenon. The report pointed out that it did not "imply the acceptance of a causal relationship between symptoms and attributed exposure".^[9]
Recently a smaller group of people in Europe as a whole and in the USA have reported general and severe symptoms such as headache, fatigue, tinnitus, dizziness, memory deficits, irregular heart beat, and whole-body skin symptoms.^[10] A 2005 Health Protection Agency report noted the overlap in many sufferers with other syndromes known as symptom-based conditions, FSS (functional somatic syndromes) and IEI (idiopathic environmental intolerance).^[9] Levitt proposed ties between electromagnetic fields and some of these 20th-century maladies, including chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War syndrome, and autism.^[11]
Figures from Carlsson et al.^[12] show that 1.9% of people report much annoyance from visual displays and fluorescent lighting. 2.4% report much or some annoyance with both any electrical factor and also chemicals or smells. A 1991 study by William J. Rea concluded that there is "strong evidence that electromagnetic field sensitivity exists".^[13]
Those reporting electromagnetic hypersensitivity will usually describe different levels of susceptibility to electric fields, magnetic fields and various frequencies of electromagnetic waves (including fluorescent and low-energy lights, and microwaves from mobile, cordless/portable phones), and Wifi with no consistency in the severity of symptoms between sufferers.^[14] Other surveys of electromagnetic hypersensitivity sufferers have not been able to find any consistent pattern to these symptoms.^[8][15] Instead symptoms reflecting almost every part of the body have been attributed to electromagnetic field exposure.
A minority of people who report electromagnetic hypersensitivity claim to be severely affected by it. For instance, one survey has estimated that approximately 10% of electromagnetic hypersensitivity sufferers in Sweden were on sick leave or have taken early retirement or a disability pension, compared to 5% of the general population,^[15] while a second survey has reported that of 3046 people who experienced 'annoyance' from electrical equipment, 340 (11%) reported 'much' annoyance.^[12] For those who report being severely affected, their symptoms can have a significant impact on their quality of life; with sufferers reporting physical, mental and social impairment and psychological distress.^[8]

Prevalence

The prevalence of claimed electromagnetic hypersensitivity has been estimated as being between a few cases per million to 5% of the population depending on the location and definition of the condition.
In 2002, a questionnaire survey of 2,072 people in California found that the prevalence of self-reported electromagnetic hypersensitivity within the sample group was 3% (95% CI 2.8–3.68%), with electromagnetic hypersensitivity being defined as "being allergic or very sensitive to getting near electrical appliances, computers, or power lines" (response rate 58.3%).^[16]
A similar questionnaire survey from the same year in Stockholm County (Sweden), found a 1.5% prevalence of self-reported electromagnetic hypersensitivity within the sample group, with electromagnetic hypersensitivity being defined as "hypersensitivity or allergy to electric or magnetic fields" (response rate 73%).^[15]
A 2004 survey in Switzerland found a 5% prevalence of claimed electromagnetic hypersensitivity in the sample group of 2,048.^[17]
In 2007, a UK survey aimed at a randomly selected group of 20,000 people found a prevalence of 4% for symptoms self-attributed to electromagnetic exposure.^[18]
A group of scientists also attempted to estimate the number of people reporting "subjective symptoms" from electromagnetic fields for the European Commission.^[19] In the words of a HPA review, they concluded that "the differences in prevalence were at least partly due to the differences in available information and media attention around electromagnetic hypersensitivity that exist in different countries. Similar views have been expressed by other commentators."^[9]

Scientific evidence and etiology

World Health Organization

Following a study conducted in 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that:

EHS is characterized by a variety of non-specific symptoms that differ from individual to individual. The symptoms are certainly real and can vary widely in their severity. Whatever its cause, EHS can be a disabling problem for the affected individual. EHS has no clear diagnostic criteria and there is no scientific basis to link EHS symptoms to EMF exposure. Further, EHS is not a medical diagnosis, nor is it clear that it represents a single medical problem.^[1]

Studies

Although individuals who report electromagnetic hypersensitivity believe that electromagnetic fields from common electrical devices trigger or exacerbate their symptoms, it has not been established that these fields play any role in the cause of these symptoms.^[20] Exposures are to intensity levels below those generally accepted to cause physiological effects, and the diverse physiological effects reported are not what would be expected from high intensity electromagnetic fields.^{[citation needed]} Sufferers and their support groups are convinced of a causal relationship with electromagnetic fields, but presently the scientific literature does not support such a link.^[20] Some professionals consider electromagnetic hypersensitivity to be a physical condition with an unclear cause, while others suggest that some aspects may be psychological.^[1][3] Reviews have suggested that psychological mechanisms may play a role in causing or exacerbating EHS symptoms.^[21] Research has also shown neurophysiological differences between sensitive individuals and controls. This may reflect either a psychophysiological stress response to participating in the study or a more general imbalance in autonomic nervous system regulation.^{[1][22][23][24][25]}
In 2005, a systematic review looked at the results of 31 experiments testing the role of electromagnetic fields in causing ES. Each of these experiments exposed people who reported electromagnetic hypersensitivity to genuine and sham electromagnetic fields under single- or double-blind conditions.^[3] The review concluded that:

The symptoms described by 'electromagnetic hypersensitivity' sufferers can be severe and are sometimes disabling. However, it has proved difficult to show under blind conditions that exposure to electromagnetic fields can trigger these symptoms. This suggests that 'electromagnetic hypersensitivity' is unrelated to the presence of electromagnetic fields, although more research into this phenomenon is required.

Seven studies were found which did report an association, while 24 could not find any association with electromagnetic fields. However, of the seven positive studies, two could not be replicated even by the original authors, three had serious methodological shortcomings, and the final two presented contradictory results. Since then, several more double-blind experiments have been published, each of which has suggested that people who report electromagnetic hypersensitivity are unable to detect the presence of electromagnetic fields and are as likely to report ill health following a sham exposure, as they are following exposure to genuine electromagnetic fields.^[5][6][7]
One of the studies which Rubin et al. reviewed, known as the Essex study, received some criticism for its methodology and analysis, and the authors responded in full to these initial criticisms.^[26] The authors noted that their study says nothing about the long-term effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields, but those affected generally claimed to respond to the fields within a few minutes.
In January, 2010 Rubin et al. published a follow up to their original review which included 15 experiments done since the last original review, bringing the totals up to 46 double-blind experiments and 1175 individuals with claimed hypersensitivity. The study confirmed the results of the original, claiming "no robust evidence could be found" to support the hypothesis that electromagnetic exposure causes EHS. The review also found that the studies included did support the role of the nocebo effect in triggering acute symptoms in those with EHS.^[27]
In 2008, another systematic review reached the same conclusion as Rubin et al.^[4]
A 2005 report by the UK Health Protection Agency concluded that electromagnetic hypersensitivity needs to be considered in ways other than its etiology; that is, the suffering is real, even if the underlying cause is not thought to be related to electromagnetic fields. They also wrote that considering only whether electromagnetic radiation was a causative factor was not meeting the needs of sufferers, although continued research on etiology was essential.^[9]
In 2002, some controversy over the causal relationship was demonstrated by the Freiburger Appeal, a petition originated by the German environmental medical lobby group IGUMED, which stated that "we can see a clear temporal and spatial correlation between the appearance of [certain] disease and exposure to pulsed high-frequency microwave radiation", and demanding radical restrictions on mobile phone use.^[28] To address some of these concerns, and others, Hocking advised in a 2006 WHO proceedings that the test type and duration should be tailored to the individual, and that washout times are needed to prevent a carry-over effect of previous exposure.^[29] However, in 2005 the World Health Organization concluded that there is no known scientific basis for the belief that electromagnetic hypersensitivity is caused by exposure to an electromagnetic field.^[1]

Diagnosis

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is not currently an accepted diagnosis. At present there are no accepted research criteria other than 'self-reported symptoms', and for clinicians there is no case definition or clinical practice guideline. There is no specific test that can identify sufferers, as symptoms other than skin disorders tend to be subjective or non-specific. It is important firstly to exclude all other possible causes of the symptoms. Researchers and the WHO have stressed the need for a careful investigation. For some, complaints of electromagnetic hypersensitivity may mask organic or psychiatric illness and requires both a thorough medical evaluation to identify and treat any specific conditions that may be responsible for the symptoms, and a psychological evaluation to identify alternative psychiatric/psychological conditions that may be responsible or contribute to the symptoms.^[1][30]
A WHO factsheet also recommends an assessment of the workplace and home for factors that might contribute to the presented symptoms. These could include indoor air pollution, excessive noise, poor lighting (flickering light) or ergonomic factors. They also point out that "[s]ome studies suggest that certain physiological responses of [electromagnetic hypersensitivity] individuals tend to be outside the normal range. In particular, hyper reactivity in the central nervous system and imbalance in the autonomic nervous system need to be followed up in clinical investigations and the results for the individuals taken as input for possible treatment."^[1]

Possible treatment and symptom alleviation

For individuals reporting electromagnetic hypersensitivity with long lasting symptoms and severe handicaps, treatment therapy should be directed principally at reducing symptoms and functional handicaps. This should be done in close co-operation with a qualified medical specialist to address the symptoms and a hygienist (to identify and, if necessary, control factors in the environment that have adverse health effects of relevance to the patient).^[1]
Those who feel they are sensitive to electromagnetic fields generally try to reduce their exposure to electromagnetic sources as much as is practical. Complete avoidance of electromagnetic fields presents major practical difficulties in modern society. Methods often employed by sufferers include: avoiding sources of exposure; disconnecting or removing electrical devices; shielding or screening of self or residence; medication; and complementary and alternative therapy.^[8]
The UK Health Protection Agency reviewed treatments for electromagnetic hypersensitivity, and success was reported with "neutralizing chemical dilution, antioxidant treatment, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acupuncture and Shiatsu".^[9] It was noted that:

The studies reviewed suffer from a combination of the small numbers of subjects included and the potential variation both within and between study populations. Little information is given as to the attributed exposures of the subjects. These factors limit their general applicability outside the immediate study group. For those studies where detail was available, only two were placebo controlled [Acupunture and nutrition intervention].

It was also noted in the review that success may have more to do with offering a caring environment as opposed to a specific treatment.

A 2006 systematic review identified nine clinical trials testing different treatments for ES:^[31] four studies tested cognitive behavioural therapy, two tested visual display unit filters, one tested a device emitting 'shielding' electromagnetic fields, one tested acupuncture, and one tested daily intake of tablets containing vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium. The authors of the review concluded that:

The evidence base concerning treatment options for electromagnetic hypersensitivity is limited and more research is needed before any definitive clinical recommendations can be made. However, the best evidence currently available suggests that cognitive behavioural therapy is effective for patients who report being hypersensitive to weak electromagnetic fields.

Some Americans with the condition have moved to the United States National Radio Quiet Zone where wireless is restricted.^[32][33]

Conferences

In 2004 the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a workshop on electromagnetic hypersensitivity.^[34] The aim of the conference was to review the current state of knowledge and opinions of the conference participants and propose ways forward on this issue. The meeting was conducted by the WHO International EMF Project as part of the scientific review process to determine biological and health effects from exposure to EMF. The purpose of these workshops is to bring together expert scientists so that established health effects and gaps in knowledge requiring further research can be identified. EHS has been a particularly contentious issue for a number of years.

See also

• Arthur Firstenberg
• Electromagnetic radiation and health
• Mobile phone radiation and health
• TCO Certification for CRT monitor emission
• Wireless electronic devices and health
• Wi-fi - sub-section Safety

Ockham's Razor Principle

Occam's Razor

Ockham's razor (sometimes spelled Occam or Ockham), principle of economy or parsimony principle (lex parsimoniae), is attributed to William of Ockham (1280-1349) methodological and philosophical principle, according to which:

     "equal, the simplest explanation is usually correct."

(Spanish) 

Navaja de Ockham

La navaja de Ockham (a veces escrito Occam u Ockam), principio de economía o principio de parsimonia (lex parsimoniae), es un principio metodológico y filosófico atribuido a Guillermo de Ockham (1280-1349), según el cual:

"en igualdad de condiciones, la explicación más sencilla suele ser la correcta".

Multichannel Analytics- Tracking Online Impact Of Offline Campaigns

Multichannel Analytics- Tracking Online Impact Of Offline Campaigns

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Admit it, you secretly live in the fear of your Senior Management finding out that your online greatness is less a result of your online campaigns and more a result of the tons and tons your company has invested in the real world.
The real world. "Offline" to you and me. :)
We tend to often overlook the pesky offline real world. Sooooo booorrring ! (Say that with a Paris Hilton'ish brush off. :)
I think most of it is not malicious.
For one thing it is really hard to measure. For another thing your "online" presence is probably three geeks (says the proud geek!) living in Seattle and your "offline" presence is 15,786 people in the company with power concentrated in New York and Atlanta. Hard to coordinate and get "them" to listen to us and pay attention to us.
But the world is not online or offline, it is nonline (hat tip to David Hughes for that magnificent term). One of these day everyone will get that.
Meanwhile you are the smart one, know that it is important that our "online analytics" morphs into true Multichannel Analytics, i.e. non-line analytics.
Recently we had covered how to measure offline impact of online activities.
In this post, dedicated to Sandra Dowker, we'll cover the reverse: how to measure the online impact of offline campaigns / activities.
Then you'll have a blue print for doing nonline analytics: Offline -> Online -> Offline .
Why should care about offline at all?

For most companies radio, tv, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, retail stores, call centers, etc still form a bulk of their business advertising and marketing expenditure. All these touch points have a online impact (intended or not).
The online channel often, though not always, can be a lower cost channel. Showing exactly how to use it (which campaigns, mediums, products) and for whom (visitor personas, geographies) and why (recession baby!) will ensure your job security and the channel's security as well.
Know that pesky "direct" (or in some web analytics tools: "unknown") bucket that you never seem to be able to understand? Many of those visitors are certainly "url typers", but depending on your business a good chunk of them could be visiting as a result of your offline activities. Give them due credit.
Culturally there is no better way to get your company (HSN or NFL or Dell or B&H Photo & Video or 1-800-Flowers or….) to pay attention to "lowly and under appreciated" web analytics than show you can quantify the online impact of their massive (or little) offline spend.
I have never known a better strategy then to understand and align yourself with the largest money maker in your company (and no its not online). So there.

Convinced?
Sure you are.
If it is not the enticing prospect of understanding the data better then it has to be craving to be loved by your greater organization. :)
So what's the problem here?
Like in the case of the offline impact analysis, the problem here is also one of the missing primary key (see that post please if you don't know what this is).
Our goal is the figure out how to tie your visit to our website due to a stimulus from a offline campaign. How do I know that it was a tv ad that drove you to the site or a magazine article or a banner by the side of a road etc.
Once you have collected that piece of data you can do any of the other analysis you want for that offline to online traffic stream, be it conversion rates or site abandonment rate or task completion rates or even non-ecommerce outcomes.
Let's get going. . . .
Tips for measuring on-line impact of the offline channel:
Here are the most common offline-to-online movement channels and how to collect data for end-to-end analysis of each:
#1 : Use redirects (vanity url's).
The grand daddy of them all. Plaster your billboard (or magazine article or tv ad) with a easy to remember url and boom (!) you got yourself some tracking.
A magazine ad with the call to action Visit www.usequickbooks.com redirects to www.quickbooks.intuit.com/tracking_code=newsweek_dec_2008 The rest of the analysis is a piece of cake (simply segment out visits with that tracking code).
A box of 12 krispy kreme doughnuts to your IT person will ensure all redirects are coded with the correct tracking code.
If you are super cool like my former employer then you will have web based interface where the Online or Offline Marketer can attached a tracking code to any url, hit save and be in tracking heaven!
Another example:
www.dell.com/tv
(today, dec 22 here in Maldives) redirects to
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/tv?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&keycode=6Vc94&DGVCode=TV&dgc=TV&cid=11510&lid=985367
Note the amount of specific tracking that the folks at Dell have attached do that redirect. Bravo folks!
Contrast that to HP which has a ton of tv ads running and has a working redirect that leads to no trackable information:
www.hp.com/tv
to
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/home.do
Missed opportunity.
In closing it is a crime of the highest proportions if your magazine, catalog, tv, radio, bus, billboards are:

1) not using easy to remember vanity urls and
2) ensuring these vanity urls are permanent redirects and that
3) they are encoded with the correct tracking parameters (version of the ad, name of the magazine, location of the billboard, offer in the radio ad, etc etc).

That was not hard right? You are on your way to measuring online impact of your offline channel!
[I can sense the Smarty Pants amongst you snickering at the prospect of data pollution because people posting your vanity url's online. That is the reason #2 above is important. Permanent redirects (301's) will pass the referrer's data to your website. You can then split out online referrals from the offline referrals (offline will have a blank referrer).
For example the Analysis Ninja at Dell will easily be able to split out visits from my blog from clicking the links above, www.dell.com/tv, and easily exclude. Now stop snickering.]
#2 : Use unique redeemable coupons / offers codes.
Pretty much all multichannel merchants now do something similar to this. . . .

The offline mediums (a magazine in this case) carry unique promotion (or offer or config) codes that must be typed into a form on the website. This allows those visits to be tracked as being from a external "motivation".
This works well for tv, magazines, radio, catalogs and other such mediums where it is easy for people to remember the codes.
For example the ads for www.1800flowers.com in the NYC Taxi Cab I was riding close to thanksgiving asked me to use the coupon code taxi to get $5 off a $50 order. It was easy enough code for me to remember it and use it.
www.qvc.com and www.hsn.com also tend to use these types of tracking mechanisms as one of them tools in their arsenal to track people who buy on the site while watching the tv show (or later).
Catalogs for pretty much every major or minor company, including yours I am sure, is using this exact strategy as well by providing unique coupon or offer codes.
Bonus Tip: Another great strategy is to use the same coupon code between your channels. For example you are giving $65 off the Apple Ipod Touch. Your ads / catalogs / tv campaigns can say something like "call 1800 Hot Hot Now or visit Hot Hot Now . com and use the code ipod65".
The benefit of this is that you are providing people a choice in terms of channel preference (use the phone or the site if you want) but since the code is the same you can track it delightfully later. This helps you understand channel preference by media type (tv / catalog / radio) and also by product type (electronics / food / meds etc) and by region (what's up with people in Florida 100% using the phone channel to order their Viagra) etc etc.
#3 : Use online surveys / market research.
On this blog we have often talked about using onexit surveys (4Q or others) to understand Primary Purpose, Task Completion Rates & Segments of Discontent (see: Three Greatest Survey Questions Ever).
You can easily adopt that methodology to ask two more questions of your website visitors:
"Which of the following were the source of your visit to our website?" [The answers can be: A tv ad, A radio spot, A google (:) search, You received a catalog etc, wordsmith your options.]
and
"What is the likelihood that as a result of a visit to our website that you'll make a purchase?" (or sell your kidney etc) [The answers will be something like More likely, Less likely etc.]
These two simple questions, drop down single choice, will help illuminate both the drivers of visits to the website (and a real chance here that you'll explain your very high "direct visits" number here) and also the preference in terms of the purchase channel (and of course you can use this for tech support or other non ecommerce websites as well, just twist the second question a smidgen).
In our online to offline article I had talked of the possibility of using primary market research to understand outcomes that happen offline. You can also complement surveys like the one above with primary market research to understand channel use by your customers.
#4 : Correlate traffic patterns with offline ad times / patterns.
My wife was watching HSN the other day (that is how hard it is to find something to watch on tv in the age of 900 channels!) and saw Wolfgang Puck talk about his genius kitchen knives and a "extra special deal just for you right now for only $19.99 plus shipping and handling". (Imagine that with a Austrian accent.)
So Jennie of course went to the website instead of the phone and two minutes later (well a week actually) we were proud owners of Wolfgang Puck limited edition extra special for a limited time only with a chopping board knives (with knive covers!).
Now this is not a unusual customer behavior. Offline media stimulus causes us, lemmings like, to run to the site and do stuff.
Yet it is extremely rare that a Web Analysis Ninja sit down and overlay the company media plan on top of the traffic patterns and deduce the impact online of the offline media spend.
Why not?
Sure you have to beg, plead, and practically sleep with someone to get your hands on the comprehensive media plan for the company. But take one for the team and do what you have go.
Once you have the magazine / tv / catalog / postal mailings / radio / billboard plan for your company then do the correlations with your website traffic and see what the impact is.
My tip would be not to just look at overall traffic (or All Traffic) for the site, you may or may not detect something. Correlate it with your Direct Traffic. You might see a sudden spike in traffic there. Or with Direct and Search (organic or paid) referrals. When you do stuff on tv / radio / retail stores people search (what can I say!).
I had covered exactly this strategy in this post: Excellent Analytics Tip #12: Unsuspected Correlations Are Sweet! You can find out exactly how to execute this analysis in your company from that post.
Here is a picture of the correlations that I had shared there (for one company who ran radio campaigns and the resulting impact, not just directly from visits from the vanity url mentioned in the radio ad but also from Direct Visits, Branded Search etc, very impressive, and surprising, holistic outcome):
Please see that post for detailed explanation and guidance.
Of course it is always most optimal to identify causality as well (because correlations don't always mean causality). The keywords you drill down when you see the search spike perfectly matching your offline campaigns for example, that has intent. Or you are perhaps running the survey I just mentioned, that will show causality. Or you sold a bunch of Puck knives exactly when, or slightly after, the tv ad ran, that will indicate causality.
Do that.
UPDATE: #5 : Use the power of controlled experiments!
Jim Novo's comment below reminded me that I forgot to add this super awesome way to measuring multi channel impact.
I had covered it as a key strategy in my multi-channel analytics post, tip #6 for measuring impact of online to offline outcomes.
Please see that post for more details. I share stories about using newspaper inserts or conducting geographically isolated experiments in retail stores (or fast food restaurants) etc.
The strategy works for on-line to off-line, and it works even more brilliantly for off-line to on-line.
.
There you go. Four Five simple things that anyone can to to get started on their journey to identify online impact of their offline strategies.
Remember your goal is to identify the complete picture: Offline -> Online -> Offline.
Those of you who have my book, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, will know this handy dandy reference picture from page 235… it shows how to track your nonline world efforts and capture the key pieces of data to do true multichannel analytics:

You can use this multichannel value analysis framework to plan out how you will make sure you are passing the various primary keys and forth and also use all possible techniques at your disposal.
Ok now your turn.
What are the strategies that you have use to measure online impact of your offline campaigns? Have you used any strategies above? What has worked for you?
Please share your experiences, your best practices and tips.
Thanks.
PS:
Hello from the absolutely gorgeous Maldives, more specifically the Conrad Rangali Island. It is lovely here, warm, the staff are wonderful, snorkeling is great (and I am committed enough to all of you to still squeeze in a, hopefully, valuable blog post!).
Here are some pictures. . . .
This is one of the two islands that forms the Conrad:

You take a sea plane from Mali to get there, this is one of the island resorts from the air:

A typical sunset:

Lots and lots of snorkeling, absolutely wonderful, and my one high was running into a 4.5 ft shark. It passed by my nose, I was absolutely petrified, it was not [Tweet]. Here's a small one close to the shore:

Tiny little hermit crab, hard trying to get this close to it without scaring it:

Other than that lots of personal time (also hard to photograph):

Hope your holidays are fun wherever in the world you are.
Ok, don't forget to share your online to offline analytics tips using the form below!

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Everything You Know About Conversion Rate Optimization Is Wrong Everything You Know About Conversion Rate Optimization Is Wrong

Conversion Rates

Everything You Know About Conversion Rate Optimization Is Wrong

By Larry Kim March 17, 2014 Posted In: Conversion Rates Comments: 17

171
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Conversion is a key element in your paid search strategy; after all, if you're not actually turning lookers into buyers at a high rate, what are you advertising for? Conversion rate optimization enables you to maximize every cent of your PPC spend by finding that sweet spot that convinces the maximum percentage of your prospects to take action.
But what is a good conversion rate? If you're already achieving 3%, 5% or even 10% conversion rates, is that as high as you're going to go?
We recently analyzed thousands of AdWords accounts with a combined $3 billion in annual spend and discovered that some advertisers are converting at rates two or three times the average. Do you want to be average, or do you want your account to perform exponentially better than others in your industry?
Through our analysis of this massive amount of data on landing pages and conversion rates, we were able to identify some common traits of the top converting landing pages. What do they have that you don't? Believe it or not, there isn't much standing between you and conversion rates double or triple what you're seeing today. But the way you’re going to get there is totally counter to typical conversion rate optimization wisdom.

In this post, you'll learn a step-by-step, replicable process for boosting your conversion rates, all backed by data insights from the best (and worst) performing advertisers in the market. Our recent conversion rates webinar is available in full at the end of this post. Today, we'll cover:

• Why Conventional Wisdom Around Conversion Rate Optimization is Silly
• What Is a Good Conversion Rate?
• How You Can Replicate the Success of Top Landing Pages

Are you ready to find out why everything you thought you know about CRO is wrong? Here we go…

Why Conventional Wisdom Around Conversion Rates is Silly

Learning that the experts you've been listening to all along are wrong is a bit like learning for the first time as a kid that mascots aren't real. Underneath that fluffy suit there was just a sweaty unshaven guy. Everything you've learned about conversion rate optimization is a bit like that: shiny and pretty on the surface, but seriously lacking in substance.
How is everyone getting it so wrong? Primarily, if you're singing the same song as everyone else, you can really never be anything more than average. When all of the gurus are all preaching the same optimizations, and all of your competitors are listening to them, how are you supposed to stand out?

The Classic Conversion Rate Optimization Test is Silly

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Great Conversion Rate Optimization Fairy Tale. Once upon a time, a self-professed marketing guru told you it's really important that you optimize your site. They shared one example where the author changed the button color, or the font spacing, or the image. Lo and behold, the advertiser's conversion rate jumped by 2-7%.

Amazing, right?! Um, no, not really. These are really basic, run-of-the-mill A/B testing best practices. Yes, you should be doing these optimizations on an ongoing basis, and you're probably going to see small, single-digit increases in your conversion rate – but it's not likely to shoot you into the 10% or greater conversion bucket.
Let me show you what happens with those gains generated by these small tweaks on your page. Here's an example of a landing page split test; the gray line on the bottom is the first page version we were running. The blue line is the second version we ran against it. In the beginning, the new page far outperformed the old. Awesome, right?

Except as you can see, the gains were not long lasting. In fact, the "better" page would eventually plateau. We began running 20 to 30 tests at a time and saw this pattern across our tests. We call this a premature testing dilemma. You see an early lead but shortly down the line, the early lead disappears.
This isn't true all of the time, of course. However, we found that in the majority of cases, small changes like line spacing, font colors, etc. = small gains. If you want big, serious, long-lasting conversion gains, you need to move past these spikes that last only a couple of days or weeks.
Why does this happen? Often, it's because the total volume of conversions you're measuring against are low to start with. If you're looking at 50, 100 or even 200 conversions across your entire test, small changes can seem more impactful than they really are. A couple of conversions might mean a 4% conversion increase if there are only 50 conversions total, because your sample size really isn't big enough to start with.

It's Time to Stop Moving the Chairs Around

When it comes to landing page optimization, you can stay really busy doing small things that have little impact. It's like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to move past this mentality to the big tactics and optimizations that will dramatically change your performance and fortune.
First, we need to know:

What is a Good Conversion Rate?

Hint: it's a lot higher than you may think.
Conventional wisdom says that a good conversion rate is somewhere around 2% to 5%. If you're sitting at 2%, an improvement to 4% seems like a massive jump. You doubled your conversion rate! Well, congratulations, but you're still stuck in the average performance bucket.
In this analysis, we started with all accounts we can analyze and went back a period of 3 months. We removed those that didn't have conversion tracking set up properly, those with low conversion volumes (<10 conversions/month), and low volume accounts (<100 clicks/month), leaving hundreds of accounts for our analysis. We then plotted where the accounts fit in terms of conversion rate.

So what is a good conversion rate? About 1/4 of all accounts have less than 1% conversion rates. The median was 2.35%, but the top 25% of accounts have twice that – 5.31% - or greater. Check out the far right red bar – the top 10% of AdWords advertisers have account conversion rates of 11.45%.
Remember, this isn't for individual landing pages – these advertisers are accomplishing 11.45% conversion and higher across their entire account.
Clearly, this isn't some anomaly; this is perfectly attainable. If you're currently getting 5% conversion rates, you're outperforming 75% of advertisers … but you still have a ton of room to grow!

You should be shooting for 10%, 20%, or even higher, putting your conversion rates 3x to 5x higher than the average conversion rate. Aspire to have these landing page conversion rate unicorns in your account.

But Conversion Rates Are Lower in My Industry…

That's entirely possible. We segmented conversion rate data by industry to see whether these insights held true for all marketers. Here's what we found in an analysis of four major industries:

There's a lot of flux there; e-commerce has a far lower average conversion rate, especially compared to finance. However, check out the Top 10% Conversion Rates. They're 3 to 5 times higher than the average for each industry, so we can see that the rule holds across the board, regardless of industry.
The flip side, of course, is that if you're in a high-performer industry like finance, 5% really isn't a fantastic conversion rate. If you're comparing yourself to the average across all industries, you're really deluding yourself into thinking you're doing better than you are. In truth, the top 10% are doing almost five times better.
Even if the average conversion rates are lower in your industry, the top advertisers are outperforming you by 3-5x or more.

The Top 10% of Landing Pages: What Makes Them Tick?

What do these top 10% of landing page unicorns look like and how are they killing the competition the way they are? We went through 1,000 landing pages and performed a qualitative analysis, in order to find the common traits among the best performing advertiser landing pages in the market.
Here are my top five tips to help you reach landing page unicorn status:

1. Change the Offer

Across all of the high-performing landing pages, we saw massively creative and differentiated offers. Companies often have a default offer, their go-to, which may be the same or very similar to what all of their competitors are doing. Lawyers, for example, will offer a free consultation. Software companies will offer a free trial. They're unimaginative and not very creative.
How can you get creative with your offer? In our case, we realized that offering prospects a free trial of WordStream software really wasn't very imaginative or compelling. We had to think outside the box (don't you love that phrase?) and come up with something different and unique; something more tangible and compelling than just sending them to a software trial to find their way around.

What we came up with was our free AdWords Grader, which actually gives people an account evaluation report, with recommendations to help them improve their AdWords strategy. This was a HUGE turning point for us. Prospects loved it and conversions went through the roof.
So how do you know if your offer stinks? If your conversion rate is stuck at 2% or lower, you're not there yet. But the real way we figured out how our offer stunk was by asking our customers. We added one form field on our landing page form to ask people what they wanted our help with – and it wasn't a free software trial.
Brainstorm, ask your customers, and come up with more unique offers to test. You'll never know which one is the winner until you try some new offers out.

2. Change the Flow

Sometimes, you're putting up barriers to conversion without even realizing it.

In the above example, you can see the first landing page version and just how much information people had to provide before they could download the software trial. Clearly, this was too much for many prospects. It was daunting and discouraging – not the kind of user experience you want on your landing page.

Here you can see their new landing page iteration, which turned out to be an exponentially better performer. They've changed the flow so that anyone can download and install the file. At the last step, the user is asked to register the software. At this point, they've already spent 10 or 15 minutes with the software and are far more likely to invest the time in completing the information form.
This was actually so effective that they were overwhelmed with conversions. They ended up backing off slightly and using the registration to find more qualified leads, by asking for the information one week after the download, once their prospects had time to sit and get to know their software. Changing the flow helped them boost conversions, but also manage lead quality in a far more effective way.
Here's another great example, where the advertiser realized their landing page offer didn't necessarily speak to the person who would be performing a search. In their case, a loved one or friend might be seeking help.

This advertiser decided they would let the visitor choose their own flow. This was incredibly effective not only for conversion, but also in segmentation for their remarketing and lead nurturing efforts.
So what's the takeaway here? Find the flow that works best for your prospects and use it to boost conversion rate and qualify your leads.

3. Use Remarketing as a CRO Tool

On average, 96% of the people who visit a website will leave without ever converting to a lead or sale. Remarketing helps you get in front of these people with targeted, relevant messaging as they take part in other activities around the web, like email, watching YouTube videos, using social networks or searching for information.
Check out my post at Moz for a deep dive into this incredibly effective tactic.

4. Try Out 10 Landing Pages to Find 1 Unicorn

Let's talk about effort for a minute. What do you need to put into CRO to find your own unicorn landing pages? To understand this, let's look at the relative abundance of these top performers:

Sometimes you get lucky, but if you want to achieve these top 10% landing pages across your account, you need to replicate the above steps multiple times and perform testing on an ongoing basis.
On average, you should be testing four unique landing pages – with varying offers, flow and messaging – to find that one awesome landing page. If you want to find a unicorn landing page – that top 10% page that sees your conversions reaching 3-5x the average – you need to test at least ten landing pages.
Here, we've analyzed an e-commerce account with 1000 unique landing pages. About a third of traffic goes to the top most-trafficked landing page in their account. When we dig deeper, we see that about 80% of traffic goes to just the top 10% of landing pages.

You don't need to make thousands and thousands of landing pages. You need to find the top performers you already have and focus your efforts there. How can you improve their performance? Cut the fat, stop wasting time on the low performers – in fact, just get rid of them. If you have just one great landing page, it's smarter to focus your efforts there.
Here's more proof that burning the midnight oil creating dozens or hundreds of landing page variations isn't the best use of your time:

Here, we've plotted out tens of thousands of accounts by conversion rate vs unique landing pages. We don't see a strong correlation between increased number of landing pages and increased conversion.
If you're after the top performers, quantity does not necessarily equal quality.

5. F%@# Conversion Rates

Wait, what??

Stay with me here. Higher conversion rates, on their face, seem awesome. However, if you're converting less qualified leads, you're actually throwing MORE money away, because those leads cost you money.
I want you to focus on landing page optimizations like the above that move you in the direction of higher quality, more qualified lead generation, not just more conversions.

Key Takeaways

So what have you taken away from this? I hope you can get the following to stick and use these tips to guide a more holistic, effective conversion rate optimization strategy – the kind that will boost your conversions, but bring better lead quality, as well.

1. Most landing page optimizations are like moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic. Small changes = small gains.
2. Insanely focused and strategic landing page optimization brings 3-5x the conversions AND improves lead quality.
3. In some industries, even 5% conversion rates aren't that impressive. If you're stuck in the 2-5% conversion rate bucket, you have a ton of room to grow.
4. Get creative with your offers and test multiple different offers to find the one that resonates best with your audience. If you want to get really crazy (you know you do), find different offers that can help you qualify leads in the process.
5. Identify the obstacles keeping prospects from converting and get those roadblocks out of the way by changing the flow. Test different variations to find out exactly which path to conversion works best for your audience.
6. Use remarketing to recapture people who showed intent but didn't convert.
7. Test smarter, not more often. You need to test 10 unique landing page variations to find 1 top performer, but this goes far beyond changing a font color and calling it a landing page variation.
8. Trim the fat in your account and ditch your lowest performers. Focus your energies on the top 10% of landing pages that earn 80% of traffic.
9. Always, always keep your eye on the prize, which is making more sales or generating leads most likely to convert to sales. Don't let high conversion rates take precedence over lead quality or you're going to spend more qualifying leads. You need to find the sweet spot where everything works like a well-oiled machine.

You made it! For all the awesome from our recent conversion rate optimization webinar, see the full video below:
If you missed our last webinar, make sure you check out The Secrets Behind Ads with 3x the Average CTR. Our goal is to help you get every aspect of your AdWords account working at peak performance.
Now go forth confidently, young marketer, to slay competitors and wow prospects with your newfound conversion optimization knowledge. Give our free AdWords Grader a spin to see exactly where you're at with your current landing page strategy, then start making smarter changes that will rocket you past your competition.
And as always, if you have any questions about our data, strategy or the tips outlined above, fire away in the comments!