How do I measure the effectiveness of PersonaQuest?

We know the importance of web analytics and having metrics that you can work with. At the most basic level you want to know if the custom content you show to a visitor segment actually results in a better response rate than not showing the custom content. Within each segment you can specify the percentage of visitors who should see the custom content, e.g. 80%. The visitors in the 80% group are part of the test group, whereas the remaining 20% will not see the custom content and are part of what is known as the control group. The reason for having test and control groups is that this is the scientifically valid method for comparing response rates.

In terms of metrics, PersonaQuest will send you a daily and/or weekly email that shows you how your PersonaQuest rules are performing and break down response rates between test and control groups. You can also request metrics on demand in a csv file download. Just the information you need.

More exciting perhaps is the tight integration with Yahoo! Web Analytics and Google Analytics. Use the segmentation capabilities within both tools to find good targets for using personalization and then see how it is performing – all in one place! The benefit is that you can see how your on-site personalization with PersonaQuest performs within your whole web analytics framework.

In Yahoo! Web Analytics you can track PersonaQuest rules by using Custom Actions and Custom Fields. Simply create some custom reports and bookmark them for easy analysis.

PersonaQuest in Yahoo! Web Analytics

You can track your PersonaQuest rules directly in Google Analytics in the Event Tracking section (located the Contents menu of Google Analytics).

PersonaQuest in Google Analytics

How do I implement PersonaQuest?

If you already have the standard Monitus Tools tracking installed on your site, there is not much else to do except to place a simple tag where you want your custom content to show and create the custom content. In your Monitus Tools account click on PersonaQuest. Then select a segment and follow the instruction to add the required tag to a page on your site:

PersonaQuest code in Yahoo! Store editor

Use the simple table interface to create the rules and add the custom HTML content.

PersonaQuest interface

You can preview what the custom content will look like on your site by selecting the row and entering the URL of the page that contains the tag:

PersonaQuest preview

Repeat this for other visitor segments and be sure to hit Save as you go along. Once you set a rule to Online the Monitus Tools code will dynamically display the custom content where you placed the tag on your page. Pretty simple.

PersonaQuest segments and targeting

Here are some sample visitor segments you can target:

Visitor segment Sample personalized content
First-time visitors Direct visitors to a buyers guide
Repeat visitors Show newsletter sign-up form or direct to “contact us” page
Returning customers Highlight link to order status page
Visitors from a search engine Show personalized content that matches the search keyword
Visitors who abandoned the shopping cart Display a coupon code with link to shopping cart
Visitors who viewed certain pages Display related items on the homepage that match the interest of the visitor
Geographical location of visitors Show specific shipping and tax information based on state
Time-based targeting Display different content during the week and weekends or limited time offers
All visitors Set up simple a AB test to test headlines

We have purposefully tried to make PQ easy for merchants to use so that they can launch a personalization campaign quickly by themselves, without the need to go through account managers or consultants.

What is PersonaQuest?

PersonaQuest (PQ) is an on-site personalization and targeting platform from Monitus Tools. PQ allows you to create personalized content that is shown only to specific website visitor segments. Your visitors are all unique and come to your site for a variety of reasons, so why treat them the same and show everyone the same content? Just as a targeted email campaign typically gets a better response rate than a generic email blast, understanding where your visitors are in the sales cycle and tailoring your messaging accordingly on your website makes good business sense.