If you provide regular performance reporting to your clients, it is important to keep it fresh and interesting. I like to ensure that I provide at least one recommendation every month that will result in a beneficial outcome such as reduced cost per click, improved click through ratio, more newsletter subscriptions, more sales, etc. etc.

Occasionally there are no changes in trends, or all volumetric data remains relatively static from one month to the next. On these occasions it can be difficult to provide the client with any compelling insight that adds value. However convinced you may be that nothing has changed, the simplest expedient of looking at different charting options or segmenting the information in different ways, will almost certainly reveal a new dimension worthy of exploration.

I recently found myself struggling to meet my own objective of providing a meaningful recommendation in every report, when I discovered an anomaly in bounce rates for referral traffic. The overall bounce rate for this source was just over 20%, however the rate for one site was over 60%. Further investigation revealed that this inbound link was from a site that was not a very good fit because it was targeting a different demographic. My client was uncomfortable with the association and an exchange of emails resulted in the link being removed. My client was delighted, and the overall quality of referral links was improved.

So what looked to be a dull and largely repetitive report turned out to provide some useful intelligence for the client.

If you have tripped over anything obscure that provided a useful insight, please comment and share your findings.