Green 15Group 15 Data and Insight Report

Executive Report

A review of the Squared website and the activity of prospects that are potential targets for the Squared Online business objectives to maximise conversions has been undertaken by Group 15

Mobile Reporting:Understanding Mobile usage and the fundamental shifts in user behaviour is a key part of Squared’s online strategy. With mobile sessions becoming increasingly prevalent, and as users become more accustomed to purchasing via their mobiles, it would be wise to optimise this channel to ensure usability is maximised, navigation is slick and sharp, and conversion paths are optimised. Given that desktop sessions continue to be the most used device for browsing and converting on wearesquared.com however, allowing and encouraging users to return to the site after browsing on their mobiles remains an important consideration. Highlighting sign-up paths for mobile visitors will allow Squared to effectively retarget new visitors at times when user’s propensity to convert is higher.

Traffic Source Reporting:Traffic source analysis shows that LinkedIn is currently the best performing source. As a future growth channel we recommend an in depth review and analysis of this channel. As a professional network, LinkedIn provides the perfect opportunity for Squared to attract visitors, as it is relevant to support career further education. Suggestions for generating more traffic from LinkedIn are: running targeted LinkedIn campaigns and finding specific groups based on individuals digital interests. This supports the framework of the T-shaped marketer. Traffic levels and prospects can also be enhanced by students adding Squared recommendations on LinkedIn at the beginning of the course. Other similar social channels and referral activity should also be considered; targeting channels aligned to the growth in the Squared Alumni, Squared community and other digital business networks, will enhance the brand and provide leads which also provide effective direct conversion paths

Location Reporting:Squared Online has an international audience, a review of interaction by location is paramount to understand the growth areas and the restrictions that may be present from a UK based offering, both in time and language. In terms of potential growth, India was recorded as the 3rdhighest geography for sessions recorded and 81% are new visitors. The important data to be noted is that this location was recorded as the one with the highest conversion rate and the least bounce rate. Visitors also seem to have a significantly higher than average session duration too. We recommend in depth research to understand why the interest from the area is triggered reflected in their keen interest to date.

Conversion Reporting:Conversions are strong for Squared with a high proportion of overall conversions coming from direct or organic; we have looked at how consumers interact and the pathways they take on their journey to convert. Our recommendation focuses on efficient conversions and developing prospects whose journey will be direct. Paid search is also a fundamental part of the marketing mix to engage consumers at different touch points. We recommend testing messages and pages to disrupt and reduce paid interactions and drive more efficient conversion paths. This will be integrated with all other traffic sources to ensure activity enhances direct conversions and cost efficient channels for the future.

AdWords Reporting:All AdWords campaigns had a conversion rate of approximately 30% and generated 3,442 new leads. Both CPC and CPM campaigns had a positive contribution rate, although there a number of campaigns with high bounce rate, which included Zero Click Value keywords which needs to be revisited. The conversion rate of campaigns related to the Google Squared brand indicates that the brand itself is still not highly positioned in the market place, since the CR for brand related keywords is 26.79%, lower when compared to the site average conversion rate (39.43%). In order to generate more leads and attract new prospects we recommend evaluation of the performance of campaigns whose Bounce Rate was higher than the Average Site Performance, which provides an overview on underperforming campaigns.

The data used throughout this report relate to the period from Feb 1st to Apr 30th 2014

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Green 15Group 15 Data and Insight Report

Mobile Report Analysis

Data Points:

- There has been an overall growth of 3.47% in total sessions over the last 3 months, but mobile has increased 33%, whilst desktop has dropped 4.76%.

- The proportion of mobile sessions has increased 28.54%, whilst desktop has dropped 7.95%

- Mobile has had a consistently higher bounce rate compared to desktop over the last 3 months (averaging 65.9% compared to desktop average of 50.3%).

- Despite seeing a 112.62% increase over the last 3 months in the number of completions on mobile, it still only contributes an average of 16.84%. However, mobile’s proportion has grown 32%, whilst desktop has dropped 6.79%

Insights:

- The session growth suggest a growing trend for users to access Squared Online via their mobile device –hence more focus should be applied to optimising user experience and maximise mobile conversion.

- A high bounce rate is usually indicative of a slower page speed (caused by slower mobile internet and page-size issues), poor navigation (one not optimised for touch-based browsing), and users being dissatisfied with the information.

- Mobile’s lower conversion rate suggests that people may still be hesitant to convert on their mobile device, be that due to poor page speed, not trusting their mobile internet connection or the time of day when they’re browsing. The proportion increase however suggests that people are becoming more inclined to convert on mobile.

Recommendations:

- Mobile landing pages should be optimised further to create a better mobile experience. This would involve larger calls to action and improved navigation flows to allow easier transition from page to page and throughout the website. Another consideration is introducing infinite scroll techniques on mobile pages to improve site speed. This may help to reduce bounce rate, as page elements are only loaded on users scrolling.

- There are arguably 2 elements to help improve conversion from mobile devices. The first involves direct conversion from the mobile – requiring larger, more prominent calls to action, and perhaps even a more aggressive conversion area immediately on the home-page. The second involves the ‘assist functionality’ of mobile - having a larger call to action of ‘Remind Me’ or ‘Sign Up’ will encourage users to re-visit the site on a desktop, and allow Squared to retarget them at time optimised for conversion.

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Green 15Group 15 Data and Insight Report

- Testing different flows of information will help Squared Online see which sequences of information drive the best performance. Depending on if it is a new or repeat visit; it will be worth changing the flow of information with a view to optimise conversion or sign up.

Traffic Source Analysis

Data & Insights:

Direct Traffic

- The majority of visitors come to the website directly. Over the last 3 months, the number of visitors has increased steadily suggesting greater brand awareness due to paid media activity, social engagement or other ATL activities.

- There are two session peaks (shown in the line graph, below right) on Feb 2 and April 9 which could relate to a CV library being added or updated, or another event taking place that day. The effect raised the session value 600% compared to normal levels.

Google/Search Engine Traffic:

- The organic Google search trend is positive. The site is potentially better recognized in search engines and becomes more relevant.

Social Media:

- Facebook referrals have a high bounce rate compared to other traffic sources; this could be due to a number of reasons e.g.an attractive proposition/message but a poor landing page with irrelevant content.

- Compared to the previous period most social media channels perform negatively. Looking at the past 3 month however, LinkedIn is the most promising social media channel in terms of generating traffic.

Recommendations:

- Analyse the exact cause of the session peaks in February and April 2014. Can these events be replicated again or provide insights into possible site improvements. It is also worth checking the content on Facebook – the high bounce rate from Facebook referrals suggests the content may be misleading compared to the landing page. Likewise, the landing page content needs to be regulated more strictly so as to reduce the propensity to bounce, and improve the user experience.

- We recommend work on the organic search results using on page optimization to help reduce the negative impacts of bounce rate (which has shown to be approximately 53%) and more in-depth keyword analysis to ensure relevancy to search queries. The marketing investment across channels should be considered periodically, so as to ensure marketing spend is optimised across all channels (for example, advertising on source pages may have to be reduced, as source pages provide very little traffic).

- Historically, social media are not a strong generator of traffic. However as a professional network, LinkedIn may be the perfect environment for advertising professional education services & courses. We recommend building this channel through targeted LinkedIn campaigns or run more specialized groups on LinkedIn e.g. Squared Search, Squared Marketing Strategy, Squared Mobile so we can target people based on their specific interest.

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Green 15Group 15 Data and Insight Report

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Green 15Group 15 Data and Insight Report

Location Analysis

Data & Insights:

- The GA report reveals that over 56,000 sessions were recorded, of which over 68% were ‘new’ visitors with an average of 2.16 pages per session and a bounce rate of over 53%.

Visitors based on location:

- US has recorded the highest number of new users (87%) and also has the highest bounce rate (71%) and also records a low conversion rate of 20% (average) and this has been reducing over time, whereas the UK has the most recorded visitors and also a healthy conversion rate of over 41%.

- Interestingly, India has been recorded as the 3rd highest geography for recorded sessions and 81% are new visitors. The important data to be noted here is that this location has recorded as the one with the highest conversion rate and the least bounce rate. Visitors also seem to have a significantly higher than average session duration too suggesting interest in the area and or their further in depth research due to their keen interest.

- An analysis of UK visitors shows the following results:- London records 46% of total sessions, with 19380 sessions, followed by Manchester - 1097 sessions making up only 2.6% of total sessions, and both cities have over 60% new users and enjoy over 40% conversion rate. There is however a significant gap difference between these 2 cities.- Edinburgh has the second highest conversion rate of over 45% of just 65% new visitors.

Recommendations:

- Noting the highest conversion rates coming in from India, it would be beneficial to have a targeting and traffic budget increase over the social media and AdWords campaigns - which should also see a substantially effective conversion based performance campaign. The same could be done with Ireland - with its low bounce and high conversion rates.

- Analyse why the US has such a high bounce rate even when 81% of visitors are new to the site.

- Average conversion rate is 41.65% in the United Kingdom, with some Cities that have a higher than average conversion rate. We can explore increasing budget and bids in marketing campaigns in AdWords for these specific cities further by mapping out a list of these in order to maximize effective conversions per £. - (Notably the examples of high traffic cities worth targeting include (with their respective conversion rates): Woking (63.27%); Slough (54.84%); Northampton (53.93%); Bristol (53.76%); Luton (53.33%); Derby (53.28%) and Oxford (52.83%)).

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Green 15Group 15 Data and Insight Report

Conversion Report Analysis

Data & Insights:

Multi-Channel:

- A review of conversions showed a total of 22,288 conversions, of which 3,169 (14%) were assisted conversions

- 49% of conversions are direct, showing a strong marketing strategy. Organic search is also a major contributor with >22% of conversions. Demonstrating that Squared are successfully engaging via SEO & keywords search criteria.

- Referrals are an influential channel, 15.97% of all assisted conversions. Linked-in provides the greatest number of conversions 5.32% from all referral channels. As a growing platform this medium may provide further opportunities

- AdWords are an effective part of the conversion mix, the Brand (Squared & Google) and Marketing focused AdWords drive 405 (57%) of assisted conversions and should be continued. AdWords also form an important segment of assisted conversions 652 (20.57%)

- Remarketing playing an important part >20% of AdWords assisted conversions, understanding the timing of ads in the time path is an important consideration. Other contributors include Social media (8.91% conversion rate), display (4.22%) & email (3.27%).

Conversion Paths:2 interactions 3 interactions 4 Interactions

- The conversion path helps to understand behaviours and shows prospects:-

- Often repeat the same habits returning to the original source, direct or organic - Paid search as a primary touch point shows consumers will engage again (>5% with 2 interaction & 4.9% on 4 interactions). - Social network features across all 2 – 4 interactions and drives direct conversion- Referrals are a strong direct source

Recommendations

- Referrals present an opportunity to build leads that will convert from an efficient source. Linked-in shows promise in terms of 2 stage interactions, therefore it is recommended to focus on social channels.

- Paid search is used repeatedly on 2 & 4 interactions. It is an important channel yet it is recommended to disrupt this behaviour and drive more efficient paths. Instead of consumers using paid as a navigation tool we propose testing pages & messages that will navigate consumers to the relevant information for them and drive > direct conversions.

- Brand &Digital Marketing ad words are driving assisted conversion traffic & are effective in driving conversions from remarketing. Enhancement of this channel to build prospects and convert leads by testing patterns in path length

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Green 15Group 15 Data and Insight Report

interactions could enhance conversion from this support channels (in line with budgetary considerations and recommendations from the AdWords analysis).

AdWords Report Analysis

Data Points

- In the reporting period between 1st Feb and 30th April 2014 all AdWords campaigns generated 10,691 visits, i.e. 18.9% of the overall traffic site (56,524 total visits).

- 67.32% of these sessions were from unique visitors, which eventually converted into 3,442 new leads.

- The total cost of all AdWords campaigns for this reporting period was of £14,065.12 at an average CPC of £1.5.

Key Insights

- AdWords campaigns had a conversion rate of approx. 32%, thus 1 in 3 visitors converted following a CPC or CPM campaign.

- The campaigns with the highest Contribution to Goals involved keywords related to Digital Marketing (57.62% CR) & Marketing/Digital Marketing course (69.57% CR).

- Keywords related to the Squared Brand, although contributing to the Completion Goal by 12.20% had a low CR (26.79%), indicating the need to creating stronger brand awareness.

1. Recommendations

- Ultimately, in order to generate more leads and attract new prospects, we suggest the following activities:

- Remove all 31 Zero Value Click Keywords that created a £159.7 loss, for instance marketing distance learning/ /online marketing manager/ marketing classes/etc.

- Reduce the bid for all campaigns with the Highest Bounce Rate compared to Average Site Performance, in order to lower keyword positioning , attract more targeted audience, deliver higher conversions’ rates and by lowering bounce rate for such keywords (High BR vs. ASP).

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