Briefs

By Neil Mason, The ClickZ Network, Oct 30, 2007

Wow, that was the week that was. As I write this, I've just about recovered from a three-day immersion in online marketing performance measurement and optimization. I think we used to call it Web analytics. Now that I'm back in my own time zone, I'm beginning to process some of what I saw and learned at the eMetrics Summit in Washington a couple of weeks ago.

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let me share some of the event's key takeways:

• Jim Sterne's keynote. I have heard Sterne speak many times and am always impressed. This time he challenged us to "think different." Getting us to "think," full stop, is often challenge enough, but Sterne's presentation reminded me that as an analyst you can't realize strategic value unless you also deliver tactical benefit.

• Microsoft's Ronny Kohavi's presentation on controlled Web experiments. Everyone's getting excited about multivariate testing, but Kohavi demonstrated what immense benefit you can obtain from just running simple tests on a continual basis. When evaluating those tests, don't look just at short-term gains. Look to understand longer-term value as well.