How to do a Domain Traffic Test - Analysis 101

This articles continues directly from the previous in the series on conducting a traffic test (click here to view). I then create a summary tab which pulls all of this data together so that at a glance you can see what’s going on. Since we create these packages of analytics for clients on a regular basis you’ll have to excuse me if I refer to the testing company as ParkLogic.

In the summary, you need to know the total amount of revenue (daily) earned by the testing company and the baseline. This will provide the lift above the baseline. In the case of the screen capture there is a $190.94/day increase which has then provided a 127% uplift versus the baseline. This is quite a good result.

I then like to find out what was the maximum amount that ParkLogic was winning by per day. This is so that clients that wish to take all of the domains away can then leave the winners with us. In this case it’s $457.54 per day which isn’t that bad considering the baseline for ALL of the domains was $715.40.

In fact, if you leave the winners with ParkLogic and send all of the losers back to where the baseline source then the result should be $1172.93/day versus a total baseline of $715.40. In this case the result is a 64% uplift in revenue and only assumes that the baseline produces the same results as previously attained.

Just for the record, although I have obfuscated any client identifying data the actual numbers in this analysis is REAL.

Because I’m wanting to test apples versus applies I then conduct the above complete analysis again but ONLY for domains that have at least 80% of the traffic or more. This will help determine whether the new monetisation solution is performing. What we have found is that if there is traffic we perform, if there isn’t traffic we don’t. Seems obvious, but you’d be amazed at the number of people that don’t grasp this concept.

As an additional piece of analysis I calculate how much ParkLogic is winning by for each traffic level. In other words, for all those domains where we are seeing greater than 120% of the traffic what is the increase in revenue versus the baseline. For all those domains above 100% of the traffic, 80% of the traffic and so on down to 0%. We then create a graph to display the overall performance for each level of traffic.

Like I said, you need to get under your number….there’s a lot to this and we’ve only just scratched the surface.

We then provide a daily analysis with trend lines for revenue, RPM/nRPM, Views, URLs, CTR and EPC. This helps provide a “where have we come from” view of the testing cycle and where are we potentially headed….with the trend lines.

I’m considering running a webinar on how to run a traffic test to help domain investors pull apart the data and get underneath what it’s telling you. Please leave a comment if you would be interested in attending an online session.

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face.