Who’s Behind the Clicks?

Ever wonder who’s behind the clicks?  With all the big numbers media companies and interactive agencies throw at you, do you ever stop to think – who are the individuals making their mouses work?  When they came to the site, what were these people doing?  What did my advertising interrupt?

We get excited. Like super, crazy excited when clients’ campaigns reach unbelievable heights.  It’s like a party and we watch the numbers rise with no less anxiety than stockbrokers watching their client’s portfolios. No . . .  we’re even more passionate than that. It’s like a southern football game in full color. We cuss at the screen, cheerlead the numbers and yell at the top of our lungs when it scores.  Talk about percentage increase and you get my blood a-pumpin. And do we, when we watch engagement peak so rapidly, ever stop to think what each and every one of the tens of thousands was doing at the time and why they responded to the ad?

We use this icky term in project management called a “postmortem”, which is a meeting that takes place after everything got screwed up to see why it was screwed up.  Basically, it functions to cover our asses so we have a plausible excuse as to why we screwed up and can show that we learned our lesson on paper. Like an adult time out.  These can be done after a successful launch too, but rarely so.  We move on once we’ve won.  We dwell in mistakes.

I vote we dwell on what’s done right.  Dig in the clicks.  Don’t give me the demographics of your clicks – tell me why.  If they clicked on a banner on a travel site – easy answer, they were looking for you.  If they engaged in a comment string on Facebook, what was it that sparked a cluster of answers?  What were the hot buttons?  When you buy media across networks, you even have to more closely look at the message behind the numbers to learn why someone became active.

Active internet users are a community – tighter knit than you think.  There are far more passive, but still influenced, internet users that never click a banner.  This is why a lot of media is purchased by impressions – the eyes have it. Active internet users are like your Facebook friends.

Social isn’t reserved for the young – it’s the hyper active.  Of all the people you have ever met, how many of them are your Facebook friends?  Chances are the number is a lot higher than those people you actually consider a “friend.” Research shows that we have only a handful of those, but the average FB user has 120 friends.  That’s a lot more than in our close circles, but a lot less than our acquaintances throughout a lifetime.  Generally, they represent the active internet users of our group.

Even though it’s as simple as a “click” when you respond to internet banners, advertising, etc., you’re still interrupting a general mission of the internet user.  He was checking the sports stats, or she was planning a bridal reception for a friend.  Discover more about the content on the pages you were displayed on, the keywords that generated interest.  Then follow the patterns.  When they left the ad, where did they go on your site? Did they go to similar places afterward – did they come back – did they take more action . . .  how many converted into regular users/registrations/purchases?  Also, you are going to find preferences among the clickers. Search clickers are rarely banner clickers and social clickers wouldn’t be caught dead responding to “paid media”.    We’re cliquish (no pun intended).

Remember, internet marketing works best when it’s continuous and not too fragmented.  Without analyzing your clicks and who’s behind them – you are ignoring what works for you.

You’ll be running into the same clickers more than once a year.  Hopefully, you’re developing a relationship with them.  Learn more about what works, who they are and what motivates them.  Just remember, internet marketing is two-way.  It’s a conversation.  Just like dating.  You can’t keep showing your resume to the same people on a first date.  Take it to the next level, inspire more action.  Ask them to tell their friends about you, get to know their friends – rinse and repeat.

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