Delivering Six Sigma Black Belt performance to web marketers.
Thanks to Google’s Website Optimizer, the phrase “Taguchi Methods “ has become one of the hottest (and most misunderstood) in Internet Marketing right now. As an Applied Statistician, I learned that Taguchi’s methods in terms of understanding and implementing quality into a product. To Internet Marketers, the phrase “Taguchi Methods” describes a subset of Taguchi’s contribution to the design of experiments.
Within the web analytics world, I have noticed two common themes regarding the "Taguchi Methods" and how they are used within the Web Analytics Space. I was working with a client whom had mentioned they had wanted to use the "taguchi methods" in order to test the optimum pay per click ads for their keyword programs. The first thing he had confusion about is the difference between multivariate testing, A/B testing, and Taguchi functions. The second thing he asked me about was why some of the tests created through Taguchi Metho
This paper outlines my research into the use of Sequential Conjoint Analyses to perform consumer market research. Specifically, I am attempting to develop a process. To accomplish this, I researched the ‘Voice of the Customer’ and then conducted a set of Pilot Studies on my research using Conjoint Analyses. The goal of the Pilot Tests was not to provide inferential statistics on a specific market; instead it was to test that I may have identified the Critical Attributes to study, and to develop the framework of the market research process.
You are testing too many things at one time: Whether you are testing more than two pages in an A/B test, or running a multi-variable test, the more variables you test, the more samples you are going to take to get a high confidence result. The problem is that by design, MOST of the items you are testing are not the prime driver! The more you test, the larger the haystack you are going to have to look for.
If the ultimate goal of site optimization testing is to generate the maximum conversion rate, which I believe it is, then every site optimization task should be carried out until the optimum conversion rate has been discovered. When you have determined there is an area of your web site that you would like to optimize for conversion rates, it can at times be like trying to find a new job: a bunch of failures before you finally get a break. You don't send your resume out once, and if you don't get the job consider your job search a failure. Instead, you learn fro
Doctors and Lawyers, CEO's and Accountants, most high level managers have a side kick that navigates the areas they don't specialize in. In the world of Web Analytics, every Marketing Manager responsible for running analytics tests using Omniture, Google Web Optimzation Tool, or something similar needs a Six Sigma Black Belt statistician to help with desgning and analyzing the results of the data.
How many times have you set up a test only to find that no matter how long the test is run, you can never develop a high enough confidence with a result to pick a winner? When you analyze the data however, you can see that there are clear winners at intermediate steps? A good example of this is web you are running a test that requires someone to click on a "Add to Cart" button before they buy the product.
One of the first questions that I am often asked is how do I get involved in the Social Media Revolution. This is usually a result of somebody's boss telling them about "twitter" and that it's a free way to promote your business. The reality is that it's also a free way to destroy your online reputation if you don't know how to engage in social media.
Probably the most important thing to do is find out where people are talking about your company or your competition. Don't be afraid of the negativity because there are many people who will complain on the internet, especially with anonymity.
While Orthogonal Arrays have been around since the 1940’s, it was Genichi Taguchi who popularized them by making them easier for engineers to execute valid experiments. It is for this reason that orthogonal arrays have incorrectly been termed “Taguchi Arrays”. His first contribution of the linear graph made it easy for engineers to understand. His second contribution was the creation of triangular tables that made it easy to create alias structures for any design . The strength of these designs is in their ability to take a large number of factors and determine the “critical few” with as f
The Plackett-Burman is an Extreme Screening Experiment in which the researcher wants to screen out the critical main effects from the significant or trivial effects. This design is very effective if time and cost are an issue, if each main effect is equally probable of affecting the criterion measures, and the main effects have either slight or no interactions .
The Plackett-Burman Design’s strengths are that it is relatively easy to construct as well as being easy to analyze. It also allows for the study of K number of factors in only K+1 runs. This means that the seven factors in this exp
