Actionable analysis is hot topic in the web analytics community. But how much analysis looks forward instead of backward?
That’s the realm of predictive analytics, a little covered topic in the measurement community. I interviewed Dr. Eric Siegel, President of Prediction Impact, to introduce the topic, explain its role in search marketing and talk about the upcoming Predictive Analytics World conference (PS: use the exclusive discount code ALEXCODC09 to get 15% off a 2 day pass))
Can You Briefly Define Predictive Analytics?
Predictive analytics is business intelligence technology that produces a predictive score for each customer or prospect. Assigning these predictive scores is the job of a predictive model which has, in turn, been trained over your data, learning from the experience of your organization.
Predictive analytics optimizes marketing campaigns and website behavior to increase customer responses, conversions and clicks, and to decrease churn. Each customer’s predictive score informs actions to be taken with that customer. Business intelligence just doesn’t get more actionable than that.
Who is Using Predictive Analytics in Search Marketing Today? How?
Yahoo! was reported as using predictive analytics to select website content most suited (personalized) to each user — i.e., most likely to elicit a response, although I am not certain if this applies within their search product specifically.
Google is in the game, as covered in this Predictive Analytics World case study last February:
Predicting Bounce Rates in Sponsored Search Advertisements [PDF]
Social networking giants are targeting ads analytically: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/technology/18myspace.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
One “killer application” of predictive analytics for search is to dynamically select the landing page most likely to lead to conversion, based on what is known about the visitor the moment they first come (cookies, search string, time of day, geographical location, etc.). More generally, the business applications surveyed in the article I link to below will provide value for most business conducting search optimization.
What Tools Can Help Search Marketers Use Predictive Analytics?
Applying predictive analytics always starts with expertise. If your organization has not yet established internal competency, a good place to start is a training program, plus enlisting professional services to get you started.
The choice of tool can be made at a later stage in the process; there are a large number of options, and the choice often depends on many factors determined only the project has begun. That is to say, this is a hard question to answer – let’s hear how the vendors would address this (readily accessible at PAW’s expo).
What Are The Top 3, Highest ROI tactics Someone Can Do To Quickly Benefit From Predictive Analytics?
This article outlines the top 8 applications (tactics, positioning, etc.) of predictive analytics, at least 3 or 4 of which are applicable within or alongside search marketing: http://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/businessapplications.php
Where Are The Best Free Resources on the Web to Learn More?
Start with the Predictive Analytics Guide, which in turns links to the other main resources: http://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/predictive_analytics.php
About Predictive Analytics World
Predictive Analytics World is the business-focused event for predictive analytics professionals, managers and commercial practitioners. This conference delivers case studies, expertise and resources to achieve:
- Bigger wins: Strengthen the impact of predictive analytics deployment
- Broader capabilities: Establish new opportunities with predictive analytics
PAW’s October 2009 program is packed with the top predictive analytics experts, practitioners, authors and business thought leaders, including keynote speakers:
- Usama Fayyad, Ph.D., CEO, Open Insights, Former Chief Data Officer, Yahoo!
- Stephen L. Baker, author of The Numerati, Senior writer at BusinessWeek
- Eric Siegel, Ph.D., Conference Chair, Predictive Analytics
Use the exclusive discount code ALEXCODC09 to get 15% off a 2 day pass
