Comments on: Average Cost per Visitor http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/2005/07/average-cost-per-visitor.html Eric T. Peterson's Web Analytics Demystified weblog, since 2005! Tue, 9 Mar 2010 18:22:53 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Phil Aaronson http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/2005/07/average-cost-per-visitor.html/comment-page-1#comment-7 Phil Aaronson Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:10:00 +0000 http://webanalytics.setupmyblog.com/2005/07/average-cost-per-visitor.html#comment-7 I shudder a little bit when I see "New". Its certainly important, but its confusing. Usually this is in conjunction with some time window. Like what's my average acquisition cost per new visitor THIS month or quarter or whatever. The analyst will in general have the total number of visitors for that month and the expectation is that new + repeat will equal the total. But it depends, right? You can argue that some "new" become "repeater" within the time frame. Are they counted in both camps?<BR/><BR/>And where it'll really get you no matter how careful you try to be, is in a trend report of these two. Here you're doing this same thing in a sequence of windows of time. And here you're really likely to count visitors as both new (in one time period) and repeat (in a later one) and the sum across the time periods won't cross check. Is that the phone I hear ringing? :)<BR/><BR/>Ug, I hate new :) I think we tried to introduce the concept of New, Repeat and Returning to differentiate but that sort of went over like a lead balloon.<BR/><BR/>I hate new :) I shudder a little bit when I see “New”. Its certainly important, but its confusing. Usually this is in conjunction with some time window. Like what’s my average acquisition cost per new visitor THIS month or quarter or whatever. The analyst will in general have the total number of visitors for that month and the expectation is that new + repeat will equal the total. But it depends, right? You can argue that some “new” become “repeater” within the time frame. Are they counted in both camps?

And where it’ll really get you no matter how careful you try to be, is in a trend report of these two. Here you’re doing this same thing in a sequence of windows of time. And here you’re really likely to count visitors as both new (in one time period) and repeat (in a later one) and the sum across the time periods won’t cross check. Is that the phone I hear ringing? :)

Ug, I hate new :) I think we tried to introduce the concept of New, Repeat and Returning to differentiate but that sort of went over like a lead balloon.

I hate new :)

]]> By: Xavier Casanova http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/2005/07/average-cost-per-visitor.html/comment-page-1#comment-8 Xavier Casanova Wed, 13 Jul 2005 04:13:00 +0000 http://webanalytics.setupmyblog.com/2005/07/average-cost-per-visitor.html#comment-8 If you can do it, it's best to further segment this and get: <BR/><BR/>- Average acquisition cost per new customer<BR/>- Average repeat purchase cost per customer<BR/><BR/>Acquisition/Retention are 2 important variables to consider IMHO to make this KPI useful. More actionnable too. If you can do it, it’s best to further segment this and get:

- Average acquisition cost per new customer
- Average repeat purchase cost per customer

Acquisition/Retention are 2 important variables to consider IMHO to make this KPI useful. More actionnable too.

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