Web Analytics Course:
Traffic Source Matters

Traffic source is one of the first metrics you should measure when analysing website performance.

If you want to know who you're dealing with, you've got to know where they're coming from. Did they find your website from Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? What about a cellphone vs. a computer? Are they visiting from your neighborhood… or across the Atlantic?

All of these questions matter and can change how you gear your advertising. Perhaps you're spending countless hours optimizing the desktop version of your website when 93% of your traffic comes from a mobile device (which is not unheard of when it comes to Facebook and Instagram ads). Or maybe you're losing money by promoting your website at the wrong times. A few quick fixes can be the difference between operating in the red and profitability.

For example, here are guidelines for smart scheduling:

• Displaying ads when your target audience is working, studying, or not visiting sites will lead to lower clickthrough rates – resulting in lower returns on investments.
• The best time to show ads for adults? Break time. Around noon, a massive 43 percent of users consume content freely, browsing around without a definitive goal. This means they are more likely to watch interesting ads and allow their curiosity to take hold.
• Want to reach young people? Set your ads between 10:30PM and midnight… they're likely to be night owls! This demographic likes to stay up late and scroll themselves to sleep.

Winning the online website game means wielding data to your advantage. Small changes like knowing when to run ads can lead to big results. That's why WideAngle catalogues all these characteristics in an easy-to-use dashboard. If you're feeling lost in the dark on how to advertise effectively, this information may just be the miracle lightbulb.