Digital Analytics for Marketing - Chapter 3 PDF

Digital Analytics for Marketing, 2nd Edition Chapter 3 The Evolution of Digital Analytics and the Internet Chapter Topics Digital Analytics Digital Analytics is the study of various forms of business data to...

Digital Analytics for Marketing, 2nd Edition Chapter 3 The Evolution of Digital Analytics and the Internet Chapter Topics Digital Analytics Digital Analytics is the study of various forms of business data to improve the online experience of a business and its customers. In other words, digital analytics involve the collection, measurement, analysis, and interpretation of large chucks of data from various online resources to optimize digital marketing activities. The evolution of digital analytics took place simultaneously with Loading… the development of digital marketing. For our purposes, once Internet technology was developed, it was made to be accessible and extensible to the public. Digital Analytics History Digital Analytics is as old as the Internet, see Figure 3.1. Web Analytics is a solution for businesses that want to gather behavioral data from their websites. Web data helps businesses gain a better understanding of their customers and thus improve customer experience, which leads to benefits, such as more sales or conversions. The existing platforms were developed for webmasters and IT professionals in the early to mid-1990s to keep track of downloads, file input or output, etc. The first Web Analytics platforms were developed to analyse Web server logs and provide diagnostic readouts. Growth and Consolidation of Web Data Analytics and Social Media Analytics Beginning of Page Tagging Maturation of and TMS Web Analytics & Emergence of Web Analytics Loading… systems, [2004-2009] Social Media Digital JavaScript Analytics & Big Data [1993- [1999- [2004- [2010 - 1998] 2004] 2009] Present] Figure 3.1: Evolution of Digital Analytics A Tag Management System (TMS) is a tool used by advertisers and chief marketing officers (CMOs) to manage and organize the various tags and tracking codes that are used on their websites or digital platforms. Structured versus Unstructured Data (1/3) Structured data is data with a high level of organization, such as balance sheets (cash, accounts payable), medical devices (heart rate, blood pressure), or census records (birth, employment). Nowadays, we capture a great deal of “unstructured” or “semi- structured” data. The emergence of social media platforms such Facebook, Tiktok, and Twitter etc. has resulted in an unprecedented amount of content generation by users. In other words, tons of unstructured data is created on a daily basis. Other than the social data, unstructured data can come in various forms, including text documents, emails, social media posts, audio and video files, images, and sensor data etc. Structured versus Unstructured Data (2/3) Structured data can be processed easily in a relational database or spreadsheet. Unstructured data is information that does not exist in a row and column database. To be able to capture unstructured data, we must modify and create special tools that manipulate the data into intelligible results. Figure 3.2: Structured vs. unstructured data. Unstructured Data Structured Data Structured versus Unstructured Data (3/3) The first one (structured) makes is very easy for data scientists and perhaps business analysts to organize and extract meaning from it. The second (unstructured) does contain valuable information but it is extremely challenging to analyse it using traditional data processing techniques. Special analytics techniques are required to analyse and interpret that data. Businesses are interested in mining unstructured data because of the possible benefits of the data driven insights, such as reducing operation costs, responding more quickly to changing market conditions, and innovative market research. The Evolution of the Internet The Internet, formerly called Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) by the Department of Defense (DOD), is a global network of interconnected networks that was created in 1983 as a way for researchers to quickly and freely communicate. In 1990, the now famous computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, which opened the network for everyone, nationally and internationally. Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web To fix the disorganization between the multitude of platforms and protocols, Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, a universal medium to link information (and people) together. In November 1989, he created the three protocols – HTTP, URL, and HTML – that we now know as the Web, which brought him global fame. Loading… With the rise of mobile devices, the World Wide Web continues to maintain its level of significance in the modern world, much as it did in the early 1990s. Network Types The data is moved over phone lines, cables, and satellites and sent to the intended devices via intelligent network devices, such as switches, hubs, and routers. Today, there are at least five methods to connect to the Internet and the World Wide Web, including Public Internet Intranet: network that runs internally in an organization Extranet: two or more joined networks that share information Mobile: the mobile Internet used by our handheld devices connecting through Internet providers Internet of Things: devices talking to devices – creates intelligent Web Internet Timeline (1950s - 1970s) 1950s: After WWII, the Cold War spawns the need for new ways to communicate more quickly, hence Arpanet originated for military uses. 1960s: Arpanet became available to researchers around the world. 1970s: Apple and IBM developed personal computers in the late 1970s, which appeal to a new audience who can run simple word processing and spreadsheet applications on them. Internet Timeline (1980s) 1980s: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) created as a basic communication language for the Internet. The National Science Foundation operated the backbone and banned commercial traffic. 1980s: Web 1.0, or the first stage in the World Wide Web, developed, which was entirely made up of static, non-interactive Web pages connected by hyperlinks. Internet Timeline (1990s) 1990s: Venture capital funding poured into untried and uniquely individual business models. 1991: Gopher developed as: a TCP/IP for searching and distributing documents over the Internet. Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) developed for creating Web pages and Web applications. 1993: Mosaic was the first freely available browser, which soon spawned Netscape. Mosaic supported Gopher, file transfer protocol, and network news transfer protocol. 1995: Yahoo! Search Engine debuted and initially used Google algorithms up until 2004 where it began investing in its algorithms. 1998: Google Search founded on September 4, 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google Search differentiated itself from-other search engines by focusing on the relevance of pages based on patterns formed in hyperlinks. Internet Timeline (2000s) 2000-2002: Businesses failed during the 2000s, which led to the disappearance of venture capital funding. 2004-2009: The popularity of the WWW equated to a rapid growth in users, content, and sales, both B2C and B2B. As a result of the popularity, there is an emergence of new players, such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, and LinkedIn—the social networks we are familiar with today. An Introduction to the World Wide Web and How It Works The World Wide Web is a set of protocols and services enabling devices to communicate with each other, and it provides the basis for the study of digital analytics, whereas the Internet is the global network of interconnected devices, such as personal computers, smartphones, switches, routers, satellites, and cables. Through the interrelationships, the Internet is composed of several technologies, and one of the underlying software technologies is the WWW, or simply, “the Web.” Word Wide Web (WWW) 1/2 Switches and routers are used to connect servers and configure networks. Switches are used to connect multiple devices on the same network within a data center. Switches are used to connect multiple devices on the same network within a data center. Servers are used to store data and perform tasks. An Introduction to the World Wide Web and How It Works. Cont. In its simplest form, the Web is composed of interlinked hypertext documents (e.g., websites) that can be accessed through Web browsers such as Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge/Internet Explorer. The Internet functions as a large phone book or digital directory that can translate an almost infinite number of names into numbers as well as numbers into names. Note: The World Wide Web represents only 1% of the entire Internet; the Dark Web, Deep Web and their vast ecosystem make up the rest. The Dark Web is part of the World Wide Web content existing on overlay networks that use the public Internet but require specific software, configurations or authorization to access. The Deep Web is the part of the World Wide Web whose contents are not indexed by standard search engines for many reasons. The Deep Web is opposite to the World Wide Web The Evolution of the Web The Web has radically evolved since it was first created, the earliest version being referred to as Web 1.0. The evolution of the web has been a driving force for changes in society and the way we live our lives. As technologies continue to advance, we can expect further transformations in the web's capabilities and influence. Web 1.0 (The "Read-Only" Web, late 1980s to late 1990s) The birth of the web came in 1989 when Sir Tim Berners-Lee proposed an information management system, which became the World Wide Web. The web initially was a static information repository, often referred to as the "read-only" web. Users could search for information and read it, but there was little user interaction or content contribution. Web pages were primarily coded in HTML, and web browsing was a mostly one-way interaction. Web 2.0 (The "Read-Write" Web, late 1990s to late 2000s) With the advent of Web 2.0, the web became much more dynamic and interactive. This era saw the rise of social media, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, and other tools for user-generated content. Users could now not only consume information but also create and share it. The web became more about collaboration and interaction, leading to a much more socially connected web. Web 2.0 (The "Read-Write" Web, late 1990s to late 2000s). Cont. Features of Web 2.0 Scalability of software Long tail New business models Device agnostic software development Web analytics Search engines Social media Anywhere Internet Geo-location Web 3.0 (The "Semantic" Web, late 2000s to present) Web 3.0, often referred to as the Semantic Web, is about the web becoming smarter and more connected. It involves technologies and practices that allow computers to understand the meaning (or "semantics") of information on the web. This includes advancements in data linking, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, allowing for more personalized, contextual, and intuitive user experiences. Web 4.0 (The Future) While still largely speculative, Web 4.0 is envisioned as a web that fully integrates with our daily lives, sometimes referred to as the "symbiotic web". It's expected to involve technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality, virtual reality, and more advanced AI, leading to a web that's seamlessly integrated with the physical world. Common Internet Terms: URL (Uniform Resource Locator) The basic building block of the World Wide Web is webpages. Webpages are assigned a virtual “address” defined as an URL. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), also known as a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), is a web address specifying its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. An URL is the representation of a URI, although many people use the two terms interchangeably. Note that URN refers to the Uniform Resource Name, which is a means to call a network regardless of its numerical address or URI (which often changes on a regular basis). URI