How to measure your classified website's performance

You will have seen plenty of in industry articles and literature from others (including us!) that make reference to UBs – Unique Browsers and PIs – Page Impressions. So what are these statistics and what do they mean to dealers?

Online traffic is fairly tricky to measure, so the industry standard has become Unique Browsers, or UBs. There are products can track and monitor activity for most of the automotive online classified websites in NZ. This enables us to see where the most people are looking and to easily compare and contrast their performance across a range of different metrics. Some of the metrics that we monitor are Unique Browsers, Page Impressions, and Unique Browser Frequency. Here’s the low-down.

What is a UB?
A UB is a unique internet browser – in layman’s terms, a browser application is the software you use to browse the internet. Browsing can occur from your laptop, work PC, home PC, iPhone etc. Because some people browse the internet from different computers – e.g. work computer, home computer and an iPhone - one person can be counted multiple times – the example of work, home and iPhone would count as 3 UBs. However, if a family of 4 are all using the same computer at home – this is counted as one Unique Browser. By the same token, someone passing around their iPhone at work for people to use the internet on it is counted as one Unique Browser, no matter how many people are using the device. So for the most part, the numbers even out to give a fairly good idea of how many individuals are looking at a website.

So if someone has two computers or a computer and an iPhone where they are looking at the same website – are they counted twice?
Yes. This would account for two unique browsers as the person is using a different browser to access the web, twice. We can also monitor Unique Browser Frequency – how many times is a browser going to the same website – which essentially measures the loyalty to that website.

What is a PI?
PI stands for Page Impression. This measures the number of (fully downloaded) web pages viewed for a selected period.

Why monitor UBs and PIs?
UBs are “the best measure of coverage and reach on the web, and the standard for comparing one site against another.” Jimmy McGee, Trade Me Motors.
PIs are a good measure of engagement on a website. The more Page Impressions - the more that website is being viewed. The longer a viewer stays on your website, the better. Obviously, you have to be careful not to mix the two up when comparing the popularity of sites.

Other than UBs, what other statistics should I be taking note of?
You can also measure a browser’s average session duration, average page duration and total time on site. As well as PIs, a website’s average session duration, average page duration and total time on site are other good ways to measure how ‘sticky’ that website is – are people spending a lot of time on it? UB frequency measures the number of times a UB returns to a certain site, during a given time period. This is a key metric which can measure loyalty to a certain website. “Time on site, total page impressions (PIs) and the average number of visits provide a good read on customer engagement.” Jimmy McGee

How can this information help me sell more cars - why are UBs relevant to me as a car dealer?

Information such as UBs enables dealers to see which websites are more likely to attract a higher audience – measuring the loyalty of that audience. You can also see which websites offer a higher level of engagement, such as websites which have people viewing their site for longer periods of time and are looking at a lot of pages – PIs – which could be your listings.

“The more UBs, the greater the reach. The web also allows us to track ‘depth of use’ through time on site or page impression per session” Jimmy McGee, Trade Me Motor.

Can I find out which areas in NZ our listings viewers are from, or what age they are?
Demographic information can also be measured. This includes information such as region in NZ where the person lives, household income, gender, age, occupation and also information about their online research, purchase and their social media behavior – are they on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Why is all of this relevant to me as a dealer?
Unique Browsers is the standard for comparing one site against another. UBs give you the best idea of how much traffic a website is attracting. Online advertising in New Zealand overtook $250m last year, so as someone in that pool, you would want to know which websites put their listings in front of the most potential buyers in order to get the most bang for your buck. Why waste time uploading, managing, reviewing and checking listings that are either not going to be seen by the largest audience possible, or where that same audience is duplicated?

The good news is, UBs are going up across the board – more people are searching online classifieds. Trade Me Motor’s UBs have gone up by approximately 200,000 in the past 12 months. This is due to more access - more people on computers using broadband and more devices like smartphones and iPads were sold in NZ. More access = more people looking = more sales.

If you would like more information on statistics for classified websites, or want to look into measuring online traffic to your own company website, please do not hesitate to contact us HERE.