As discussed in Pageviews Distorted by AJAX Technology, with the adoption of pageless web technology, pageview may no longer show all the activity that users have on a website. Although Google Analytics is currently capable of tracking events that do not trigger a pageview, Google has formally announcing a beta that will help internet marketers measure interactivity of web applications (pageless technology) powered by AJAX and Flash. This new feature will surely help publishers increase their CPM (cost per thousand impressions) rates.
Pageless Tracking – Why is it important in Internet Marketing?
Internet marketers rely heavily on CPM metrics to structure advertising campaigns. Normal web analytic reports may not show all user activity on websites powered by heavy AJAX or Flash technology. When impressions & pageviews are no longer indicative of user interactivity, advertising rates can be misleading to both the advertiser and publisher. Only accurate tracking that include non-pageview activity and time-spent- on-site will help determine more fair CPM rates in future advertising deals.
If your website has adopted technology like AJAX or Flash, keep an eye on Google Analytics’ latest beta announcement. Being able to track pageless activity may help increase your CPM rates in future advertising deals.
Here is the entire announcement.
Let’s see when the final roll out will happen.
With web 2.0 on the rise, its only really a matter of time before the methods we used to utilize become obsolete.
New technology does sometimes throw a wrench into existing methodology. In this case, I think using new tools, such as event tracking, as a supplement to what is already existing (pageviews & time-spent-on-site) will definitely paint a clearer overall picture for internet marketers.
I don’t use AJAX but I’m really interested how Google reports activity….
Hi Mike,
From my understanding, Google Analytics pageviews are measured based on the URL. When the URL changes, that is a pageview. Since AJAX applications may not trigger a web page to load or reload, no pageview is counted.
Having said that, Google Analytics does currently offer an option where developers can assign a page filename to an AJAX event. This means that at a certain point of your AJAX application, you can push a page filename (which does not have to be a real filename, just something to help you distinguish the AJAX event in the reports) to Google Analytics and it will count these events in the reporting.
At the moment, this is already available so I am not sure if the new beta that Google just announced is something similar or an enhanced version. My guess is, it will be a more user-friendly option.
I hope that helped.
I totally agree that it is essential for marketers to know how the traffic is really going, as an example, there are many auto site surfers that would enter to the site without even clicking a single click.
Google Analytics has reduced cheating!