Constant improvement is a mantra here at ShopLocal. To that end, the team knew there was room for improvement in our popularity ranking algorithm that we call “Wisdom of the Crowds” (WoC).
The current system for determining product popularity only counted those products that a shopper specifically clicked on. There are a number of product level clicks that are counted in terms of a shopper expressing interest such as a product detail page, a buy online click or an add to a shopping list click (which are cumulatively called Expressions of Interest). Not any more. The ShopLocal team has begun collecting and counting another key piece of consumer interest data – product rollovers.
By factoring in both product rollover data AND expression of interest data, the overall Wisdom of the Crowds ranking data is all the richer and accurate. This process of collecting and using rollover data for SmartCircular sites is underway and will complete over the next month or so for all clients, SC sites and versions of SmartCircular.
At a macro level, what we have learned so far about rollover data is:
- Rollovers are on average about 5x as common as Expressions Of Interest. This means by adding them to the Wisdom of the Crowds calculation, the overall popularity ranking data should become much more accurate and more truly reflect actual consumer interest.
- Rollover usage varies significantly by retailer. No surprise given all the variation in UI/UX out there within weekly ad sites. Also some sites don’t even use rollovers. Or on other sites, the rollovers are down played. In any case, we are now tracking them all so as to extract the most useful and complete set of consumer interest data as possible.
Illustrated here is a specific product level rollover that has been triggered by a user rolling over a predefined hotspot region that is overlaid on top of the circular page view images. When talking about rollover tracking, what is actual being tracked is the number of times, for a specific product, a rollover is triggered and left open for at least 2 seconds. If it meets that criteria, it would be counted as one (1) rollover for the product.
Here is a quick snapshot of some early returns from a 6 day sample set of data across 20 retailers:
- # of total product level exposures: 1,006,078,269
- # of total product rollovers: 25,620,887
- # of total product specific indicators of interests expressed: 4,532,430
- Overall ratio of interest divided by rollovers: 18%
- Rollover trigger rate (of overall total product exposure) : 2.55%
- Interest trigger rate (of overall total product exposure): 0.45%
- Total CTR (rollovers + interest): 3.00%
UPDATE 1/21: The ShopLocal analyst team just today cranked out a nice little additional stat on this topic that is worth sharing. The correlation of interest/exposure ranks compared to the rollover/exposure ranks, on average overall is 0.6636 Meaning that rollovers are for most sites a good measure of interest. Maybe think of it this way. This correlation helps prove that the items a user rolls over are likely the very ones that they end up taking other subsequent action at a later point in their site visit.
In an ongoing effort to ever increase the access to the wealth of hyper-localized, in-store promotional content that ShopLocal uniquely has control of, the team is proud to announce the support of JSON within the REST based SmartDelivery API (SDAPI). JSON for those that are not total nerds stands for JavaScript Object Notation which is defined as a lightweight data-interchange format (XML is another data-interchange format for example). This is essentially an alternate data format to the current XML only format that the SDAPI (the localized distribution engine) now returns. Behind the scenes, the JSON enabled outputs of SDAPI version 2 calls uses all of the same:
- Database logic / procs
- Business logic
- Parameter names
- Variables values
- Attribute/data fields names
Options and choice are good when it comes to allowing web developers pick the right solution for the application they are trying to build. So adding support for JSON was a very natural outcome. A few of the biggest benefits from a developer perspective of supporting JSON formated data are:
- JSON formatted data is essentially serialized Javascript objects which makes it fit better within client side scripting which is primarily done in Javascript
- Cross domain calls are now easily permitted (no more always having to update the crossdomain.xml file) and can be used for Javascript applications. This is done by the addition of new API parameter (named ‘callback’) which allows specifying an existing JS function that will take an object as an input parameter. By doing so, this will allow crossdomain calls to occur
What this new data format (e.g. JSON) allows is better integration capabilities into digital applications such as:
JSON is really a great data format especially when the digital application that is consuming this dynamic external data is heavily built using Javascript
What is the difference between a rich media capability and a product? Easy. With a product, there is typical an underlying code base, a developed platform and a host of client configurable features that come “out of the box”. With just a capability, all of this base build out needs to be undertaken from scratch and each and every execution is an unique one-time, throw away custom build. The bottom line is, using a product (and NOT just a capability) is always:
- Cheaper: Any prospective client gets to benefit from the loads of internal funded R&D dollars that have been pored into the product as well as the horde of knowledge, examples, code bases, etc that have been built up from past client executions. Instead of starting from scratch, there is substantial substance to build upon and with.
- Faster: Again, by building any new client executions upon a stable and robust platform, the time to build a campaign is less. Much less. In PaperBoy’s case, the development team has not stopped working and we all started back in 2005! All of this behind the scenes product work all comes into play every time we execute a client campaign. Instead of taking weeks if not months as we have witnessed numerous times with external vendors, it take days to a few weeks.
- Most Stable / Higher Quality: Since any client execution is not a random one-off build, but rather another implementation that is build with and/or upon the same underlying code base (eg the product), the inherent quality level is automatically much higher. Any past bug that may have plagued past client executions all have been solved. Any new bugs that are discovered are immediately fixed at a product level, thus benefiting all implementations of the product.
PaperBoy vs. the rest of the rich media world of dynamic data ads
So applying the above principle of product vs. capability, one of the most important concepts to get your head around is one of feature level configurations and/or client allowable customizations. What these product development strategies build for is you (the client). Rather than expecting every client to have the same feature applied and configured exactly the same way, we fully expect and build for the fact that every single client will envision and want a set of features deployed in a unique, client specific manner. This means features are NOT simple “on” and “off” switches, but rather “dimmer” switches. Each unique feature has many built in settings, configurations, defaulting, business logic, etc. What client wants to look just like their competitor after all? Pointroll and ShopLocal think that creative choice and control is the solution, so every feature ever built is always crafted in such a way to give exactly that back to the advertiser / client.
Paperboy is a real product, and is out to kill StanDarad in the rich media battle for Mediapolis
Base PaperBoy Feature Set (included at no additional fees or costs)
- Intro Panel Animation Integration
- Front Ad Cover Within The Intro Panel
- Ad Start & End Dates Within The Intro Panel
- User’s City, State & ZIP Code Within The Intro Panel
- Continuous Item Results Scroller (eg horizontal carousel)
- GeoIP Targeting
- Change Store Location
- Browse By Category / Department
- Browse By Brand
- Browse By Keyword Search Term(s)
- Store Locator (Find A Store)
- Buy-Online Item Level Links To Advertiser .Com Pages
- Item Level Detail Page Links To SmartCircular Site Pages
- Post Ad Impression and/or Post Ad Click Tracking Within The SmartCircular Sites
- Intra-Ad Unit Product Level Reporting
- RSS (Real Simple Syndication) & Atom Feeds
- Email Address Capture Point
- Display Larger Item Image
- Print This Item
- Featured Items
- Featured Categories
- Featured Brands
- Integrated Null Search Results To Point Back To Advertiser’s dot com Site
- Weekly Preview Of Upcoming Ad Content / Data
- AOL / GeoIP Failure Logic And Associated Prompting
- Error Screens
- All Of The Recent PaperBoy 2.0 Features
- In-Ad Unit Circular Page Turning
- Custom Geo Reporting
- Etc, Etc, Etc – Believe It Or Not, This is An Abbreviated, Non Complete List!
But the comparison of a product vs. a capability does not end with just a feature comparison. It goes much deeper and wider. To really understand the difference, the following concepts need to be added to the argument:
- Defined & streamlined client engagement process
- Standardized set of client deliverables
- Extensive set of creative best practices (over 2 BILLION PaperBoy ads served and counting)
- Multi-dimensional set of performance benchmarking (by ad format, size, time, etc)
- Complete organization wide support, awareness and knowledge
- Dedicated set of quality assurance testing procedures unique to localized, dynamic rich media
None of the other rich media companies (e.g., Doubleclick, Atlas, EyeBlaster, EyeWonder, Tumri, etc) have a localized, circular based, retail in-store promotion product. What they have is a simple, generic capability that leaves a lot to be desired once a closer & deeper look is taken.
Yes, in the technology world, given enough time and money, anything can be built. But is this really the best approach to always be “re-creating the wheel” from scratch, using nothing more than base capabilities? Prospepective clients that are thinking about using rich media capabilities vs. a PaperBoy product should make sure to ask this key question prior to making any decisions on how to execute a localized, circular based, retail in-store promotion rich media display campaign. ShopLocal and Pointroll clearly believe that a product approach is the only right way and have / continue to heavily invest in this area of the product portfolio.
(4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
(4.50 out of 5)
Comments: None