Target's Web Analytics and SEO
Target Corporation first opened its doors in 1962 in Minneapolis.
Since then, this small discount retailer expanded to approximately 1,822 stores
in the United States. With their brand expanding so rapidly, they launched
their ecommerce website in 1999. (Target, No Date) Now, guests can purchase the
same merchandise they would in stores from the comfort of their own home.
After doing some in-depth research, I quickly realized that Target
uses a variety of analytic tools as well as SEO to ensure traffic is not only driven
towards their website, but its the right kind of traffic. Target uses Adobe Analytics to collect their
data and further analyze exactly who is viewing and clicking on each of their
webpages. (Target, No date) Additionally, their analytic professionals are also
known to use MSSQL (database management tool), Tableau (data visualization
tool) and JIRA (bug and issue tracking tool) to also help streamline and ensure
all of their data is accurate and easily digestible. (Target, No Date).
When looking at a Target analytics report from January of 2018, it’s
clear to see having multiple tools at their fingertips is almost vital to
ensuring success. Ecommerce tracking in particular has been known to be one of
Adobe Analytics strongest features. (Christopher, 2017) With 139.99 million visits and an average of
5.61 pages viewed per visit in January of this year alone, its no wonder Target
uses such a versatile analytical platform to gather and analyze their data. (SimiliarWeb,
2018)
When thinking about how Target uses their analytic information for
their own marketing efforts, I’m instantly reminded of one of their commercials
I saw a few years ago. The commercial below titled “Arrullo” made its debut in
2015 and is the first Target advertisement that was aired in all Spanish with
no subtitles. This heart-warming campaign titled “Sin Traducción” (translated
to “without translation”) won the hearts of Hispanics and non-Latinos all over
America. Target was able to see with Adobe Analytics reports that on average over
90 percent of their traffic is coming within the United States. (SimiliarWeb,
2018) Furthermore, the second most top spoken language (almost even with
English) in this country is Spanish. (WorldAtlas, No date) This specific
component of their web analytics was crucial on unifying their customers and
helping to drive traffic and conversion rates. Since “Arrullo” was debuted in 2015, there have been several other
all-Spanish commercials produced and televised. By closely analyzing the success
of these commercials, Target has since then been able to increase their
broadcasting spending by 21 percent and increased their Spanish-language
advertisements by 67 percent. (Kumar, 2016)
Another component of web
analytics that Target used to their advantage was the type of devices their views
and clicks were coming from, as well as the interests of those viewing their
website. Every visitor to Target’s webpage has the same common underlying
interest; shopping. With that in mind, paired with the overwhelming amount of
consumers relying on their smart phones, Target was able to use their best judgment
and launch two successful web apps. The Target (flywheel) app and the Target
Registry app were able to cater to their audience of devoted shoppers. Target has the ability to link these apps to
Adobe Analytics and ensure that users are not only getting the information they
need, but have the ability to make adjustments where they see preventable
roadblocks.
Additionally, this same
concept holds true with their paid advertisements on their linked social media
accounts. With their web analytic referral tool, Target marketing professionals
can quickly see that, for example, 49.39 percent of users are being referred
from Facebook advertisements. (SimiliarWeb, 2018) This completely makes sense
as to why I am constantly seeing ads (like below on the right-hand side) while
browsing Facebook! This particular part of web analytics gives their marketing
team the ability to make concise decisions on where to place their paid advertisements,
ensuring they will generate the highest level of engagement as well as clicks. Since
a very small percentage of people are being referred from Twitter ads, and a
shocking zero percent of people are being referred from Instagram, it doesn’t
make too much sense economically for Target to invest in paid ads on those
outlets.
In addition to web
analytics, Target also uses search engine optimization (better known as SEO) to
help drive traffic to their ecommerce website. Organic and paid keywords are
both carefully tracked. Their company name is used in their URL, as well as in
their webpage copy, to help drive traffic to their website. Their top paid
keywords, however, do not directly represent Target itself. Instead, they
represent what their customers (on average) may be searching for. According to
Target Corporate’s webpage, their median customer age is 40-years-old and
approximately 43 percent of consumers have children at home. Target’s current
paid keywords reflect products that individuals within that specific
demographic may be interested in purchasing for themselves or their children.
For example, in January of 2018, Target’s top five paid keywords were Nintendo
switch, instant pot, chromecast, target and fortnite. (SimiliarWeb, 2018) It’s
easy to tell if these keywords are paying off, too. With a quick search of
“instant pot,” I was able to instantly see that Target’s webpage was the third
organic link on the first page of Google results. With the combination of SEO
and reports from Target’s web analytics, Target successfully narrows down which
keywords are important enough to invest in.
When thinking of concepts that Target does not already actively use in
their current marketing plan, one that comes to mind is Google Adwords. While I
was searching some of their paid keywords, I expanded my search to a few other
random items as well. I was surpirsed that not one Google advertisement
appeared for Target’s merchandise. This may be one additional way to ensure that
their target audience is finding the items they are searching for as quickly as
possible.
To conclude, I think it’s clearly evident just how well Target manages
its ecommerce website (as well as in stores). With the help of web analytics
and SEO, their marketing team is able to successfully track data being driven
to their website, as well as analyze exactly where it is coming from. From
marketing campaigns inspired by a growth of Spanish-speaking families in
America, to their development of mobile apps, I think it’s safe to say that Target
is adequately taking advantage of their information from their preferred tools.
Works Cited
Christopher, J. (2017, April 26). Enterprise Analytics Tool
Comparison: Google Analytics 360 vs Adobe Analytics. Retrieved from http://www.blastam.com/blog/analytics-tool-comparison-google-vs-adobe
Kumar, K. (2016, October
29). More of Target’s Advertising Reach Out to Hispanics as Customer
Demographics Change. Retrieved on April 4, 2017 from
Mendez, D. (2015, August
28). Target Arrullo #SinTraduccion
AVO [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yyqQ-ZpN3o
SimilarWeb. (2018). Target.com January 2018 Overview. Retrieved from https://www.similarweb.com/website/target.com
Target. (No Date). Corporate Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://corporate.target.com/press/corporate
WorldAtlas. (No date). The Most Spoken Languages in America. Retrieved
from https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-most-spoken-languages-in-america.html
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