New service that keeps tabs on Web campaigns

Ensuring a return on investment in online campaigns has been something of an inexact science up until now. Indeed, stories have appeared recently about companies deliberately inflating figures for the number of hits they have received on their websites. The Digital Marketing Company, formerly Bizzmedia, has just introduced a new service, Netresults, that it claims will help businesses ensure a greater marketing return on investments.

"We want to give our clients a 360-degree view of what's going on with their online campaigns," said Mr Liam Morrison, founder and managing director of the company. Although the company has been offering elements of the Netresults service for some time, the new service brings all these elements together as a package.

There are three main aspects to the Digital Marketing Company's new service. The online research establishes who is using the client's website and what information they are looking for. This research is used to promote the site through search engine optimisation. Website traffic analysis by consultants enables the monitoring of the campaign's effectiveness.

Mr Morrison said that, while raw statistics on the number of hits on a website was one thing, it was just as important to gauge how visitors moved through the site. One way was to intercept users with a questionnaire about their impressions of the site.

While he acknowledged that most users tend not to bother with such questionnaires, Mr Morrison said that for every site they inserted a questionnaire, at least 5 per cent of those who were asked filled it in.

The company, established in 1997 as an online marketing agency, recently changed its name from Bizzmedia to better reflect what it considers to be the nature of the company's services today. It has also appointed Mr John Audette as special adviser to the company.

Mr Audette, who has built and sold two successful US Internet companies, is chief executive of Adventive, a US-based Internet publishing business. Given the danger of inflated claims about the effectiveness of online campaigns and websites, Mr Morrison said there is pressure on content sites not to overstate the contribution of website "hits". "What an advertiser wants is good demographic information.

It's as much about quality as it is about quantity." The Digital Marketing Company has a number of high-profile clients, particularly in government circles, including Enterprise Ireland, Bord Failte, Forfas, Bord Bia and Ask Ireland (a website that links all government agencies). Other clients include Siemens, NewMedia CV and QM4.