The American Cancer Society uses Google Analytics to boost ROI on the web and help treat patients around the country.

The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913 by fifteen physicians and businessmen as a "nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem." The Society advances its cause through the efforts of two million volunteers nationwide in various research, education and advocacy programs. With funding in 2005 of $605 million for these programs, as well as $261 million for management and fundraising, the Society has become the second largest source of non-profit cancer research funds after the United States government. The Society now has about 3,400 local offices with branches in all 50 states, and the latest incarnation of the Society Web site, www.cancer.org, is the online resource center for its expansive efforts in combating cancer. Online initiatives are increasingly a part of the Societys effort to get important information about cancer into the hands of those who need it.

Challenge

In the fight against cancer, every dollar counts. As a .org, the Society values metrics and data-driven decisions in order to get the most out of its funding. Complicating the process is the lack of a singular, straightforward goal that a for-profit company might have, such as sales numbers. Techniques for achieving the Societys objectives vary as well. The broad host of tools that the Society uses to fight cancer includes a research program that has funded more than 40 Nobel Prize winners; prevention programs on tobacco control and diet; and patient services that help ease the burden of a cancer diagnosis. Lastly, the Societys online presence encompasses a dizzying array of content pages, social networks, wikis, open source projects and rich Internet applications, all of which need to be constantly evaluated for performance. "We had other Web analytics solutions on board, but we werent tying Web metrics to business decisions as much as we wanted to," says Alexander Negash, the Societys manager of web analytics and user experience. "Google Analytics gives us a holistic view of all of our marketing campaigns and has become a valuable cross-channel measurement tool."

Results

With Google Analytics, the Society has been able to optimize their AdWords keywords and Web site around keywords and content that attracts donations and benefits their bottom line. The Society was an early adopter of Google Analytics when it was released for free in 2005. Some of the more overt benefits were dramatically realized right from the start, including measuring the ROI of their AdWords campaigns by calculating the difference between AdWords spent and online donations. The Societys Online Team found that Google Analytics e-Commerce report was the perfect tool to track their many e-Commerce activities including the highly successful TLCdirect.org Web store, which sells cancer support products to constituents. Using Google Analytics on TLCdirect.org has allowed the Society to track product performance, seasonal purchasing trends and the impact of marketing initiatives. Using Google Analytics to track AdWords performance on TLCdirect.org, the Society was able to show a 908.22% CTR (Click Through Rate) with average ROI figures well over 116% (with some keywords bringing in over 600% ROI).

Google Analytics also played a vital role in the Societys diversified cancer education programs that leverage the latest technologies. Local grassroots efforts are a major component of disseminating information about clinical trials and treatment options.

A single piece of information delivered at the right time can mean the difference in peoples lives. In order to educate more people about open clinical trials and promote their clinical trial matching service, the Society experimented with a Google AdWords SEM campaign for mobile devices. Google Analytics was installed on the Societys mobile-version Web site and was used to track the entire continuum of the campaign, from the user clicking on the mobile AdWords links, all the way to dialing the Societys 24-7 call center. Significant improvements in getting patients into the Societys clinical trial matching service were realized with Google Analytics tracking and reporting every step of the way.

With a little Web analytics experience under their belt, the Society was able to get even more creative with their tracking. Internal searches for the Societys Web sites are provided by the Google Search Appliance, a hardware/software integrated solution that indexes corporate information. By setting up unique URLs for internal searches, the Societys was able to analyze user traffic generated from those searches and see that they were responsible for 20% of all traffic, a significant amount. Internal search analysis allowed the Society to see which topics and links were popular with users, such as a particular maker of wigs for chemotherapy patients. Observations like these help the Society in its important and appreciated support of cancer patients well-being beyond physical treatments.

The Society used Google Analytics to optimize their Web resources across their broad portfolio of goals, starting with the low-hanging fruit of SEM optimization, and moving to sophisticated campaign and content tracking. Since adopting Google Analytics, the Society has used hard data as the basis for its last two homepage redesigns. Other content improvements, such as A/B testing of email marketing, have been implemented with Google Analytics tracking. In day-to-day operations, political pain points are tracked, internal stakeholders receive the data they want and business cases can be made for what should and should not be on the Web site. "It helps us use our dollars more wisely for our mission and helps us make sure our constituents are meeting their goals, which is very important to us," says Negash. "Google Analytics is literally helping in the fight against cancer."