Just finished submitting ShowTimeTickets.com’s Google Success Story this morning. Hopefully the photo persuades them to pick us

Our Success Story Submission:

ShowTimeTickets.com & Google

Over the past four years ShowTimeTickets.com has been utilizing various Google applications: Adwords, to effectively increase web presence; Optimizer, to increase usability; Analytics, to research niche market opportunities through analytical tracking and identify conversion issues. These Google applications have become an integral part of ShowTimeTickets.com’s e-business development and a contributing force behind our company’s development.

Google Adwords

By utilizing Google’s Adwords API we were able to create a cost-effective PPC campaign that targets users who are searching to buy tickets for a specific event in a specific location. The campaign was unique because it involved marketing over 2,400 events worldwide cost effectively by focusing on long-tail keywords, thus providing a highly relevant paid search result and a positive ROI. Google Adwords’ API made it possible to target a massive amount of users with an equally massive amount of specific long-tail keywords.

Google Optimizer

The Google Optimizer application has allowed us to increase usability on our site, but most importantly has stopped ‘guessumptions’; instead we now have raw data on what our consumers want and expect online. A specific area in which the Google Optimizer tool is used is how available tickets are displayed to our customers: Tickets can either be displayed by general section (ie. Upper Level in the corner) or by specific seats available. By analyzing the results of A/B testing, users were profiled based on event and location. Upon testing completion ShowTimeTickets.com changed the display of its tickets to match user preference. This change resulted in an increase of online conversion by a staggering 23%!

Google Analytics

Ever since Google has made the Analytics available to all users in 2006 ShowTimeTickets.com has proudly used the service. Admittedly, the initial attraction was its price point, but shortly thereafter the other benefits became obvious. Unlike surveys or questionnaires, Google Analytics gives companies the ability to track a variety of statistical information concerning how users are interacting with their site, not how users think they are interacting. This information was able to help our business identify areas that needed improvement, collect market data on the popularity of events to aid with buying, and to calculate ROI on e-newsletter campaigns.

In particular, we use Google Analytics to find issues with our site that can only be identified by human interactions. Our site has over 50,000 events and the possibility for errors in these listings is inevitable. By analyzing pages with high exit percentages and then sorting them by popularity, we can determine which listings have errors and thus rate the priority for QA staff to fix these problems. Implementing these reports has increased conversion online by relaying more accurate information to the user as well as saved on labour costs.