Wow – it’s hard to believe we launched the CPG Data Tip Sheet 10 years ago this month. It is a decade later and we are very happy to thank our over 6,000 followers!
In case you are relatively new to the CPG Data Tip Sheet, we went live the week of November 5, 2012 with 72 terms in the Glossary (with a few more added over the years) plus these 3 posts:
- The 2nd Most Important Measure: % ACV Distribution (Part 1)
- The 4 Key Dimensions In Every Nielsen/IRI Database
- Big $ Question: Syndicated Database or Custom Database
These 3 posts followed, before the end of 2012:
- The 2nd Most Important Measure: % ACV Distribution (Part 2)
- How To Automate Monthly Reports (Even If You Aren’t An Excel Wizard)
- Two Excel Functions That Can Save You Hours of Formatting Time
Here is a [very basic] “infographic” with KPIs, as of November 2022. This focuses on our longevity and content, with only one measure (followers) related to performance.
Here are key metrics that appear in the WordPress dashboard, the platform we use for the blog. These are always for the most recent 30 days and, therefore, change every day. (Data pulled on 11/22/22.)
They do get at performance and reader engagement. Let’s talk about 3 types of measures from this.
- Trends – Good news that 3 of the 4 metrics have increased slightly vs. the previous 30 days. The decline in avg session duration is not that concerning for us because it could be due to many things like length of the posts people read, time to read (many of our readers are from outside of the U.S. and English isn’t always their native language, etc.), what people are doing on the blog (reading one definition in the Glossary or going through several posts related to a particular topic), etc.
- Actual values – The numbers are good to help determine if maintaining the blog is worth our time and effort. Clearly the answer is Yes! These numbers can also be used to derive other useful measures – see next point.
- Derived measures – from the actual values in the dashboard I can see that, on average:
- Readers are looking at about 2 pages per session (49,995 / 25,318 = 1.97). Note that in that sentence it says “about 2” and not “1.97” – that was on purpose.
- Readers returned to the blog between 2 and 3 times (25,318 / 10,318 = 2.45) during the past 30 days. Again, I purposely did not say “2.45” times.
- Each reader looked at almost 5 pages (49,995 / 10,318 = 4.85).
In case you’re wondering what people are actually reading on the CPG Data Tip Sheet (like we do!), the most popular things are related to distribution, velocity and getting started/basic concepts related to syndicated data.
Thank you, readers! Did I mention there are over 1,200 comments on the blog and that we have a 16-page document with all the thanks and positive feedback we’ve received – and that’s just since 2017! We look forward to continuing to provide this valuable resource for the industry.
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Thank you! You have provided great information and even some personal attention when I needed it. I couldn’t do my job without the information your blog provides. Okay – I’d be able to do my job. You make me better at my job. Again, thank you so very much. And, I’m hoping you and the blog are around for at least another 10 years.
Thank you for the lovely feedback!!
Thank you both for your dedication to keeping this blog going! It has proven to be such a valuable tool for me and my fellow analysts. There is nothing else out there that I have found as useful as your site with the glossary, articles, questions and comments. Here’s to another 10 years (or more!).
Thank you so much!!