When it comes to reach figures for websites in the Swiss media industry, WEMF's Netmetrix figures are regarded as the generally accepted benchmark. But will the monthly Netmetrix surveys still be needed in the future? This question has arisen since Google started offering online reach data for free with AdPlanner. This also provides information about websites that do not participate in Netmetrix (see "The leading dozen").
With a
Online survey we want to clarify the importance of reach data in the use of online advertising in Switzerland in general. We also want to find out how willing the media industry is to use a new currency for online reach. We are basing this on these three theses:
1. although there are seemingly precise reach figures for online media, they can hardly be used to reliably assess the performance of a website. The numerous metrics allow for too many different interpretations. What's more, they are recorded and evaluated differently by the various analysis tools.
2. because reach data is highly complex and at the same time not sufficiently reliable, it is not of primary importance when deciding on the use of online advertising. They are primarily used for general orientation.
3. since Google (Ad Planner and Analytics) has been offering reach data free of charge, it no longer makes sense for the Swiss media industry to collect its own data. This is mainly because Google's free tools provide additional information on demographic distribution or mobile usage, for example.
According to a study conducted by Angelink Yourposition in March of this year, 8 out of 10 Swiss websites that use a client-side tracking tool use Google Analytics. It is therefore clear that Google's free service has long since become the industry standard. It therefore seems obvious to use this data for media planning. The Google Analytics data is simply collected automatically and published regularly. The result is a solution that costs far less and is more complete than Netmetrix Audit, as it also takes into account sites that are not yet registered with Netmetrix. As Google AdPlanner does not report smaller sites, this gap can also be closed.
At the beginning of the year, we proposed a similar approach with the WEmad initiative in order to publish mobile reach data. Depending on the results of the survey, this approach can be extended to the entire online sector.
Christoph J. Walther
The leading dozen
Those who only consider the figures from Netmetrix-Audit can easily be misled, as the domestic data collection does not include many of the largest web destinations. The following ranking list illustrates where the attention of the surfing Swiss public is actually focused. Werbewoche has used data from Google Ad Planner (as of :
April 2010). The order is based on the values of distinguishable users per day (daily unique visitors, based on cookies), which Google only shows visually in a graphic and not as explicit figures. This measured value is most reminiscent of familiar parameters such as readers per issue or daily reach.
1st place: Google
If you search for something on the web, you google it - and often several times a day. The search engine giant does not publish its own reach figures, which is why we base our top ranking not only on our own experience and observations, but also on the Alexa search engine, which is not very widespread in Switzerland and also publishes a list of the top Swiss sites. Google's leading position is undisputed when the traffic of other Google sites, such as the video portal YouTube in particular, is taken into account.
2nd place: Facebook
The high-flyer among social networks records 1.4 million visitors from Switzerland every day, reaching almost 40% of the local online audience. It currently has 2.6 million unique users per month, who access an impressive 2.7 billion pages. While Google aims to send users to another address as quickly as possible, Facebook users spend a record average of 20 minutes per visit maintaining their virtual circle of friends.
3rd place: Microsoft
The software giant achieved 3rd place with its online portal Msn.com. If you add the user numbers for the email service Hotmail.com and the search engine Live.com/Bing.com, Microsoft almost catches up with Facebook, but then lags well behind in terms of page impressions.
4th place: Swisscom
Thanks in particular to the Bluewin online portal, the technology colossus has moved up to a top position. Its leading position among domestic offerings is also confirmed by the Netmetrix statistics.
5th place: Yahoo
Another online portal, with services such as e-mail, chat, news, search, etc., whose heavy use is surprising because it has never been particularly advertised in our country and, unlike Microsoft and Bluewin, does not benefit from default settings for new installations.
6th place: Wikipedia
If you want to know something in detail, you look it up on Wikipedia. As this need does not arise on a daily basis, the free encyclopaedia is slightly behind in the figures for daily users. In terms of monthly users, it is just ahead of Msn. com and just behind it in terms of page views.
7th place: Ricardo
Switzerland's largest auction platform benefits from its clear focus on Switzerland and leaves its competitor eBay far behind. Anyone looking for a bargain spends an average of 15:50 minutes on the site and generates so many page views that Ricardo is just behind Facebook on this criterion (albeit far behind).
8th place: Partypoker.com
The site has gained a significant number of users in recent months. It can be assumed that online poker games are used in some places to spice up everyday office life with (often only supposed) prospects of winning.
9th place: Search.ch & Local.ch (ex aequo)
The two services for telephone numbers and business directories are so close to each other in all comparative values that an ex-aequo ranking is obvious. This is remarkable because the two have different backgrounds: Search.ch was launched first and is now majority-owned by Tamedia, while Local.ch is operated by Swisscom and Publigroupe and has direct access to telephone data as well as a larger sales team.
Place 10: View
The leading news site in Switzerland is clearly ahead of arch-rival 20 Minuten in terms of daily users, but both news sites are almost on a par in terms of monthly visitors and page impressions.
11th place: 20minuten.ch
Even with the support of its French sister and the figures of the classifieds portal Piazza.ch, which are beaten by 20minuten.ch on Netmetrix, the online offshoot of the commuter newspaper has not yet managed to catch up with Blick Online.
12th place: Sf.tv
Thanks to an overall presence under one web domain, Swiss Television is ranked third among media websites.
The websites of the Confederation and its enterprises are in the following positions: Admin.ch, Sbb.ch and Postfinance.ch. And to prevent any accusations: it goes without saying that this ranking does not meet strict scientific requirements, especially as it was compiled manually. (The author welcomes any additions and criticism.) It is unclear, for example, how Google compiles which data for the Ad Planner. And while media offerings are geared towards just one language region, most other sites are accessed with their address from all language regions. Publishers that offer individual titles separately also perform worse than companies that appear with their company name. Sites such as Mozilla.com and Adobe.com were not taken into account, as they are mainly used for downloading software.
