Making the most of your data using APIs

Since we work with various applications on a daily basis, we often observe certain shortcomings and reflect upon ways in which they could be improved on. In some cases, the enhancements in question are so obvious we can’t help but wonder why they weren’t automatically included in the application’s design. Thankfully though, more and more applications are making APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) available that allow users to build their own personalized features. This is quite specifically the case for several applications we use daily at Adviso.

Google Analytics API: spend less time preparing reports and more time analyzing

Google Analytics has incredible potential and we are always thrilled with the new features Google develops every year. Certain performance indicators however are not always easy to put into context. A prime example that comes to mind is that of a client looking to calculate the revenues generated by his website compared to the last three months, as well as the same period of the previous year. This data can be extracted in a few clicks by exporting the data to Excel for example. Some clients however need this data on a weekly, or even daily, basis to analyze their business’ performance. In other cases, an API can be used to generate graphics a traditional interface just can’t provide and extract some surprising new information such as the trend of entries for the top 100 organic landing pages for example.

In many situations, we develop custom dashboards that aren’t confined to the limits of Google Analytics’ features and allow the user to make more informed decisions.

SEOmoz API: find links to acquire in a matter of seconds

For a few years now, SEOmoz has proven an incredible tool for analyzing and optimizing the search engine performance of websites. One of the most interesting tools is Open Site Explorer that can analyze website links in order to determine which ones offer the most “link juice.” However, the tool isn’t able to find links to acquire that have specific characteristics. For example, we had one case of a client who wanted to obtain the links of at least two competitor websites with an interesting MozTrust rating. We also wanted to obtain the links of all competitors with a specific anchor text.

This type of list is useful when it comes to creating link acquisition campaigns for which a significant portion of time is dedicated to finding creative ways in which to obtain the links rather than actually finding them!

Google Adwords API: optimize your campaign without lifting a finger

The Google Adwords API is useful in many situations and in particular, when a campaign must be modified using external information contained in a database. I’m referring more specifically to campaigns a client only wants to display if the product is in stock and that can be paused when the item us unavailable. This is an extremely tedious operation that is almost impossible to accomplish manually. It can however be done automatically, without any human intervention, using an API. Even more importantly, this type of operation can make all the difference to a campaign’s profitability as paying for a visit that will almost certainly result in a frustrated client who can’t find the product isn‘t one of the wisest investments you can make.

As with the Google Analytics API, it is also possible to extract certain data concerning a campaign that can be used to create a custom dashboard that is more effective at putting things into context.

These APIs are not necessarily useful in all contexts, and in most cases, the interfaces and features of the tools mentioned above offer a very high level of performance. If however you find yourself repeating the same operations over and over again and feel as if you’re always crunching numbers rather than analyzing data, or that you’d like to graduate to the next level in terms of visualization, then you’re probably ready for this type of solution.

It’s your data, so you may as well make the most of it!