actionable analytics: data-driven, decisiondigitalsummit.com/...actionable-analytics-craver.pdf ·...

Thom Craver | Senior SEO Analyst, CBS Interactive

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKBOOK

ACTIONABLE ANALYTICS: DATA-DRIVEN, DECISION

MAKING TO ATTAIN YOUR BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

© Conversion Sciences LLC. Used with permission.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

The Process & Measuring for Meaning

Measuring for Meaning

Vanity metrics vs. Business Objectives

Exercise

Using Goals in Google Analytics

Website Goals and Funnels in Google Analytics

Exercise

Segmentation: Giving Meaning to Data

Measuring Visitors in Aggregate Means Nothing

Most Common Ways to Segment Visitors

Finding Your Analytics Segments

Segmenting by Goals Best Practices

Segmenting by Non-Goal Behaviors

Segmenting by Visitor Dimensions

Exercise

Tracking Campaigns: Online and Offline

Tagging Online Campaigns

Campaign Tracking Variables

How Tracking Variables Work

Web Analytics Campaign Tracking Variables

Adobe Analytics Campaign Variable

Campaign URL Builder

Exercise

Automating Campaign Tracking

Other Ways to Use Campaign Parameters

External URLs Only

Exercise

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Key Performance Indicators

KPIs vs. Standard Metrics

KPIs Correlate to Business Objectives

Characteristics of KPIs

Examples of Business Requirements for KPIs

Exercise

A/B Testing

Introduction to A/B Testing

Exercise

Attribution: Credit Where Credit is Due

What is Attribution Modeling?

Common Attribution Models

Lookback Makes a Big Difference

Comparing Attribution Models

How to Choose an Attribution Model

Exercise

Reporting and Dashboarding

Creating Dashboards

Common Mistake: Data overload

Data vs. Information

Actionable Reporting

Exercise

About Thom Craver

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INTRODUCTION

eb analytics is more than dumping data points from a tool without insight or actionable recommendations. WYou could search the Web and get several definitions of web analytics. Most definitions are all accurate, but

not all-encompassing. Proper web analytics is a cycle the includes properly measuring the right data points,

understanding their context when compared to other groups of similar data. This should help you

understand multiple business objectives with your website in addition to helping you better understand how

visitors arrive at and interact with your site so you can optimize those interactions in the future to exceed

your organization's bottom line.


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THE PROCESS & MEASURING FOR MEANING


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When collecting data points, know there are few limitations. From mouse movements to individual items clicked or

browser commands given, if it happens in the browser window, you can record it.

Types of data to collect:

1. Hit Level Metrics

e.g.: page views, time on page, downloads, events

2. Session Level Metrics

e.g.: visits (sessions), time on site, visitor source

3. Visitor Dimensions

e.g.: age, gender, location, language

MEASURING FOR MEANING


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The metrics that matter are typically a combination of metrics, limited to select visits or visitors with certain

qualifying characteristics.

“Feel Good” But not Useful

Ÿ Total Visits / Visitors

Ÿ Most popular pages

Ÿ Pages per Visit

Ÿ Time on Page / Site

Help Make Business Decisions

Ÿ Campaign Performance

Ÿ Revenue – By Channel

Ÿ Avg. Subscription Length

Ÿ A/B Test Results

VANITY METRICS VS. BUSINESS OBJECTIVES


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1. What are the business objectives your website is trying to accomplish?

EXERCISE

2. What metrics and dimensions are required to measure those objectives?


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USING GOALS IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS

WEBSITE GOALS AND FUNNELS IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Ÿ Can be based on URLs or user action events.

Ÿ Should include monetary values wherever possible

Ÿ Should only include pathing specific to the goal for every visitor

Ÿ Should not include the goal itself in the funnel steps

Ÿ Can be a qualifying characteristic by which to group business objectives


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USING GOALS IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS

EXERCISE

Go into your Google Analytics account and list the goals you have set up.

Star any goals without funnels or whose funnels are incorrectly setup.

Below, list steps that could be taken to correct those funnels:


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MEASURING VISITORS IN AGGREGATE MEANS NOTHING

Ÿ Create “groups” or subsets

Ÿ Test goals and conversions against

Ÿ visitor subsets, page content

Ÿ ROI of campaigns, lists

Ÿ More meaningful information

SEGMENTATION: GIVING MEANING TO DATA


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MOST COMMON WAYS TO SEGMENT VISITORS

Segmentation involves grouping particular visitors to specific characteristics to better understand visitor

interactions, and/or visualizing business objects and ROI. Most commonly, visitors are segmented by:

Ÿ Goals converted

Ÿ Other on-site behaviors (events)

Ÿ Originating source (campaigns, search, social, etc.)

FINDING YOUR ANALYTICS SEGMENTS

Google Analytics:

Ÿ Located at the top of report pages

Adobe Analytics:

Ÿ Located on the left – “people” icon or under Components menu



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SEGMENTING BY GOALS BEST PRACTICES

Segment visitors or sessions based on goals completed. Do not merely duplicate a goal report, however. Try to find

more meaning behind merely raw conversion numbers. For example:

Ÿ Segment visitors by those who have completed a particular goal or goals

Ÿ Segment visitors who converted a goal further to compare against acquisition source, acquisition cost, and

revenue generated

Ÿ Are there particular pages common to visitors who convert a goal?



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SEGMENTING BY NON-GOAL BEHAVIORS

Segment visitors or sessions based on visitor behavior events that have meaning. Forms are most common. But don’t

limit to forms completed. Measure user activity to determine answer to questions like:

Ÿ What elements of a form were left blank upon abandonment?

Ÿ Were errors recorded during submission?

Ÿ What pages were viewed in lieu of form completion or was the whole site abandoned?

Ÿ What percentage of which videos are being viewed?

Ÿ What content are people interacting with most?

Ÿ Why are visitors leaving our site?

Ÿ Are they accomplishing their task even on a one-page visit (bounce)?



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SEGMENTING BY VISITOR DIMENSIONS

Segment visitors based from where they arrived prior. Organic search and social media visits are often built-in

segments. Understanding visitors from campaigns or geo-location can help determine answers to questions like:

Ÿ What is the ROI of our marketing campaigns?

Ÿ Should certain campaigns be paused or have their budgets increased?

Ÿ What content are different demographic groups more interested in consuming?

Ÿ Are geo-targeted ads (online or offline) having the desired effect on traffic?

Ÿ Are organic SEO efforts paying off?

Ÿ Are link-building efforts paying off?

Ÿ Was our website hit with a penalty from a search engine?



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EXERCISE


Lookup the custom segments currently defined in your analytics account and list them below.

Are these segments useful toward helping clarify metrics by your organization's business objectives? Why or why not?


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Tracking parameters conclusively define from which source a visitor arrived at your website. They are most

commonly used to track online marketing campaigns via email or social media. Links from these sources can often

appear as direct visits to a site, unless tracking is appended to the URLs in the calls to action.

TRACKING CAMPAIGNS: ONLINE AND OFFLINE

TAGGING ONLINE CAMPAIGNS


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Campaign tracking variables – sometimes referred to as URL parameters – are added to the end of a URL and allow

analytics software to determine the true source of a visitor to a website. These variables must be unique and do not

affect how the page renders to the site visitor.

The format is variable name, then an equals sign, then the value. Additional tracking parameters use an ampersand

(&) character between the previous value and the next variable name. For example:


CAMPAIGN TRACKING VARIABLES

www.MyDomain.com/landingPage.html? = & =variable1 variable2someValue somethingElse


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Tracking variable allow you to tell your analytics software precisely from where a visitor originated.


HOW TRACKING VARIABLES WORK


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WEB ANALYTICS CAMPAIGN TRACKING VARIABLES

Google Analytics allows you to track up to five different variables. Three of these are required; the other two are

optional.

utm_source Referring website, mailing list, etc.

e.g.: google.com, t.co

utm_medium Type of link or marketing medium

e.g.: referral, organic, cpc

utm_campaign Promo codes, product, slogans, campaigns of your choosing

utm_term Paid keywords (PPC); often used from words bid on in a pay-per-click ad campaign

utm_content Special phrases or ad groups of your choosing for granular tracking


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Adobe Analytics is much more adaptable. You set whatever variable name you desire. However, it only tracks one

variable for external campaigns. However, through SAINT tables and other back-end plug-ins to Adobe's reporting,

you can serialize a great deal of information into the value of a single campaign variable.

The most common campaign variable name by Adobe users is cid, which stands for campaign ID, and resembles:

ADOBE ANALYTICS CAMPAIGN VARIABLE

www.MyDomain.com/landingPage.html? =cid someValue



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Google URL Builder is a free tool Google provides to assist you in adding campaign variables to your URLs. Simply fill

out your website / campaign URL, add your source and other campaign information, and the Campaign URL Builder

provides all the necessary connecting syntax automatically. Simply copy it and paste it into your campaign as the link

for your call to action.

CAMPAIGN URL BUILDER



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Use Google's Campaign URL Builder to create a custom URL for an email campaign for your monthly newsletter with

the name November2017.

Write the resultant URL below:

________________________________________________________________________________________

Use Google's Campaign URL Builder to create a custom URL for any online campaign you recently executed or are

about to execute in your organization. Identify the relevant variables in the space provided and write the complete,

resultant URL.

utm_source: ______________________________________________________________________

utm_medium: ______________________________________________________________________

utm_name: ______________________________________________________________________

utm_term: ______________________________________________________________________

utm_content: ______________________________________________________________________

Campaign URL: ______________________________________________________________________

EXERCISE



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Look for tools that help automate campaign variable tagging. Most major email service providers, social automation

and PPC platforms have campaign parameter tools built-in.

AUTOMATING CAMPAIGN TRACKING



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Offline Visits:

1. Use a shortened, vanity URL like mydomain.com/promoname, bit.ly URLs or even URLs embedded in QR codes

2. Have your engineering team set up a redirect to your landing page with campaign variables.

3. Enjoy the tracking of offline marketing

OTHER WAYS TO USE CAMPAIGN PARAMETERS



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Only use campaign variables on URLs from sources external to your website. Never use to track internal campaigns.

Adobe Analytics has an internal campaign variable that works similar to the external campaign variable that you are

free to name as you see fit.

Google Analytics will register a new visit every time the utm_source campaign variable changes.

EXTERNAL URLs ONLY



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List all promotional campaigns, online or offline, that could benefit from campaign tracking with URL parameters.

Which method would you use to track these?

EXERCISE

Campaign Name Online or Offline Tracking method utm_source utm_medium



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KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

KPIs VS. STANDARD METRICS

Web Metrics:

Ÿ Numerical data points representing measurable Web site actions

Ÿ Ratios of numbers representing Web Actions

Key Performance Indicators:

Ÿ Metrics that directly correlate to the business objective of your Web site

KPIs CORRELATE TO BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Use segments and even custom metrics to come up with KPIs pertinent to your organizations’ business objectives.

Add values and provide relative historical context whenever possible.

KPIs answer what, which, and/or how questions for understanding your business requirements and solving your

business objectives. E.g.:

Ÿ What are my top-converting products?

Ÿ Which pages on my website contribute most to success?

Ÿ Which campaigns have the highest conversion? …ROI? …gross income?


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CHARACTERISTICS OF KPIs

1. Clear

Ÿ Anyone can understand them

2. Pertinent

Ÿ Organization’s Business Objectives

3. Timely

Ÿ Now, not later

4. Instantly useful

Ÿ Get it right away


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EXAMPLES OF BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS FOR KPIs

Ÿ Increase revenue generated through web sales of Product A by 15 percent in the current year.

Ÿ Decrease the cost per acquisition of Product A by 5 percent in the current year.

Ÿ Increase sales leads by 8 percent in the current year.

Ÿ Increase new sign-ups by 5 percent in the current year.

EXERCISE

Establish KPIs for the business objectives you created in your first exercise. Include all pertinent metrics, segments

and values.


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A/B TESTING

A/B Testing – sometimes called split testing – helps you compare two versions of a web page to see which one

performs better to meet your business objectives. In A/B testing, you have two (or more) variations of the same page

with one detail changed. The detail could be an image, placement of a call to action (CTA), or even the body copy or

CTA wording.

INTRODUCTION TO A/B TESTING


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Code is placed at the top of your page. That code determines if a visitor should see the page or the testing variant. If

the latter, it redirects the user to the new version before the page is rendered in the browser. The testing variant

works just like the original, except it can only be accessed via the testing script. It cannot be accessed via a menu.

However, it still maintains navigation consistent with the original page.

What kind of elements can you test?

Ÿ Wording / Calls-To-Action / Offers

Ÿ Images / colors / placement

Ÿ Navigation elements, layout

Ÿ Headlines

A/B TESTING

INTRODUCTION TO A/B TESTING


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Determine which pages you think might be underperforming. It could be a campaign landing page, your home page,

or even a form. List the page, which elements you'd like to test, and the number of variants you'd have in your

experiment.

EXERCISE

Page Conversion goal Elements to test

A/B TESTING


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ATTRIBUTION: CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Attribution modeling involves designating which marketing channel or visitor source gets the credit for website

conversions. Reports default to what’s referred to as a “last touch” model, basically giving credit for a conversion to

the most recent visit’s source.

However, most people don’t convert on the first visit to your site. Giving credit to the channel(s) that contributed to

a visitor’s experience that led to an ultimate conversion is all part of attribution modeling.

Which visit gets credit for the conversion?

WHAT IS ATTRIBUTION MODELING?


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COMMON ATTRIBUTION MODELS


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LOOKBACK MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE

The lookback window, sometimes called time lag, matters a great deal when attribution modeling. By default, most

analytics vendors look back at 30 days of data as the lookback window. If your customer visited multiple times prior

to that 30-day lookback, those prior visits would not be counted.

In the example below, with a 30-day lookback window and a first-touch attribution model, social media would get

the credit for a conversion, not the organic search that happened just two days prior.


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COMPARING ATTRIBUTION MODELS


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Consider:

Ÿ Business model (affiliates?)

Ÿ Sales cycle length

Ÿ Lead / sales generation process

No model is perfect

Ÿ Find models that are useful

Ÿ Use the one that is most useful

HOW TO CHOOSE AN ATTRIBUTION MODEL



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Select attribution models to compare. Answer the following questions to determine which to use:

1. What is the sales cycle for a typical order or service contract?

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

2. What kind of lead generation does your company perform?

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

3. Do you offer value-added offers online?

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

4. Do you offer reviews or comparisons?

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

Which attribution model(s) appear to make the most sense for your organization?

EXERCISE



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REPORTING AND DASHBOARDING

Creating quick and easy dashboards of your favorite or often-used reports can be done in a few clicks. Both Google

Analytics and Adobe Analytics provide methods to add any standard or customized report to a dashboard.

However, using default dashboards – especially without segmentation applied – often gives meaningless data.

CREATING DASHBOARDS


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Quick “add to dashboard” widgets and dashlets are great for quick overview information. But for actionable

reporting, default dashboards don’t cut it because they can’t show action items.

Proper reports should:

Ÿ Show more than data

Ÿ Show patterns, trends

Ÿ Demonstrate rationale for (or against) idea

Ÿ Show benchmarking data (yours or others)

Ÿ Provide insight

Ÿ Make recommendations for action

CREATING DASHBOARDS


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Avoid Too Much Data and Not Enough Information

This is not how you dashboard. Objectives and recommendations are vague, data is still being benchmarked,

historical context is not valuable.

COMMON MISTAKE: DATA OVERLOAD


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Data only becomes information when you apply labels & context.

Ÿ Information only becomes useful when interpreted by an analyst.

Ÿ That involves some “educated guesswork.”

Ÿ This graph means nothing without context:

DATA VS. INFORMATION


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Reports should provide context and Action.

Ÿ Focus on the right number of KPIs and detail for your audience

Ÿ Different audiences might require different reporting

Ÿ Always state your objective

Ÿ Always add insights and pertinent trends / historical data

Ÿ Always recommend action

Ÿ Visualization is always key

ACTIONABLE REPORTING


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Ÿ Who are the stakeholders for whom you generate reports?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

Ÿ What KPIs should you report – based on which objectives?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

Ÿ What context and historical trends should include?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

Ÿ What would be suggested actions from underperforming KPIs? …overperforming KPIs?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

EXERCISE


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ABOUT THOM CRAVER

Thom Craver is a Senior SEO Analyst for CBS Interactive, managing all the CBS News

properties including 60 Minutes, Face the Nation and 48 Hours. A seasoned Web

developer since 1993, Thom is a technical SEO and digital analytics veteran. From

system administration to coding to marketing to measurement, few have the full 360-

degree view of modern day digital marketing.

In 1997, Thom started his first Web consultancy, New York Web Works, and never

looked back. After building spectacular websites, Thom pursued the quest to get

more traffic to his client sites. After conquering SEO, understanding analytics and

conversion optimization became his next passion. His career has included time at several renowned digital

marketing agencies across the U.S. and hundreds of consultancy clients both large and small in nearly every vertical.

Thom has spoken and led masterclass workshops at numerous digital marketing events around the world and is also

a veteran of the TEDx stage. In addition to multiple industry blogs, he has ghost written over a dozen technical

instructional training manuals. He has taught digital business courses at Quinnipiac University, SUNY community

colleges and the Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Get in contact with Thom at:

ThomCraver.com/workshop

[email protected]

(585) 502.8020


https://thomcraver.com/workshop

https://thomcraver.com/workshop

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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