gamc2010 01 - the power of segmentation - barbara pezzi - swissotel

Google Confidential and Proprietary 1

The Power of Segmentation Truly understand your visitors

Barbara Pezzi Director Web Marketing Fairmont Raffles Hotels International

Google Analytics Master Class 2010 #gamc 2

The Power of Segmentation

"Analyzing data in aggregate is a crime against humanity."

Avinash Kaushik



Aggregate data works on the assumption that all site visitors are identical



The reality is: •  Every site visitor is unique, each with their own behaviour, intent and

requirements.

•  Aggregate data cannot be actioned. Data without action is a pointless exercise.

•  Numbers need context to tell a story.



Segments are a subset of your data generally referring to groups of visitors whose behaviour you would like to see and analyze.

Simple Examples: •  Paid vs Organic Traffic:

  How do these 2 groups differ?

  Do your paid visitors favour different products?

  What keywords are they using?

  Use the data to optimise both your PPC campaigns (landing pages, keyword selection) and your SEO efforts (are there paid keywords which should be implemented in your SEO strategy?).




Simple Examples: •  Convert vs Did not Convert

  Compare traffic sources, landing pages, keyword used and conversion funnel.

  How was their site experience different?

  Where did you lose them?




Simple Examples: •  Bounce vs Non-Bounce: they came, they saw, they left. Why?

  Compare traffic sources, keywords used, landing pages.

  Look at the geo report. Is it possibly a language issue?




More Creative Examples: •  Viewed 5 pages but did not buy. These visitors were engaged with your

content, but not enough to convert.   What were they looking for (keywords)?

  Where did they leave (exit pages?).

  How did they find the site (traffic sources?).

  Is one of your referrers sending you the wrong traffic or is your content not good enough to convert?




More Creative Examples: •  Posted a comment (for blogs or sites which allow user interaction).

  If your goal is to increase your User Generated Content (UGC), then these are your star visitors.

  Where are they?

  How are they getting to the site (PPC, Organic, Affiliates..)?

  What can you do to get more?




More Creative Examples: •  Stayed less than 20 seconds.

  Sometimes a single page visit is not an issue (ex: blogs, contact details page, map page). In these cases, it might be better to segment by time on site to determine how many visitors really did not interact with the site. 20 -30 seconds is generally a safe bet.

  Alternatively, segment by pages/per visit: ex 2 pages or less



Tools available in Google Analytics for Segmentation •  Advanced Segments

•  Custom Variables



DEFAULT SEGMENTS CUSTOM SEGMENTS


Advanced Segments Applied

Goal: run a PPC campaign for the Swissotel Stamford, Singapore



Goal: run a PPC campaign for the Swissotel Stamford, Singapore •  Step 1: Analyse traffic pre-campaign: who is booking us? Choose countries

for campaign



1st Month Review •  Step 2: Create Campaign segment



1st Month Review •  Step 2: Compare conversion to all visits, by country

Google Analytics Master Class 2010 #gamc

1st Month Review •  Step 2: Review individually

18


We want more Brits!


1st Month Review •  Step 3: Dig deeper with individual campaign. What are the Brits looking at?

19



1st Month Review •  Compare and optimise by individual campaign:

  Landing pages

  Content viewed

  Keywords used

  Time partying (when did they buy the most?)

  Ad position

  Ad text

20



After 6 months of continued reviews and optimization..

21



After 6 months of continued reviews and optimization..

22


67.78% increase in revenue

21.78% decrease in costs

100% increase in ROI


Advanced Segments Applied; Non Ecommerce

Goal: increase membership to our loyalty programme, Club Swiss Gold



Goal: increase membership to our loyalty programme, Club Swiss Gold •  Step 1: create advanced segment



Goal: increase membership to our loyalty programme, Club Swiss Gold •  Step 2: analyse traffic sources, landing pages, keywords, countries of

origin… and optimise accordingly


Advanced Segments Applied; Social Media

Goal: analyse our Facebook vs Twitter visitors to optimize our social media activities



Goal: analyse our Facebook vs Twitter visitors to optimize our social media activities •  Step 1: create advanced segment



Goal: analyse our Facebook vs Twitter visitors to optimize our social media activities. Next steps:

•  Adjust our posts/tweets to the audience in each channel

•  Add campaign tracking codes to main offers/promotions posted

•  Set dedicated goals

Come back to next year’s GA event to see the outcomes..

?



Bonus Segment: Social media traffic

http://bit.ly/Social_Media_Traffic


Advanced Segments – In summary

•  Extremely flexible: you can create countless variations tailored to your own business goals

•  Can be utilized for ad-hoc on the fly analysis without any re-tagging required (unlike many other tools)

•  Can be applied retroactively and tested on the spot

•  You can share your segments

Additional information:

http://cse-sea.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-favourite-google-analytics-advanced.html


Custom Variables

Custom Variables provide you with the power and flexibility to customize Google Analytics and collect the unique site usage data most important to your business.

•  Members vs non-members

•  Content categorization: site sections

•  New customers vs repeat customers

•  Landing page


Custom Variables

Dedicated Custom Variables report in the Visitors section


Custom Variables Applied

Goal: Measure how the various languages are performing on the site or sections of the site (ex a specific hotel page)



Create your own segment



Analyse site metrics for your custom variable



Create your own custom report


Custom Variables – In summary

•  Very powerful: you can now define and track visitors according to visitor attributes (ex. member vs. non-member), session attributes (ex. logged-in or not), and by page-level attributes (ex. viewed Jobs section).

•  Can be used in advanced segments and custom reports

•  Does require tagging so plan carefully


Final Takeaways:

•  Set your segments based on goals: return visits vs short visit, transactions, members..

•  Apply different segment based on the goals of each section on the site: product pages, “about us” section, help pages, etc..

•  Try different segments: location based, campaign type, traffic source, online behaviour, keyword used, etc..

•  Don’t go too specific to start with. Take a couple of main segments and then dig deeper.



“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it”

(Lord Kelvin)


Google Confidential and Proprietary

Thank You!

http://www.swissotel.com http://uk.linkedin.com/in/barbarapezzi

42

gamc2010 01 - the power of segmentation - barbara pezzi - swissotel

Technology

social media

data generally

ecommerce

creative examples

loyalty programme

simple examples

dig deeper

continued