google analytics 101
DESCRIPTION
Just what is this Google Analytics? Why should I use it? How do I implement it?TRANSCRIPT
Google Analytics 101 + 201
What Is Google Analytics?
Interpreting Reports: Making Sense Of The Data
Social Media Reporting: See The Value Of Social Media On Your Site
Advanced Reporting
Goals And Funnels: Measuring Success
Ecommerce Reporting: Where The Money Comes From
Implementation And Google Tag Manager
Common Client Requests
Q&A
Other Resources
Agenda
GOOGLE ANALYTICS OVERVIEW
Google Analytics OverviewGoogle Analytics shows you how visitors actually find and use your site, so you'll be able to
See how users find your site
See what users use on your site
Make informed site design and content decisions
Improve your site to convert more visitors into customers
Track the performance of your keywords, banner ads, and other marketing campaigns
Track metrics such as revenue, average order value, and ecommerce conversion rates
Track events of any type, including offsite links and interactions with dynamic content
How Google Analytics Works
User loads page
GA Code fires and passes
data
Google processes data into reports
You view reports
INTERPRETING REPORTS
Visitors :: Visits :: Pageviews
A single visitor may have multiple visits to your website
Each visit is made up of one or more pageviews
A visitor is uniquely identified by a Google Analytics cookie which assigns a random visitor ID to the user’s browser
A single visitor may have multiple visits to your website
Each visit is made up of one or more pageviews
Content BreakdownNew User accesses your home page:
1 Visitor1 Visit1 Pageview1 Unique Pageview
The same User access 3 more pages and home again
1 Visitor1 Visit5 Pageviews4 Unique Pageviews
The same User leaves, comes back tomorrow, access home and 2 new pages
1 Visitor2 Visits3 Pageviews3 Unique Pageviews
Report Interface
4 Main Navigation Categories
Report StructureAudience (Visitors) - who are they?
Visitor information such as loyalty, location, and browser types, mobile devices
Acquision (Traffic Sources) - how did they get here?
Organic search keywords, referring sites, campaigns, social
AdWords
Behavior (Content) - what did they do here?
Pages Viewed by URL & Title
Events and Site Search
Conversions (Goals/Ecommerce) - did they complete any KPIs?
Conversion rates and funnels, Revenue sources, product-specific information, ROI
Session Metrics
Visits (Sessions)
A series of pageviews between one browser and your website. Google Analytics visits expire after 30 minutes of inactivity or when the browser window is closed
Pages per Visit
The average number of pages viewed during a visit to your site. Repeated views of a single page are counted.
Average Time on Site
The average duration of visits to your site. Calculated by the difference in time between the first and last pageview. You MUST have at least 2 interactions to generate time on site metrics.
% New Visits
The percentage of visits from browsers who had never visited your site before.
Content Metrics
Pageviews
A pageview is counted every time a page on your website loads
Unique Pageviews
The number of visits during which one or more of these pages was viewed
Average Time on Page
The average amount of time visitors spent viewing a page
Bounce Rate
The percentage of entrances to a page that immediately left the site without viewing a second page.
% Exit
The percentage of pageviews that were the last pageview in a session
Content DimensionsPages
Page: the URL of each page as it is viewed on your website
Page Title: The document title of each page. This is typically also displayed on the title bar of your browser window, on your computer’s task bar, and also as the first line of organic search result listings.
Landing Page
The first page viewed during a visit
Exit Page
The last page viewed during a visit
Dimensions: Traffic SourcesSource
The domain (e.g. google.com) of the source referring a visitor to your website
Medium
The type of referral (e.g. organic) to your website
Keyword
The keyword used by a visitor to reach your website (for search)
Campaign
The names of your online marketing campaigns
Ad Content
The first line of text for your AdWords ads/what you set as ad content in tagged campaigns
Real-Time ReportingGoogle will now show analytics data with a ~1 second delay
Accessible from the Home tab
Great for monitoring campaign launches
Warnings:
Reports do not provide ecommerce information
Reports obey profile filters - may not see your own visits if you are filtering your IP
Real-Time Reporting
SOCIAL MEDIA REPORTING
Social Media ReportsGoogle’s integrated report shows you the impact of social media on your site
Incoming traffic sources
Shared content
Plug-ins used (like/share buttons)
Conversions from social sources, including dollar amounts for ecommerce
Shows all social media networks sending traffic to your site
Social Media Reports – Network Referrals
Clicking shows pages from your site shared on that network
Shows conversions by network – dollar value for ecommerce
Social Media Reports - Conversions
Assisted vs. Last Interaction: did
the traffic from the network
directly drive the conversion or
help along the way?
Shows all pages on your site shared using social media plug-in buttons
Social Media Reports – Plug-Ins
Social Entity tab shows the pages actions took place on
ADVANCED REPORTING
Apply a dimension to reporting in any report
Segmentation
Lets you see metrics in content
Works at a visit level
I.E., “in my visit I did x/came from y”
Can also be custom-built
“See all returning visits from Washington”
See what users who viewed a particular production did on the site
SamplingLarge datasets and datasets over a significant period of time may take longer to process
You can control the processing time vs. the data precision with the sampling slider
Sampled data is statistically significant but not 100% complete
75% new visitors = this percentage is a real number
1,000 visitors = may be 1,075, may be 983.
Note: some queries may always be sampled:
Large datasets
Data pulled over a large time range
Data using advanced segments
You can work with the slider and date range select to limit sampling if needed
Site Speed ReportingReport provides technical details for page load, domain lookup, connection speed, etc.
Will also show these stats by page.
Performance report buckets statistics on server and page response
Multi-Channel Funnels Shows you the paths users took to a conversion
Lets you see what channels may have assisted a conversion
Helps you see how channels work together
Assisted ConversionsShows you if a conversion was direct or last click or if it was part of the process
User -> Paid Search -> Convert = last click/direct
User -> Facebook -> Organic Search -> Convert
Last Click: Organic Search
Assisted: Facebook
Shows actual dollar amounts with ecommerce
Lookback window lets you set how many days prior for assisted conversions
GOALS AND FUNNELS
Goal Types And NotesURL Destination
Goal is a page on the site
Only goal that can be funneled
In the funnel, setting the first step as required will ONLY count visitors if they start there
Not selecting a required step will count ALL goal completions even if they didn’t enter at the top of the funnel
Time on Site and Pages/Visit
Metric-based goals
Event
Match an event’s category, action or label
A series of pages through which a visitor must pass before reaching the
conversion goal
What Is A Funnel?
A funnel allows you to:
Examine where visitors enter and exit your conversion process
Eliminate bottlenecks in your process
Identify which site paths lead to the most goal completions
Use your findings to test changes to your site
Your Visitors
Your Customers
Funnel Reporting - BasicEntering the Funnel Leaving the Funnel
Defined Goal Conversion
Funnel Reporting - Advanced
Graphically shows where users are going in your funnel
Can use advanced segments
Can start with many different dimensions
Can show path based on a single data point
ECOMMERCE REPORTING
Ecommerce ReportsGoogle Analytics can report on transactions if properly coded
This allows you to see the following:
Total transactions and revenue
Transactions and revenue by source
Products sold
Individual transactions
Transaction data can also be tied back to other reports as well
Product Report
Ecommerce Reports
Individual Transaction
Ecommerce ReportsCaveats:
Ecommerce will only report what it is told
It is NOT a CRM or accounting system
It performs no math on its own
eCommerce requires integration to the client’s cart system
IMPLEMENTATION AND GOOGLE TAG MANAGER
How Google Analytics Works
User loads page
GA Code fires and passes
data
Google processes data into reports
You view reports
Google Tag ManagerImplement tagging with just one line of code on every page
Tags are set up in a Web-based form
Events are pushed to a data layer, accessible by all tags
Future-proof updating: can update tagging without having to touch the site
Preferred way of implementing GA code going forward
<!-- Google Tag Manager --><noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-XXXX"height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript><script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-XXXX');</script><!-- End Google Tag Manager -->
Data Layer Events:dataLayer.push({’name’:parameter,’name2’:parameter,’event’:’eventname'})
Google Tag Manager
Mobile Sites And AppsMobile sites function the same as standard Websites - standard tagging applies
May want to track specific events: accordions, device orientation
Mobile apps require a SDK
SDKs are available for iOS and Android; can be modified for Windows 8 apps
SDKs handle some level of auto-tracking
Otherwise pass events and pageviews per the SDK:
iOS: [tracker send:[[GAIDictionaryBuilder createEventWithCategory:@"ui_action", // Event category (required) withAction:@"button_press", // Event action (required) withLabel:@"play_button", // Event label withValue:nil] build]]; // Event value
Android: easyTracker.send(MapBuilder .createEvent("ui_action", // Event category (required)
"button_press", // Event action (required) "play_button", // Event label null) // Event value
.build()
Changing VersionsGenerally a change in Google Analytics functionality will change how we send data into the system
SDK’s, JS function calls change
We may load a different version of the analytics script (i.e., urchin.js -> ga.js -> analytics.js)
Google will usually accept data from older methods for some period of time
Eventually they (say) they will deprecate older methods
Changing methods means changing the basic implementation and any advanced tracking
Events, ecommerce, social sharing
This work is much easier with Tag Manager
Data exists in the data layer and can be read with any method
COMMON CLIENT REQUESTS
_gaq.push(['_addTrans', '1234', // transaction ID - required 'Womens Apparel', // affiliation or store name '28.28', // total - required '1.29', // tax '15.00', // shipping 'San Jose', // city 'California', // state or province 'USA' // country]);_gaq.push(['_addItem', '1234', // transaction ID 'DD44', // SKU/code - required 'T-Shirt', // product name 'Olive Medium', // category or variation '11.99', // unit price - required '1' // quantity - required]);_gaq.push(['_trackTrans']);
Ecommerce TrackingGoogle doesn’t track ecommerce natively
Requires integration with the client’s cart system
Uses _gaq.push functions or specific data layer variables<script>dataLayer = [{ 'transactionId': '1234', 'transactionAffiliation': 'Acme Clothing', 'transactionTotal': '11.99', 'transactionTax': '1.29', 'transactionShipping': '5', 'transactionProducts': [{ 'sku': 'DD44', 'name': 'T-Shirt', 'category': 'Apparel', 'price': '11.99', 'quantity': '1' },{ 'sku': 'AA1243544', 'name': 'Socks', 'category': 'Apparel', 'price': '9.99', 'quantity': '2' }]}];
</script>
Upgrading VersionsGoogle has had several iterations
Started as Urchin
Was synchronous, then asynchronous
Moving to Universal Analytics
Each type has its own method to send data to GA:
urchinTracker -> pageTracker. -> _gaq.push -> ga('send’);
Upgrades involve changing the pageview tracking method and upgrading any event and/or eCommerce tracking
May be a good time to migrate to Tag Manager
Q & A
Other ResourcesGoogle Conversion University (GA Training):
http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/iq.html?&rd=2
Google Analytics Help Center:
http://support.google.com/analytics/?hl=en
Google Analytics Forums:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/analytics
Google Analytics Blog (best source for updates):
http://analytics.blogspot.com/
SDKs and other code:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/
Many books and other Websites also exist
Thank You