Presentation | September 23, 2009

Google Analytics

Agenda• Google Analytics Basics

o Reasons for using Google Analyticso Cookies o Other Google Analytics info

• Goals & Funnelso Reports (Funnel Visualization & Reverse Funnel)

• Bounce Rates• Profiles• Tracking Across Domains

o Subdomains• Filters• Campaign Setup• Custom Reports (Keyword Performance)• Internal Site Search

o Reports (Search Terms & Start Pages)

What is Google Analytics?

• Wikipedia defines GA as a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website.

• Delphic Sage should define it as a place where we can:o Build, track, and improve the goals we help set with/for

our clientso Stem ideas for SEO & marketing campaigns including

newsletters, press releases, etc.o Utilize the data repository for monthly

reporting/recommendations o  Be Proactive!

Why use Google Analytics?

• Analytics & Optimizationo Activity & “Transaction”

Monitoringo Correlate to Business

Results CPA, ROAS, ROI Other KPI’s Activity Analysis

o Provides Business Justification & Direction

o Dashboards & Tools• Primary Objective

o Optimize Spendo Prioritize Investments 

Sample Optimization Effort$50M SalesIncrease From 2.0 To 2.1%= $2.5M In Increase In Revenue2,200%  Increase In Annual Revenue

Basics of Google Analytics• Visitors

o Cookie is first party/random visitor id  + first initial timestamp

• Visitso Session is defaulted to 30

minutes (closing browser or inactive ends session)

• Pageviewso Refresh = new page view

• Bounce Rateo Enter on one page do not go to

any other page and exit• Ex. 1 Visitor can visit the site 2

times and have 5 pageviews

CookiesWhat data won't get through to Google Analytics? • Disabled Javascript• Blocked all cookies• Deleted Cookies 

o comes up as new visitor though• Error in Javascript prior to analytics code • Mobile Devices can with no javascript enabled

Cookie Info• __utma - Visitor identifer (expires after 2 years)• __utmb -Session Identifier (expires after 30 minutes of

inactivity)• __utmc - Session Identifier (temporary cookie; destroyed

when you quit browser; notes as new session)• __utmz - Campaign Values (Expires after 6 months or if

overwritten)

What Does Web Analytics Measure?

• Visitorso Characteristics

Browser, new vs. return, location

• Traffico Origins

Keywords, refers, pages

• Contento Effectiveness

Bounce rate, paths, navigation summary

Specifics about Google Analytics

• Tagged vs. log file • Highly

Customizable• Basic install is

robust• Worth more as part

of process• Set goals• Use campaigns• Tons of Reporting

Other Important Facts• Enter before </body> or footer• Strips out known bots/spiders• Works on mobile phones if they

support javascript and store cookies

• Account number below = 1111111o The 1 after the - represents

what implementation 

<script type="text/javascript"> vargaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> varpageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1111111-1"); pageTracker._initData(); pageTracker._trackPageview();

</script UA-1111111-1 >

How to Optimize

• Have a Plan• Define Goals• Measure trends (ex.

Bounce rates)• Track campaigns (ex.

Email Newsletter)• Be methodical

Goals• Select page you want visitor to see to reach the goal

o Goal is usually Thank you or confirmation page Types of Goals

Thank you page on contact form PDF Download for White Paper Newsletter Signup Feed Subscriptions

•  Set-up Goals undero Analytics Settings -> Profile Settings -> Conversion Goals and

Funnel Select up to 4 goals per profile

Set up duplicate profiles to add more goals o  Enter URL of Goal Page

Ex. /Confirmation.aspx o Name the goal

• Funnel steps on next page

Image via www.headachecare.com

Funnel/Match Types• Funnels show where enter and how go through process

o Show where you may lose would be customers• Add URL of pages leading to goal page

o Name Steps (Ex. Select Contact Form)•  Match Type

o Defines how google analytics identifies a goal/funnelo Match Types

Head Match /offer1/ (anything after / will still be counted)

Exact Match /offer1/signup.html

 Regular expression match If you have multiple signup forms under one goal

(/.*/signup\.html /offer2/signup.html and /offer3/signup.html

Goal Value   

• Assign monetary value for non-ecommerce goals• Example

o Sales team can close 10% of people who request to be contacted

o Average Transaction is $500o Assign $50 (i.e. 10% of $500) to your "Contact Us" goal

Image via http://risingsouthfoundation.com

Funnel Visualization Report• Displays visual representation of certain goal and path

before and after each step in funnel (Left =  step before, Right =  step after)

•  Goals -> Funnel Visualization

Reverse Goal Path Report• Displays exactly how people got to the goal page • Shows funnels you may have not thought of before •  Goals -> Reverse Goal Path Report 

Bounce Rates• The percentage of web site visitors who arrive at a web site

entry page, then leave without going any deeper into the site.

• If page is higher than avg. site bounce rate percentage, focus on changing content on that page (blogs are different though)o Content - > Content by Titleo Comparison Viewo Sort by Pageviewso Select "Bounce Rate" for compared to site average

 

Other Things you May Not Know• Some sites make extensive use of

Flash or other interactive technologies. o These sites don't load new pages

and user interaction is on single page

o Equals high bounce rates and low times on site

o Avoid this with virtual pageviews or events

• Paid keywords with high bounce rates, show landing pages need to be fixed Image via http://latimesblogs.latimes.com

Creating User Accounts/Profiles• One login can have access to 25 accounts • Difference between Admins/Users

o Users are read only; restricted to specific profileso Admins can do everything (view all reports/edit account settings)

•  Profiles typically per domaino set up for subdomainso setup for subset of data for one domaino set up reports for one domain where different users get different

access

Creating User Accounts/Profiles ctd• New domains will have new tracking numbers

o  UA-1111111-2 ad UA-1111111-3 as they are entered sequentially

• Go to Analytics settings page o Click add Website profileo Select radio button to add profile for NEW domaino Enter URL into text field (choose http or https)

Can enter subdomaino Click Finish 

Tracking across domains

• _link method allows track a user across multiple domains• Add few lines to GA code

o pageTracker._setDomainName("none");o pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);

• Add the _link() method to all links between domains o Ex. <a href ="http://www.your2ndsite" onclick =

"pageTracker._link('http://www.your2ndsite.com');return false;") Go to our other site</a>

Transfer forms across domains

Mostly used to track from one site to a 3rd-party shopping cart site.  • Transfer visitors by linkByPost() for forms

o Also, can be used to send cookie data to other domains in pop-ups or Iframes

o Modify forms as follows: <form action =

"http://www.shoppingcartsite.com/myService/formProcessor.php" name ="f" method="post" on submit="pageTracker._linkByPost(this)">... </form>

will add query string values to action attributes when user submits form

Filters  • Increases Flexibility of GA• Apply multiple filters to profiles• Maintain unfiltered profile (aka backup)• Predefined filters

o Ex. Exclude all traffic from a certain IP Address Won't track internal visits

• Other possible filterso Convert URI/URL to lowercaseo Filter out mydelphic traffic by hostnameo Filter out client traffic by IP

 

Filter SetupEnter via Filter manager on main analytics page or add a new profile with a filter Custom Filters• Muiltiple include or exclude filters can be applied to a single

profile• Filers are executed sequentially• The output from filter one is used as input for next filter

 What not to do• Create 2 separate filters because they will cancel each other

out• Instead, Create one filter that uses a regular expression to

indicate that the Visitor region is California or Texas (Filter Pattern = Texas/California)

Tracking across sub domains

• Add _setDomainName to tracking code on each page of each subdomain

• Add this line to GA codeo pageTracker._setDomainName(".parentsitename.com");

• One issue is pages named the same in subdomain will not see separate visitso Best practices to avoid subdomain issues

Set up Profiles for each subdomain as well as a main profile with no filters

Filter for subdomains

• Apply an advanced filter to differentiate subdomains within one profile (Add Filter from Main accounts screen)o Filter Type: Custom Filter > Advancedo Field A: Hostnameo Extract A: (.*)o Field B: Request URIo Extract B: (.*)o Output To: Request URIo Constructor: /$A1$B1

• With this filter, results appear within subdomain attachedo Ex. /maps.google.com/home.html &

/mail.google.com/home.html• More info here

Campaign URL Tagging• utm_source: Identify as an advertiser (google, citysearch,

newsletter)•  utm_medium: Advertising medium (cpc, banner, email)•  utm_campaign: Campaign name (product, promo code, or

slogan)• Optional campaign variables

o utm_term: Paid search keywordo um_content: Use to track different versions of an ad

• URL Builder here:  Example from recent Newsletter campaign we set up: • http://www.sitename.com/news/in-the-news.aspx/d=84/title=CP?

utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9-15-09NL 

 

Create Custom Report

• Decide what report should showo Ex.Source and Keyword Performance Report

Dimensions - sources and keywords Metrics - Pageviews, bounces, visits

Internal Site SearchWhy set this up?• Visitors use site search as a form of navigation• Analyze internal search can help identify:

o Missing or hidden contento Ineffective search resultso Keywords not previously identified for search campaigns

• Set up through Analytics account -> Edit profileo Track Searchingo Perform search on the site you will track to see what part

of querystring identifies search Ex. Google search = q Ex. Yahoo search = p

Search Terms and Start Pages Reports

• Search Terms Reporto Can compare metrics between internal search querieso Useful for identifying new keywordso Can refine down through cross segmentation

Ex. What city did they search from for this term? •  Start Pages Report

o Useful to assess effectiveness of landing pageso Click on the page listed in table and learn more about

searches on that page Ex. News page

Search term = Photo Gallery Should Reference Photo Gallery on that page

For Further Information...

Go to Google Analytics IQ Lessons• http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/?hl=en

 To Contact Delphic Sage, email us: info@delphicsage.com