google analytics: your digital marketing...

GOOGLE ANALYTICS: YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING HUB

Digital Marketing Boot Camp for

Arts Marketers

© 2011, Analytics Pros, Inc.

About Me @analyticspros


What We’ll Talk About Today


• Setting the stage for maximizing marketing efforts

• Marketer Essentials – 5 things you must use GA for – Geographic Analysis – Traffic Source Segmentation – User Experience discovery – Is your Homepage really home? – Conversion Analysis

• Taking Action – Increasing traffic – Optimizing Conversions

• Caleb’s Top Tips – Data quality checks – Accessing extra dimensions in GA – Best Reports in GA – Getting more data in GA – “My Toolbox” – Beyond Google Analytics

Topics for Today


Why Does it matter?


Many Vendors to Choose From


Even More Reports…


But do they really help us?


Which half of 50% is better?

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.”

-John Wanamaker


What Marketing Worked?


Can you tell which is better?


Why Doesn’t this always happen?


Common Web Analytics Issues

• Data overload

• Analysis paralysis

• Trustworthy figures

• Information Dissemination

• Taking action


Business-Oriented Analytics

• Analytics is more than just “hits”, pageviews, and visits – it’s about customer insight and marketing optimization

• Analytics should connect the dots between web activity, marketing effectiveness, and bottom-line performance

• Analytics technologies are tools, they must be used properly by the right people

Income Statement


The Problem with Web Analytics

Action

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Tools

People


The Problem with Web Analytics

Action

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Tools

People

Cost Center

What Budget?

“There may be free tools… but there are no free people” © 2011, Analytics Pros, Inc.

The GA Secret


Google Analytics Opportunity

• The GA stack allows more resources to be dedicated to value-drivers (people)

• Lower total cost of ownership, greater ROI

Tool

People

Tool

People

Tota

l Co

st

Other Vendors GA

$

$

$

$


The Keys to Success with

GA © 2011, Analytics Pros, Inc.

Four Keys to Success with GA

1. Proper Planning

2. Informed Implementation

3. True Training

4. Terrific Tools


Planning Tips

• Start with your business goals, not metrics!


Planning Tips

• Start with your business goals, not metrics!

• Be constantly inquisitive, not presumptuous.


Business Goals

Supporting Questions

Data to Answer Questions

Required Implementation to

get the Data

Report Configuration &

Access

Data Analysis & Answers


Implementing What to do, and NOT do…

learned the hard way!


Plain Vanilla… It’s Not for You

Image source: http://atencentgemjar.wordpress.com/ © 2011, Analytics Pros, Inc.

http://atencentgemjar.wordpress.com/

The GA Tag Comes in Many Flavors

Image source: http://valuestream2009.wordpress.com/ © 2011, Analytics Pros, Inc.

http://valuestream2009.wordpress.com/

The Settings that Matter

• There are over 55 documented settings for the tag


The Settings that Matter

• There are over 55 documented settings for the tag

• Top settings to consider:

– Cookie Domain setDomainName

– Cookie Hashing setAllowHash

– Campaign Anchors setAllowAnchor

– X-domain Linking setAllowLinker


Signs of the Times


This is Bad…

• If your website is www.zenithvineyard.com


Caleb’s Implementation Tips

• Plan your business requirements

• Implement the GA tag correctly for your website(s)

– Consider domain names (sub-domains, 3rd party domains)

– Place the tag on all pages

– Use the setAllowAnchor feature

• You may want to take a course, read a book, or hire an expert to assist – don’t skimp on this!


Related Resources

• Books – Performance Marketing with Google Analytics

(Whitmore, Tonkin, Cutroni): http://goo.gl/nKwPI – Advanced Web Metrics (Clifton): http://goo.gl/8f9ui – Google Analytics (Cutroni): http://goo.gl/yXq6j – Web Analytics 2.0 (Kaushik): http://goo.gl/94Bhu

• Training – Online GA Conversion University: http://goo.gl/gBVYg – Google Seminars for Success: http://goo.gl/Cx87U – GAUGE Google Analytics User Conference (next one is

in NYC Oct 17 - 18): http://goo.gl/nqDQI


http://goo.gl/nKwPI

http://goo.gl/8f9ui

http://goo.gl/yXq6j

http://goo.gl/94Bhu

http://goo.gl/gBVYg

http://goo.gl/Cx87U

http://goo.gl/nqDQI

Marketer Essentials

2 Things that you MUST do with Google Analytics


Essential #1: Goals

Without a goal, what’s the point?


Goal Process Example


A “typical” Goal

Typical GA Goal


Goals in GA

• What is a “goal” in Google Analytics?

– Pre-calculated metric

– Can be any page or set of pages, event, or threshold of time spent of pages viewed


Goals in GA


Goal Essentials

Is there a better way to do goals?


Goal Essentials

YES!

The answer: a goal framework


Goal Essentials

Goals with a Framework


Goal Essentials

• Benefits of a Goal Framework include

– You’re no longer blind to what happens before the “conversion”

– See “funnel” view for Traffic Source reports

– Use the “score” to weight total visit engagement across all goals


Goal Essentials

• Caleb’s Goal Framework for Success:

– Set LOTS of goals – if it matters, make it a goal

– Some goals are “engagement” focused, others are “transactional” in nature

– Use the “score” feature within Google Analytics to “Weight” each goal


Goal Framework Worksheet

Download from: http://goo.gl/Ivcxm © 2011, Analytics Pros, Inc.

http://goo.gl/Ivcxm

Recommended goals for Arts Marketing sites Core goals:

• Calendar/Season

• Production Details

• Seat Selection (SYOS or Best Avail.)

• Booking Start/Shopping cart

• Customer Info

• Complete checkout

Engagement goals

• 2+ pages viewed

• 5+ pages viewed

• Above Avg. Pages/Visit

• 30+ seconds

• Above Avg. Time on Site


Goal Examples: Simple Framework


Related Resources on Goals

• Caleb’s goal planning worksheet: http://goo.gl/Ivcxm

• Great blog post by Avinash Kaushik: http://goo.gl/gpLD4


http://goo.gl/Ivcxm

http://goo.gl/gpLD4

Essential #2: Segmentation

Going beneath the surface of your data


GA is one BIG relational Database

• Over 85 dimensions and 230 metrics in GA

• That’s 19,550 1x1 combinations

• But… you can segment by up to 7 dimensions and 10 metrics at a time


6 Ways to Segment in GA

1. Standard report drilldowns

2. Report secondary & pivot dimensions

3. Custom report drilldowns

4. Advanced Segments

5. 3rd party tools

6. Data Export API tools


Standard Report, No Drilldown

What’s the cause?


Standard Report w/Drilldown

Organic & Referral Spiked


Drilldowns can get CRAZY!


Add the dimension of Time…


Secondary Dimension Segmentation

Shows Visits, Bounce Rates for each Keyword – but how do landing pages impact this?


Pivot Segmentation


Pivot Segmentation

Oregon Bounce rate is 32.45%


Pivot Segmentation

Organic Oregon Bounce rate is 26.22%


Pivot Segmentation

CPC Oregon Bounce rate is 37.88%


Pivot Segmentation

Arizona Organic Bounce rate is just 19.33%


Where to Start with

Segmentation

4 Easy Segmented Analysis Tasks You Can Do


Getting Started with Segmentation

• Built-in reports: – Geographic analysis

– Traffic source segmentation

– User experience discovery

– Time-based segmentation

• Advanced Segments – Customize segmentation criteria

– Dig deeper

– Compare multiple data sets at the same time


Task #1

Segmented Geographic Analysis


Segmentation Tip #1: Geography



Default graphic weighted by Visits



Change color weighting to use another metric


Geo Segment Example

• Question:

– What regions have higher conversion propensity outside the home region for Paid Search efforts?

• Report:

– Geo map report with Per Visit Goal Value in focus

– Comparison view of Per Visit Goal Value metric

– Advanced Segment for Paid Search traffic applied


Geo Segment Example

Adv. Seg applied

Oregon Excluded

Map focus set to Per Visit Value

View set to Comparison


Additional Geo Segmentation Tips

• Get creative with geo segments:

– Segment by latitude/longitude using Data Export API, i.e. Conversion rate for thermos purchases above the 45th parallel

– Segment by sales territory

– Count of Visits (segment: )


Geo Segmentation Bonus: DMA!


DMA Segment Notes

• This data is already in GA – just not regularly exposed

• Expect it to go away at any point! – It’s not “official” so it could disappear without warning – Let’s all lobby our Google reps to get this permanent and

supported

• This only works as a secondary dimension for US regions

• Here’s the link (it will open to your default profile):

http://goo.gl/xKIoP


http://goo.gl/xKIoP

Task #2

Traffic Source Identification


Traffic Source Segmentation

• Screenshot showing traffic source data mediums report with +/- view


Segment Traffic Sources Against…

• Goals

• Transactions

• Landing pages

• Campaigns by Geography

• Everything!


Just to be clear…

• Google Analytics can track any kind of marketing – not just Google AdWords

– Email marketing

– Microsoft AdCenter paid search

– Display ads run anywhere

– Social Media traffic

– Even offline campaigns


Tracking Your Marketing

• What to know: – Email will show up as “direct” unless it is specifically

tagged

– Banners & links will show up as “referring” not “banner”

– Offline campaigns can be tracked using vanity URL’s and tracking codes

– Paid search must be tagged, otherwise it gets mixed in with organic search


GA’s Oder of Operations

1. Check of Campaign Tags (utm_etc…)

2. Look for Referrer – Search Engine =

organic/search engine/keyword

– Referring Site = referring domain / page

3. Lump into “direct/none”


Medium – Source – Campaign

Direct

Referral

Organic Search

Paid Search

Add your own?

• Email

• Banner

• RSS

• ?

Medium: How they came

Source: Who we work with to make that happen

Direct Source

• (none)

Referral Source

• site names

Search Engine

• Yahoo!, Google, etc.

Campaign: Marketing activity

“Spring 2011”

cuts across everything


So How Do You Do It: Campaign Links

• YOU control the link.

• You tack some labels onto the end of the link.

• When a visitor clicks the link and arrives at your site, Google Analytics records those labels.

• There’s nothing to set up or configure in Google Analytics, you just make the link.


Campaign Links: How They Work

• In web addresses, the parts after a question park are called “query parameters”. Sometimes your webserver does something special with them.

www.example.com/page?id=1234 • If your webserver doesn’t recognize the query

parameter, it ignores it. These addresses both go to the same page:

www.example.com/page www.example.com/page?myname=johnsmith


Campaign Links: How They Work

• So even better than making up labels, we can use some labels that Google Analytics recognizes:

www.example.com/page?utm_medium=email &utm_source=newsletter

&utm_campaign=spring-2010

• These represent the medium, source, and campaign.

• You don’t have to build these URLs by hand.


Campaign Tracking Variables

Report URL Cookie

Source utm_source utmcsr

Where the visitor came from. Ex: Google, Yahoo, MSN

Campaign utm_campaign utmccn

Name of your campaign. Ex: Summer_Sale, EarlyPromo

Medium utm_medium utmcmd

Marketing method. Ex: CPC, Banner, Email

Keyword utm_term utmctr

Keyword that was searched for, both paid and unpaid. Ex: shirts, water+bottles

Ad Content utm_content utmcct

Descriptive word(s) used to identify different versions of an ad that you are trying to compare (A/B testing). Ex: blue_text, red_text


Campaign Examples Campaign Medium Source

spring-2011 email newsletter

spring-2011 email special-offer

spring-2011 banner example.com

careers banner example.com

careers partner affilitatesite.com

careers cpc yahoo.com

• List a few campaign – source – medium combinations for your marketing campaigns.

ACTIVITY


URL Builder

A Better URL Builder

• Excel-based

• Automate the process

• Ensure consistency

Get it here: http://goo.gl/qpzDF


http://goo.gl/qpzDF

Task #3

User Experience Analysis


User Experience Discovery Segments

• Does technology impact user experience?

• YES!! – Safari bounce rate considerably higher, why?


Safari User Experience Analysis

• Drilldown to Safari users


Internet Explorer Analysis

• Bounce Rates for IE versions vary wildly

• IE 9.0 users really have a hard time


Other Technology Analysis

• Analyze goal and experience factors

– Conversion rates

– Time on Site

– Pages/Visit

• Analyze other technical factors:

– Screen Resolution


Screen Resolution Example

Example report using Next Analytics for Excel plugin: http://goo.gl/fAkTm


http://goo.gl/fAkTm

Task #4

Where’s the Front Door?


Entrance Point Analysis

• Your website’s “front door” is probably NOT the main point of entrance


Where Do People Enter? Just 18% enter on the homepage!


Where Do People Enter?

That’s a lot of “other” doors!


Entrance Point Questions to Ask

• How porous is your site?

– Most traffic comes/goes from non-portal pages?

– Portal pages make up the majority entrance/exit points?

• What is the impact on key metrics?


Entrance Point Impact on Key Metrics

• Custom Report showing landing page key metrics


Taking Action

The Point of it All


Two Ways to Win

How did this

bucket get so

empty?


Two Ways to Win

Get More Traffic:

1. Spend more money, hope it works

2. Get more exposure

3. Lose more in the process

4. Get more in the end

5. Rinse, repeat, keep spending

Get More from your Traffic:

1. Establish reliable measurement

2. Segment your data

3. Identify problem points

4. Make improvements

5. Get more with less


My Top Tips

Lessons Learned the Hard Way


Tip #1: Data Quality Checks

• Audit your site data for quality – Internal referrals?

– Suspicious “direct” landing deep within your site?

– Odd exit pages with high rates?

• Use tools: – www.AnalyticsHealthCheck.com

– www.analyticscheckup.com

– www.observepoint.com


http://www.analyticshealthcheck.com/

http://www.analyticscheckup.com/

http://www.observepoint.com/

Tip #2: There’s More Data!

• Access extra dimensions in GA like DMA

– Dimensionator tool: http://goo.gl/65gbP

– GARE Firefox Add-On: http://goo.gl/TOl40

• Special freebie: DMA in the New Version of GA!

– Report link: http://goo.gl/fKn94 (once open go to your desired profile)


http://goo.gl/65gbP

http://goo.gl/TOl40

http://goo.gl/fKn94

Tip #3: Resources for More Data

• It’s all about the APPS! See http://www.google.com/analytics/apps/

• Great tools:

– Mashable Metrics (integrates GA with Tableau)

– NextAnalytics for Excel

– Excellent Analytics for Excel

– GeckoBoards.com for scorecards


http://www.google.com/analytics/apps/

Beyond GA My Toolbox


Google Analytics


KissInsights

www.kissinsights.com


http://www.kissinsights.com/

4Q

www.4qsurvey.com


http://www.4qsurvey.com/

not


Last Words…


Last Words

1. Plan ahead

2. Ensure data quality

3. Set goals

4. Track campaigns

5. Segment, segment, segment!


Thanks Caleb Whitmore

@analyticspros

www.analyticspros.com/blog


http://twitter.com/analyticspros

http://www.analyticspros.com/blog

google analytics: your digital marketing...

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