hidden secrets of google analytics
TRANSCRIPT
Hidden Secrets of Google Analy4cs#16NTCgasecrets slideshare.net/devonvsmith
@devonvsmith @JuliaCoyner
Devon Smith Strategy Director & Co-‐Founder, Measure @devonvsmith
Julia Robinson CommunicaDons Manager, Business for Social Responsibility @JuliaCoyner
#16NTCgasecrets
Follow Along Presenta4on Slides: slideshare.net/devonvsmith Wifi: marriot_conference / nten2016 Collabora4ve Notes: hNp://po.st/gasecrets-‐16NTC Evalua4on: hNp://po.st/5mTlMS
#16NTCgasecrets
Agenda
Secrets BeFer Reports BeFer Data BeFer Process Beyond Google Analy4cs Q&A
#16NTCgasecrets
Secrets
#16NTCgasecrets
Secrets
1. Ask ques4ons and test hypotheses.
Secrets
2. Use less data.
Secrets
3. Add beFer data.
Secrets
4. Invest up front, then automate.
Secrets
5. Add insights.
Secrets
Reality check (Q&A with Julia).
BeFer Reports
#16NTCgasecrets
Be.er Reports
Who visits our website?
Add an advanced segment…
…to make this list more useful
Segments narrow the data you see
“Service Provider” is the name of the organizaDon browsing your site
That’s great, but what are they looking at?
Secondary Dimensions add more data to your report
Who they are, and what they’re reading
Save your data
Schedule an email of this slice of data
Be.er Reports
Where did they come from?
Add an advanced segment…
…to understand this spike
What types of organizaDons send us traffic?
Social media #FTW
But this is not helpful
Word cloud
Job Seekers
Media
Social
Be.er Reports
What are they looking for?
“Searchers” have a specific content need
…to make this list more useful
Use advanced search…
What quesDons do they need answered?
Create content in response to these quesDons
Search Engine OpDmizaDon opportuniDes
Is your data missing?
Go to google.com/webmasters
What can’t they find on your website?
Only some of these are useful
Get rid of the “usual suspects”
How do we make this content more apparent?
Is your data missing?
Go to your “AdministraDve” sedngs
Turn on “site search” tracking
…and put it here
Find your “query parameter”…
Be.er Reports
What did they do?
You’re not alone if you’re not using goals
What are your goals?
Your goal must fit one of these criteria
Did they take this acDon?
Did they get to this page?
Did they stay a long Dme?
Did they look at a lot of pages?
Which channel performs beNer?
Be.er Reports
Reality check (Q&A with Julia).
BeFer Data
#16NTCgasecrets
Be.er Data
Custom Dimensions.
“Content Drilldown” groups pages by URL
“But I only care about my blog posts”
Who was the author of this blog post?
Schedule an email to these authors with only their data?
Any structured data can be a Custom Dimension
Blog Author Blog Category
Define your dimension in GA
Any data that is in your CMS, or can be calculated, can be a “Custom Dimension”
return { 'hitType': 'pageview', 'page': customURL, 'dimension1': contentID, 'dimension2': publishDate, 'dimension3': program, 'dimension4': socialShare, 'dimension5': wordCount, 'dimension6': imgCount, 'dimension7': author, 'dimension8': relatedTag };
Be.er Data
Scroll Depth.
“Events” happen when the page doesn’t change
How far did they scroll?
What did they see?
Define your event’s Category, AcDon, and Label
data-track=“{ "type" : "event”, "category" : "Component Interaction”, "action" : "Anchor Link”, "label" : "Staff” }"
Be.er Data
Mul4media.
What did they watch?
Video Dtle and length is more useful than a YouTube link
How long did they watch?
Google recently launched “autotrackers”
<button data-event-category="Video" data-event-action=“play">Play </button>
Be.er Data
Outbound Links.
When they leave, where are they going?
Are we a good partner?
More“autotrackers”ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto'); ga('require', 'eventTracker'); ga('require', 'outboundLinkTracker'); ga('send', 'pageview');
Be.er Data
Reality check (Q&A with Julia).
BeFer Process
#16NTCgasecrets
Be.er Process
Advanced Segments
Segments temporarily change your data
Segments can be made from any data in GA
Define a series, or sequence, of criteria
Share segments with colleagues
Find segments from others
Shhh… not so useful
Be.er Process
Filters
Filters permanently change your data
Exclude your own visits to your website
Make your URLs consistent by taking “www” out
Be.er Process
Custom Alerts
Alerts…alert you if something happens on your website
What are important, but rare, events?
Be.er Process
Dashboards
Assemble “widgets” into a “dashboard” to be emailed to stakeholders
Six types of widgets
Looks like this
This type of dataOnly this data
Choose a layout.
Answer the quesDons: Who? How many? From where? What they did?
Be.er Process
Reality check (Q&A with Julia).
Beyond Google Analy4cs
#16NTCgasecrets
Scale your reporDng with a GA Add-‐on
Start your report
Choose your data points
Google helps us perform magic!
Add visuals and insights
(no more waiDng on a developer for updates)
Google Tag Manager makes updaDng your GA code easier
Videos and advice from Google
More Resources
Property Audit Page TrackingSubdomainsCross domain trackViewsAdvanced SegmentsGoalsDashboardsCampaign TrackingSite SearchBotsIndustry BenchmarkSite Speed Rec’s
Front End CodeUniversal AnalyDcsMicrositesEvent Tracking
Outbound LinksScroll DepthMulDmediaDownloadsFormsmailto: links
Virtual Page ViewsCustom VariablesUser IDsSocial Share TrackingIn-‐Page AnalyDcsDemographic ReporDngInterest ReporDng
Linked AccountsAdWordsGoogle GrantGoogle Search ConsoleBlogAddThisNetwork for GoodKickstarterGoogle Cultural InsDtute
View AuditFilters
Exclude IP addressExclude SpamInternal Site SearchPrepend hostnameConsistent domainEliminate “www”
Content GroupingChannel GroupingSearch Term ExclusioneCommerce TrackingCost Data ImportCalculated MetricsANribuDon ModelExperimentsAnnotaDons
Q&A
#16NTCgasecrets
#16NTCgasecrets
Devon Smith Strategy Director & Co-‐Founder, Measure @devonvsmith [email protected]
Julia Robinson CommunicaDons Manager, Business for Social Responsibility @JuliaCoyner
www.measurecreaDve.com @measurecreaDve
#16NTCgasecrets