9 Google Analytics Best Practices … · Google Analytics Best Practices . 9 is relative – there...

9 Google

Analytics Best Practices

9 is relative – there may be

Implementing GA

What to do, and NOT do…

learned the hard way!

Plain Vanilla… It’s Not for You

The GA Tag Comes in Many Flavors

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

– Campaign Anchors setAllowAnchor

– X-domain Linking setAllowLinker

This is Bad…

• If your website is www.zenithvineyard.com

Data Quality Checking Tools

• 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

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 skip 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

Real World Example

When Google Analytics just doesn’t work

What you Want • Unified view across your website(s)

Google AdWords Click Landing Page Conversion

• Tie conversions back to clicks

• See the whole picture of user interaction across your website(s)

• Optimize your marketing, content, and conversions

The Typical Process

• Signup for Google Analytics

• Copy/Paste the tag into your pages

• Go look at a report…

• Ahh!!! Where did it break?

Here’s How it Breaks Down

• AdWords Auto-Tagging

• Tagging must make it to landing page

• GA Tag must work for site

• GA tag must work for all parts of the site

• GA tag must be on the landing page, conversion page, and all pages in between

AdWords Auto-Tagging

GA Tags Must Work

GA Tag Must Be Everywhere

Consistent for All Domains

Page is in “info” sub-domain Link goes to “www” domain GA tag isn’t correct for sub-domain, no “setDomainName”

The Result…

GA cookie says “source” is now “info.steelwedge.com”, no longer Google -> AdWords

Integrating External Data

Data Silos Suck

• Source: http://seandowling68.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/online-courses-opening-up-the-learning-islands/

3 Types of External Data

Externally feed data into Google Analytics

• Example:

– AdCenter Cost Data Imports in GA

• New Feature

– 3rd party data import providers

Export Data out of GA to a 3rd Party Tool

• Example:

– Data exported with a unique session key

Export Data out of GA to a 3rd Party Tool

• Example: – Data exported with a unique session

• Reality: – Challenging to do

– Must pro-actively implement for it

– TOS & Scale Issues

Push External Data into Google Analytics

• Example: – Data from your CRM surfaced when user is

signed in

• Reality:

– Still challenging – requires more implementation

– TOS issues can come up if data isn’t anonymous

– Scale can be an issue if data is granular

How It Works

Determine Your Data Model

Business Goals

Supporting Questions

Data to Answer Questions

Required Implementation to

get the Data

Report Configuration &

Access

Data Analysis & Answers

Define your Data Source(s)

• Where will the data come from?

• How will it be structured?

• Will it need transformation or require interpretation?

• How will you use it once it is in GA?

Making the Push

Making External Data Internal

Data Types in GA

Pageviews Events Commerce

Social Actions

Custom Variables

Rules for Data: Pageviews

• Used for tracking page loads or at-par interactions

• Can be customized to record a custom “url” or “page” vs. the default

• Factored into entrance page, path, flow, and exit page reports

Rules for Data: Events

• Used for “everything between the pageview”

• Support 3-dimensional data model – Category (object)

– Action

– Label

– Value (integer)

• Two types: Interaction vs. Non-interaction

Rules for Data: Commerce

• For recording transactional and product purchase information

• Use only when money changes hands

• Record what changes hands and for what reasons

Rules for Data: Social Actions

• For measuring social interactions

– Like/Tweet/Share clicks

– Clicks out to follow

– Clicks to social sites

Rules for Data: Custom Variables

• Multi-level data model

– Page or “hit”

– Session

– Visitor

Custom Variables Data Model

Visitor #1

Session 1 Session 2

Pageview B

Pageview D

Pageview A

Pageview C

Pageview A

Pageview C

Pageview B

Visitor

Visit (session)

When to use Custom Variables

• To record “meta” data – Data about the…

• To differentiate states in a session – Logged-in vs not logged-in – Shopping cart progress – Other progression measures

• To define and classify visitors – Multi-campaign attribution models – Visitor classification for demographics or other information

Example Custom Variables

• Visitor-level variables

Slot Name Value Scope

1 UserID 12345 Visitor

2 SessionID Abc456 Session

3 LoginState Logged-in Session

4 CustomerType Member Visitor

5 TestVersion HomepageB Session

Examples

Event Tracking Data

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

Goal Essentials

Is there a better way to do goals?

Goal Essentials

Goals with a Framework

Goal Examples: Simple 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

Related Resources on Goals

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

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

Goal Flows

Goal Flows Example

Goal Flow Tips

• Flow reports are instant

• Flow reports are retro- active in time

• Use Goal Flow to “group” pages and see flow between them

Campaign Tagging

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”

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 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

AdWords Integration

• Google Analytics and AdWords

Multi-Channel Funnel Reports

Multi-Channel Funnels

Multi-Channel Best Practices

• This is a “big picture” tool – don’t get lost in the weeds

Multi-Channel Best Practices

• This is a “big picture” tool – don’t get lost in the weeds

• Look beyond the last source with assists and first

• Avoid the “path” tool - look at the assist-to-last ratio

Awareness

Direct

Attribution Modeling

• Create multi-touch, multi-channel attribution models to test value changes

• Example:

– Discount last “direct” visit

– What changes in value attribution across marketing channels?

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 Reports & Dashboards

4. Advanced Segments

5. 3rd party tools

6. Data Export API tools

6 Ways to Segment in GA

1. Standard report drilldowns

2. Report secondary & pivot dimensions

3. Custom Reports & Dashboards

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

Secondary Dimension Segmentation

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

Secondary Dimension Segmentation

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

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%

Pivot Segmentation

Arizona Organic Bounce rate is just 19.33%

Geography

Segmented Geographic Analysis

Geography

Default graphic weighted by Visits

Geography

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

Geo Segment Example

Adv. Seg applied

Oregon Excluded

Geo Segment Example

Adv. Seg applied

Oregon Excluded

Map focus set to Per Visit Value

Geo Segment Example

Adv. Seg applied

Oregon Excluded

View set to Comparison

Geo Segment Example

Adv. Seg applied

Oregon Excluded

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 coat purchases above the 45th parallel

– Segment by sales territory

– Count of Visits (segment: )

Technology Analysis

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 Sizes Report

Screen Resolution Example

Example report using Next Analytics for Excel plug-in: http://goo.gl/fAkTm

Entrance Point Analysis 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?

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

Real-Time Analytics

Where’s the Front Door?

Real-Time Reports

Real-time Analytics

Very Cool

• Near-instant (1 – 2 seconds)

• Direct and instant connection to your customers

• Google Earth spinning globe!

• Constantly changing numbers & visuals

• See geographies now

• Looks awesome on a wall!

Real-time Analytics

Very Cool

• Near-instant (1 – 2 seconds)

• Direct and instant connection to your customers

• Google Earth spinning globe!

• Constantly changing numbers & visuals

• See geographies now

• Looks awesome on a wall!

Very Useful

• Is the website online?

• Is Google Analytics even working?

• Did that campaign launch?

• What’s trending?

• Did anyone see the TV Ad?

What can Real-Time do?

Remarketing Lists

Remarketing Lists with GA Data

• MUST use this feature!!

• Enables creation of AdWords remarketing lists based on Google Analytics data

• Details at http://www.google.com/analytics/features/remarketing.html

Remarketing Lists in GA

Remarketing Lists: Secret

• Visitor-level segmentation tool

– How many users upgraded to iOS 6.0.1 from 6.0 in the last 30 days?

Remarketing Lists in GA

Mobile App Analytics

GA for Mobile

• You NEED to be measuring your apps

– User Experience

– Marketing performance

– Engagement & value

• GA Mobile App reporting:

– Familiar interface, tuned for mobile app data

Data Sampling

Un-sampled Data is AWESOME!

• Download all your data without sampling

• Get a clear (accurate) picture of metrics

• Export large datasets for data warehouse integration

http://www.analyticspros.com/blog/google-analytics/sampled-vs-unsampled-data/

Note: Unsampled Data is only available in GA Premium Edition

Dealing with Sampling

• Consider GA Premium as part of your toolbox

• Avoiding Sampling: – Sampling defaults at 250k visits, mandatory after

– Reduce your date range to under 500k total visits

– Run reports that don’t require sampling • “Standard” reports are not sampled unless you apply:

Custom Reports, Advanced Segments, Secondary Dimensions require sampling

Dashboards

Dashboard Best Practices • Don’t duplicate – create

something new

• Combine Metrics that aren’t in standard reports

• Design your report around the question not the data

• Structure report names

Custom Reports

Custom Reports Best Practices • Don’t duplicate – create

something new

• Combine Metrics that aren’t in standard reports

• Design your report around the question not the data

• Structure report names

Admin Best Practices

• Redundancy – At least 2 admin’s – An independent @Gmail

address “analytics@gmail.com”

• Governance

– Limit admin users – Keep a log of changes in a

Google Spreadsheet

• Structure – Use profiles to sculpt data for

Multi-Tasking in the UI

One tab

Duplicate it

Two tabs!

Google Tag Manager

• Marketing tag management platform

• Increases marketing agility – Launch new tags in

minutes

• Full QA/Testing built-in

• Google scale & reliability

• http://www.google.com/tagmanager

Google Tag Manager

• Plan, plan, plan!

• Inventory your tags before implementing

• Stage your migration

– Turn on tags in GTM as you remove them from in-page coding

Thanks Questions?

Caleb Whitmore @analyticspros

9 Google Analytics Best Practices … · Google Analytics Best Practices . 9 is relative – there...

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