Tracking Content Goals With Google Analytics

Presented by: Keidra Chaney

What I’ll Cover

• Setting business objectives• Content goals• Tools in Google Analytics

About me

• Started as web content manager, knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP• Trained through books, courses

and experience.• Became a web analytics

evangelist (and nag) at my workplace.• Started consulting on analytics

and website optimization

Has this happened to you?

Hey, our client wants metrics on

the new microsite

Sure thing!

Hey, so…. What does

this spreadsheet

mean?

Well…We got 2,000 visits

Is that good or bad?

???

Top Down or Bottom Up Approach to measurement?• Top Down: Starting with defined set of goals and a selected

group of relevant metrics• Bottom Up: Starting without a defined set of goals

GO TOP DOWN!

Don’t jump in to Google Analytics without a measurement plan for your content! A

measurement plan provides context for data and

makes using Google Analytics a LOT easier.

Step 1: Define the business objectives of your digital content

• They help align your digital content goals and your overall business goals

• Help leaders and content owners creators understand the value of content

Examples of digital content business objectives

• Increase brand awareness on social media • Improve customer service for customers• Enhance print communication materials

Continue with content goals• Web content goals demonstrate user action• Think of outcomes (downloads, comments, form

completion) not metrics (visits, pageviews, etc.)• DON’T JUMP THE GUN!

WEB/CONTENT

ACTION GOAL

Home PageSign up for newsletter

Collecting contact

information

BlogReading an article

Increased readership

Video Video viewCustomer

engagement

Content goals

Then think measurement!• What success metrics fit best with your content goals?

GOAL METRIC

Collecting contact

information

# of newsletter signups

Increased readership

Average time on site

Customer engagement

# of video views

Is it the *right* success metric?

• Does it show results? Can you use it to show definitive ROI on your efforts? Does it show that it’s helping you sell widgets, create awareness? Increase registrations?• Does it give insight? Can you learn more about your

users, the effectiveness of your content/campaign by looking at it?

• Is it actionable? Can you look at it and take some kind of immediate action to make things better?

• Can you benchmark it? Can you look at data month or month/week or week and see trends?

Goal Tracking In Google Analytics

Over Here!

Goal Tracking In Google Analytics

Track multiple user actions and $ value

Goal Tracking In Google Analytics

Here!

Here!Click “goals”

Then “create a goal”

Goal Types in Google Analytics

• Destination goals (ex. thank you page for newsletter signup form)

• Duration goals (ex. average time on website)• Event goals (ex. video views)

Dunno how to set up events? Go here:http://gaconfig.com/google-analytics-

event-tracking/

Goal Types in Google Analytics

How do you track success? Trends!

Look at trends to benchmark your average traffic and use that as the standard to beat.

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec2,700

2,800

2,900

3,000

3,100

3,200

3,300

3,400

3,500

Visits

Visits

If your unique visitor count increases 5% month

over month, that’s your benchmark

Annotations: Provide context to trends

Click

this!

Goal Flow

Click

this!

View visitor funnel patterns by multiple

dimensions – where do visitors drop off?

Segmentation

• Trends in aggregate may hide actual insights.

• Look at segmented traffic to compare traffic from different audiences.

• Segmentation allows you to give context to your data by focusing on a specific slice

of your audience or audience behavior.

Segmentation

Takeaways

• Identify business objectives• Identify content goals• Match appropriate metrics to goals• Set up tracking in Google Analytics• Benchmark and segment

Don’t jump in to Google Analytics without a measurement plan for your

content!

A measurement plan provides context for data and makes using Google

Analytics a LOT easier.

Tools and Resources

Google Analytics Education (Videos and more):goo.gl/mGpDG

Google Analytics Support:goo.gl/dKOkS

Google Analytics Blog:goo.gl/fQDWC

Google Analytics Reporting Tools (Excel Plugins and more):goo.gl/zzA66

Google Analytics URL Builder:goo.gl/MB6zX

Thanks!

keidra@gmail.com

www.thelearnedfangirl.com

www.keidrachaney.com

@kdc