Stay clear from report monkeys when making data driven decisions

#GAUCBE

Stay clear from Report Monkeyswhen making data driven decisions

Yves Ferket & Jente De Ridder

#GAUCBE

#GAUCBE

#GAUCBE

Let us introduce ourselves…

Yves FerketDigital Marketing [email protected]

Hi!

#GAUCBE

Let us introduce ourselves…

JENTE DE RIDDERWebanalyst@Nihiel

Hi!

#GAUCBE

We work @ Humix

Analytics &Dashboardin

g

ConversionOptimization

Digital Strategy

User Experience

Search Engine

Optimization

Trainings &Workshops

#GAUCBE

We work @ Humix with these clients

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Reality check…From « sexiest job » …

#GAUCBEReality check…

…. to « report monkey »

®DATAMONKEY

#GAUCBE

The biggest frustrations of an analyst…

#GAUCBE


#1: You are not heard

#GAUCBE



#2: Implementation pains

#GAUCBE



#3: Weird data


#GAUCBE



#4: Time consuming recurring reports

#3: Weird data


#GAUCBE

Tired of being a Data Monkey?Join the monkey revolution!

Register for our“Important steps to

become a better Analyst” mailing

(www.humix.be/GAUC)Image copyright Banksy

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#GAUCBE#1: You are not heard

You spend your days generating report after report

but you are not heard…

You need Organizational buy in

#GAUCBE#1: You are not heard: Organizational Buy In

How to get organizational buy in.

1. Create a Measurement Plan

2. Tell Stories with data

3. Do your branding

#GAUCBE

z#1: You are not heard: Goals Exercise

#GAUCBE#1: You are not heard: Weighting the goals

z

#GAUCBE

#1: You are not heard: Measurement Plan

The businessgoals we would like to reach: Webshop is the store with the largest revenue

Which questions take our closer to our goals: Are we convincing visitors to buy online?

What do we need to measure: # visits, # visits with product views, # visitis with transactions

What metrics & dimensions support our KPI’s: Traffic channels, device type, user demographics

Example of HuboWhat metrics & dimensions support our KPI’s

#GAUCBE

#1: You are not heard: Measurement Plan

“You have a Measurement Plan. Now, what?”

#GAUCBE#1: You are not heard: Measurement Plan

Share your Measurement Plan within the organization• Ask people feedback & approval• Hold them accountable for the

KPI’s relevant for their department

Use it as a development roadmap for data that’s not yet available


Remind yourself that it’s not written in stone. It’s a continuous effort

• A measurement plan should change along with the organization

• Learn, improve, evolve


How to handle measure requests?

• Create a form for requests (make the submitter think before a request)

• Ask them to score on added value for the organization

• Combine each request with the goal-weight of the impacted objective to prioritize your work

#GAUCBE

#1: You are not heard: Tell Stories with data

the numbers: last 7 days

#GAUCBE

the numbers: last 7 days• Is this good?• Should it be better?• What are sessions?• …


#GAUCBE

What are sessions > human voice added

“Last 7 days we had 199 visits on the site.”


#GAUCBE

Is this good or bad? > benchmark added

“Last 7 days we had 199 visits on the site.

This is -9.55% from our target.”


#GAUCBE

Are we improving? > benchmarked vs previous period

“Last 7 days we had 199 visits on the site.

This is -9.55% from our target. Compared to previous period of

7 days, this is a -8.3% difference.”


#GAUCBE

I’m more like a visual kind of person….? > Add big numbers


#GAUCBE

Is this last week or last 7 days?> Add period


#GAUCBE

I’m like a really visual person? > Add Gauge


#GAUCBE

Did we have good or bad days?> Add Sparkline


#GAUCBE

Tell me again…what is this? > Add explanation


#GAUCBE

Context is crucial for story telling:“My marketing agency is doing a good job”


#GAUCBE

Context is crucial for story telling:…combined with “is it getting colder?”


#GAUCBE

#1: You are not heard: Do your branding

Promote • yourself• your work• your team

#GAUCBE

Create a brand

Make your team known within the organization.

Come up with a name & logo(even if it’s ugly).


#GAUCBE#1: You are not heard: Do your branding

Big screen dashboards make your work visible


Promote your work

Create an internal newsletter to share insights & experiment outcomes

Helps in establishing a testing culture within the organization

#GAUCBE

Create a central knowledge base:

a place where al insights, whitepapers, … are easily findable for your “clients”



Take a supportive attitude to your “clients”:

how can I make the others shine through my data results?

Deliver bad news in a “shit sandwich”.

<Good – Less Good – Good>

#GAUCBE




#GAUCBE

#2 Implementation pains: the IT department

#GAUCBE#2 Implementation pains: Tag Manager

Two words:TAG MANAGER


Two words:TAG MANAGER

IT people love Tag Manager • They see you less often• You can help yourself most of

the time• Versioning

IT people hate Tag Manager • Wait what? You can insert

code on ANY page of the whole website?


Our secret recipe: gtm.blacklist

Define clearly what type of tags can and can not be published without IT involvement.

And off course…• Respect their sprints/ticketing

system• Educate them on Analytics

#GAUCBE



#3: Weird data


#GAUCBE

“Analysts spend as much as 40 percent of their time validating data”- Forrester research

#3: Weird Data

#GAUCBE#3: Weird Data: High Traffic, weird source

A city that is a bigger provider than Telenet or Proximus??

#GAUCBE#3: Weird Data: Bounce rate gone, auto event firing

Somebody made an event + custom metric…that auto-fired on every page.Bye, bye bouncerate.(Kudos for documenting it)

#GAUCBE#3: Weird Data: A lot of Visits, cross domain errors

Cross domain tracking not set up correct: New session triggered

www.mysite.com

blog.mysite.com/home

blog.mysite.com/page2www.mysite.com/

blog.mysite.com/

#GAUCBE#3: Weird Data: not understanding hit vs session vs user level

dimensions

More Users than sessions. That can’t be correct … but it is...

#GAUCBE

#3: Weird Data: how to prevent?Implementation issues and how to solve them

1. Understand how Google Analytics works2. You Everybody needs to document changes3. Data debugging. Know your tools

#GAUCBE#3: Weird Data: Debugging tools

WaspChrome

extension

Tag AssistantChrome extension

Observe Point

Chrome extension

GA DebugChrome extension

Screaming frogcrawler

Charlesweb debug proxy

#GAUCBE#3: Weird Data: Understand how GA works

#GAUCBE

Must know!!

Impressive!

Regular ExpressionsMeasurement protocolDebugging tools

Analytics InterfaceTag ManagementExcel/Sheets wizardCommon Sense

Analytics API’s + scrapingDashboardingJavascript, Xpath,… Good job!!

#3: Weird Data: Knowledge levels of an analyst

#GAUCBE



#4: Time consuming recurring reports

#3: Weird data


#GAUCBE

When you still are that monkey who:1. Goes into Google

Analytics/Facebook Insights/<insert tool here> …

2. ...and exports a bunch of data

3. ...to cut/paste/replace last’s month data

4. ...and email it to your collegues

#4: Recurring reports

#GAUCBE#4: Recurring reports: Break free! Christian Lohman/Getty Images

#GAUCBE

Try this.

Just stop sending those reports. Kill them all.

You’ll be amazed how much complaints you’ll get.

Too often: zero to none.

#4: Recurring reports: Break free!

#GAUCBE

#4: Recurring reports: AutomateDo not export – import: Automate

GA Spreadsheet Add-onGoogle Sheets add on

SuperMetrics Google Sheets add on

#GAUCBE#4: Recurring reports: Automate

Supermetrics uses 32 different sources for your data (paying version)

You only need to adapt start & end date + refresh the queries (and that can also be automated)


Get data that is online, but not even on your own site (weather, …)

Quick example: GAUC attendees list


Quick example: HTML container :<div class="description-inner">

Google Sheets Formula=IMPORTXML("http://www.gauc.be/attendees","//div[@class='description-inner']")


Learn the API: Use the query explorer Craft your own data sets

(example: the Google Analytics Demo Account)


Dashboards

Telling stories with data works better in custom environments

(We like Klipfolio & Tableau)


DashboardsBecause the internet doesn’t stop at Google data

(klipfolio datasources)

#GAUCBE

#4: Recurring reports: Intelligence events

Intelligence events & Custom alerts

Remember that bounce rate?

#GAUCBE

“we like it in this format because we are used to it”

Do not comply:• Try to tell a story with data• Mix plain text with

graphics where needed

#4: Recurring reports: Excel Dino’s

#GAUCBE

Make your organization data driven

#GAUCBE

Make your organization data driven#1: Make yourself & your work known within the organization

#GAUCBE


#2: Define clear roles & responsibilities together with IT

#GAUCBE



#3: Understand the data collection

#GAUCBE

Make your organization data driven

#4: Automate reporting

#1: Make yourself & your work known within the organization


#3: Understand the data collection

#GAUCBE

No report monkey, no more!

#GAUCBE

Any Questions?

Stay clear from report monkeys when making data driven decisions

Data & Analytics

Transcript of Stay clear from report monkeys when making data driven decisions