google analytics for higher ed | audience segmentation
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GOOGLE ANALYTICS FOR HIGHER ED
By. Gus Kroustalis
AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION Higher education websites face a difficult challenge that
websites in many other industries do not have to endure. The Challenge: Catering to a handful of audiences with one
website.
TYPICAL LIST OF TARGET AUDIENCES
Prospective Students● The most critical audience for higher
education websites, especially considering the impact of digital marketing for admissions
Current Students● Current students access the website to
research new courses and look for upcoming events
Faculty/Staff● Marketers do not want to isolate this
group. Identifying Faculty/Staff can help with future content navigation and design projects.
Alumni● When donations are sought, it is
important to know the website interactions by this audience
Parents● Some higher education websites have a
section of content tailored to parents of prospective students, incoming students or both
Community● This is individuals involved with the
college who do not fit any of the previous audiences. This would include visitors seeking more information.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS REPORTING
GOOGLE ANALYTICS REPORTING Imagine how much more impactful Google Analytics would be
if the data can be segmented based on these audiences. Analysis of audience activity could lead to improvements in
content display, website navigation and call to action optimization
Which all this can lead to increased overall website engagement for the end user
IDENTIFYING YOUR AUDIENCE
IDENTIFYING YOUR AUDIENCE The best way to define each
audience is by noting what actions can be associated with each audience
Example:● A prospective student: any
user who downloads an admissions application form.
● A prospective student: any user who schedules a tour on campus.
● An alum: any user who submits a donation via the form in the alumni section.
NOTICE ……. There should be more than one action used to identify any
give audience. Avoid actions that can be performed often by multiple
audiences. Example:
● Logging into the school’s email provider – this action can be performed by students, faculty and staff.
CONFIGURE AUDIENCES AS CUSTOM DIMENSIONS
Under the property settings in the Account Admin for Google’s Universal Analytics is a link for Custom Definitions.
When you click Custom Definitions, you will then need to click Custom Dimensions.
CONFIGURE AUDIENCES AS CUSTOM DIMENSIONS
Add a new custom dimension for each audience that you are building. Name the custom dimension as you plan to name the audience, and set the scope as User.
That configuration will apply the audience identification for a user across multiple sessions.
CONFIGURE AUDIENCES AS CUSTOM DIMENSIONS
Once you save the new dimension, Google Analytics will provide you with a snippet of JavaScript.
The dimension value should be replaced with the name of the audience, and the snippet should be added to all user actions in the website’s HTML.
WHAT IF OUR WEBSITE USES GOOGLE TAG MANAGER?
GOOGLE TAG MANAGER? Rather than hard-coding snippets of custom dimension JavaScript,
some digital marketers prefer Google Tag Manager. Google has some content that points Tag Manager users in the right
direction, such as this: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6164990?hl=en.
TEST AND VALIDATE Make sure the website loads properly in a test environment after the
custom dimension code has been added. Also, use a test reporting view in Google Analytics to make sure that
the custom dimensions are loading in the reports.● All you need to do is add a secondary dimension, typing an audience
name to find the custom dimension in the list. ● You can also create custom reports, adding these custom dimensions as a
primary dimension.
TEST AND VALIDATE
TEST AND VALIDATE Once the custom dimension
tracking goes live, decide on an amount of time to allow new data to populate in the reporting view.
Upon analyzing your new data, you will be able to determine if the actions you have tagged on the website are representative of that audience.
You may see audience totals much higher or lower than expected, compared to overall traffic or to other audiences.
Take that opportunity to adjust the actions tagged for those audiences in question.
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