BETTER DECISIONS WITH GOOGLE
ANALYTICS
Craig Martin Performance Foundry
!http://performancefoundry.com
TODAY• A brief introduction to Google Analytics terminology and its quirks.
• Cutting through the noise to find relevant data for current issues.
• Using Analytics data to make better decisions about your website.
• Creating custom dashboards to monitor specific experiments.
• Setting and tracking goal values for specific quality measurements.
WHY USE ANALYTICS?
• De-facto standard
• Powerful data tools
• Other options exist
HOW DOES IT WORK?• Tracking code on website.
• If page doesn’t completely load, not tracked.
• By default, Performance Foundry stops code from loading if logged in as Admin/Editor.
FIRST LOOK
TERMINOLOGYDashboard Similar to a ‘view’ or ‘report’ Sessions A unique visit to your site Users Visit from a device/logged-in user Pageviews The total pages viewed !
A user may initiate multiple sessions; in that case, they are a ‘returning visitor’. A session is closed if there is no activity inside 30 minutes.
TERMINOLOGYTime on Site Sounds obvious, but is only counted if people open a second page. !Bounce Rate The percentage of users that never open a second page. !Low time on site and high bounce rate are often correlated. And it’s usually good to improve this.
IT’S REALLY NOISY IN HERE
Analytics gives us too much information for a small business to handle.
WORKFLOWWhat number or ratio impacts your business?
!
Can we benchmark this? !
How can we experiment with this? !
Did the experiment work?
What number or ratio impacts your business? !
Sally runs a publishing business, and her main income is from display advertising.
!She gets paid when people people load a page with
an ad on it. !
The ratio she needs to measure is the number of pages that get loaded (assuming 100% inventory).
Can we benchmark this? !
Luckily, pageviews are easy to track.
At the moment, we can see Sally’s business is in trouble. !
Identified important change: decrease in sessions. Important ratios: high bounce-rate, low return rate.
IDEAS…Increase number of visitors through:
- Search - Social Media
- Email campaign - In-person appearances
- Conferences/Sponsorship - Pay-per-click ads - Pay-per-view ads
Also:
- Improve number who return - Improve number who view 2+ pages
BENCHMARKCreate a dashboard
!Add vital statistics
!Set goals
!Add goals to our dashboard
Now we have some actionable data: Why have referrals fallen?
What happened to direct/no medium?
WE CUT OUT NOISE BY IDENTIFYING WHAT
MATTERS TO THE BOTTOM LINE.
WORKFLOWWhat number or ratio impacts your business?
!Can we benchmark this?
!
How can we experiment with this? !
Did the experiment work?
BE LOGICALWebsite experiments should be
• Clearly stated • Measurable • Actionable • Able to fail
So how do we make it available in Analytics?
USE THE ‘SECRET’ ANNOTATIONS
USE ANNOTATIONSWhen you: !•Make a large editorial change to your website. !
•Run a major update to operating system, theme, or any code. !
•Experience traffic surges or media coverage.
ANNOTATIONS GIVE YOUR ANALYTICS PICTURE-
PERFECT RECALL. !
They answer the questions: ‘why’ and ‘what happened’?
BEWARE!• Vanity metrics: those numbers that look good, but don’t change your bottom line.
• Seeing a one-off occurrence and thinking it is a trend.
• Everything you track should be something you can change. If you can’t create an experiment to change it, ignore it until resources are available.
TODAY• A brief introduction to Google Analytics terminology and its quirks.
• Cutting through the noise to find relevant data for current issues.
• Using Analytics data to make better decisions about your website.
• Creating custom dashboards to monitor specific experiments.
• Setting and tracking goal values for specific quality measurements.
Q&AAsk your questions via the chat box.
My question to you:
“What’s your take-away action from today?”
Contact: Craig Martin
BETTER DECISIONS WITH GOOGLE
ANALYTICS
Craig Martin Performance Foundry
!http://performancefoundry.com
