google analytics introduction

Google AnalyticsWorkshop for VisitWiltshire

21st November 2013

Dr Philip Alford

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/philipalford/ https://twitter.com/philipalford

palford@bournemouth.ac.uk

About me …

• Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University School of Tourism

• Project lead on Digital Destinations project• Board member of VisitWiltshire• Chair of VisitWiltshire Online Marketing Group• Web design, social media, email marketing with

www.MapleCommunication.co.uk / www.TourismusTraining.at

Measurement is key

‘Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”

Customer Engagement

Customer engagement:“Repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional,

psychological or physical investment a customer has in a brand”

Customer engagement strategy:“A strategy to encourage interaction and participation of consumers with a brand through developing content and

experiences with the aim of meeting commercial objectives. It is closely related to the development of content marketing and

social media strategy.”

Developing the strategy

Situation: where are we now?

Objectives: where do we want to be?

Strategy: how do we get there?

Tactics: how exactly do we get there?

Action: what is our plan?

Control: did we get there?

Situation analysis• Customer Insight: Identify distinct customer segments and

why they buy from you• Product Insight: What is your unique offer and is it clearly

communicated online? Think about this in terms of specific customers rather than in general

• Internal Resources: for example customer database that isn’t being used effectively

• Identify issues, weaknesses, challenges, opportunities which could inform objective-setting

• Competitor analysis – points of differentiation?• Your digital marketing analytics should inform this stage

Introductory video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpgY7BQ4HRA&feature=endscreen

Six recommended reportshttp://www.kaushik.net/avinash/tips-for-web-analytics-success-for-small-businesses/

Top Key Phrases from Search Engines

Search is the game baby, and even more so for our SMB friends who have very small ad budgets and have to leverage the power of search engines. Do this to infer intent of your customers, do this to know if you are getting the traffic you think you deserve. If you are not take action.

Top Referring URL’s

Taking the above recommendation to the next level. Many SMB’s create partnerships with other SMB’s or associations etc. As you look at the referring URL’s do you see any that are interesting and surprising? Do you have some relationships with them? If not should you? Then, my favorite, segment out those referring url’s that are sending you traffic that meets your goal criteria (a order, a lead, a particular page view etc)

Site Content Popularity

Websites are small and websites are big. Do you know what content is being consumed the most by your visitors? It is probably less than 20%, it is important to know which 20%. In my experience we are always surprised by what content is being consumed by our customers, specially if you segment out content consumed by those who meet your site goals. Start with most popular pages viewed on the site, go from there.

% of Visitors Who Visit the Home Page

This recommendation is more a reaction to the fact that 90% of website owners are way to enamoured by the home page and perfecting it. In reality around half or less of the site traffic sees the home page. Do you know what this number is for you? Knowing this will mean you can assign resources optimally, focus on other pages, if you have “golden content / promotions” you won’t just show it on the home page.

Click Density / Site Overlay

In-Page Analytics

It takes a lot to interpret the Click Density report but there is nothing simpler for a SMB owner to start with. Web Analytics comes to life, they can “see” the clicks and relate to visitors in a new and more profound way. Click Density’s real power comes when you look at segmented click density, where do purchasers click vs everyone else. Actionable insights. For a SMB owner, if you see “interesting” click density behavior do simple experiments with layout, content, navigation to optimize.

Site Bounce Rate

I define this as visitors who stay on the site for less than 10 seconds (or one page only, though for reasons I’ll blog about some day I prefer the 10 seconds). Specially for a SMB owner who has precious few resources to spare each visitor is valuable and it is hyper critical to know what this number is (and then segment by campaigns, referring urls, top paged on site with high bounce rate etc to know who is sending you valuable traffic).

Google Analytics Basics: Essential Stats

The Marketing Objectives ChecklistNavigate your way to an effective objectives-led marketing mindset

Understand who you need to talk to...

Identify the biggest growth opportunities for your business...

get people to buy more often

get people to buy more

increase prices

those unaware of the brand

with new customers:

speak to more people

with existing customers:

NB: segmentation simplified for the purposes of the checklist

Seek options to increase distribution

Seek activities to drive

awareness

Seek activities to drive trial

Seek activities to drive

frequency

Seek activities to fuel weight of purchase

Seek ways to add product

value

Our core objective is to get ........... customers who are ................... to ...........................i.e. Our core objective is to get new customers who are unaware to be aware of our brand

Output:

reach more people

get more people to try

those aware but not yet

buying

those buying but not very

often

those buying but not very

loyal

those buying regularly

those who only buy your brand

What does VW measure?Audience• website unique visitors - year on year comparison (audience overview)• domestic and overseas (geo)• % new visitors (behaviour) • number of pages viewed (behaviour – engagement) – page depth• dwell time (behaviour – engagement) – visit durationAcquisition• top referring sites (acquisition overview)• top search terms (keywords – organic)Behaviour • top pages viewed (site content – all pages)• social network referral traffic• landing pages (site content – landing pages)• exit pages (site content – exit pages)

In-page analytics

Set targets for KPIs

• Open rate and CTR (what percentage?) – base against past performance (time period), industry average, or what would expect (informed guesswork)? You need a start point

• Engagement with web content: number of visits, pages viewed, bounce rate, conversions (goal-setting)

• Engagement with FB: number of posts, Likes, shares, traffic to website from FB