Analytics FundamentalsSetup and Basics for Measurement
Andy Crestodina
Strategic Director | @crestodina
94.6%of top marketing sites use
Google Analytics
source: Orbit Media
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How Google Analytics Works
Javascript and Cookies
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How Google Analytics works
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How Google Analytics works
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How Google Analytics works
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How Google Analytics works
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How Google Analytics works
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1. No cookie? No data
2. JavaScript disabled? No data
3. Time on page? Or time on tab?
4. Same device, different user
5. Same user, different device / browser
When it doesn’t work
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Basic issues with GA
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First Touch Deep Dive Purchase Purchase Loyalty
This can be a problem...
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First Touch Deep Dive Purchase Purchase Loyalty
This can be a problem...
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URL problems...
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URL problems...
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URL problems...
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URL problems...
The click doesn’t count!
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Carousel / slideshow advancingAnchor/jump linksRollover contentDropdowns expandingOffsite links / social media buttonsSocial sharing buttonsVideo playsLivechat interactions
Embedded map interactionsTabsFiltersScrollingComment / review submissionMailto: linksPDF, PPT, Word downloadsLightbox interactions
GA Jargon
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Visitors are “Users”
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Visits are “Sessions”
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Analytics vs analytics
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Filter out traffic from yourself
...you are not your target audience
How accurate is this data?
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How accurate is this data?
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Exclude traffic from robots
...because they never convert
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Are there robots in my Analytics?
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These referring sites look strange...
How to excludetraffic from robots
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Top Pages
Which are my most popular pages?
Content! One of the most important reports in GA
Navigation Summary
Navigation Summary
Navigation Summary
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1. Add great calls to action
2. Add strong testimonials
3. Add links to your strongest content
4. Remove links to other websites
5. Polish! Add personality! Video! People!
5 Tips for Top Pages
Beware the “services” page...
The problem with multi-topic pages...
Analytics blind spot! ...and horrible SEO
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Beware the testimonials page
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Navigation Summaries
Where do they go from here?
Navigation Summary
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1. Any small links getting clicked a lot?
2. Any big buttons getting missed?
3. Are calls to action effective?
4. What gets clicked the most in the main nav?
5. What never gets clicked in the main nav?
5 Questions to ask your Navigation Summary
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“Everything you remove from a page
makes everything that’s left more prominent!”
Less is more (effective)
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Filters
Find things in the first column fast
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Advanced Filters
Find anything fast!
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“Which blog posts have bounce rates
of more than 80%”
Let’s answer this question...
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Setting up goals
...because GA doesn’t know what success looks like
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1. Leads
2. Subscribers
3. Ecommerce Customers
4. Event Registrants
5. Donors
5 types of conversions...
#winning
Thank you messages ...not good for Analytics
Email links...not good for Analytics
Forms / thank you pages...perfect for Analytics
Thank you!
Subscribers from ‘Thank You’ page
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What about event tracking?
That’ll work, right?
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Remember those
“non-pageview”
interactions?
...they are trackable
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41.4%of top marketing sites use
Google Tag Manager
source: Orbit Media
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...so let’s use thank you pages
...because that was kinda rough.
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1. They see a Thank you page (additional messaging)
2. They get an auto-response email
3. Saves to database or CRM
4. Sends an email notification to you
5. Records as a conversion in Analytics
5 Things that happen when visitors submit...
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The Goals report
The All Pages report
The All Pages report ...with page values
The Reverse Goal Path report
The Funnel Visualization report
Where you visitors are coming from
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The Channels report ...with conversion rates
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The Channels report ...with conversion rates
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Social channel conversions!
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1. Add “social proof” to your top pages
2. Make sure every page has a call to action
3. Add people and personality
4. Use short, simple forms
5. Answer visitors’ top questions
5 Tips for better conversion rates
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7 Things to add to your testimonials
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Campaign Tracking Code
Where are your email visitors hiding?
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Where are my email visitors?
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There they are!!
Where are my email visitors?
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Mediumbroadest origin of traffic
cpc
SourceSpecific origin of traffic
Campaign NameSpecific marketing effort
spring_sale
Campaign tracking for a FB ad...
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Mediumbroadest origin of traffic
SourceSpecific origin of traffic
newsletter
Campaign NameSpecific marketing effort
april_newsletter
Campaign tracking for an email newsletter
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Mediumbroadest origin of traffic
cpm
SourceSpecific origin of traffic
Campaign NameSpecific marketing effort
event_registration
Campaign tracking for Twitter campaign
Now we have campaign data!
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Site Search Setup
Does your site have a search box?
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See what they’re looking for!
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Secondary Dimensions
Add more data to any report!
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1. Search for each phrase yourself. Find it?
2. Better optimize your own pages
3. Publish more content on those topics
4. Adjust your navigation to help visitors find
things faster
4 Tips from the Search Terms report
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Putting it all together
Let’s combine all of our new skills!
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“Which pages get the most traffic from
social media visitors?”
Interesting question...
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Step 1: Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages
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Step 2: Click on the “Secondary dimension” dropdown
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Step 3: Select “Medium” (find it by searching or clicking Acquisition > Medium)
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Step 4: Click to set an advanced filter (so we can filter by medium!)
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Step 5: Set filter so Medium contains “social” and click Apply
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A closer look at that advanced filter...
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Make a Shortcut
Save yourself some time...
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Analytics is useless!
...unless you share, make decisions and take action.
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Reporting is not analysis
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1. It answers questions
2. You share the insights
3. You make decisions based on those insights
4. You take action!
5. You measure the impact
Analytics is useful only if...
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Adding notes in GA
“Annotations” help tell stories.
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There’s a story behind the data...
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1. Sent an email campaign
2. Started, changed or stopped advertising
3. Press hit!
4. Changed website
5. Changed Analytics setup
5 Reasons to add Annotations
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Sharing data visually
...because text is weak
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“Six years ago, we didn’t have any mobile traffic.
Now 60% of our traffic is mobile.”
Text is kinda weak
@crestodina Thanks, Snagit!
Visuals are much more compelling
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Grab visuals from Analytics (Jing)
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Put that visual into a presentation!
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...or an email!
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There is more to life than Google Analytics
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The best things in life aren’t in GA
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The best things in life aren’t in GA
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The best things in life aren’t in GA
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1. How to set up Google Analytics
2. How to set up event tracking using Google Tag Manager
3. How to track campaigns using the Google URL Builder
4. Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content
Marketing (4th edition)
Notes / videos from this presentation
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1. Google Analytics Academy
2. Avinash Kaushik (Occam’s Razor)
3. Orbit Media’s Blog (Analytics section)
4. Annielytics Blog (Analytics section)
5. E-Nor’s Blog (Analytics section)
Want to learn more?
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Andy CrestodinaStrategic Director | @crestodina
THANK YOU!