measuring the success of online marketing
TRANSCRIPT
Measuring the Success of Online Marketing
Scott Thomas AboutTheInn.com
Overview
Basic Google Analytics features and what we can do with them
Examine sources of website visitors
Set up Goals
Set up E-Commerce tracking
Set up a simple B&B Directory segment
Analyze results
Basic Terminology
Visits number of sessions on your website - interactions
Pages/Visit average pages per visit
Avg Time on Site average length of time people stayed on your site
% New Visits how many visits were from people visiting for the first time
Bounce Rate percentage of visitors who left after viewing only one page
What can we do with these Basic Metrics?
Look at trends over past few months
Compare this month to last month
Compare this month with the same month last year (especially for seasonal properties)
Overview Pie Chart
Search TrafficGoogle, Bing, Yahoo, Ask, etc. (includes paid search ads)
Referring SitesOther websites sending traffic to you (directories, local Chamber, etc.)
Overview Pie Chart
Direct TrafficBookmarks, typed URL, other sources GA can't allocate
CampaignsPaid, email, direct marketing, QR codes, etc.
What do we do with these areas?
SearchSee which search engines send traffic
Look at trends over time, vs. previous year, etc.
Look at paid vs. organic
What keywords/key phrases are sending visitors?
1. Traffic > Search > Organic 2. Traffic > Search > Paid Search3. Compare - with last month- with same month last year- trend over 12 months4. Keywords- top referring keywords- (not provided)
Search who sends traffic?
Search trend over time
Search paid vs organic
What do we do with these areas?
DirectMany of these users know you well enough to bookmark you or type in your URL
See if you can determine what they are looking at (and why)
What countries/States/cities do these visitors come from?What pages do they view?What is their conversion rate?
Direct landing pages
You can also use the Pages -> Navigation Summary to see where these visitors spend their time
What do we do with these areas?
ReferralsHow are paid directories and other paid listings doingOver time
Compared to previous year, month
Are there any sources sending traffic that you don't recognize? Why are they sending traffic to you?
NB Referrals do not include Campaign source traffic
NB referrals from your booking engine are not real referrals!
Current month vs last month
Trend over time (year?)
This year vs last year
Tip: to find out how an unexpected site has linked to you, in Google enter site:siteurl.com yourdomain.com (without the quotes)
Referrals How are they doing?
Compared to All Visits
Also check Goals and Ecommerce
NB Referrals do not include Campaign source traffic
NB referrals from your booking engine are not real referrals!
Current month vs last month
Trend over time (year?)
This year vs last year
Tip: to find out how an unexpected site has linked to you, in Google enter site:siteurl.com yourdomain.com (without the quotes)
Referrals How are they doing?
Over time
Don't forget Goals and Ecommerce reports
NB Referrals do not include Campaign source traffic
NB referrals from your booking engine are not real referrals!
Current month vs last month
Trend over time (year?)
This year vs last year
Tip: to find out how an unexpected site has linked to you, in Google enter site:siteurl.com yourdomain.com (without the quotes)
What do we do with these areas?
CampaignsHow do you set up a campaign? mysite.com/page.htm?utm_source=campaign
Or mysite.com/?utm_source=campaign
Are your campaigns sending visitors?
How do they do over time?
Be aware that making a regular referrer a campaign source removes them from the Referrals report. We will solve this problem with a B&B Directories Advanced Segment.
Using the information
How do visitors use your site?Is your home page where most people enter the site?
What percentage enter on the home page?
What keywords are used to find your site?
Check keywords vs. bounce rateWhy are people finding you and leaving?
What % of visitors enter on the home page?
What pages do the rest of them use?
What keywords are visitors using to find you?
- Are they the keywords you are targeting?
- What keywords are bringing visitors who bounce? Why?
Using the information
What pages are bringing in bounces?Check landing pages vs. bounce rate
You don't control the entry point
Fix those that stink
Entry points and keywords
Content -> Site Content -> Landing Pages
Sources -> Search -> Organic
Kewords and Bounce Rates
To use a weighted search, sort by Bounce Rate by clicking that column, then select Weighted from the Sort Type pulldown.
Landing Pages and Bounces
Making Sense of the Data
What is the objective of your website?
How can we use the data to see how we're doing?
Setting up Goals
Help: http://goo.gl/wxILD
Specify goal URL (the Thank You page)
Funnel (optional): Include each page that is needed to complete the goal
Don't make the pages Required Steps (unless they really are)
Data collection usually takes 24 hours
Setting up Ecommerce
Help: http://goo.gl/12aY2
Settings->Profiles->Profile Settings
Add code to shopping cart, receipt or Thank You pagesSome online booking engines will do this for you, others require you to do it yourself.
Create a B&B Directories Advanced Segment
Create B&B Directories Segment and compare to All Traffic
Create a B&B Directories Advanced Segment
Compare stats for the segment to All Traffic, or to similar segments (for example, B&B directories compared to review sites)
Notice things that are different from one member of the segment to the another
View Goals for segment members and compare
View Ecommerce and compare
Create B&B Directories Segment and compare to All Traffic
Wrap-Up
Compare results over previous month/year
Find landing pages with high bounce rates
Find keywords with high bounce rates
Create segments for marketing channels
Create goals and set up ecommerce
Thank you!
Scott Thomas