This document outlines an agenda for a Google Analytics client workshop. The workshop covers setting up and using Google Analytics to measure website and marketing performance. Key topics include setting up profiles and filters, analyzing metrics like goals, funnels, and traffic sources, and using segmentation to gain insights from reports. Attendees will work on defining goals for their own sites and creating an action plan to improve performance over the next month.
102. Helpful if you have lots of time to devote to analytics, highly entertaining - http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
103.
Editor's Notes
A bit about John: “Traditional” marketing since 1989 With the addition of online marketing since 1997 Both hands on and marketing management/strategic roles, progress from Marketing Assistant to PLC Marketing DirectorSpecialises in: Working out how to deliver your objectives (business, communications, revenue, support) when people visit your web site (interpreting briefs, functional specifications, analytics) Associated campaigns to attract those visitors (email, social networks, advertising, seo, sem, pr)Most often heard saying: Why? What do you really mean? Let’s work out how to do that online
For Google Analytics, we are happy to take all comers For search engine optimisation, the workshop is really designed for people running a Nemisys content management system, as we focus on how to get the most out of your system rather than too much theory Look out for other workshops on such as social networks, use of photography and video, copy writing for the web
Take a look at the “My account” page in your Google Account Previous delegates have been amazed to see that Google knows they have searched on “ice dancing”, “valentines day teddy bears” and “the meaning of itchy palms”! Of course, they all claimed they lend their account log in to colleagues ... It’s a personal thing, but I’d make sure your “web history” is turned off in your Google account!
You can buy the Analytics ninja tee from http://www.cafepress.co.uk/AnalyticsNinja.357081239 Today will be very practical & hands on rather than a load of theory that you might not get around to doing when you get back to the office With your say-so, I’d like to produce a short action list for each of you to take awayDo you have any specific aims we should add to the agenda?
More to the point – do you know why 10 becomes 11 becomes 12 And if you don’t know, how can you manage the growth from 12 to 13, 14 and so on?
When you talk to your account manager about new functionality, make sure you talk to him about what elements should be measured as goals
Shows just a few minutes of activity on a fairly quiet site – for our busy sites each day’s log file will have tens of thousands of lines Actually, it’s not really history, in that you also have Urchin available to you to analyse your log files in tandem with Google analytics Just visit http://www.yourdomain.com:10000 to access your Urchin account
The second (smaller) image shows that on 30th January at 1.29 am someone requested to see the home page of the web site that lives on this web server at this IP address This is the IP address of the person requesting the page, and they are using MS Internet Explorer 7 on Windows NT They came from a link on the Autism Society Canada site, and the request for the home page was successful
You can spot the home page (default.asp) referenced in the log file we just looked at As a Nemisys client, you have access to these reports So why are we moving people towards Google Analytics?
A visitor requests your web pageThat web page contains a snippet of code that the visitor’s web browser runsThat code runs off and picks up some information from Google’s serverWhile it’s picking up that information, it also leaves behind a load of other information about the visitorAnd then Google Analytics crunches through all of this information overnight to produce your reportsNote that this means that when you do things like set up profiles and goals, which we’ll do later, you need to come back to check that you’ve set them up correctly.
Further reading on comparisons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55536
Most importantly, Google Analytics gives you a better insight in to how different segments your visitors behave differently If you want to understand how spiders (Googlebot etc) use your site, you still need to look at your Urchin reports Explain key differences between Google Analytics vs the high ticket price systems
Day 1 – saved the computer I was looking for in my basketFew days later – receive email with an offer on that computer
YouTube videos of popular tasks Forums and article in GA help pop-up Context sensitive help on figures in table headers Content sensitive description of report on left hand side
Click analytics set up, top leftThen user managerAdd user’s Google Account email, then decide whether to give access to reports only (per profile) or make an administratorRemember to remove access if someone leaves the organisation Choose you administrators carefully – they have the power to delete all historic reports!
We advise that you come back to the dashboard after the workshop and add/delete reports as you see fit
Practical exercises Play with date ranges, try changing them Compare ranges Note the importance of matching days when you compare dates Discuss monthly vs 4 weekly reporting options Spark lines – all part of discoverability
Note the importance of matching days when you compare dates Discuss monthly vs 4 weekly reporting options Spark lines – all part of discoverability
“Discoverability” concept Google aims to be easier to use than other analytics tools, so it provides ways of drilling in to reports through overview pages But don’t be fooled – your goals will still be you most important metrics!
Most useful are “compare to site average” and bar charts.
You can export the report you are looking at to PDF or Excel immediately Or set up regular email distribution lists for your reports This is less useful than you’d think, but I’ve found a few decent uses Sending your referrer list to a PR agency so they can keep an eye on click-throughs and spot online coverage Sending your referrer list to external placing recruitment adverts so they can evaluate the value of the sites where they place adverts
Ideas for useful reports: Referrers Campaign metrics
Look at these example to show the power of working in segments: New vs returning, show bounce rates (& conversion rates if you have goals already set up) Goal conversions, add bounce rate Referrers – again, bounce rates
All “must have” figures, but not where the real value of analytics lies
How could geography be useful for you? Overseas offices? Overseas sales drives? UK-only traffic City=specific traffic?
The 3 values highlighted on the right have very different values – why might this be?
Use to identify problem pages Concentrate your efforts on high volume pages
Landing pages Successful keywords Track to conversions once goals set up
CPC traffic New visitors Return visitors United Kingdom visitors Traffic from a specific marketing campaign From a specific referrer Non-employee traffic
If not “best”, at least it’s “my” approach!
Look at: UK visitors Paid visitors
Note that even if you don’t want to spend time tracking all of your marketing activity, it’s worthwhile to tag your links within documents and emails, as that’s how you can reduce your number of “direct” visitors, just in case you are tempted to think that “direct” means people with favourites or having typed the URL straight in to their browser.
I only ever respond to “money off your next shop” emails from Tesco. Every now and then they try to tempt me with a different type of offer like free delivery, but I always ignore these.I think I’ve just about trained Tesco to send me money off vouchers – with others it can be a bit more hit & miss.