How to use Google Analytics to identify trending content. Presented at PredictConference 16th September 2015 >> http://predictconference.com

1. Confidential & Proprietary
Predictive Marketing
using Google Analytics
@BarryHand / #PredictConf

2. @BarryHand
Owner at Handmade Marketing (handmademarketing.ie)
Trainer at Analytics Training (analyticstraining.ie)
Lecturer in Digital Marketing & Analytics at Dublin Institute of
Technology (dit.ie/digitalmarketing)

3. Will this blog post go viral?
What content is worth
promoting?
Is this tweet more or less
likely to work?
Predictive Marketing using Google Analytics
Marketers want to know:

4. Technology
+
Expertise
+
Resources
Only a few companies have access to
this…
Predicting the future:
Predictive Marketing using Google Analytics

5. Website Analytics
All websites have access
to some form of analytics
But…difficult to take advantage of
trending or real time data

7. Approach
1. Identify hourly traffic performance
2. Calculate average sessions per day
3. Establish baseline
4. Use this to predict content performance
Predictive Marketing using Google Analytics

10. Performance viewSort by hour
Sample period
12 weeks / 84 days1
2 3

11. Add hourly % together until 25%
is reached
(Lower Quartile)

12. Average daily sessions =
Total sessions / 84 days =
79,776
84 days

13. Baseline
25% of avg. daily sessions
=
19,944

14. Baseline
At 10.30am,
if we have more than
19,944 sessions,
it’s good

15. What’s trending?
Find out what is driving traffic to
what pages ?
Acquisition > Source/Medium

16. Acquisition > Source/Medium Report
Secondary dimension
“Destination page”

17. Acquisition > Source/Medium Report

18. What next?
• Push this content through other channels
• Use social/paid advertising to further amplify
• Create supporting content
• Edit content to further engage users
Predictive Marketing using Google Analytics

19. Takeaways
1. Predictive analytics is accessible for all
2. Use for forecasting in-day performance
3. Make better decisions based on data
4. Analytics is your friend!

20. Thanks :)
@BarryHand