Measuring What Matters with Google Analytics

Measuring What
Matters with Google
Analytics
May 16, 2019

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Presenters
Jack Downs
Digital Analyst Whaler
Whole Whale
Sima Thakkar
Senior Manager, Content
TechSoup
Assisting with chat:
Zerreen Kazi, TechSoup
Zerreen Kazi
Marketing
Associate
TechSoup
Sima Thakkar
Senior Manager,
Content
TechSoup
Jack Downs
Digital Analyst Whaler,
Whole Whale

@wholewhale | wholewhale.com #whaletech
Introduction to Google Analytics
TechSoup and Whole Whale - 5/2019

Overview
● Impact Mapping
● Leveraging Google Analytics
● Making Data Accessible
● Questions

Jack Downs
● Digital Analyst Whaler
● Managed analytics for
over 30 clients
● Google Analytics certiﬁed
Who are we?

Who is Whole Whale?
Whole Whale is a digital agency that leverages web data
and technology to increase the impact of nonproﬁts.

Some of our clients

Case study: Greater Than Aids
● Whole Whale implemented advanced Google
Analytics tracking to help GTA get a richer
understanding of how users are engaging on their
site
● We can track when users are searching for health
providers in their area, when and where they watch
videos, when they click out to partner websites, and
when they download promotional materials
● All of this enables the GTA team to improve the
digital experience over time for their users, and helps
us to measure the success of our advertising

Case study: Power Poetry
● Using Google Analytics, we were able to identify which
sites referred the highest quality of traﬃc. This
knowledge helped Power Poetry drive even more
referrals, which now account for over 75% of their new
user signups
● After a slow start attracting members, Whole Whale was
able to hone in on insights to build up their
membership. Now, Power Poetry is the largest online
teen poetry database with over 300,000 uploaded
poems

Linking digital outputs and outcomes

“We’re lost, but at
least we’re making
great time”
- Leap of Reason

Impact Mapping

How do we measure impact?
There are two critical buckets to consider in this question: The
what and the how.
● What are we trying to change in the world?
● How are we going to do it?
● How are we going to measure that change?

1. Define Purpose and Intent
Determine purpose of the organization.
● What is the long term goal?
● What need in society drove the creation of this organization?
● What would need to happen for us to (successfully) go out of
business?
Define the intended impact, the more specific the better.
● Who benefits from your organization? Define your audience.
● How do you define success in your organization?

2. Determine Outcomes and Indicators
Identify outcomes that demonstrate impact.
● What speciﬁc changes and outcomes will demonstrate the
success you outlined above?
● What indicators will you use to measure those speciﬁc
changes?

“Smart” Indicators of Online Success
● Speciﬁc
● Measurable
● Actionable
● Relevant
● Time Bound

3. Track Indicators over time
Choose the methods you will you use to track each indicator.
No matter which types of indicators, make sure results are stored
in a consistent way in an online database.
● Qualitative (how good), quantitative (how many)
● Online web measures via site analytics
How often will you measure each indicator?
● Daily, weekly, monthly, annually

4. Organize measures of success
● Our recommended
framework for
conceptualizing data is the
digital funnel of engagement
● The funnel of engagement
illustrates user journeys to
commitment
COMMITMENT

Funnel of Digital
Engagement
Sample Org: Defeat Cancer
Potential donors know about Defeat
Cancer and have visited the website
Users browse content and
sign up for email list
Users donate
Users rely on Defeat Cancer for
the latest updates in cancer
research, advocate for the
organization, and occasionally
donate
COMMITMENT

Awareness
Goal
Metrics
● Number of site users
● Unique pageviews of resources
and content pages
● “About Us” pageviews

Engagement
Goal
Metrics
● Bounce rate and scroll depth
● Articles per user
● Newsletter subscriptions
● Returning users engaging with
content over multiple months
Users browse content and sign up for email
list
Users browse content and sign
up for email list

Action
Goal
Metrics
● Donations
● Social shares of content
● Researcher completions of
“Contact Us” form
Key audiences take action: Supporters
donate and share content on social media;
researchers apply for grants
Users donate

Commitment
Goal
Metrics
● Annual donations
● Amount of content published per
week
● Number of grants awarded per year
● Defeat Cancer-research projects yield
developments towards a cure
Users rely on Defeat Cancer for the latest
updates in cancer research, advocate for
the organization, and occasionally donate
Defeat Cancer is seen as
go-to organization for
research
COMMITMENT

?
Gather Data
Ask
Questions
AnalyzeInsights
Learn
& Act

Leveraging Google Analytics

What is Google Analytics?
● Google Analytics is a free web
analytics service that tracks and
reports website traﬃc
● Behind the scenes, Google Analytics
runs on every single page of your site
Google Analytics Preview

Asking the right questions
How has traﬃc changed in the last month?
Who is our audience?
What is the best way to reach new users?
How do we deﬁne the most important user behaviors?

Some metrics that matter
Traﬃc Quantity
● Users - Refers to the number of distinct visitors to your site
● Sessions - Refers to the total number of visits to your site, including repeat
visits from the same User
Traﬃc Quality
● Bounce Rate - Refers to the percentage of people who leave your site
without clicking around to reach additional material
● Goal Completion Rate - This is the percentage of visits that result in a goal

Audience overview
● The audience overview report provides a bird’s eye view of traﬃc
● Compare periods of time to quickly visualize changes in user quantity and
quality

Demographic reporting
● Google includes an approximation of audience age and gender in the
demographics report
● Note that demographic tracking must ﬁrst be enabled under Property
Settings

Demographic reporting
Let’s compare age cohorts to see how engagement varies.

Introduction to user acquisition
● Let’s start in the channels report
● Channels are broad categories of traﬃc Sources, conveniently sorted for
comparison

Study Google Ads performance
● Your Google Ads account can be
seamlessly integrated with Google
Analytics
● Linking your account in Admin will help
you compare campaigns, identify weak
keywords, and determine where you
should direct traﬃc

Analyze traffic by landing page
● A landing page is the first page that
users hit when they visit your site
● Analyzing traffic by landing page can
highlight opportunities to refine
marketing strategies, generate new
content, and a/b test calls to action

Tracking user behavior
● We can customize Google Analytics
using event tracking and goals
● Google Analytics Events are used to
capture user behavior like page scroll,
video plays, form completions, link clicks,
you name it!

Tracking user behavior
● Google Analytics Goals are conﬁgured
to track the most important user
behaviors on your site
● Critical behaviors often include
newsletter signups, donation
completions, shares to social media,
etc.

Making Data Accessible

Making data accessible
● Make data more accessible using Dashboards and
Google Data Studio
● Dashboards are bite-sized reports that can be
customized and scheduled for automatic delivery
to your team
● Google Data Studio is our go-to platform for
combining data sources and generating beautiful
data visualizations

What’s new in Google Analytics?
● Users, not Sessions, are now the primary metric in Google Analytics
traﬃc reporting
● Rise of “dark social” and its impact on direct traﬃc
● Enhanced dashboards in Google Data Studio

Questions?

Next steps
● Send follow up questions to
jack@wholewhale.com
● Join me and dive deeper into
Google Analytics in our 101 and
201 courses

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