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Analytics Fundamentals
Setup and Basics for Measurement
Andy Crestodina
Strategic Director | @crestodina

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94.6%
of top marketing sites use
Google Analytics
source: Orbit Media

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@crestodina
How Google Analytics Works
Javascript and Cookies

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@crestodina
How Google Analytics works

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@crestodina
How Google Analytics works

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@crestodina
How Google Analytics works

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@crestodina
How Google Analytics works

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@crestodina
How Google Analytics works

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@crestodina
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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@crestodina
Basic issues with GA

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@crestodina
First Touch Deep Dive Purchase Purchase Loyalty
This can be a problem...

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@crestodina
First Touch Deep Dive Purchase Purchase Loyalty
This can be a problem...

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@crestodina @crestodina • #CMWorld
URL problems...

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@crestodina
URL problems...

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@crestodina
URL problems...

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@crestodina
URL problems...

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The click doesn’t count!
@crestodina
Carousel / slideshow advancing
Anchor/jump links
Rollover content
Dropdowns expanding
Offsite links / social media buttons
Social sharing buttons
Video plays
Livechat interactions
Embedded map interactions
Tabs
Filters
Scrolling
Comment / review submission
Mailto: links
PDF, PPT, Word downloads
Lightbox interactions

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GA Jargon

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@crestodina
Visitors are “Users”

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Visits are “Sessions”

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@crestodina
Analytics vs analytics

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@crestodina
Filter out traffic from yourself
...you are not your target audience

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How accurate is this data?
@crestodina

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How accurate is this data?
@crestodina

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Exclude traffic from robots
...because they never convert

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@crestodina
Are there robots in my Analytics?

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@crestodina
These referring sites look strange...

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How to exclude
traffic from robots

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@crestodina
Top Pages
Which are my most popular pages?

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Content! One of the most
important reports in GA

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Navigation Summary

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Navigation Summary

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Navigation Summary

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@crestodina
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

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Beware the “services” page...

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The problem with multi-topic pages...

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Analytics blind spot! ...and horrible SEO

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@crestodina
Beware the testimonials page

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Navigation Summaries
Where do they go from here?

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Navigation Summary

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@crestodina
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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@crestodina
“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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@crestodina
“Which blog posts have bounce rates
of more than 80%”
Let’s answer this question...

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@crestodina

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@crestodina

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@crestodina
Setting up goals
...because GA doesn’t know what success looks like

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@crestodina
1. Leads
2. Subscribers
3. Ecommerce Customers
4. Event Registrants
5. Donors
5 types of conversions...
#winning

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Thank you messages
...not good for Analytics

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Email links
...not good for Analytics

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Forms / thank you pages
...perfect for Analytics

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Thank you!

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Subscribers from ‘Thank You’ page

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@crestodina
What about event tracking?
That’ll work, right?

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@crestodina
Remember those
“non-pageview”
interactions?
...they are trackable

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@crestodina

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@crestodina
41.4%
of top marketing sites use
Google Tag Manager
source: Orbit Media

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@crestodina
...so let’s use thank you pages
...because that was kinda rough.

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@crestodina
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

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The All Pages report

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The All Pages report ...with page values

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The Reverse Goal Path report

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The Funnel Visualization report

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Where you visitors are
coming from

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@crestodina
The Channels report ...with conversion rates

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@crestodina
The Channels report ...with conversion rates

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@crestodina
Social channel conversions!

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@crestodina
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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@crestodina
Where are my email visitors?

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@crestodina
There they are!!
Where are my email visitors?

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Medium
broadest origin of traffic
cpc
Source
Specific origin of traffic
Facebook
Campaign Name
Specific marketing effort
spring_sale
Campaign tracking for a FB ad...

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@crestodina
Medium
broadest origin of traffic
email
Source
Specific origin of traffic
newsletter
Campaign Name
Specific marketing effort
april_newsletter
Campaign tracking for an email newsletter

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@crestodina
Medium
broadest origin of traffic
cpm
Source
Specific origin of traffic
Twitter
Campaign Name
Specific marketing effort
event_registration
Campaign tracking for Twitter campaign

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Now we have campaign data!

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@crestodina

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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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@crestodina
“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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@crestodina
Adding notes in GA
“Annotations” help tell stories.

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@crestodina
There’s a story behind the data...

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@crestodina
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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@crestodina
“Six years ago, we didn’t have any mobile traffic.
Now 60% of our traffic is mobile.”
Text is kinda weak

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@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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@crestodina
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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@crestodina

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@crestodina
Andy Crestodina
Strategic Director | @crestodina
THANK YOU!