You’ve used Google Analytics for years, but how deep have you searched into its hidden, labyrinthian corners? In this advanced workshop, you’ll get introduced to the reports, dimensions, segments, and other features you never knew could be so valuable, including: Using service provider names to identify your audience Using site search terms to inform your content strategy Creating meaningful dashboards and automating your emailed reports Best practices for filtering, campaigns, and event tracking This workshop will dive into the inner depths of this analytics tool while staying focused on what really matters to your key stakeholders. We’ll be using case studies of Google Analytics implementations from real nonprofit websites, campaigns, and mobile apps to illustrate all these hidden secrets. You will walk out of this session with a list of immediate next steps for enhancing your Google Analytics implementation, a wealth of knowledge about how you can push this tool to help you better measure your organization’s digital goals, and new techniques for reporting website data to your stakeholders. Presentation from the Nonprofit Technology Conference 2016

1. Hidden Secrets of
Google Analy4cs
#16NTCgasecrets
slideshare.net/devonvsmith
@devonvsmith
@JuliaCoyner

2. Devon Smith
Strategy Director & Co-­‐Founder, Measure
@devonvsmith
Julia Robinson
CommunicaDons Manager, Business for Social
Responsibility
@JuliaCoyner
#16NTCgasecrets

3. Follow Along
Presenta4on Slides: slideshare.net/devonvsmith
Wifi: marriot_conference / nten2016
Collabora4ve Notes: hNp://po.st/gasecrets-­‐16NTC
Evalua4on: hNp://po.st/5mTlMS
#16NTCgasecrets

4. Agenda
Secrets
BeFer Reports
BeFer Data
BeFer Process
Beyond Google Analy4cs
Q&A
#16NTCgasecrets

5. Secrets
#16NTCgasecrets

6. Secrets
1. Ask ques4ons and test hypotheses.

7. Secrets
2. Use less data.

8. Secrets
3. Add beFer data.

9. Secrets
4. Invest up front, then automate.

10. Secrets
5. Add insights.

11. Secrets
Reality check (Q&A with Julia).

12. BeFer Reports
#16NTCgasecrets

13. Be.er Reports
Who visits our website?

14. Add an
advanced
segment…
…to make
this list more
useful

15. Segments
narrow
the data
you see

16. “Service
Provider” is
the name
of the
organizaDon
browsing
your site

17. That’s great,
but what
are they
looking at?

18. Secondary
Dimensions
add more
data to your
report

19. Who they
are, and
what they’re
reading

20. Save your
data

21. Schedule an
email of this
slice of data

22. Be.er Reports
Where did they come from?

23. Add an
advanced
segment…
…to
understand
this spike

24. What
types of
organizaDons
send us
traffic?

25. Social media
#FTW
But this is
not helpful

26. Word cloud
Job Seekers
Media
Social

27. Be.er Reports
What are they looking for?

28. “Searchers”
have a specific
content need

29. …to
make this
list more
useful
Use
advanced
search…

30. What
quesDons
do they
need
answered?

31. Create
content in
response to
these
quesDons

32. Search Engine
OpDmizaDon
opportuniDes

33. Is your data
missing?

34. Go to
google.com/
webmasters

35. What can’t
they find
on your
website?

36. Only some
of these are
useful

37. Get rid of
the “usual
suspects”

38. How do we
make this
content more
apparent?

39. Is your data
missing?

40. Go to your
“AdministraDve”
sedngs

41. Turn on
“site search”
tracking

42. …and put it here
Find your “query
parameter”…

43. Be.er Reports
What did they do?

44. You’re not
alone if
you’re not
using goals

45. What are
your goals?

46. Your goal must
fit one of these
criteria

47. Did they
take this
acDon?

48. Did they
get to this
page?

49. Did they
stay a long
Dme?

50. Did they
look at a
lot of
pages?

51. Which
channel
performs
beNer?

52. Be.er Reports
Reality check (Q&A with Julia).

53. BeFer Data
#16NTCgasecrets

54. Be.er Data
Custom Dimensions.

55. “Content
Drilldown”
groups pages
by URL

56. “But I only
care about
my blog
posts”

57. Who was
the author
of this blog
post?

58. Schedule an
email to these
authors with
only their data?

59. Any
structured
data can be a
Custom
Dimension

60. Blog Author
Blog Category

61. Define
your
dimension
in GA

62. Any data that is in
your CMS, or can
be calculated, can
be a “Custom
Dimension”
return {
'hitType': 'pageview',
'page': customURL,
'dimension1': contentID,
'dimension2': publishDate,
'dimension3': program,
'dimension4': socialShare,
'dimension5': wordCount,
'dimension6': imgCount,
'dimension7': author,
'dimension8': relatedTag
};

63. Be.er Data
Scroll Depth.

66. “Events”
happen when
the page
doesn’t
change

67. How far did
they scroll?

68. What did
they see?

69. Define your
event’s Category,
AcDon, and Label
data-track=“{
"type" : "event”,
"category" : "Component Interaction”,
"action" : "Anchor Link”,
"label" : "Staff”
}"

70. Be.er Data
Mul4media.

71. What did
they watch?

72. Video Dtle
and length is
more useful
than a
YouTube link

73. How long did
they watch?

74. Google recently
launched “autotrackers”
<button data-event-
category="Video"
data-event-
action=“play">Play
</button>

75. Be.er Data
Outbound Links.

76. When they
leave, where
are they
going?

77. Are we a
good partner?

78. More“autotrackers”
ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');
ga('require', 'eventTracker');
ga('require', 'outboundLinkTracker');
ga('send', 'pageview');

79. Be.er Data
Reality check (Q&A with Julia).

80. BeFer Process
#16NTCgasecrets

81. Be.er Process
Advanced Segments

82. Segments
temporarily
change your
data

83. Segments can
be made from
any data in GA

84. Define a series,
or sequence,
of criteria

85. Share
segments
with
colleagues
Find segments
from others

86. Shhh…
not so useful

87. Be.er Process
Filters

88. Filters
permanently
change your
data

90. Exclude your
own visits to
your website

91. Make your
URLs consistent
by taking
“www” out

92. Be.er Process
Custom Alerts

93. Alerts…alert
you if
something
happens on
your website

94. What are
important,
but rare,
events?

96. Be.er Process
Dashboards

97. Assemble
“widgets” into a
“dashboard” to
be emailed to
stakeholders

98. Six
types of
widgets

99. Looks
like this
This type
of data
Only this
data

100. Choose a
layout.
Answer the
quesDons:
Who?
How many?
From where?
What they did?

101. Be.er Process
Reality check (Q&A with Julia).

102. Beyond
Google Analy4cs
#16NTCgasecrets

103. Scale your
reporDng with
a GA Add-­‐on

104. Start your
report

105. Choose
your data
points

108. Google
helps us
perform
magic!

109. Add
visuals
and
insights

110. (no more
waiDng on a
developer for
updates)
Google Tag
Manager
makes
updaDng
your GA
code easier

111. Videos and
advice from
Google

112. More Resources

113. Property Audit
Page Tracking
Subdomains
Cross domain track
Views
Advanced Segments
Goals
Dashboards
Campaign Tracking
Site Search
Bots
Industry Benchmark
Site Speed Rec’s
Front End Code
Universal AnalyDcs
Microsites
Event Tracking
Outbound Links
Scroll Depth
MulDmedia
Downloads
Forms
mailto: links
Virtual Page Views
Custom Variables
User IDs
Social Share Tracking
In-­‐Page AnalyDcs
Demographic ReporDng
Interest ReporDng
Linked Accounts
AdWords
Google Grant
Google Search Console
Blog
AddThis
Network for Good
Kickstarter
Google Cultural
InsDtute
View Audit
Filters
Exclude IP address
Exclude Spam
Internal Site Search
Prepend hostname
Consistent domain
Eliminate “www”
Content Grouping
Channel Grouping
Search Term Exclusion
eCommerce Tracking
Cost Data Import
Calculated Metrics
ANribuDon Model
Experiments
AnnotaDons

114. Q&A
#16NTCgasecrets

115. #16NTCgasecrets
Devon Smith
Strategy Director & Co-­‐Founder, Measure
@devonvsmith
devon@measurecreaDve.com
Julia Robinson
CommunicaDons Manager, Business for Social
Responsibility
@JuliaCoyner

116. www.measurecreaDve.com
@measurecreaDve
#16NTCgasecrets