Measuring Content in Google Analyics

Measuring the Value of Content With
Google Analytics
Lars von Sneidern
lars@vonsneidern.net
@LarsvonS

CONTENT

CON
@LarsvonS
TENT …is a big idea

CONTENT; SO WHAT?

CONTENT
DEAL WITH IT

@LarsvonS

CONTENT; SO WHAT?

So, the big question is….

HOW DO WE
MEASURE IT?
@LarsvonS

CONTENT; SO WHAT?

Answer #1: Get a Marketing Automation Platform (MAP)!

Problem?
THEY ARE REALLY FREAKING EXPENSIVE!!

@LarsvonS

CONTENT; SO WHAT?

Answer #2: Get smart with Google Analytics!

Problem?
NO WAY, IT‟S FREE!

But you do have to work a little..

@LarsvonS

MEASURING CONTENT - THE WHAT AND HOW

Three considerations:

1. Basics: “Content” pages – what‟s sticking?
2. Intermediate: Are your goals being met? Do you even have
goals?
3. Advanced: Inbound? You bet!

Note: There is a lot more we could discuss that would
take longer than 20 minutes. Buy me whiskey and we
can talk…

@LarsvonS

WHY SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO ME?

⌐ Analytics Director for a Portland-based agency
⌐ Over a decade‟s experience turning data into insights
⌐ The sweater vest…

DEAL WITH IT

@LarsvonS

The Basics:

CONTENT PAGES – WHAT’S
STICKING

The Basics

• Assumption #1: At the most basic level, you want people
to “engage” with your content. What does this mean?
• Look at it
• Spend time with it
• Not leave the site after seeing it
• Push its buttons and otherwise poke it
• Share it

• Assumption #2: Content is typically contained on a web
“page” and a lot about the content can be learned by
stats pertaining to that page.

@LarsvonS

The Basics:
Look at it

• At the most basic
level, you want to
know how many
times your
content has been
seen.
• Content > All
Pages >
Pageviews
• But, never will
raw pageviews
be enough…

@LarsvonS

The Basics:
Spend time
• What about
Average Time on
Page?
• Generally, this is a
very good leading
indicator on content
quality.
• The assumption is
that the more time
people are
spending on the
page, the better the
content.
@LarsvonS

The Basics:
Not leave
• How about the
ability of content to
keep people on a
site?
• Bounce rate is often
overlooked as a
great way to see
what content keeps
your site “sticky.”

@LarsvonS

The Basics:
Poke things
WARNING: ADVANCED
CONFIGURATION
REQUIRED!
• One of the purest forms
of engagement is
actually poking the
content.
• This is usually captured
through custom events,
like: downloads, video
plays, widget pushes,
etc.
• The more this is
happening, the cooler
the content is.

@LarsvonS

The Basics: Poke things

• For a little extra credit, you can calculate an average number
of events per page by dividing the number of events for that
page by its number of pageviews (or unique visits):

Number of
events on
a particular Average
page events per
Number of
pageviews for pageview
that particular
page
@LarsvonS

The Basics:
Share it
• On a similar note, we
can see what pages
(content) are being
shared, again assuming
custom events are
installed on share
buttons.
• Events > Top events,
filter down to your
Sharing event,
• Add a “Page”
Secondary dimension.
• Filter to only look at
“share” events.

@LarsvonS

The Basics

Something to keep in mind:
• Looking at “content” pages
is very different then
looking at root and
subdirectory pages (unless
they contain content).
• It may be helpful to filter out
the root and subdirectory
URLs before looking at
content in this way.

@LarsvonS

Intermediate:

ARE YOUR GOALS BEING MET?
DO YOU EVEN HAVE GOALS?!

Socratic Dialog about Goals…
• Socrates: “Whenever anyone spends any amount of time or money
creating something digital and putting it on a website, they should
have some sort of goal or outcome associated with it.”
• Plato: “Do you mean a „Goal‟ in Google Analytics?”
• Socrates: “Yes, but first they should establish what the business
„goal‟ of the content is. Do they just want people to visit their site, or
do something once they get there? What is that? Spend a certain
amount of time on the site? Fill out a form? Buy something? Share
content?”
• Plato: “Then, they want to make a goal in Google Analytics te reflect
these business goals?”
• Socrates: “Of course!”
• Plato: “Genius!”
@LarsvonS

Goooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaal!

• BIG QUESTION: DO YOU HAVE
GOALS ESTABLISHED IN GOOGLE
ANALYTICS?

• NO? HOLY CRAP WHY NOT!!?

@LarsvonS

Goals “Flowchart”

Do you have
No
goals in GA?

Make
Yes some!

Ok I did!
Good Stop
yelling!

@LarsvonS

So…yeah…goals…

@LarsvonS

What does that have to do with content?

• The theory is that good content leads to more
overall engagement with the site, and thus more
time on the site and higher chance for goal
conversion.
• This can often be seen by looking at what page
visitors are converting on, and where they were
before hitting that page.

@LarsvonS

Content and Goals
• First, take a look at the
Goals section of GA, under
the Conversation menu.
Click “Goal URLs.”
• You can see what pages
(URL) the goal selected are
completed on, and for
certain goals, this is a good
(but not perfect) indicator of
how successfully pages with
certain content are at
converting visitors.
• However, this may not be
very helpful, as some goals
always conclude on the
same page.
@LarsvonS

Content and Goals
• For a better (and easier) look, looking at “Funnel Visualization,” you can
start to get a picture of what URLs most often lead to a conversion.

@LarsvonS

Content and Goals
• If you have a more complicated path to conversion, looking at “Reverse
Goal Path,” will more completely show pathing.
• However, this is a somewhat messy view…

@LarsvonS

Content and Goals
• Exporting the data to CSV will make it a little easier to work with.

@LarsvonS

Content and Goals
• Easy, right….? Let‟s take a closer look…
# ----------------------------------------
# company.com (Rollup)
# Reverse Goal Path
# 20120101-20130409
# ----------------------------------------

iCommunity
Signups (Goal 1
Goal Completion Location Goal Previous Step - 1 Goal Previous Step - 2 Goal Previous Step - 3 Completions)
/www.company.com/forms/community_register.ilmn?pb=1
/www.company.com/forms/community_register.ilmn
(entrance) (not set) 1,190
/www.company.com/forms/community_register.ilmn?pb=1&form=community_register
(entrance) (not set) 373
(entrance) (not set) (not set) 116
/www.company.com/landing/webinar_series_ign/index.ilmn
(entrance) 106
/www.company.com/index.ilmn (entrance) 48
/www.company.com/events.ilmn/tab/undefined
/www.company.com/events.ilmn 22
(entrance) 16
/www.company.com/applications/sequencing/rna_seq.ilmn
/www.company.com/applications/detail/sequencing/transcriptome_analysis.
15
/www.company.com/events.ilmn /www.company.com/forms/community_register.ilmn
(entrance) 14
/www.company.com/science.ilmn /www.company.com/index.ilmn 14
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?pb=1&iframe=
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?id=70180000000crbu&i
12
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?id=70180000000crxb&i
11
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?id=70180000000cryZ&i
11
/www.company.com/science.ilmn (entrance) 10
/www.company.com/science.ilmn/tab/icommunity
/www.company.com/science.ilmn 10
/www.company.com/science.ilmn /www.company.com/forms/community_register.ilmn
(entrance) 10
(entrance) 10
/www.company.com/media/flash_player.ilmn?dirname=services&swfname=IGN_introduction&width=760&height=550&mp4
/www.company.com/landing/webinar_series_ign/index.ilmn 8
/www.company.com/applications/sequencing/rna.ilmn
(entrance) 7
(entrance) 7
/www.company.com/events.ilmn/tab/webinars 6

@LarsvonS
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?id=70180000000crB8&i
6

Content and Goals
Final goal Last place they Second to last Third to last Total goal
completion were place they were place they were completions
location
# ----------------------------------------
# company.com (Rollup)
(pretty much all the (we care about this) (we care about this too) (we def care about
# Reverse Goal Path same, we‟ll assume it‟s this)
(all the same,
# 20120101-20130409
all the same and not
# ----------------------------------------
we don‟t care) care)

iCommunity
Signups (Goal 1
Goal Completion Location Goal Previous Step - 1 Goal Previous Step - 2 Goal Previous Step - 3 Completions)
(entrance) (not set) 1,190
(entrance) (not set) 373
(entrance) 106
/www.company.com/events.ilmn 22
(entrance) 16
/www.company.com/applications/sequencing/rna_seq.ilmn
/www.company.com/applications/detail/sequencing/transcriptome_analysis.
15
(entrance) 14
/www.company.com/science.ilmn /www.company.com/index.ilmn 14
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?id=70180000000crbu&i
12
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?id=70180000000crxb&i
11
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?id=70180000000cryZ&i
11
/www.company.com/science.ilmn (entrance) 10
/www.company.com/science.ilmn/tab/icommunity
/www.company.com/science.ilmn 10
/www.company.com/science.ilmn /www.company.com/forms/community_register.ilmn
(entrance) 10
(entrance) 10
/www.company.com/media/flash_player.ilmn?dirname=services&swfname=IGN_introduction&width=760&height=550&mp4
/www.company.com/applications/sequencing/rna.ilmn
(entrance) 7
(entrance) 7
/www.company.com/events.ilmn/tab/webinars 6

@LarsvonS
/www.company.com/forms/eu_seminar_register.ilmn?id=70180000000crB8&i
6

Content and Goals

Second to last Third to last Total
place they were place they influence on
total goal were total goal goal
completions completions conversions

@LarsvonS

Inbound? What‟s that?
• Wikipedia* says: Inbound marketing is advertising a company
through blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, eNewsletters, whitepapers, SEO,
social media marketing...

• In other words,

CONTENT!
* HubSpot‟s Brian Halligan
@LarsvonS

How do we measure Inbound?
• Unlike previously, we are now talking about how well our content
is at drawing the right kinds of people into our sites.

• The process is fairly simple:
• Tag inbound social links with unique campaign appends
before they are let loose into the wild.
• Observe traffic as it comes into your site, looking for patterns
in behavior .

@LarsvonS

Campaign Tagging and Tracking 101
• Google Analytics tracks four basic traffic sources:
• Direct
• Search
• Referral
• Campaign

• Campaign traffic is only tracked if the link bringing someone
to the site in questions contains specifically formatted
appends*.

* Append: Stuff added to the back of a URL with thins like ?’s and &’s and
stuff=something. We’ve all seen them, and often have no idea what they do.

@LarsvonS

Campaign Tagging and Tracking 101
• The appends that Google Analytics uses have four elements
we are interested in:
1. Source (Ex: referrer: google, citysearch, newsletter4)
2. Medium (Ex: marketing medium: cpc, banner, email)
3. Content (use to differentiate ads)
4. Name (Ex: product, promo code, or slogan)
• They are joined using things like ?‟s and &‟s into a string that
is added to the back of URLs
• When someone clicks on a link with an append like this, the
traffic they generate is associated with a “Campaign” in GA.
• Yawn.
@LarsvonS

Anatomy of a Campaign Tag
• For the purpose of this example, we will be applying the
following appends to a link of a video on www.mysite.com,
which will be shared on Twitter:
• Source = social
• Medium = twitter
• Content = video
• Name = how_to_be_awesome

• Plop everything into Google‟s URL builder*
• The resulting URL:
www.mysite.com/video_page/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=
video&utm_campaign=how_to_be_awesome

* http://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867
@LarsvonS

Anatomy of a Campaign Tag
• This URL is a little unwieldy, so it makes sense to shorten it
using a service like bit.ly:

www.mysite.com/video_page/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=video&ut
m_campaign=how_to_be_awesome

bit.ly/wy49q

• Now, SHARE LIKE THE WIND!

@LarsvonS

Measuring the Effect
• Unlike previous methods of measuring content,
this is not looking at the content itself.

• Rather, we are looking at how well the content,
once shared, is at attracting the right people to
your site.

@LarsvonS

• Assuming your campaign appends are working, the tagged traffic
should appear under Campaigns in the Traffic Sources view.

@LarsvonS

• Looking in the “All
Traffic” view and
putting up a quick
filter to only see
“social” (or email in
the case, same
principle).
• Now you can see
what content links
drove the most
amount of traffic..

@LarsvonS

• …and what
content is driving
higher quality
traffic who are
staying on the site
longer, looking at
more stuff, and not
bouncing.
• It‟s like magic, but
it actually happens!
And unicorns!

@LarsvonS

THANKS!

Lars von Sneidern
lars@vonsneidern.net
@LarsvonS

Measuring Content in Google Analyics

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