How to Tell a Story With Your Google Analytics Data

By Jeff Sauer
Founder of Knowledge Land
Storytelling with
Data and Reports

@jeffalytics
Remember the scientiﬁc method?

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Ask a Question
The Scientiﬁc Method
Do Background Research
Construct a Hypothesis
TestYour Hypothesis By Doing
an Experiment
AnalyzeYour Data and Draw a
Conclusion
ReportYour Results (WasYour
Hypothesis Correct?)

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Two problems with
online programs

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Drawing Conclusions
Analysis is a problem

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Conﬁrming Hypothesis
Validating the hypothesis is a problem

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In Other Words…

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If we don’t reﬂect
and share, how do
we learn?

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What Happened?
Analytics Tools Are Great for Telling Us

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What Happened?
Analytics Tools Are Great for Telling Us
By How Much?

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An explanation of why it
happened
Our brains must come up with

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The story of what we
learned

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A plan for how we can
get more of it

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Our responsibility as marketers
3 Main Points for Today
Why we need stories
Presenting your results

@jeffalytics
Download 7 Keys to Strategic
Analytics & Other Materials:
bit.ly/AnalyticsMunich
Before I forget…

Our Responsibility as
Marketers
To expand the collective knowledge of our organization

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What is data,
anyway?

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Data = facts
Image courtesy of: http://socialsciences.cornell.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Data.jpg

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Big Data = More facts!
Image courtesy of: http://www.bigdata-careers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/big-data.jpg

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I used to stare at this until my eyes bled

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This was revolutionary for the industry
Image courtesy of: http://blog.measureful.com/google-analytics/

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Aesthetics continue to be more pleasing

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But…
In many ways we are stuck in the past

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Some things have barely changed
How different?

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Same data,
prettier package

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We still need
translation

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Data Information Knowledge Wisdom
What we need to make decisions

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Data is Cheap Free
The problem with big data
Data is Everywhere
Data is Dumb

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Information = Data
with context or
structure

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Creating a narrative from data
Take the Quiz at New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1HVgnCx

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This is an automated report and it’s FREE
Image Courtesy of Quill Engage

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Computer turns data into information
Visit Quill Engage at http://bit.ly/SMXQuill

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Can a computer
replace your work?
Then we need to do more!

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Knowledge =
Understanding of
the Information

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Knowledge must
be earned

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Computers can’t
automate
knowledge

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We need to help
accelerate
knowledge

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Provide a universal picture
Knowledge Accelerators
Present the answer ﬁrst
Have supporting detail ready Make everyone better

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Share knowledge with your organization

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Wisdom = Thinking
and acting on
knowledge

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Your turn, Einstein

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How we make decisions, another picture
Data vs. Information vs. Knowledge: http://www.infogineering.net/data-information-knowledge.htm

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Our responsibility as marketers:
To give our organization the
information and knowledge
needed to make decisions

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A Case Study
The Periodic Table of Google Analytics

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Teaching Google
Analytics

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There is a lot to
learn
Which leads to…

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There has to be
a better way!

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The Task:
Simplify the
complex picture

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My Attempt to Simplify the Complex

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Then provide the detail as needed

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Grab attention
This visual achieved several objectives
Prove expertise
Known structure Understands audience

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Side Beneﬁt?
Tons of visitors, links and shares!
Share count from Share Tally: http://sharetally.co/

@jeffalytics
Are your reports
overwhelming?

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Or just putting
people to sleep?

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From data to wisdom
A practical path that we can all take

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In our own words, what happened on our
website during this time period?
What happened?
Path to wisdom: What happened?

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Our website saw a massive increase in sales over the
past week
What happened?

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What happened?
By how much?
Path to wisdom: How many times?

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We had an increase of 1,000 sales over previous week,
for a 20% increase in sales volume. This resulted in
$100,000 in incremental revenue at a 50% proﬁt margin.
By how much?

@jeffalytics
What happened?
By how much?
Is this expected?
Path to wisdom: Did we expect this?

@jeffalytics
We did not expect this to happen. Our new product
line went viral on Reddit and drew in new visitors. A
small percentage of the new visitors purchased.
Did we expect this?

@jeffalytics
What happened?
Is this behavior normal? If not, should we
be concerned that it happened?
Why did it happen?
By how much?
Is this expected?
Path to wisdom: Understand why?

@jeffalytics
An inﬂuential Reddit user found the new product line
through our public preview website and shared with the
system. Because of their inﬂuence, we saw an increase in
visitors. No reason for concern.
Why did this happen?

@jeffalytics
What happened?
Why did it happen?
By how much?
Is this expected?
How do we react?
Path to wisdom: Understand why?

@jeffalytics
Share the Reddit post with our social channels in order
to increase awareness.
Embrace the visitors upon site entry with welcome
message.
How do we react?

@jeffalytics
What happened?
Why did it happen?
By how much?
Is this expected?
How do we react?
Are there any necessary reactions
Is this repeatable?
Path to analytics zen: How do we react?

@jeffalytics
Most sharing on Reddit is naturally occurring and
difﬁcult to replicate. While we can’t expect the same
success, we can use Reddit’s native advertising system to
promote future products. At this strong ROI,
reinvestment is a great idea.
Is this repeatable?

@jeffalytics
What happened?
Why did it happen?
By how much?
Is this expected?
What is the story?
How do we react?
Is this repeatable?
Path to wisdom: What story to tell?

@jeffalytics
We made $50,000 in proﬁt last week because our
customers are interested in our new product line.
We may not be able to repeat this every week, but this
represents a new sales opportunity to embrace.
What is the story?

@jeffalytics
What happened?
Why did it happen?
By how much?
Is this expected?
What is the story?
How do we react?
Is this repeatable?
Understanding what was learned is a key
to future improvements
What did we learn?
Path to wisdom: Formalize learning!

@jeffalytics
We can generate proﬁt from our users if we create
great products.
We need to consider a program for reaching these
customers early in product development process.
What did we learn?

@jeffalytics
What happened?
By how much?
Is this expected?
Why did it happen?
How do we react?
Is this repeatable?
What is the story?
What did we learn?
Deliver this knowledge in a formal report

@jeffalytics
What happened?
By how much?
Is this expected?
Why did it happen?
How do we react?
Is this repeatable?
What is the story?
What did we learn?
Or at the very least leave an Annotation

@jeffalytics
What happened?
Start the cycle again, wiser

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Ways to tell stories

@jeffalytics
Charts
Image from: http://danmeth.com/post/77471620/my-trilogy-meter-1-in-a-series-of-pop-cultural

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Infographics
View this infographic here: http://bit.ly/rapperlyrics

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Data Visualization & Videos
View this visualization here: http://bit.ly/twitterwakeup

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Stories are essential for
knowledge transfer

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Beware:There isn’t
always a story to tell

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Board Room?
Is what I am saying board room worthy?

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I presented in front of a room like this

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Executive Presentation
Executive PresentationTemplate from Knowledge.Land

@jeffalytics
What are the objectives of
your company?
Things to consider in your presentation
People want to hear the
beneﬁts they will receive
Use terms everyone can
understand (no acronyms!)
Point out facts and share case
studies to help your cause
Predict the value you will bring
to the table
The CFO will want numbers
to support your arguments

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Find strength in successful outcomes
Full article can be found here: bit.ly/data-driven-performance

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Calculate the return on your efforts
Return on Analytics worksheet courtesy of: http://bit.ly/ROAnalytics

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What you say is important
Addition by subtraction
What you don’t say is even more important

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Use visuals
More presentation tips
Don’t show your work
Find your champion
Assume others will receive the
report ofﬂine
Remove ambiguity Smart people act dumb

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Your ideal story has
something for
everyone

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Solutions
Not problems

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Pulling it together and presenting results
Image Courtesy of Knowledge Land

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1) Provide an agenda

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2) Executive Summary

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3) Key performance indicators

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4) Overall summary

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5) Observations and Implications
Get this report template for free at: bit.ly/reportingtemplate

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6) Supporting Evidence

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7) Appendix
Get this report template for free at: bit.ly/reportingtemplate

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Do More
By doing less

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Focus on the recipient, get great results

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Get an Audience
Grow your ideas

@jeffalytics
Our responsibility as marketers
3 Main Points
Why we need stories
Presenting your results

@jeffalytics
Thank You!
jeff@knowledge.land

How to Tell a Story With Your Google Analytics Data

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