Speaking at the first ever 'Give it a go conference' run by Digital Agency Manyminds, Emma's talk was titled 'Stop Making Crap* Decisions: 10** Ways to Fix your Analytics Data'. Because Bad Data = Bad Decisions Emma outlines actionable advice for anyone who reports from GA (sorry Adobe users) to make sure that the data that they’re reporting on and making actions based on is not complete rubbish.

1. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Stop making rubbish decisions! 10
ways to fix your Analytics data.
Emma Barnes @ejbarnes89

2. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Me IRL
I’m Emma, I like graphs.
And drawing at networking events.

3. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
“It is a capital mistake to theorize in
advance of the facts. Insensibly one
begins to twist facts to suit theories,
instead of theories to suit facts.”
Sherlock Holmes – A Scandal in Bohemia

4. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
I stole this slide from Craig Sullivan it’s really good
https://www.slideshare.net/sullivac

5. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Send you all home with a list of
actionable Google Analytics fixes
M I S S I O N

6. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo

7. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 1
Source: comScore
Blog Visitors are way down!

8. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 1
That’s not normal… looks like tracking broke.

9. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Put your analytics or tag management
code on all pages of your website
F I X 1
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008080?hl=en

10. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 2
Source: comScore
Cool, over 5K Homepage visitors

11. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 2
Source: comScore
Oh, it’s split across subdomains

12. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Implement Subdomain Tracking
F I X 2
http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2016/08/11/subdomain-tracking-google-analytics/
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1012243?hl=en

13. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 3
Source: comScore
Homepage tracking code is broken…

14. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 3a
Source: comScore
We started recording it by its full URL

15. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 3b
Source: comScore
Combine “/” and “www.branded3.com” to see all data

16. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Use Annotations
F I X 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPx4Sus_CY

17. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 4
Source: comScore
Social Media doesn’t really contribute to website visitors

18. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 4
Source: comScore
We aren’t tagging our social media posts

19. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Use UTM Parameters to track
marketing campaigns
F I X 4
https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-url-
buil/gaidpiakchgkapdgbnoglpnbccdepnpk?hl=en

20. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 5
Source: comScore
We’re at about 100K referrals/week

21. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 5
Source: comScore
A lot of them are organic traffic being misattributed

22. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Use Custom Search Engines and
Advanced filters to reassign organic
traffic filtering through to referral
F I X 5
https://www.branded3.com/blog/track-duckduckgo-organic-referrer-google-analytics/

23. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 6
Source: comScore
No goals = Broken contact form?

24. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 6
Source: comScore
SITE. MIGRATION. FORGOT. TO UPDATE. GOAL URLS!!

25. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Review all goals, filters, tags and code
when doing a website migration
F I X 6
https://www.branded3.com/blog/website-migration-guide-a-google-analytics-tag-manager-checklist/

26. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 7
Source: comScore
We are making £££

27. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 7
Source: comScore
Some transactions are duplicated.
We are making ££

28. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Review ecommerce tracking and
ensure transactions are not misfiring
or transaction IDs being recycled
F I X 7
http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2014/07/07/duplicate-transactions/

29. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 8
Source: comScore
Referrals are converting really well

30. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 8a
Source: comScore
Our payment provider is being
counted as a referrer

31. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 8b
Source: comScore
And so are we…

32. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Implement cross domain tracking and
referral exclusion
F I X 8
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1034342?hl=en
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2795830?hl=en

33. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 9a
Source: comScore
i(pP)hone listed twice

34. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 9b
Source: comScore
Did /course-option get 119K or 84K views?

35. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 9c
Source: comScore
Facebook, seriously…

36. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Use filters and query parameter
exclusion to tidy data
F I X 9
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033162?hl=en#PredefinedFilters
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1034834?hl=en
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1010249?hl=en

37. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
DATASET 10
Source: comScore
Low bounce rate, guess people were
really engaged that day?

38. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
ANALYSIS 10
Source: comScore
My events were firing way
more often than usual.

39. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Ensure events are being tracked as “non-
interaction” if they are passive (e.g. being bucketed
into a test, scrolling 0% or flipping their phone)
F I X 1 0
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033068#NonInteractionEvents

40. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
https://www.branded3.com/blog/category/analytics/
https://www.branded3.com/blog/author/emma-barnes/

41. @ejbarnes89#MMGiveItAGo
Thank You!
Emma.Barnes@branded3.com
@ejbarnes89