Google Analytics Training

Transcription

1 Google Analytics Training sponsored by Clockwork is a digital firm creating technology solutions that really work. Your vision is our mission. Strategy Design Technology Content Search Engine Optimization Paid Placement: Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) Analytics and Reporting SEM subcontracting for agencies Local Search Marketing and Google Places Founded 2005

2 Google Analytics 301 Let s Get Technical

3 Who We Are Traffic SEO Paid Search Social Media Analysis Google Analytics setup & training Web Analysis Action User testing Google Website Optimizer 3

4 Today s singular goal Get your questions answered: Ask questions during or between sessions Grab me at breaks Stay late at the end of the day 4

5 Agenda Welcome Configuration & Coding Tracking Code Break Clean Up Your Data Measuring Conversion Lunch Measuring Traffic Measuring Content Measuring Visitors Break Managing Cookies and Tracking Extracting Data Conversion Testing & Website Optimizer Understanding Each Other: IT and Marketing Q&A, Individual Help 5

6 Configuration and Administration

7 Assumptions You ve used Google Analytics You should understand how basic metrics are defined, the types of reports Analytics offers, and how to navigate You don t have to be an expert You are familiar with web technologies HTML JavaScript Passing familiarity with cookies, redirects, server-side languages, Flash You don t have to be a hard-core developer You are aware of conversion testing/optimization 7

8 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Explain the relationship among usernames, accounts, web property IDs, and profiles. Add a user to Analytics and understand the difference between administrators and read-only users. Navigate Analytics and account and profile settings. Understand issues that can be dealt with by configuring Google Analytics settings vs. issues that require changes to your tracking code. 8

9 Account Overview Account Overview 9

10 Users, Accounts, Profiles User Your login (could be a Gmail address or your own address you ve signed up as a Google Account). Account Your user login may have access to multiple accounts in Google Analytics a personal account for your blog and your company account for your corporate websites, for example. Profiles Separate buckets of data within an account, which could be for different websites, or for the same website with a different set of data filtered in a different way. 10

11 Account Overview Account Overview 11

12 Profiles in an Account Account comparison 12

13 Web Property ID DEFINITION: Web Property ID The web property ID is a number of the form UA-XXXXXX-YY. It s often called the UA number because the always start with UA. The XXXXXX part is unique to your account, and the YY represents an additional site within an account. 13

14 How it all fits together 14

15 Managing Users Profiles Overview 15

16 User Manager Analytics Settings > User Manager 16

17 Adding a User Analytics Settings > User Manager > Create New User for Access 17

18 Types of Users DEFINITION: View reports only This type of user can only view reports and cannot make configuration changes, such as changing profile settings, creating goals, or adding other users. You can specify access on a profile-by-profile basis. DEFINITION: Account Administrator This type of user has complete control over the account and all of the profiles within it. 18

19 Best Practices: Account, Profiles, Users Shared Login: Should we share one login? You should have at least 2 (1 read-only and 1 admin). More depending on whether users want to personalize their experience (Dashboard, Advanced Segments, etc.) or all share those customizations. Number of Profiles: You can have up to 50 profiles per account. Multiple Sites in One Account: Will you want to have separate admin capabilities for different sites? Do you need to compare the sites to one another (in the Profile Overview)? Agencies: Track each client as a separate account, so you don t run out of profiles and are able to give admin access to your clients if they request it. 19

20 Questions so far? Administrative Interface

21 Administration in Google Analytics There are two ways to affect your data: Configuring settings within Google Analytics Filters Goals Site Search Changing the tracking code on your site Event Tracking Ecommerce Subdomains and Multiple Domains 21

22 Account Settings Account comparison 22

23 Account Settings 23

24 Profile Settings Account comparison 24

25 Profile Settings 25

26 Profile Settings: Main 26

27 Profile Settings: Goals 27

28 Profile Settings: Filters 28

29 Profile Settings: Users 29

30 Topics Configuration and Coding Tracking Code Clean Up Your Data Measuring Conversion Measuring Traffic Measuring Content Measuring Visitors Managing Cookies and Tracking 30

31 Administration and Coding ACTIVITY What are some opportunities or issues with tracking that you would like to explore? Are there troubleshooting scenarios or hard-to-track items on your website that you d like to know more about? 31

32 Questions? Administrative Interface

33 Google Analytics Tracking Code

34 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Implement basic Google Analytics Tracking Code on your site. Explain how Google Analytics tracking works. Recognize situations that may need additional or alternative code to handle. 34

35 Account Creation 35

36 Tracking Code 36

37 So how does Google Analytics work? Web Browser Your website GATC Google Analytics Server Data Processing Google Analytics Reports 37

38 Client vs. Server Based Measurement Client-side tools use a JavaScript tag like GA Identify visitors by cookies (problems with clearing cookies) Robots and crawlers generally don t execute JavaScript (good) Records HTML pages, not PDF, etc. (without additional work) Server-side tools use server logs Identify visitors by IP address (problems with dynamic IPs and proxies) Must actively maintain list of robots and crawlers Easily track all filetypes, not just HTML Not unusual to see huge discrepancies (~100%) Want to maintain continuity with historic data? Run tools side-by-side for a while, benchmark against one another 38

39 OK, so how does it really work? <body> <! the contents of your page > <script type="text/javascript"> var gajshost = ((" == document.location.protocol)? " : " document.write(unescape("%3cscript src='" + gajshost + "googleanalytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3e%3c/script%3e")); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> try { var pagetracker = _gat._gettracker("ua XXXXX Y"); pagetracker._trackpageview(); } catch(err) {} </script> </body> </html> 39

40 OK, so how does it really work? <script type="text/javascript"> try { var pagetracker = _gat._gettracker("ua XXXXX Y"); pagetracker._trackpageview(); } catch(err) {} </script> 40

41 Step 1: Set Cookies utma: Visitor identification (2 years) utmb & utmc: Maintain session (30 minutes/close) utmz: Information about the source (6 months) utmv: Optional, custom visitor information (2 years) TIP You can change the expiration lengths for these cookies with extra code. We ll see how later. 41

42 Step 2: GIF request The code requests a 1x1 pixel transparent GIF from Google with a variety of parameters that transmit data about the visitor and pageview. 1x1.gif utm.gif?utmwv=4.7.2&utmn= &utmhn= utmcs=utf-8&utmsr=1280x960&utmsc=24-bit&utmul=enus&utmje=1&utmfl=10.0%20r42&utmdt=google%20online%20store&utmhid= &utmr=0&utmp=%2Fshop.axd%2FHome&utmac=UA &utmcc= utma%3d %3B%2B utmz%3d utmcsr%3dgoogle%7cutmccn%3d(o rganic)%7cutmcmd%3dorganic%7cutmctr%3dgoogle%2520t%2520shirt%3b 42

43 Step 3: Google Processing Google does a bunch of processing on the data, and deposits the processed data in profiles for reporting. Processing happens in the following order: Default page, site search, and exclude query parameters Filters Goals 43

44 Just copy and paste, right? Just fine in many cases But you still need to think about configuring certain things that don t involve code, like goals and campaign tagging You should consider the following: Multiple domains Subdomains Excluding internal traffic Ecommerce tracking URLs with lots of query parameter junk Frames and iframes Redirects AJAX and Flash Non-HTML files (PDF, MP3, etc.) 44

45 Ensuring GA is installed Spot check pages for code WASP Firefox Extension by Stéphane Hamel of Immeria Scan your whole site GA SiteScan by EpikOne

46 Additional web dev extensions Web Developer Toolbar: View & alter cookies, styles, and lots of other stuff US/firefox/addon/60 Firebug: Debug JavaScript US/firefox/addon/1843 Live HTTP Headers or HTTP Fox

47 Getting Your Code 47

48 Code Wizard 48

49 Three eras of tracking code urchin.js old-style tracking code still supported for sending data, but is not updated to support new features, such as event tracking or custom variables ga.js Standard Tracking examples given today updated version of urchin.js supporting newer features ga.js Asynchronous uses same ga.js code loads asynchronously from the page less susceptible to missed tracking of long pages 49

50 Asynchronous Tracking Traditional tracking recommends placement at the bottom of the page, so that any potential latency in tracking doesn t hold up page content from loading Downside: With heavy pages (taking a long time to load), visitors could navigate away before the entire page is loaded and not be tracked Asynchronous tracking happens in parallel to the page loading without holding up content Asynchronous code can safely be placed higher in the page, so more likely to track heavy pages even if visitors navigate away from them before the entire page is loaded 50

51 Asynchronous Tracking Code <head> <! other scripts and elements in the head > <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq []; _gaq.push(['_setaccount', 'UA XXXXX X']); _gaq.push(['_trackpageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createelement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript ; ga.async = true; ga.src = (' == document.location.protocol? ' : ' + '.google analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getelementsbytagname('script')[0]; s.parentnode.insertbefore(ga, s); })(); </script> </head> 51

52 Asynchronous Tracking Queue _gaq Array is a queue for methods to be executed Push items into the array and they are executed in the order they are pushed, as soon as the tracking script is fully loaded 52

53 Asynchronous Tracking Syntax _gaq.push([methodname, argument1, argument2,...]); Note that you must push an Array into the queue (enclose in square brackets, separate items with a comma) The items in the array are Strings (enclose them in quotes) The first item in the array is the method name The subsequent items are any arguments you want to supply to the method 53

54 Comparison of traditional & asynchronous code pagetracker._trackpageview(); _gaq.push(["_trackpageview"]); pagetracker._setdomainname(".example.com"); _gaq.push(["_setdomainname",".example.com"]); 54

55 Questions so far? Tracking Code

56 Other ways to collect GA data Mobile Mobile tracking code for mobile sites aimed at non-smartphones SDKs for mobile apps on Android and iphone Non-HTML content Flash Flex Silverlight 56

57 Mobile Tracking

58 Types of Mobile Phones Smartphones iphone Android Windows Mobile Blackberry Palm Not-smartphones The other ones 58

59 Smartphones Regular websites JavaScript, cookies, and the whole deal Regular GA tracking code captures these visits 59

60 Smartphone Apps Applications (Android and iphone OS only) Installed applications Software development kits plug into app development to provide tracking internal to apps Pageviews and Events only

61 Non-Smartphones Specialized mobile sites Generally, these phone s browsers don t use JavaScript or cookies Server-side tracking Pageviews only PHP, Perl, JSP, ASPX currently supported Get the code through the wizard in Google Analytics 61

62 Questions so far? Mobile Tracking

63 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Implement basic Google Analytics Tracking Code on your site. Explain how Google Analytics tracking works. Recognize situations that may need additional or alternative code to handle. 63

64 Questions? Tracking Code

65 Cleaning Up Your Data

66 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Create a profile and apply filters to it. Understand how filters are processed. Remove internal traffic from your data. Clean up messy URLs in your data. Understand options for using filters to manipulate your data. Explain the differences between using filters and advanced segments. 66

67 Creating a Profile Profiles Overview 67

68 Create A New Profile 68

69 Profile Best Practices Because all of the processing happens once, when data is received, changes are not retroactive and can t be undone! Recommended profiles: Unfiltered: raw data, no filters, just the data as it is. Create this and never touch the configuration on it again. Use this for troubleshooting. Test profile(s): Test out changes to filters, goals, and other configurations here before applying them to your production data. 69

70 Questions so far? Profiles

71 Filters Google Analytics lets you filter the data that goes into a profile: including or excluding data, or making changes to it. There are a number of reasons to do this: Exclude employees, web developers, and other internal traffic from your site. Separate data from test/development and production sites. Include data for just yourself, for testing purposes. Clean up messy URLs or other data. Include data for just one portion of your site, or traffic from a particular segment of visits. 71

72 Detour: Regular Expressions What are Regular Expressions? A way to describe a pattern in text Uses characters with special meanings One regular expression can match many text strings Google Analytics uses Perl Compatible Regex, so you may already be familiar 72

73 Regular Expression Examples google youtube google OR youtube vertical bar is OR you?tube youtube or you tube question mark makes preceding character optional (0 or 1) goo+gle google or gooogle or goooogle or plus says 1 or more of preceding character 73

74 Regular Expression Examples ^goo google or gooey or good, but not magoo caret means starts with gle$ google or ogle or gargle, but not gleeful dollar sign means ends with 74

75 Regular Expression Examples goo. good or goof or goo2 or goo% dot matches any character goo[a-z] good or goof or goop but not goo2 or goo% square brackets group a class of characters: use a range like a-z or 0-9, or a list of specific characters tubes* tube or tubes or tubessssssss star means 0 or more of preceding character 75

76 Combining Regular Expressions ((great )*grand)?(mo fa)ther mother or grandfather or great great grandmother grouping with parentheses (.*) dot-star is a common combination 0 or more of any character 76

77 Why Regular Expressions? You can use regular expressions in a number of places in Google Analytics Filters (as we ll see in a moment) Goals Containing/Excluding field in reports Advanced Segments 77

78 Creating Filters Profiles Overview 78

79 Filter Manager 79

80 Applying Filters to Profiles 80

81 Filter Order 81

82 Types of Filters Predefined filters: include or exclude Traffic from IP addresses Traffic from domains Traffic to subdirectories Custom filters, operating on a variety of fields Exclude Include Lowercase Uppercase Search and Replace Advanced 82

83 Filter Fields (and poor labeling) These correspond (mostly) to dimensions that are available in Google Analytics reports. However, they aren t always named the same thing 83

84 Filter Fields: Content Dimensions Request URI = Page Content > Top Content Hostname Visitors > Network Properties > Hostnames Page Title Content > Content by Title 84

85 Filter Fields: Campaign Dimensions Campaign Source Campaign Medium Campaign Name Campaign Content = Ad Content Campaign Code Traffic Sources > All Traffic Sources Traffic Sources > All Traffic Sources Traffic Sources > Campaigns Traffic Sources > Ad Versions (not displayed in reports) Referral (not displayed in reports) = raw referrer value 85

86 Visitor Information Visitor IP Address (not displayed in reports) Visitor ISP Organization Visitors > Network = Service Providers Properties > Service Providers Visitor Type (New or Returning) Visitor Country, Region, City Visitor Geographic Domain (.co.uk, for example) Visitor Language Settings Visitors > Visitor Type Visitors > Map Overlay (not displayed in reports) Visitors > Languages User Defined Visitors > User Defined 86

87 Filter Fields: Browser Information Visitor Browser Program, Visitor Browser Version, Visitor Operating System Platform, Visitor Operating System Version, Visitor Screen Resolution, Visitor Screen Colors, Visitor Java Enabled?, Visitor Flash version, Visitor Connection Speed Visitors > Browser Capabilities 87

88 Filter Fields: Ecommerce Ecommerce Transaction ID Ecommerce Transaction Country, Region, City, Store or Order Location Ecommerce > Transactions (not displayed in reports) Ecommerce Item Name Ecommerce > Product Performance = Product Name > Product Overview Ecommerce Item Code Ecommerce > Product Performance = Product SKU > Product SKUs Ecommerce Item Variation Ecommerce > Product Performance = Product Category > Categories 88

89 Filter Fields: Other Custom Field 1, Custom Field 2 (not displayed in reports) used in Advanced Filters for temporary storage 89

90 Questions so far? Profiles

91 Internal Traffic 3 methods: By IP Address If everyone in your organization has a single IP address, or an enumerable list or range of IP addresses, that don t change By Service Provider Simpler, because you don t have to know the IP address ranges, but only applies to larger organizations By Cookies If you have dynamic IPs, people work from home, or you otherwise can t guarantee any particular IP address 91

92 Remove by IP Address (Predefined filter) 92

93 Remove by IP Address (Custom filter) TIP Regular expressions use a number of special characters: \.?+*([^$ If you use one of those characters literally, escape it by preceding it with a backslash \ 93

94 Remove by Service Provider 94

95 Remove by Service Provider 95

96 Remove by Cookie utmv cookie stores custom information about visitors We can use it to label visits as employee and exclude based on those 96

97 Step 1: Set the cookie Tech-savvy users? javascript:pagetracker._setvar( employee ); in URL bar of browser (while you re on the site) works in Firefox, Safari, Chrome (not IE) Not so tech-savvy? Put the code in a bookmarklet Put the code on a special page they have to visit on the site (which includes loading the GA tracking code) 97

98 Step 2: Create the filter 98

99 Step 3: Nag, nag, nag You have to remind users that they need to repeat this: on every computer they use (desktop, laptop, home computer, ) on every browser they use (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, ) every time they clear their cookies 99

100 One more thing: Filter dev/test servers 10 0

101 Questions so far? Profiles

102 Messy URLs Capitalization Ending in / or in /index.html (or whatever) Query parameter gunk Too many URLs 10 2

103 Capitalization Often you can get to the same page with capitalized or lowercase URLs; your web server doesn t mind and serves the same page either way. Try it on your site and see. Can be an especially big problem if links within your site are capitalized differently (rather than just visitors typing in URLs). Differently capitalized URLs are listed separately in Top Content Report and makes it difficult to compare pages without doing totaling by hand. 10 3

104 Capitalization 10 4

105 Potential Fields to Lowercase Request URI Hostname Campaign labels Campaign Source Campaign Medium Campaign Name Campaign Term Campaign Content 10 5

106 Default Pages Often your default home page (and pages of subdirectories) is accessible both through URLs ending in slash, as well as index.html, index.php, default.aspx, or other variations Similar problems to capitalization in Top Content report 10 6

107 Default URLs 10 7

108 Defaults URLs (with filters) 10 8

109 Query Parameter Gunk Query Parameters: values after the? in URLs. Sometimes query parameters distinguish different pages, so they help form a unique URL that corresponds to a page of content. Other times they don t tell us anything and the data would be cleaner if we removed them (the query parameters that are useful to you depend on your site). Especially true when you have a random number that identifies a visitor or session (different URL for every visitor, even though they re viewing the same page. 10 9

110 Too Many URLs Google Analytics limits your site to 50,000 unique URLs within a day (notice that s not 50,000 pageviews, but 50,000 unique URLs). URLs over 50,000 for the day go into a line labeled (other) in Top Content. This is often due to extraneous query parameters as well. 11 0

111 Query Parameters & Too Many URLs TIP Exclude query parameters that are meaningless to the analytics (they convey information to the server, but don t tell us anything about the actual page). Exclude query parameters that are unnecessarily specific, such as session IDs, visitor IDs, or any other parameter that is specific to a visit that does not uniquely identify the page. 11 1

112 Questions so far? Filters

113 Advanced Filters 11 3

114 There s lots more you can do Include just specific traffic sources Include just specific parts of your site Rewrite fields in fancy ways TIP Use Advanced Segments where possible, since they are much easier for non-technical users to experiment with and understand. Advanced Segments are useful for looking at specific traffic sources and other situations. 11 4

115 Advanced Segments vs. Filters Advanced Segments Includes historical data See multiple advanced segments at once in the same report On the fly, intuitive Visit, not page level Tied to a user login, not the profile Filters & Profiles Only going forward on data Filter certain kinds of traffic you almost always want to exclude, like your internal traffic Rewrite field values Segment the Funnel Visualization, Absolute Unique Visitors, or Keyword Positions reports Page level, not visit 11 5

116 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Create a profile and apply filters to it. Understand how filters are processed. Remove internal traffic from your data. Clean up messy URLs in your data. Understand options for using filters to manipulate your data. Explain the differences between using filters and advanced segments. 11 6

117 Questions so far? Filters

118 Measuring Conversion

119 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Set up goals and funnels to measure conversions Understand common issues with URL goals and how to solve them Implement ecommerce tracking code 119

120 Setting up Goals

121 What is a goal in Google Analytics? There are two types of goals: URL goals: A particular page was reached, possibly with a number of steps (a funnel ) leading up to the page. A thank-you page for filling out a form. A receipt page for a purchase. A key page of information on your site. Engagement goals: A metric reached a numeric threshold. Pages/Visit Time on Site 121

122 Managing and Adding Goals Profile Overview 122

123 Goal Sets and Organizing Goals Profile Settings 123

124 Creating an Engagement Goal TIP Use clear, descriptive names for goals and funnels. The names you use are the labels that show up in reports. 124

125 Defining URL Goals: Get to the page(s) /shop.axd/contact /shop.axd/sendcontact bp 125

126 URL Goals: Create the goal 126

127 URL Goals: Create the goal 127

128 Goal Match Types Exact match The URL must match exactly what you type in Goal: /goal/ Matches: /goal/ Head match The URL must match what you type in, but can have additional text afterward Goal: /goal/ Matches: /goal/ /goal/anything/else.html Regular Expression match /goal?lots=of-stuff You can use regular expressions to match any pattern 128

129 Goals that match multiple pages Notice that with head match, or regular expression match, many different URLs can match a goal. So if all our download URLs start with /download?file=, we can easily make a goal that matches them all. 129

130 For goals that are clicks, rather than pages 1. Use virtual pageviews to record clicks 2. Base your goal on the virtual URLs you have used for the clicks 130

131 What about goals without distinct URLs? Sometimes a form posts back to the same URL there s no distinct thank-you page URL Or a whole series of steps in a funnel uses the same URL In general, these things can be fixed, but you need some coding help: Either give them distinct URLs If that s not possible (with your CMS or application), you can give them distinct URLs in Analytics 131

132 Distinct URLs You can fix this manually (if you can t change the way the form works). Change your tracking snippet: pagetracker._trackpageview(url); Supply the url value with the URL that should appear as the referrer, instead of just allowing Analytics to use the document.location URL (the default when you don t supply an argument) You can do something like this: document.location +?step=1 document.location + thankyou 132

133 Troubleshooting Goals Remember goals are processed after filters, so if you ve changed URLs through filters, you need to use the changed URLs in the goal Look in the Top Content Report Filter the report by your Regular Expression to see if it matches For head match or exact match, remember that the containing/excluding filter uses Regular Expressions escape any special characters! 133

134 Troubleshooting Funnels Funnel step order and backfill Head match or Regular Expressions that match more than one step Example Step 1: /contact/ Step 2: /contact/thank-you Be careful! Step 1 also matches Step 2! Use Regular Expressions Step 1: /contact/$ Step 2: /contact/thank-you 134

135 Copying Goals The problem: You ve got multiple profiles with different segments in each one. You want the same goals in all the profiles so you can compare them. You have to set up each goal from scratch. The solution: Goal Copy toolbar

136 Questions so far? Goals

137 Setting up Ecommerce

138 First: Set up a goal for the shopping cart! Funnel for shopping cart steps Don t provide a $ value (we ll get to that next) 138

139 Ecommerce Tracking Tracks transactions: Products, quantities, dollar amounts, shipping, etc. NOT a replacement for your ecommerce platform, but a way to track it Not a full-fledged order tracker Not an accounting system Tracks the success of your website in contributing to sales and revenue 139

140 How Ecommerce Tracking Works 2 parts: Extra tracking code placed on receipt page that records items, dollar amounts, etc. (or, integrates with Google Checkout) Turning on Ecommerce Tracking in the Profile Settings 140

141 Ecommerce Tracking Code Goes on the receipt or thank-you page Records summary of the transaction and a detail of each item 141

142 Ecommerce Tracking Code <script type="text/javascript"> var pagetracker = _gat._gettracker("ua XXXXX 1"); pagetracker._trackpageview(); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> pagetracker._addtrans( "1234", // Order ID "Mountain View", // Affiliation "11.99", // Total "1.29", // Tax "5", // Shipping "San Jose", // City "California", // State "USA" // Country ); pagetracker._additem( "1234", // Order ID "DD44", // SKU "T Shirt", // Product Name "Green Medium", // Category "11.99", // Price "1" // Quantity ); pagetracker._tracktrans(); </script> 142

143 Ecommerce Tracking Code <script type="text/javascript"> var pagetracker = _gat._gettracker("ua XXXXX 1"); pagetracker._trackpageview(); </script> Regular Google Analytics Tracking Code Ecommerce code should come after this 143

144 Ecommerce Tracking Code: Transaction pagetracker._addtrans( "1234", // Order ID Required "Mountain View", // Affiliation Not Displayed "11.99", // Total Required "1.29", // Tax "5", // Shipping "San Jose", // City Not Displayed "California", // State Not Displayed "USA" // Country Not Displayed ); TIP Don t use commas in large prices , not 1,

145 Ecommerce Tracking Code: Items pagetracker._additem( "1234", // Order ID Required "ABC4", // SKU Required "T Shirt", // Product Name "Green Medium", // Category "8.00", // Price Required "1" // Quantity Required ); pagetracker._additem( "1234", // Order ID Required "XYZ7", // SKU Required "Shoes", // Product Name "Running 12", // Category "45.00", // Price Required "1" // Quantity Required ); Repeat for each item in the transaction 145

146 Ecommerce Tracking Code: Send pagetracker._tracktrans(); Sends the information about the transaction 146

147 Dynamically Place Values pagetracker._addtrans( "<?php echo $array["order_id"]?>", // Order ID "<?php echo $array["total"]?>", // Total "<?php echo $array["tax"]?>", // Tax "<?php echo $array["shipping"]?>", // Shipping ); pagetracker._additem( "<?php echo $array["order_id"]?>", // Order ID "<?php echo $array["sku"]?>", // SKU "<?php echo $array["product_name"]?>", // Product Name "<?php echo $array["category"]?>", // Category "<?php echo $array["price"]?>", // Price "<?php echo $array["quantity"]?>", // Quantity ); 147

148 Google Checkout Integration egration.html 148

149 Troubleshooting Ecommerce Walk through your checkout: nothing is as good as placing an actual transaction to troubleshoot Your shopping cart may have a fake credit card number to place test orders or a way to place a $0.00 transaction Otherwise, see if you can make an order and then reverse it Check GIF hits: additional requests go out when _tracktrans() executes for the transaction and each item 149

150 Filter Fields: Ecommerce Ecommerce Transaction ID Ecommerce Transaction Country, Region, City, Store or Order Location Ecommerce > Transactions (not displayed in reports) Ecommerce Item Name Ecommerce > Product Performance = Product Name > Product Overview Ecommerce Item Code Ecommerce > Product Performance = Product SKU > Product SKUs Ecommerce Item Variation Ecommerce > Product Performance = Product Category > Categories 151

151 Questions so far? Ecommerce

152 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Set up goals and funnels to measure conversions Understand common issues with URL goals and how to solve them Implement ecommerce tracking code 153

153 Questions? Conversion

154 Measuring Traffic

155 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Understand how Analytics records campaign information for a visit when it arrives Link an AdWords account with Analytics and populate AdWords reports Use manual campaign tagging with Analytics Understand options for changing how manual tagging functions Add additional search engines to Analytics Troubleshoot problems with tracking traffic sources 156

156 Google Analytics Sources A visitor s source is determined when they land on the site from the referrer value and stored in the utmz cookie Google Analytics recognizes the following kind of traffic, in this order: AdWords traffic (if properly configured) Campaign traffic (if you specify campaign URLs) Organic search traffic from a variety of search engines (you can add additional search engines) Referral traffic (from websites that do not fall into the above categories) Direct traffic (the referrer value is blank) 157

157 Checking the utmz value Check the cookie value that is set (using your browser settings, Firefox s web developer toolbar, Developer Tools in Chrome, etc.) utmcsr=google utmccn=(organic) utmcmd=organic utmctr=deadly%20titles%20of%20google% 20Analytics 158

158 Refer(r)er The HTTP Referer is a field that is passed to a page by a web browser when someone arrives from another page 159

159 Campaign Variables: Medium & Source Medium: How they came Direct Referral Organic Search Paid Search Source: Who we work with to make that happen Direct Source (none) Referral Source site names Search Engine Yahoo!, Google, etc. Additional variables Campaign Keyword Content 160

160 Direct traffic source TIP Direct (a blank referrer) never overwrites existing campaign information. In any other case, when a visitor enters the site from a new source, the utmz cookie is updated. 161

161 Questions so far? Measuring Traffic

162 Medium Source Campaign Medium: How they came Direct Referral Organic Search Paid Search Add your own? Banner RSS? Source: Who we work with to make that happen Direct Source (none) Referral Source site names Search Engine Yahoo!, Google, etc. Campaign: Marketing activity Spring 2008 cuts across everything 163

163 So How Do You Do It: Campaign Links YOU control the link. You tack some labels onto the end of the link. When a visitor clicks the link and arrives at your site, Google Analytics records those labels. There s nothing to set up or configure in Google Analytics, you just make the link. Marketing folks can create their own URLs without IT having to set anything up. 164

164 Campaign Links: How They Work We can use some query parameters that Google Analytics recognizes: &utm_source=newsletter &utm_campaign=spring-2010 These represent the medium, source, and campaign. TIP These query parameters can generally peacefully coexist with other query parameters used by your site, CMS, etc. Just make sure that they are not stripped off or redirected. 165

165 URL Builder makes it easy 166

166 Campaign Variables utm_source utm_medium utm_campaign utm_term utm_content TIP Ensure that these parameters are not stripped out of URLs during a redirect. They should appear as query parameters on the final page after all redirects have occurred. 167

167 Using alternative query parameters If your site already uses existing tracking parameters that correspond to medium, source, campaign, etc. you can tell Analytics to use those instead: pagetracker._setcampaignsourcekey(queryparameter) ; queryparameter is the query parameter you want to use instead of utm_source This should come before the _trackpageview() call (because that is when the cookies are set) There are additional methods for medium, campaign, etc. TIP If you are leveraging existing parameters, you must include a source. You can do without any of the other parameters (medium, campaign, etc.) if you need to, but the more information you can supply, the better your data. 168

168 Using alternative query parameters So suppose you are currently using the following tracking URL: You could reuse your existing tracking-code parameter as source or campaign or whatever makes sense &utm_medium=banner &utm_campaign=spring-2010 We let tracking-id substitute for utm_source by using the following code in our GATC: pagetracker._setcampaignsourcekey( tracking id ); 169

169 Using the anchor instead of query parameters If you need to avoid conflicts with existing query parameters or are trying to avoid duplicate content issues with multiple URLs for a page, you can use the anchor for campaign variables intead: pagetracker._setallowanchor(true); allows use of anchor for campaign your URLs should look like 170

170 Offline Advertising Redirect a vanity URL to the campaign-tagged link (Use a 301 redirect) example.com/promo &utm_source=magazine &utm_campaign=spring

171 Internal Campaigns Often you have internal banners or other promotions within your site. Don t use campaign tags for links within your site, only external links that lead to your site. You don t want to overwrite someone s original source information on an internal link. You can use something like the following instead: /target/page.html?from=top-banner You can then see this separately in the Top Content report. 172

172 Questions so far? Measuring Traffic

173 Make AdWords & Analytics Talk AdWords can track extra information automatically, and also import data into Analytics TIP Link your accounts by starting from the AdWords interface. Make sure the AdWords account administrator login is also an administrator on the Google Analytics account you wish to link.

174 Autotagging Medium = cpc Source = google Campaign, Keyword, Content = campaign, keyword, and ad headline from AdWords AdWords > My Account > Account Preferences This works by appending a tracking parameter to the URL of the destination page:

175 Import Cost Data Analytics > Analytics Settings > Profile Settings

176 Troubleshooting AdWords traffic is showing up as organic? Autotagging is not turned on in your AdWords account Tracking parameter is being stripped off by a redirect on your site AdWords traffic showing up as cpc, but no detailed campaign information is available? Autotagging is turned on but cost data is not applied

177 Troubleshooting You see 0s for the Clicks tab in AdWords reports Cost data is not applied to the profile

178 Questions so far? Measuring Traffic

179 Organic Traffic Google recognizes a list of search engines by default: l#searchengine 180

180 Adding Search Engines You can add search engines by specifying a regular expression for the hostname and the query parameter used for keywords: pagetracker._addorganic(searchsite, keywordparameter); searchsite is the site keywordparameter is the query parameter the site uses to contain the keyword a user searched for This should come before the _trackpageview() call (because that is when the cookies are set) TIP Check out the list of supported search engines. If there are industry- or region-specific search engines that are important to you that are not included, you can add them through this method. 181

181 Questions so far? Measuring Traffic

182 Redirects and Referrers You can safely use redirects on landing pages IF: You use server-side redirects (301 or 302), which pass along the Referer header The redirects leave query parameters in place (utm_source & friends for campaign tracking, gclid for AdWords) Test this: Follow a link to the site and inspect the Referer header to make sure it shows the URL you came from Follow a campaign tagged link and ensure that the query parameters show in the URL when you arrive on the landing page 183

183 Client-side redirects Redirects that make Bad Things Happen (client-side redirects): meta-refresh redirects JavaScript redirects BEST: Change this to a server-side redirect ALTERNATIVE: Include GA tracking code on the redirect page, before the redirect occurs, to capture the source Less than ideal because this affects bounce rate (all the redirected visitors aren t counted as a bounce, even though the first page they saw didn t have any content) 184

184 Specify a link s referrer should not count For links that you control, you can use the following format: The utm_nooverride=1 query parameter specifies to Google Analytics not to record source information when the page is loaded with this link TIP This is most commonly used for links in marketing to already existing customers. For example, we might put this in an or a branded paid search campaign if we didn t want that to overwrite an existing source (like a non-branded paid search campaign). 186

185 Troubleshooting: Self-Referrals For example.com, you might see example.com as a referring site. Why? Subdomains or cross-domains that aren t set up to share cookies and be treated as one big site in Analytics (we ll cover this later) Untagged pages on your site (including redirects you can t fix) 187

186 Specify a certain referrer should not count If there are certain referrers you don t want to count: pagetracker._addignoredref(referrer); referrer is the site you want to exclude This should come before the _trackpageview() call (because that is when the cookies are set) TIP If you have self-referrals (yoursite.com shows up as a referrer to itself) that you cannot fix in any other way (tag untagged pages, fix bad redirects, implement cross-domain tracking), you can use this to ignore those referrals. 188

187 Questions so far? Measuring Traffic

188 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Understand how Analytics records campaign information for a visit when it arrives Link an AdWords account with Analytics and populate AdWords reports Use manual campaign tagging with Analytics Understand options for changing how manual tagging functions Add additional search engines to Analytics Troubleshoot problems with tracking traffic sources 190

189 Questions? Measuring Traffic

190 192 xkcd

191 Measuring Content

192 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Set up Site Search reporting Explain the differences and tradeoffs between virtual pageviews and event tracking Implement tracking with virtual pageviews or event tracking 194

193 Measuring Content Setting up Site Search Event Tracking and Flash 195

194 Site Search Engine 200

195 Search Results URLs lter=[gscategory:+wearables]&q=jackets Query parameters: After the? in URLs, separated by &s Category (optional) filter=[gscategory:+wearables] query parameter filter Term q=jackets query parameter q 201

196 Site Search Setup Profile Overview 202

197 Site Search Setup Profile Settings 203

198 Site Search Setup Edit Profile Settings 204

199 What if there s no query parameter? You can fake one by changing the GA tracking code on the search results page: pagetracker._trackpageview(url); Supply an argument to the trackpageview() function You might use something like this: document.location +?q= + searchterm 205

200 Questions so far? Site Search

201 Tracking Non-Pageviews Anywhere the URL doesn t change or tracking code isn t on the destination page: Downloads Links to external sites Video and audio players Interactive AJAX and Flash elements Fix problems like forms that post back to the same page 207

202 Tracking Non-Pageviews Anywhere someone clicks, you can track with additional Google Analytics tracking code. JavaScript has events such as click, submit, mouseover, We can apply Google Analytics anywhere we can trigger a JavaScript function. There are two approaches: Virtual pageviews Event tracking 208

203 Virtual Pageviews Show in reports just like real pageviews Because they re like real pageviews, you can use them for goals Be aware that they will inflate your pageview numbers TIP Downloads such as PDFs are good candidates for virtual pageviews, since they re essentially another pageview to the site, just in a different format. TIP If the action is something you need to use as a goal, use the virtual pageview approach. 209

204 Virtual Pageviews: Code The virtual pageview code: pagetracker._trackpageview(url); Call this on an onclick, onsubmit, or other event (in addition to regular tracking code on the page): <a href= /files/download.pdf onclick= pagetracker._trackpageview(this.href); > Download the PDF now! </a> We ll talk about some more complex scenarios in a few minutes 210

205 Event Tracking Similar to virtual pageviews, but don t count as pageviews Have a special set of reports and allow more categorization Can t use as goals (but available in Advanced Segments, etc.) 211

206 Event Dimensions Category: High-level grouping of a type of event Examples: Videos, Downloads, Games, Outbound Links Required Action: Within a category, what did the visitor do? Required Label: Additionally differentiate the event Optional Value: A numerical value assigned to the event No specific meaning associate with the value, could be dollars or seconds or points or anything Optional 212

207 Example: Video Category: Video Actions: Play, Pause, Stop, Watched To End Label: Title of video Value: Timestamp TIP Think in advance about what you really want to capture. Do you want to know every time someone pauses a video? What s really important? (In this case, maybe play and watched to end.) 213

208 Example: Game Category: Game Action: Play, Save, Finish Label: Level Value: High Score 214

209 Event Tracking: Code The event tracking code: pagetracker._trackevent(category, action, label, value); Call this on an onclick, onsubmit, or other event (in addition to regular tracking code on the page) 215

210 Questions so far? Event Tracking

211 Race condition between href and onclick For outbound link tracking When you click a link, 2 things happen: The browser follows the link The browser executes the onclick event As a result, if a new page loads before the _trackpageview executes, you may not get tracking 217

212 Race condition between href and onclick Best practice: Use a function that tracks the pageview, then follows the link after a short delay. <a href= onclick= mylinktracker(this);return(false); > Download the PDF now! </a> mylinktracker() is a function we will define momentarily return(false) tells the browser not to follow the href of the link 218

213 Race condition between href and onclick In the head of our page (or in an included script file), we ll include our mylinktracker() function: <script> function mylinktracker(link) { pagetracker._trackpageview("/outbound" + link.href); settimeout('document.location = "' + link.href + '"', 100); } </script> 219

214 Automate Tracking You don t have to manually tag every link or other item you want to track with an onclick attribute. Use a library (or code of your own devising) to inspect the DOM for all elements that meet your criteria and attach an event handler to them. A few jquery examples PDFs: $('a[href$=pdf]') Mailto links: $('a[href^=mailto] ) Outbound links: $('a[href!=example.com] ) 220

215 YouTube Videos YouTube has a JavaScript API for the embedded video player Broadcasts state change information: unstarted, video cued, playing, paused, buffering, ended Create a script to monitor for this state change, and fire a Google Analytics event 221

216 Questions so far? Event Tracking

217 Flash: ActionScript OnRelease (button) { geturl('javascript:pagetracker._trackevent( "games","save game","racing challenge", "340");') } Really simple example 223

218 All-Flash Sites Entire site built in Flash: just one HTML page, and different content loads within a Flash file Events or Pageviews? It s a judgment call What do you want to count as a pageview for the pageview metrics? What do you want to be able to use as a goal? What do you want to be able to use the categorization and value features of Event Tracking for? 225

219 Questions so far? Event Tracking

220 Bounce Rate Both virtual pageviews and events count as interactions toward bounce rate So if a visitor lands on a page and clicks something with a virtual pageview or an event, they are no longer a bounce TIP In general, it s a bad idea to automatically fire an event or a virtual pageview in addition to the pageview that is tracked when the page loads. If you do, you ll have a 0% bounce rate. 227

221 Limitations There is a limit of approximately 500 events and pageviews per visit As you approach 500, events may be ignored so that pageviews continue to be recorded TIP In general, it s a bad idea to automatically fire events on a short-delay timer (like every second during a video) because you may quickly exceed this limit. 228

222 Troubleshooting Content Inspect the GIF hit Are there filters that affect pageviews or events? Does the pageview appear in Top Content? Does the event appear in Event Tracking reports? 229

223 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Link an AdSense account to Analytics Set up Site Search reporting Explain the differences and tradeoffs between virtual pageviews and event tracking Implement tracking with virtual pageviews or event tracking 230

224 Questions? Content

225 Measuring Visitors

226 Learning Objectives After completing this section, you should be able to: Change the expiration date of Analytics cookies Understand the uses of custom variables Implement custom variable code Understand the difference between custom variables and the user defined field 233

227 Adjusting Cookie Length utma: Visitor identification (2 years) utmb & utmc: Maintain session (30 minutes/close) utmz: Information about the source (6 months) pagetracker._setvisitorcookietimeout(time) pagetracker._setsessioncookietimeout(time) pagetracker._setcampaigncookietimeout(time) time is a time in milliseconds This should be set before the _trackpageview() call, since that is when the cookies are set. 234

228 Those Dimensions/Metrics Aren t Enough? Custom Variables is a feature that lets you collect more information about your visitors Set on three different levels: Visitor (stored in the cookies, returns with the visitor) Visit (applies to the current session only) Pageview (applies to the pageview only) TIP Recording custom variables requires extra tracking code. For more information, see the Resource Guide or the Google Analytics 301 Seminar. 235

229 Custom Variable Examples Visitor-level variables (intrinsic to the visitor or semi-permanent) Demographic information: age, gender, income, family, occupation, etc. Customer information: member or subscriber or gold club Original source information: how did they originally find out about us Session-level variables (behavior during a particular visit) Added an item to the shopping cart Viewed a particular section of the site Pageview-level variables (behavior on a particular page) Saw a particular promotion or banner 236

230 Custom Variables: Code Custom Variables are key/value pairs pagetracker._setcustomvar(index, key, value, scope) index we ll get to momentarily key and value are the label and value for the custom variable scope is the scope: 1 is visitor, 2 is session, and 3 is pageview. The default is 1 if you don t supply a value. 237