Demystifying Digital Introduction to Google Analytics Mal Chia Digital Account Director
@malchia @communikateetal Slides will be emailed after the session 2
Workshop Overview 1. Introduction 2. Getting started 3. Dimensions & metrics 4. Reporting 5. Google Tag Manager 3
1. Introduction 4
What is web analytics? Analytics summarises the activities that occurred on your site, starting from how your visitors found you till the moment they left your site 5
- What visitors did when they got to your website - It won t tell you why 6
How can it be used? - Which marketing initiatives are most effective - Website traffic patterns / trends - Which visitors and visitor segments are most valuable - Where users come from and what they do on the site - Which keywords are visitors using to find you - Which online ads are most effective - Where people leave the site - Which pages are the stickiest 7
GA History - Acquired Urchin in April 2005 - Google-branded free version Nov 2005 - Used by 66.2% of the 10,000 most popular websites 8
9 Demystifying Digital Introduction to Google Analytics
10
11
2. Getting started
Creating an account - http://www.google.com/analytics - Need a Google Account - Any email can be registered with Google - Don t use personal email addresses - Don t use team-based emails - Personal features Dashboards Advanced Segments Custom Reports Emailing Reports 13
How GA works Tracking code Cookie Hit 14
How GA works - JavaScript page tagging - 1 st party cookies A small text file given to a web browser by a web server. The data is stored on a user s hard drive and tracks each time the browser returns to the website. - An image request to Google Servers 15
How GA works 16
Tracking code <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m) {i['googleanalyticsobject']=r;i[r]=i[r] function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q []).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getelementsbytagname(o) [0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google- analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA- 53372661-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); Property </script> 17
Accounts, users, properties and views Account Users Property #1 User permissions Property #2 User permissions View Reports User permissions View Reports User permissions View Reports User permissions View Reports User permissions 18
Accounts, properties, views - Accounts The topmost level of an organisation Can have multiple web properties - Properties Website, mobile app, blog, etc. Has a unique tracking code - Views Where reports are accessed A defined view of data from a property based on filters 19
Examples of views - One view of all data for www.yourdomain.com - One view excluding internal traffic for www.yourdomain.com - One view for subdomain.yourdomain.com - Define views by applying filters 20
Get rid of noise with filters - Pre-defined filters Exclude/include only traffic from ISP domain Exclude/include only traffic from IP address Exclude/include only traffic to the subdirectories Exclude/include only traffic to a particular hostname 21
Get rid of noise with filters - Custom filters Exclude/include traffic that matches a filter pattern Rewrite referral traffic to include full URL Filter bot traffic Force lowercase / uppercase rewrites 22
23
Universal analytics - Measure people across devices - Measure online and offline interactions - Custom dimensions and metrics - Dimension widening - Enhance ecommerce - Simplified configuration 24
Tracking code <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m) {i['googleanalyticsobject']=r;i[r]=i[r] function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q []).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getelementsbytagname(o) [0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google- analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA- 53372661-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> Universal Analytics script 25
Benefits - Customer-centric reporting and analysis - Measure anything - Integrate with your own data 26
Measurement protocol 27
Parameters - Traffic sources - Content information - System info - User ID - Session control - Event tracking - App tracking - Ecommerce - Social interactions - Timings - Exceptions - Custom dimensions - Custom metrics - Custom experiments 28
Measuring offline interactions 29
Examples - Point of Sale - Event tickets - Coupons - Membership cards - Game consoles - Connected TVs - Movement - RFID - Just about anything 30
31
User ID - Tie multiple sessions together - Tie sessions across different devices - Use special multi-device reports 32
Privacy Google s Requirements - Full rights to upload data - Notify end users (consent or opt-out) - Abide by other policies (e.g. remarketing) - No PII (Personally Identifiable Information) Talk to your lawyers 33
Data import tool 34
Examples - ROI of advertising campaigns - Merge CRM data - Add blog author details to posts - Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - Demographics - Weather 35
Data import - Cost Data for non-google advertising - User Data about your customers - Product Data such as brand or category - Campaign Data such as source or medium - Refund Data for e-commerce transactions - Content Data such as author or category - Custom Data for dimensions and metrics 36
Cost data upload - Upload non-adwords data - Compare performance of advertising - Must use campaign tags (source and medium are required) - Upload cost, impressions and clicks 37
3. Dimensions and metrics
What s the difference? 39
Metrics - Anything that can be measured - Typically a count or a ratio - Numbers that populate rows - The label of columns 40
Example metrics - Sessions - % new users - Pageviews - Conversion rate - Bounce rate - Pages/session 41
Dimensions - An attribute of a visitor - The name of the rows 42
Example dimensions - Location - Referring URL - Language - Device - Landing page - Pages - Day 43
Metrics Dimensions 44
45
4. Reporting 46
Navigating Google Analytics Navigation - Dashboards High-level view of data - Shortcuts Fast access to most commonly viewed reports - Intelligence Events Statistically significant alerts - Real-Time What is happening right now - Audience Who makes up your audience - Acquisition How they got to your website - Behaviour What they did on your website - Conversions Completed activities important to you 47
Navigating Google Analytics 48
Navigating Google Analytics Date Range - Adjust the date range to accommodate your needs - Compare past to overlay two date ranges 49
The main sections of reports Email a report Change segment Change time graph 50
The main sections of reports 51
The main sections of reports Add a secondary dimension Drilldown 52
The main sections of reports Change data presentation 53
Audience - All the attributes of visitors to your website 54
Geographic 55
Language 56
Segmentation Add a segment 57
Segmentation 58
Segmentation 59
Segmentation 60
Demographic & interest reports - Include data on users demographics (Age, Gender) and interests (Affinity Categories, In-Market Segments, Other Categories) - Same data used to target ads on Google Display Network 61
Implementing D & I reports - One line change of code - Enable in analytics - Update privacy policy 62
63
64
Acquisition - Where does traffic to my website come from? - Direct, referring and search traffic 65
Channel Groupings 66
Channel Groupings 67
Traffic Sources 68
Referrals 69
Organic Search Search queries from logged in users were recently moved to a secure protocol 70
Behaviour - What are visitors doing on my website? - Pages and Landing Pages - Event Tracking - Site Search - Site Engagement 71
Behavior Flow 72
Behavior Flow - Visualise the path users take through your website from one Page or Event to the next - Identify what content keeps users engaged 73
Pages 74
Landing pages 75
Site search 76
Activating site search - View > View settings - Turn Site Search Settings ON - Add query parameter - Save 77
Query parameter 78
79
Segmentation 80
- Isolate and analyse subsets of data - Segment by users and sessions - Example: The URL a user arrived from Location of a user Visits that resulted in a conversion 81
Event tracking 82
Track this 83
And this 84
Track these 85
Track these 86
What can you track? - Clicks and downloads - Outbound links - Video engagement - Form errors - Article consumption / scroll reach 87
Anatomy of event tracking Value Type Required Description Category String Yes Typically the object that was interacted with (e.g. button, video) Action String Yes The type of interaction (e.g. click, download) Label String No Useful for categorising events (e.g. social media icons) Value Number No Values must be non-negative. Useful to pass counts (e.g. 4 times) 88
Implementation ga( send, event, category, action, label, value); Hit Command 89
Implementation ga( send, event, pdf, download, pricing, 1000); Value Label Action Category Hit Command 90
Implementation ga( send, event, pdf, download, pricing, 1000); No label or value ga( send, event, pdf, download ); No value ga( send, event, pdf, download, pricing ); 91
Implementation ga( send, event, pdf, download, {noninteraction : 1}); Stops from bouncing 92
Implementation <a href= /pricing.pdf onclick=ga( send, event, pdf, download, pricing, 1000);>Pricing List</a> 93
Event reporting 94
Goals 95
Goals - Goals should be business oriented The business goals of your website - Goals should map to visitor tasks Visitors visit sites to accomplish tasks - Tasks normally have a series of steps Funnel Measure conversion through the task - When goals match user tasks Harmony ensues 97
The importance of goals - Justify your work - Focus your work - Prioritise your work 98
The importance of goals - Goals map to business metrics Enable you to build a business case for Analytics investment Analysis investment Action investment - Goals focus on important paths and entrances Enable you to home-in on problem areas Reverse goal path Conversion to goals by traffic source 99
Goal funnels 100
What are your goals? - Types of goals Number of pages visited on site Length of time spent on site Destination URL Event 101
Goal tracking 102
Goal tracking 103
Goal tracking 104
Goal tracking Goal match types - Exactly /confirm/?orderid=783627201 - Begins With /confirm/?orderid= - Regular Expression Match ^/confirm/\?orderid= 105
Ecommerce tracking 106
Enabling ecommerce tracking - View > View settings - Ecommerce settings ON - Save 107
Standard ecommerce tracking - Transactions - Product - SKU - Revenue - Category - Quantity 108
Enhanced ecommerce - Clicks on a product link - Viewing product details - Impressions and clicks of internal promotions - Adding / removing a product from a cart - Initiating the checkout process - Purchases and refunds 109
Campaign tracking 110
Why track campaigns? - Accurately track online campaigns - Tag destination URLs 111
Custom reports 112
Google Tag Manager 113
Tag Management System - Centralised control of your website tags - Deploy new tags and changes quickly - Reduce reliance on IT to implement 114
Google Tag Manager - Intuitive user interface - Tag websites and mobile apps - Built-in templates - Custom templates - It s free! 115
116
Quick start 1. Sign up for GTM 2. Name your account 3. Create a container 4. Configure your container 5. Install the container 6. Add a tag to the container 7. Apply a firing rule 8. Save the new tag 9. Preview container 10. Publish 117
Tags - Run code in the browser - Built-in templates - Custom HTML and image tags - Event listener tags 118
Built-in tag templates Google and DoubleClick - Adwords, DoubleClick, Google Analytics, GDN Remarketing Certified vendors - AdRoll, Marin, comscore, VisualDNA 119
Custom HTML tags <script> // Insert your Javascript here. </script> 120
Macros data for rules & tags Provide data for tags and rules Example types: - Constant or random values, or look-up table - Page URL or referrer - Page elements - Cookies - JavaScript functions - Events - Data Layer elements 121
Rules control tag firing - Control tag firing and blocking - One or more conditions which must all be true for the tag to fire - Example Rule A is met if: {{url}} contains /payment-details AND {{event}} equals checkout 122
Event listener User interaction and navigation type events: - Click - Link click and form submit - History change Other types of events: - Timer trigger a period event n times - JavaScript Error 123
Best practices - Put GTM on every page - Keep tags, macros and rules organised - Use macros to avoid repetition - Preview changes across browsers - Name versions and keep notes - Limit publish level access 124
Questions? mal@communikate.net.au 125