Introduction to Analytics Dave Rohrer Covario Sr. SEO Strategist London 18 21 February
Audience Participation! 5Quick Questions 1. Publishing, Ecommerce, Lead Generation? 2. In-house or Agency? 3. Owner, VP, Manager, Analyst? 4. How many hats do you wear? 5. Weekly Hours?
If Nothing Else.. 1. Spend at least 30 minutes a week in the data. 2. Ask questions. Find the answers. 3. Data is great. Information is better. 4. Reporting is great. Analysis is better.
Web Analytics The What and Why London 18 21 February
What is Web Analytics? Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. - Wikipedia via DAA (Digital Analytics Association)
Web Analytics Definitions Count The most basic unit of measure; a single number, not a ratio. Often a whole number (Visits = 12,398). Ratio A derived metric, obtained by dividing one number by another. The result is usually not a whole number. Because it s a ratio, per is typically in the name, such as Page Views per Visit. Dimension - Dimensions describe the what of a metric. Ex. What browser, What keyword, What country, What was the landing page. Metric A metric is the how many or how long. Segment A subset of the site traffic for a defined period of time, filtered in some way to gain greater analytical insight: e.g., by campaign (e-mail, banner, PPC, affiliate), by visitor type (new vs. returning, repeat buyers, high value), by referrer. Individual Activity of a single Web visitor for a defined period of time.
Building Block Definitions Visits (Sessions): Is a Count and is defined by an interaction by a individual consisting of one or more requests for a page. Typical timeout is 30 minutes. Unique Visits: Is a Count and is the number of unique individuals that make one or more requests during a time period. Note that most tools track this differently. Some use 1 st and some use 3 rd party cookies. Page: Is a Dimension that is a definable unit of content. Example: www.domain.com/index.php Page Views: Is a Count and is calculated by the number of views a page gets. Event: Can be a Dimension or Count and is any logged or recorded action during a specific time. Often these are related to goals or conversion tracking.
Visit Characterizations Entry Page: first page of a visit Landing Page: a page view identified with the beginning of the user experience. Exit Page: the last page accessed by a visit/session. Visit Duration: the length of time in a session. This is also often known as Time Spent. Referrer: is another way to describe the source of traffic to a page. Types: Internal, External, Search, Direct
Simple Engagement Ratios Average (Metric) Per (Metric): Example: Page Views per Visit = Page Views/ Visits Page Exit: number of exits from a page divided by the number of page views. Bounce Rate: single page visits divided by entries. Conversion Rate: number of conversions divided by page views. Example: A contact form converted 5% of the time. (100 page views with 5 events)
Good questions outrank easy answers. - Nobel Prize winner Paul A. Samuelson
Why Should You Care About Web Analytics? 1. Do you know how your clients find you? 2. Do you know what clients look at on your site? 3. Do you know what prospects look at your site? 4. Do you know what one time visitors look at your site? 5. Do you know what sites are sending you junk traffic? 6. How do you know it s good or bad traffic? 7. Do you want to convert more visitors? 8. Do you want to better understand why people convert or why they don t? 9. Do you know what content on your site people are reading? 10.Do you know what they do after they read it?
Marketing Channels Paid Channels Social Paid Marketing LinkedIn Facebook Twitter StumbleUpon Google Adwords Bing Ads Other Search Engine Paid Ads Yelp or Local Ads Buy Email Lists Other Organic Channels Email Marketing SEO Meet ups and Networking Facebook YouTube LinkedIn Twitter Forums and Communities Blogging Pinterest Reddit Other
I know that half of my advertising budget is completely wasted, I m just not sure which half. - Lord Leverhulme, founder of Unilever
10 Reasons to Use Web Analytics 1. Do you know how your clients find you? 2. Do you know what clients look at on your site? 3. Do you know what prospects look at your site? 4. Do you know what one time visitors look at your site? 5. Do you know what sites are sending you junk traffic? 6. How do you know it s good or bad traffic? 7. Do you want to convert more visitors? 8. Do you want to better understand why people convert or why they don t? 9. Do you know what content on your site people are reading? 10.Do you know what they do after they read it?
10 More Reasons to Use Web Analytics 11. Know what pages people leave from 12. Know where sales/leads come from 13.Know what type of content to produce more of 14.Know what social/paid/other campaigns are driving traffic 15. Know what campaigns are driving leads/sales 16. Know the value of traffic from different sources 17. What pages are people NOT visiting 18.Do people return to the site? 19. Did anyone convert from that email campaign? 20.And.
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Measuring All The Things London 18 21 February
Business Models Advertising Business Models Display Ads ex. Yahoo! Search Ads ex. Google Text Ads ex. Google Video Ads ex. Hulu Audio Ads ex. Pandora Promoted Content ex. Twitter, Tumblr Classifieds ex. Craiglist Email Ads as done by Yahoo, MSN Data Business Models User data ex. BlueKai Business data ex. Duedil User intelligence ex. Yougov Search Data ex. Chango Real-time Consumer Intent Data ex. Yieldbot Benchmarking services ex. Comscore Market research ex. GLG Commerce Business Models Retailing ex. Zappos Marketplace ex. Etsy Crowdsourced Marketplace ex. Threadless Excess Capacity Markets Uber, AirBnB Vertically Integrated Commerce ex. Warby Parker Aggregator ex. Lastminute.com Commission per order ex. Seamless, GrubHub Auction ex. ebay Subscription Business Models Software as a Service (SAAS) ex. Salesforce Service as a Service ex. Shopify Infrastructure/Platform As A Service ex. AWS Freemium SAAS ex. Dropbox Donations ex. Wikipedia Membership Services ex Amazon Prime Support and Maintenance ex 10gen, Red Hat Paywall ex. NYTimes
Measuring There are a few questions you need to answer first: Objective? What do you want to do? Where are you going? Goals? What are you doing to get there? KPIs? How will you know you are there? Metrics? How will you get there?
Objective What is the objective of your business? - The objectives must be DUMB: Doable. Understandable. Manageable. Beneficial. - Avinash Kaushik Sell Blue Widgets Become #1 Known Brand Objective Goals KPI Metrics
Goals What are you doing to get there? - What will goals can you set to reach the company s objectives? Sell Blue Widgets Become #1 Known Brand Objective Goals Increase Sales Increase Leads Improve Brand Awareness KPI Metrics
Ten Characteristics of Effective KPIs 1. Aligned: KPIs are always aligned with business goals and objectives London 18 21 February 2013 #SESLON 2. Owned: Every KPI is owned by an individual or group within the business and that individual and group need to be accountable for its outcome. 3. Predictive: KPIs measure drivers of business value meaning they are leading indicators of performance desired by the business. 4. Actionable: KPIs are populated with timely, actionable data so users can intervene to improve performance before its too late. 5. Limited: KPIs should be focused around a few very high value tasks, not scatter attention and energy on too many things. 6. Easy To Understand: KPIs should be straightforward and easy for everyone to understand. 7. Balanced & Linked: KPIs should be balanced and reinforce each other, not undermine each other. 8. Trigger Changes: Measuring the KPI should trigger a chain reaction of positive changes within the business. 9. Reinforced With Incentives: Businesses can magnify the impact of KPIs by attaching compensation or incentives to them. 10. Relevant: KPIs lose their impact over time, so you must periodically review and refresh them.
SEO KPIs Keyword Ranks Traffic Volume Total organic traffic Per search engine Query length Brand vs. non brand Number of Landing Pages Page Types (blog category, case study, white paper, faq, product/services main page, etc.) Bounce rates Google Webmaster CTR & Impressions Links Acquired Social Shares Page Speed Conversion rate per keyword
KPI What determines success? What are your KPIs? Sell Blue Widgets Become #1 Known Brand Objective Goals Increase Sales Increase Leads Improve Brand Awareness Average Order Size Conversion Rate Brand Traffic KPI Metrics
Metrics What can you measure to determine success? What are your metrics? Sell Blue Widgets Become #1 Known Brand Objective Goals Increase Sales Increase Leads Improve Brand Awareness Average Order Size Conversion Rate Brand Traffic KPI Metrics Order Value Number of Orders Number of White Paper Downloads Visits by Keyword
Example 1. Objective: 1. Sell Blue Widgets. 2. Goal: 1. Increase sales of Blue Widgets 3. KPI: 1. Conversion Rate of 5% on all free traffic 2. 200 Widgets sold a month 3. ROI of 75% on all paid campaigns 4. Metrics: 1. Visits to the site from each campaign 2. Blue Paper Downloads 3. Visitors that signup to our newsletter 4. CPC for paid campaigns 5. Conversions
Simple Example
Tools London 18 21 February
Web Site Data Collection Log File Tag Based General JavaScript Pros - Doesn t Require JS - Tracks Search Engines - Tracks 404s Pros - Very Detailed Data Collection - Allows tracking of on page actions Pros - Easy to setup - Out of the gate can capture data and goals. Cons - Difficult to Process/Manage at times - Misses out on tracking on page events Cons - Is a huge effort to setup - Business goals must be determined prior to use Cons - Requires JavaScript and /or Cookies - Can incorrectly countmetrics
Social Site Data Collection SocialCrawlytics Socialsiteexplorer.com SocialFlow Facebook Insights Google Alerts Google Webmaster Tools Followerwonk Twitter Analytics Bitly (or other URL Shortener) IFTTT Statigram Web Analytics Muckrack Unmetric Klout Log Files Excel Google Docs Google+
Data Crunching & Display Data Crunching Excel Tablaeu MS Access Google Fusion Tables Web Analytics Solution Data Display Excel Google Spreadsheet PDF PPT HTML/JS
Setup Tips 1. Have a raw unfiltered testing profile 2. After initial setup and every so often (monthly) double check your install 1. Sites like http://webanalyticssolutionprofiler.com and http://www.analytics debugger.com can help. 3. Block internal and vendor IP addresses 4. Annotate charts/reports 5. Track ALL campaigns (internal and external) 6. Leverage advanced segments 7. Use goals and goal paths 8. Compare goals and ecommerce numbers with actual leads and sales numbers 9. Never give full access unless you need to do so. Remove access once you can. 10.Always be consistent
Setup Tips Profiles Raw Profile This profile has no filters. All the activities get recorded. Your raw profile can be your backup or reference point if something goes wrong with filtered profiles. ALWAYS have a raw profile. Master Profile Use this profile for your reports. Apply it to your production website. Filter out your internal traffic from this profile to focus on your audience. Test Profile You will be making changes to your Google Analytics setup in the process of analyzing your website. Create a test profile where you can test your filters and your goals without permanently damaging your master profile. When testing new settings, apply them to this profile first. Then, let it run for a little while to collect data. If all works as expected, incorporate the changes into your master profile. Development Profile Depending on your website setup, you can use this profile to apply to your staging servers. Apply this profile just to your testing or web development server.
Warning About Tools Log Files =/ JavaScript Tools No two tools will report the same number URL Parameters Incorrect Tagging Missed Tagging Data Sampling Change in Goals Metrics Have Multiple Personalities Filters and Segmentation Internal Traffic Dev Team, Internal QA, Daily Users Improper Initial Setup Sites like http://webanalyticssolutionprofiler.com and http://www.analytics-debugger.com can help. Might not be around next year Multiple Profiles
Tools Beyond Standard Web Analytics
Reporting vs. Analysis London 18 21 February
Reporting 101 Keep it simple Use your time wisely Set a schedule Make sure to check on your key metrics and KPIs Explore some and learn some
Don t Just Post Data, Post Information Bad Dashboard Good Dashboard
Examples London 18 21 February
Local Pizza Place What Metrics Matter? What might be some important KPIs? What are some possible conversions that can happen on their site? What might be the overall objective of the site? What might be some web traffic sources they will track? What questions should they ask when segmenting traffic?
Car Dealership 2013 Ford Fiesta What Metrics Matter? What might be some important KPIs? What are some possible conversions that can happen on their site? What might be the overall objective of the site? What might be some web traffic sources they will track? What questions should they ask when segmenting traffic?
Small Publisher What Metrics Matter? What might be some important KPIs? What are some possible conversions that can happen on their site? What might be the overall objective of the site? What might be some web traffic sources they will track? What questions should they ask when segmenting traffic?