Analytics with Google Analytics
Fundamentals Web analytics involves the collection, measurement, and analysis of website data What is web analytics?
Fundamentals What are some of the values of web analytics? • Decision-making • Information source • Deduce the ‘story’ behind the data • Understand your customers better • Reveal any conversion challenges • What consumers like or don’t like • How they interact on your website 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Fundamentals Web Analytics Tools Woopra Kissmetrics Webtrends Piwik Adobe Analytics The market leader and most commonly used analytics program is the free version of Google Analytics. The paid version of GA, called Google Analytics 360, offers some additional functionality in terms of report validity and sample sizes. Google Analytics and 360 Google Analytics and 360
Benefits and Limitations Benefits of analytics • Ability to get closer to the customer • Ability to understand your users • Ability to gain insights from real customer activity • Ability to forecast using trends and patterns in customer behavior • Accountability of media spend and resource allocation • Stronger focus • Prioritization of resources • Higher conversion rates and enhanced return of investment (ROI)
Benefits and Limitations Benefits of Google Analytics • It’s free • It’s easy to implement and easy to install • It has a user-friendly interface • It offers customizable reports, dashboards, and data collection • Both basic and advanced options are available • It offers seamless integration with other Google products • It offers post-click integration with non-Google traffic sources, including Facebook, Yahoo, and Bing • It provides extensive, valuable insights into web behavior
Benefits and Limitations Limitations of Google Analytics • It doesn’t provide real-time data in downloadable historical reports • The free version is limited to 10 million hits per month • It offers limited customization • It defaults to last-click attribution • It’s not always 100% accurate • It’s not as comprehensive at measuring the performance of top-of-funnel campaign activities like display and Facebook, where there is limited user visit and conversion data from these campaigns.
Basic Terminology Common conversion metrics Goals Conversion Rates Transactions Revenue The number of valuable actions taken on the site, including sales, leads, or downloads Goals
Legal Situation In relation to GDPR, it is essential that personally identifiable information (PII) is managed correctly, and within the terms of the consent provided by your website visitors Understanding consent
Google Analytics You can find Google Analytics at: • www.google.com/analytics/ • analytics.google.com
Account Set-up To access Google Analytics, you need an email attached to a Google account or your Google Ads login. To set up your Google Analytics account, add your account information. Read and understand the Google Terms of Service. Enable data sharing settings, in order to link other Google products (such as Google Ads or Search Console) to Google Analytics. For practice purposes, you can add the Google Analytics demo account to your account list via the link: analytics.google.com/analytics/web/demoAccount. 1 2 3 4 5
Account Set-up A walkthrough on how to set up a Google Analytics account
Google Analytics Code The Google Analytics code, provided as part of account setup, facilitates tracking of your website. This code should be given to your web developer to hard code directly onto every page of the website you wish to track.
Test the Code Installation Steps to test that your code is installed correctly on the page include: Right-click on your webpage and view source. CTRL+F to find the UA number from your tracking code. Locate the closing </head> tag and ensure the GA code is placed before it. 1 2 3
Google Tag Assist Google Tag Assist (a free browser extension provided by Google) can help make sure your Google tags are implemented and firing correctly by checking all tags on the web page.
Step1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Steps Involved in Sending Data Once the Google Analytics code has been implemented on every page during set-up, it sends data to the program in the following way. Request made to server and webpage is served. Java script tracking code is executed every time the page loads. A temporary or persistent cookie is dropped onto the user's browser (depending on GA set-up). Session data is sent to the Google server. Data is processed by the Analytics tool. Reports are accessed later by the site owner or analyst through the Google Analytics interface. Cookie expires after the browser session finishes.
REVEAL MORE Advanced Coding and Analytics Tracking In some instances, it may be necessary to customize the Google Analytics code as part of set-up based on the site structure.
Walkthrough: Testing the Tracking Code Test that your tracking code is installed correctly on each page.
Walkthrough: Google Tag Manager Set-up • Go to tagmanager.google.com. • Create a new account. 1 2
Key Settings
Adjust Account Settings
Session Timeout Length Sessions count every visit and action on a website, and the default timeout length is 30 minutes. So if a visitor is inactive for 30 minutes, the session will reset and count a new session when the visitor becomes active again. If you want to define a longer session length, you can change the setting.
REVEAL MORE View A "View" within Google Analytics helps to organize visitor data (origin, source, pages viewed) into a defined view about a website, through the use of filters.
Add a New View Add a new View to your website’s property by following these steps: Click on the Admin cog at the bottom of the left-hand menu and choose "Create New View" from the top right of the Admin area. Choose whether it's a website or mobile app view, enter the name of the view and the time zone where the website or business is located. Modify aspects of the view in the View settings area at the top right of the Admin area. Set goals and filters for your view by pressing the Goals or Filters button on the right side of the Admin page. 1 2 3 4
Create a New Filter Filters can be set at an Account, Property, or View level in the Admin area of Google Analytics.
Apply Multiple Filters to a View Filters work by segmenting the first filter on the view. Multiple filters work together by segmenting, including, or excluding traffic from the first filter, and then applying the next filter to the segmented traffic from the first filter. This knock-on effect continues until you reach the last filter in the list.
Walkthrough: The Key Settings After setting up a Google Analytics account, go to the Admin area and check that all key settings are correct.
Collaboration You can grant access to users to your Google Analytics account by completing the following steps: • Click on User Management in the Admin area. • Choose to add a new user by clicking the + button in the top-right corner. • Enter the new user's email address and choose their permission level. You can assign a high or low level of access to each person. • Choose from these four permission levels: 1) Read and Analyze 2) Collaborate 3) Edit Permission 4) Manage Users
Collaboration Potential security risks include: Data Breaches Incorrectly changing settings within the tool Unintended or purposeful deletion of user accounts of assets Incorrectly modifying custom reports, filters, segments, goals, and funnels
REVEAL MORE Link to Other Products and Tools Google Analytics allows you to link to other Google products and tools, so that you can supplement your reports with additional insights. The main tools available to link to are Google Ads, Google Search Console, and Search Ads 360, formerly known as DoubleClick by Google.
Benefits of Linking a Google Analytics Account to Other Marketing Tools There is increased data availability. Google Ads imports cost and impression data from the Google SERP, so you're not just seeing visit data. Search impressions and keyword rank from users who aren't logged into Google when searching give additional SEO insights. You can evaluate the value of channels in more detail to understand conversion rates, CPA, and ROI.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Link Google Ads and Google Analytics Log into Analytics and Google Ads at the same time. Click the Admin area of Analytics – the cog at the bottom oft the left-hand menu. In the Property section, click on the property you want to link, and then the Google Ads Linking button. Press the +New Property Group button and select the Google Ads accounts you want to link. Next, choose which Google Analytics Views will be linked to; include Google Ads data by pressing the slider. Choose to enable Google Display Network impression recording. Choose to use Auto-tagging to get click, cost, and other data from Google Ads directly in Analytics. It's important not to use UTM tracking on Google Ads and Auto tagging, as this will double count data. Click the Link Accounts button to complete the linking. 7 8 9
Link Google Search Console to Google Analytics Your website must be verified in Search Console to link to Google Analytics. Log into Search Console and Google Analytics Click the Admin cog at the bottom-left of the main Analytics menu Click on the Property Settings in the center of the Admin area Scroll to the bottom of the Property Settings page and click Search Console Settings Select which Google Analytics Views to share Search Console data with Click Save to complete the link 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Walkthrough: Linking accounts Linking Google Ads and Google Search Console to your Google Analytics account.
Introducing Goals Purchase Brochure request Newsletter sign-up File download Pages viewed per session Increased session duration Inquiry form completion
Goal Set-up To set up a goal, navigate to the Admin tab and find the Goal Setup area. Click on the left-hand cog to enter the Admin area. Navigate to the Goals section on the right-hand side under View. Add a Goal by clicking +New Goal. Choose to Add a Predefined goal or a Custom goal. 1 2 3 4 5
Predefined Goal Templates There are four predefined or default goal templates in Google Analytics. Revenue (reservations or tickets) Acquisition (account creation) Inquiry (reading reviews) Engagement (adding to favorites, playing media, sharing content, and contributing to content) 1 2 3 4 You can also choose a "Custom” goal and name it as you see fit.
Goal Types Choose how you’d like to measure your goals in Google Analytics.
Set up a Custom Goal To set up a custom goal (if you don't choose a template), you need to: Add a goal name. Select a goal type. Add the goal conditions. 1 2 3
Create an URL Destination Goal
Create a Session Duration Goal
Create a Pages Per Session Goal
Create an Event-tracking Goal
REVEAL MORE Import Goals Goals and transactions can be imported from Google Analytics into Google Ads by choosing the Import feature in Google Ads and selecting the goals you want to pull across. It's important not to duplicate goals that are being counted in Google Ads using conversion tracking. It can take from 30 minutes to a few hours for goals to be pushed from GA to Google Ads.
Smart Goals Smart Goals are an Analytics feature designed specifically for Google Ads campaigns. They record the most engaged visits to your site. They are mostly used for reference only. You should not track smart goals if you have other goals set up in GA, as this will overestimate your goal count significantly.