Introduction to Google Analytics - some basic terms

I give all credits to Rebecaa Gill (Copyright © 2017 Web Savvy Marketing | @RebeccaGill)

How does Google analytics get the data ?

·         Every time a page loads, the tracking code will collect and send updated information about the user’s activity

·         Google Analytics groups this activity into a period of time called a “sesson”

·         A session begins when a user navigates to a page that includes the Google Analytics tracking code

·         A session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity

·         If the user returns to a page after a session ends, a new session will begin

Accounts - An account is your access point for Analytics, and the top- most level of organization

Properties - A property is a website, mobile application, or device

Views - A view is your access point for reports or a defined view of data from a property

Advantages of Google analytics

·         It’s free

·         It’s easy to install

·         It integrates with other Google products

·         Tracks acquisition, behavior, and conversions

·         It allows customized data collection

·         It allows custom report creation It tracks ecommerce and goals

·         It’s being developed constantly, so new stuff magically arrives

·         Google provides free training

Disadvantages

·         It tracks URL movement only It can be overwhelming

·         It’s constantly changing

·         There are limitations with data usage like:

–                     Accounts

–                     Dashboards

–                     Goals

·         Custom reports options are limited

#1: Filters

Filters are used by Views to segment the data into smaller groups

Filters can be used to:

–             Include only specific subsets data

–             Exclude unwanted data like that crazy spam that magically arrives

–             Search and replace information Common filter usage:

–             Exclude internal traffic

–             Include specific hostname

–             Exclude dev site traffic

#2: Real-time Data

Best ways to use it:

–             Track the popularity of new content

–             Track the success of a social media share

–             Track the success of your email campaign

–             See whether a promotion is driving traffic

–             Watch visitor movement as it happens

Available data includes:

–             Active users

–             Pages being viewed

–             Location of visitors

–             Visitor source

–             Conversions and events

#3: Goals

Goals are configured at the view level Goals can be applied to:

–             Destination: Specific pages your users visit

–             Duration: How many pages they view in a session

–             Pages/Session: How long they stay on your site

–             Events: The events they trigger while they are there

Every goal can have a monetary value, so you can see how much that conversion is worth to your business

When a visitor completes a goal, Analytics records that as a “conversion”

Goals use funnels so you can also track failure to complete goals

Real-world usage:

–             Contact form submissions (lead)

–             Newsletter or podcast subscriptions

–             A download of a ebook, white papers, etc.

–             An account creation

–             Blog comment

–             Review left

–             A purchase

–             An extended amount o time spent on the website

Goals are limited to 20 per reporting view

To track more than 20 goals, you have to create an additional view for that property

Goals only apply to the data you collect after the goal has been created

Goals can't be deleted, but you can stop recording data for a goal

You have to have a URL movement for goals to work - i.e. a contact page needs a thank you page

#4: Annotations

Annotations are simply a way to date stamp something (really anything) that may have altered traffic and data

Think of annotations like virtual post-it notes

They are recorded at the view level

Once added they are available throughout the reports for this view

They can be private or shared

Real-world examples and applications include:

–             Relaunch or redesign

–             Hosting outage

–             Malware or hacking attack

–             Hire or fire an SEO consultant/employee

–             Specific marketing campaign

–             Industry or competitor activity

–             Search engine penalty

#5: Dimensions

Every Google Analytics report contains two types of data: dimensions and metrics

A dimension is the attribute of visitors to your website like:

–             Source – organic, referral, email, direct, etc.

–             Device – desktop, tablet, mobile

–             Geography – country, state, city, etc.

A metric is a number which is used to measure one of the characteristics of a dimension

A dimension can have one or more characteristics –

i.e. pages per session and bounce rate

Custom dimension can be set up and used as an advanced segment in reports

My favorite use of dimensions is to view conversions by source

When doing so you don’t just see what leads or sales you have

You now see what sources are driving those leads or sales

In this report the number of conversions is the metric and source is the dimension

#6: Events

Events are user interactions that can be tracked without the need of a page load

Examples of event usage include:

–             Video play, stop, pause

–             Downloads

–             Ad clicks

Events have three core components:

–             Category: Videos

–             Action: Play

–             Label: Schema Webinar Replay You connect events to your website with Google Tag

Manager

#7: Google Tag Manager

A tag is a snippet of JavaScript code that collects data and sends information to other services

Tags can come from AdWords, Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics, Floodlight, 3rd party or custom tags

Tag Manager allows you to quickly update tags and code snippets on your website

You no longer need to maintain each of these code snippets (aka tags) in your source files

You simply specify the tags that you want to “fire” and when you want them to fire

Think of a tag fire as a trigger for an action or event

Common “trigger” include:

–             Clicks

–             Views

–             Downloads

–             Scrolling

–             Submissions

–             Purchases

Tags can become overwhelming to a lot of people, so there are some templates available to assist in execution

Examples of triggers that would fire a tag:

–             Click to call

–             Clicks on external links

–             Social media activity

–             PDF download

–             Form submission

–             e-mail address click

–             Video play

–             Ad activity

–             Error tracking

#8: Search Console Integration 

While you don’t have to integrate Analytics with Search Console, you should want to do so

Search Console integration helps bring back some of the “not provided” data

Data will only be available for 90 days, since this is the limit for Search Console

Analytics reports under the Search Console section include:

–             Landing pages

–             Countries with drilldown

–             Devices

–             Queries

Reports offer keyword based data for:

–             Impressions

–             Clicks

–             Click through rates

–             Average position (across multiple URLs)

–             Sessions

–             Bounce rate

–             Pages per session

–             Transactions and revenue

–             Goal conversions, values, and rates

Data won’t match 100% between report types and here is why:

–             Disabled JavaScript in browsers

–             Missing Analytics tracking code

–             Search Console display limitations

–             Bot filtering

Reports can be confusing because:

–             One keyword can show data for many pages

–             One page can show data for many keywords

This confusion goes away if you drill further down into the default reports

#9: Custom Dashboards

Benefits:

–             Get quick access to data

–             View most important data

–             View data like you want

–             Create dashboards from scratch

–             Grab and import templates (over 19,000 available)

–             Modify templates as needed to fit your needs

Limitations:

–             20 private dashboards

–             50 shared dashboards

–             12 widgets per dashboard

Template categories:

–             Acquisition

–             Analytics Academy

–             Campaign

–             Conversion

–             Display Advertising

–             Ecommerce

–             Engagement

–             Lead Generation

–             Site Optimization

–             Branding

–             Mobile

–             Organic Search

–             Paid Search

–             Publishing

–             Referral

–             Social

–             Support

#10: Scheduled Reports

Schedule up to 400 reports from existing screens or custom dashboards

You can export reports as:

–             CSV

–             TSV

–             TSV for Excel

–             Excel (XLSX)

–             Google Sheets

–             PDF

You can select to send reports:

–             Daily

–             Weekly

–             Monthly

#11: Google Data Studio

Create unlimited Data Studio custom reports

Combine data into reports from sources like:

–             Analytics

–             Search Console

–             Adwords

–             YouTube

–             Google Sheets

–             APIs

Create 100% unique reports

Use templates for faster deployment

Benefits:

–             Lots prettier than Google Analytics or Google Search Console

–             Google is pushing product updates monthly

Limitations

–             You need to define data sources before you can use the studio

–             Not overly intuitive

–             Easy to break report layouts

 #12: Mobile Access to Reporting

Get your Analytics data on the go with mobile apps Check key metrics via standard reports

Compare date ranges Monitor real-time data Build your own reports

Save any reports to your dashboard