Some Key Google Analytics Terms Explained

Audience basics

By default, when you log into Google Analytics, the first report you’ll see is the audience overview report. This tells you the number of new and returning users that have visited your site and how long they have spent on it. Some of the most common terms in this report are listed below.

Session

A session is a period of time a user is active on your site. One session typically contains a series of interactions made by the user within a 30-minute time frame. Users that leave your site and return within 30 minutes remain as part of the original session.

If a user is inactive on your site for 30 minutes or more, any future activity is attributed to a new session. 30 minutes is the default session time, but this can be adjusted to meet the needs of your site. A longer session time scale could be beneficial for a site that offers long videos or sound bites.

Pages/session

The average number of pages a user viewed during a session on your site. Generally speaking, the more pages, the better, as this suggests that users are more engaged with your site as a whole.

% New sessions

An average percentage of first-time visitors on your site. This can be a good metric to track if you drastically change the layout or content of your site.

Pageviews

A pageview is counted when a page on your site is loaded by a user’s browser. If a user reloads the page, this is then counted as an additional pageview. If the user travels to a different page and then back to the original page, this is also seen as an additional pageview.

Unique pageviews

A unique pageview is generated when a user views multiple pages in a single session. Google aggregates these multiple pageviews into one unique pageview.

All credits to Maria Drummond (http://digitalcommunications.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/)

How Omni-Channel impacts the supply chain and logistics

The next generation of retail requires logistics networks tailored to the needs of each single channel. This new face of retail will require logistics providers to maintain an integrated view of all customer channels and inventory, along with dynamic delivery and fulfillment options and seamless customer service interactions. With the growing impact of mobile apps and digital touchpoint on shopping behavior, customers have more channels to find and buy products. This translates into more opportunities for marketers to connect with and engage such customers. But it also means a great deal more complexity for successful marketing execution. Customers continue to drive omni-channel experiences. They want interactions on one channel (or device) to carry over to their next interaction channel. Customers don’t necessarily look for the “same” experience on different channels, but they do expect and demand consistency and highly personalized experiences across all channels.

What is omni – channel?

Omni comes from the word Omnis which can mean all or universal. Omnichannel is about true continuity of customer experience, as the modern omni-channel shopper is always connected via mobile or the Internet. This person is well informed about their choices, finds the best deals, and expects to receive each purchase at their preferred time and place. These days we tend to overcome this concept in favor of the Omnichannel: given the increasingly customer-centric market, brands feel the need to be present in all the different touchpoint which the consumer has access, during his purchase path, offering a continuous experience between online and offline. Omnichannel is about true continuity of your experience. But the key is that it extends beyond a single brand’s universe. The ability to have a continuous experience across brands, across format and across devices that is completely bespoke – that is the promise of a new way of thinking and marketing that has been long unnoticed. For example, a customer service representative interacting with a customer in a store can immediately reference the customer's previous purchases and preferences as easily as a customer service representative on the phone or a customer service webchat representative or the customer can use a desktop computer to check inventory by store on the company's website, buy the item later with a smartphone or tablet, and pick it up at a chosen location.

Multichannel vs omnichannel.

Although both multi and omnichannel involve selling across multiple physical and digital channels, the key difference is how the customer experience is joined up across those channels. A traditional multichannel retailer may have a website and physical stores. These two channels are generally very siloed, and have very little interaction with one another. Today’s consumer will script their own journeys across the multiple channels and touchpoints, and every one of them matters. Forcing a customer to stick to a single channel or making them start at the beginning when switching channels creates friction and impacts the customer’s experience.

            Multichannel refers to the ability to interact with potential customers on various platforms. A channel might be a print ad, a retail location, a website, a promotional event, a product’s package, or word-of-mouth.

The omni-channel approach is the next logical evolutionary step after a multi-channel approach. It requires the previously separate sales channels to converge into a single seamless channel of orchestrated product flow – this flow must be designed to deliver not just products but also the highly personalized shopping experience customers have come to expect. Omni-channel is therefore driving a rethink and a makeover of everything from marketing and merchandising to ordering systems, fulfillment, and returns. It is a new and different way of managing and incentivizing business

           

What does it mean to be omni-channel for the logistics sector?

            Consumer buying behavior is changing drastically with growing adoption of the Internet, smartphones and handheld devices worldwide, especially in Asia.  The surge in internet sales and in consumers using different channels to evaluate products, order, pay, collect and return their purchases has driven companies to investigate the omni-channel approach. With the omni-channel, companies must review how they interact with their customers, rethinking their business model that must integrate all communication channels. In an omni-channel approach, the physical store becomes an essential element that must be rethought as a consequence of digital channels. In fact, the "click & collect" purchase method is increasingly frequent, an action that allows you to purchase products online, benefiting from the convenience and greater assortment, then withdrawing them to a physical point and avoiding shipping costs and possible delays in delivery.

            Omni-channel logistics enables businesses to tailor how their products are purchased and delivered to meet the needs of the modern customer. Consumers expect to find the products they want both in-store and online, to use technology to make purchases with the swipe of a finger and to have their purchase delivered to their doorstep the very next day. The expectation of instant consumer gratification has businesses scrambling to shore up their supply chain to ensure cost-effective on-time delivery, which is where omni-channel logistics comes into play.

            The best suppliers of logistics services, to meet the new needs of the stores, must be able to offer personalized, flexible and rapid services. Logistics and supply chains are the backbone of every omni-channel strategy. They are the key enablers to consistently and cost-effectively deliver personalized service and flexible fulfillment. And they enable retailers to achieve cross-channel inventory visibility and optimization and meet customer expectations, generating higher satisfaction and loyalty. 

            Logistics is a key enabler for each of these three areas: Streamlined, well-coordinated logistics processes are just as important as the online and offline consumer touch points. For many retailers, logistics partners play a major role in managing the cross-border deliveries, preferred payment options, and even real-time customer service that omni-channel sales demand. For these retailers, logistics is not just a cost center, but a business accelerator and an integral part of delivering on their customer promise.

How Omni-Channel impacts the supply chain and logistics

          Traditional supply chains are coming under considerable pressure, the online revolution tests almost every aspect of the long-established pattern of retail supply chain processes - including warehouse operations, pick, pack and dispatch, order fulfilment and delivery, as well as introducing new dilemmas such as free shipping, last mile delivery, product returns and cross-border transactions. Most warehouse operations serving consumer-oriented businesses have traditionally focused on carton (or pallet) picking for bulk orders, shipped to retail outlets, often as full truck load (FTL) shipments, which include hundreds of products from numerous suppliers all destined for one store or supermarket. However, the e-commerce model of online web store to consumer, typically involves logistics management of shipping multiple individual orders, the majority of them comprising just one or two pieces, to hundreds of individual delivery points

references:

https://legacyscs.com/9-omni-channel-logistics-challenges/

https://blog.si-log.net/omni-channel-what-it-means-and-how-it-impacts-on-logistics

https://itelligencegroup.com/wp-content/usermedia/WhitePaper-ImpactOfOmnichannel.pdf

https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/top-omni-channel-logistics-supply-chain-challenges-ecommerce-founders-must-face

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