Analytics: Getting the Data - 500 Startups Accelerator Marketing Hell Week

Andy Young // @andyy // andy@500.co
How do I analytics?
a practical guide for
pragmatic startups
Part B: Getting the Data

TO RECAP:
Today’s tools make it
super-easy to track
things
Google Analytics
Mixpanel
KissMetrics
Localytics
Branch Metrics..

Today’s tools make it
super-easy to track
things
BUT they also make it really easy to
- become overwhelmed with data
- focus on the wrong things

Typical analytics challenges/pitfalls
Drowning in too much data
Failure to select + focus on the top metrics that
matter
Not tracking the data you need to answer key
questions

Why analytics?
1. How are we doing?
- are KPIs on the right track?
2. What are the results of our experiments?
- so we can learn
3. What’s happening right now?
- did something great or terrible just happen?

Getting the Datas

Collecting data
Don’t use Google Analytics!

Don’t use Google Analytics!
It’s the wrong type of tool for most key
questions.
Designed around sessions & pageviews
Instead: focus on unique users and key actions
Specific user journeys are not that important
Instead: what % of unique users
reached a particular step eventually?
Collecting data

Collecting data
Use an analytics tool focused on tracking
events/actions
and
individual user behaviour
e.g. Mixpanel, Localytics, Amplitude

Collecting data
Events vs. Properties vs. People
Events: something happened
Properties: something about what just happened
People: connect events to particular users
(people can also have properties)

What to Track?

What to Track
All key user behaviours
● pages/screens viewed, key actions taken
● anything that writes a new row or updates an
existing row in your database or user’s session store
○ e.g. add to cart, post new content
● do you have all key steps in the user funnel?
● anything that has external impact, e.g. share

Tracking events
Tip #1: Choose easy-to-read and meaningful
event names
Short!
Pick a convention; stick to it
Omit superfluous words
“user_viewed_homepage”
“Viewed homepage”

Tracking events

Tracking events
[Object] + [Action]

Tip #2: Track each user based on a distinct ID
Don’t use email address -
use autogenerated user_id from your own DB
Use aliasing to connect up events tracked
pre/post signup
Tracking events

Tip #3: Annotate your users with source data
referrer; utm tags; install tracking via AppsFlyer
1. Track a signup event
2. Add as user properties
3. Potentially also as properties to key events
Tracking events

Tip #4: (Mixpanel specific) - People vs. Events
Mixpanel won’t let you query for users
who did particular events
So, our options:
- Do this using your own DB
- Annotate your users (People) with properties
for each key event
Tracking events

Tip #5: Ecommerce/revenue tracking
Mixpanel/AppBoy etc have
native support for tracking revenue
Annotate your Purchase events with revenue data
using the relevant properties for each platform
Tracking events

Tip #6: Use a development project for testing
Tracking events

Track events from where?
Client/app vs. server
Tracking events

Tracking the funnel

Tracking the funnel
Start with the pirate metrics AARRR
Top of funnel: acquisition; signups/installs
Mid funnel: post-install events; engagement;
retention
Bottom of funnel: purchase / monetisation.

Tracking the funnel
Looking at each stage (AARRR) in aggregate
is a good start
but it will only get you so far
the “truth” is much more nuanced

Tracking the funnel
Users acquired via different channels
will have different behaviours
Different cohorts will have
different experiences of your product
Different users will have been exposed to
different A/B tests

Tracking the funnel
Key: these are all properties of your users
UTM tags: source, medium, campaign, terms
Landing page
Signup time
A/B test buckets
Referrer
Viral source

Tracking the funnel
Annotate your users in your database/analytics
system with these attributes
UTM tags: source, medium, campaign, terms
Landing page
Signup time
A/B test buckets
Referrer
Viral source

Let’s get Technical..

Implementing Tracking
Use a
Tag Manager
(e.g. Google Tag Manager)
Check out
Segment.com
for flexibility & agility

www.sitehound.co
- Free code! -

Implementing Tracking
Add your
Facebook + Google
Custom Audience /
Remarketing Pixels
Now!
Start building your audience

Revisiting
Cohort Analysis

Problems with Cohort Analysis
Time consuming
Delays to get the latest data
Inflexible

Rolling Cohorts

How?

Use your existing database
Users
Learn SQL! It's not hard
Just need a slave database for analytics
- “read replica” - i.e. a live copy

Use your existing data
Users
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users

Users
WHERE created > ‘2013-07-01’
AND created < ‘2013-08-01’

LEFT JOIN sales USING (user_id)
WHERE users.created > ‘2013-07-01’
AND users.created < ‘2013-08-01’
AND sales.date < DATE_ADD(users.created, 1 MONTH)

1. Automate running queries (every hour!)
2. Store the results in a simple database
3. Create a page to graph the results
(HighCharts..)
Roll your own

Visitor numbers
Usage / engagement
Revenue
Conversion rates
Pirate metrics

Good luck!

Analytics: Getting the Data - 500 Startups Accelerator Marketing Hell Week

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