2. What I’ll Cover
• Setting business objectives
• Content goals
• Tools in Google Analytics
3. About me
•
•
•
•
Started as web content
manager, knowledge of HTML,
CSS, PHP
Trained through books, courses
and experience.
Became a web analytics
evangelist (and nag) at my
workplace.
Started consulting on analytics
and website optimization
4. Has this happened to you?
Sure
thing!
Hey, our
client wants
metrics on
the new
microsite
7. Top Down or Bottom Up
Approach to measurement?
• Top Down: Starting with defined set of goals and a selected
group of relevant metrics
• Bottom Up: Starting without a defined set of goals
GO TOP DOWN!
Don’t jump in to Google Analytics without a measurement
plan for your content!A measurement plan provides context
for data and makes using Google Analytics a LOT easier.
8. Step 1: Define the business
objectives of your digital content
• They help align your digital content goals and your overall
business goals
• Help leaders and content owners creators understand the
value of content
9. Examples of digital content
business objectives
• Increase brand awareness on social media
• Improve customer service for customers
• Enhance print communication materials
10. Continue with content goals
• Web content goals demonstrate user action
• Think of outcomes (downloads, comments, form
completion) not metrics (visits, pageviews, etc.)
• DON’T JUMP THE GUN!
12. Then think measurement!
• What success metrics fit best with your content goals?
GOAL
METRIC
Collecting contact
information
# of newsletter signups
Increased readership
Average time on site
Customer engagement
# of video views
13. Is it the *right* success
metric?
• Does it show results? Can you use it to show
definitive ROI on your efforts? Does it show that
it’s helping you sell widgets, create awareness?
Increase registrations?
• Does it give insight? Can you learn more about
your users, the effectiveness of your
content/campaign by looking at it?
• Is it actionable? Can you look at it and take some
kind of immediate action to make things better?
• Can you benchmark it? Can you look at data
month or month/week or week and see trends?
15. Goal Tracking In Google Analytics
Track multiple user
actions and $ value
16. Goal Tracking In Google Analytics
Here!
Click “goals”
Then “create a goal”
Here!
17. Goal Types in Google Analytics
• Destination goals (ex. thank you page for newsletter
signup form)
• Duration goals (ex. average time on website)
• Event goals (ex. video views)
Dunno how to set up events? Go here:
http://gaconfig.com/google-analyticsevent-tracking/
19. How do you track success?
Trends!
Look at trends to benchmark your average
traffic and use that as the standard to beat.
Visits
If your unique visitor count
increases 5% month over
month, that’s your benchmark
3,500
3,400
3,300
3,200
3,100
Visits
3,000
2,900
2,800
2,700
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
21. Goal Flow
View visitor funnel
patterns by multiple
dimensions – where do
visitors drop off?
22. Segmentation
• Trends in aggregate may hide actual
insights.
• Look at segmented traffic to compare
traffic from different audiences.
• Segmentation allows you to give context
to your data by focusing on a specific
slice of your audience or audience
behavior.
24. Takeaways
• Identify business objectives
Don’t jump in to Google Analytics without a
measurement plan
• Identify content goals for your content!
• Match appropriate metrics to goals
A measurement plan provides context for
• Set up tracking in Google Analytics
data and makes using Google Analytics a
• Benchmark and segment
LOT easier.
25. Tools and Resources
Google Analytics Education (Videos and more):
goo.gl/mGpDG
Google Analytics Support:
goo.gl/dKOkS
Google Analytics Blog:
goo.gl/fQDWC
Google Analytics Reporting Tools (Excel Plugins and more):
goo.gl/zzA66
Google Analytics URL Builder:
goo.gl/MB6zX
What’s the ROI usually means. This is pointless, why are we doing this?
They list specific outcomes
You don’t want to jump the gun and think of creating goals around metrics rather than finding the right metrics to fit your goal. This happens a lot.
Look at time on site as a way to show more engagement for a content-driven site
The “advanced” segment button at the top of your Google Analytics interface allows you to look at traffic from a variety of preselected audience types, including new visitor, returning visitors, paid visitors and more. I’m selecting “new visitor” here: The “advanced” segment button at the top of your Google Analytics interface allows you to look at traffic from a variety of preselected audience types, including new visitor, returning visitors, paid visitors and more. I’m selecting “new visitor” here: The “advanced” segment button at the top of your Google Analytics interface allows you to look at traffic from a variety of preselected audience types, including new visitor, returning visitors, paid visitors and more. But what kind of content is engaging new visitors? Looking at the Content Top Landing Page section through the new visitor segment will let me know. (Remember, once you select a segment to view your Google Analytics dashboard through, you’ll keep seeing only traffic data for that segment until you unselect it.)