Apache Phoenix and HBase: Past, Present and Future of SQL over HBase
Google Analytics 202 - AMA Phoenix
1. / COVARIO
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF
THE NEW GOOGLE ANALYTICS
November 29th – AMA Phoenix SIG
@nickroshon
2. WHO AM I?
NICK ROSHON
Account Director, Covario
• Looks like Amir from College Humor
• Formerly Sr. SEO Strategist, iCrossing
• Editor of “Search and Social: The Definitive
Guide to Real-Time Content Marketing” by Rob
Garner (Wiley/Sybex)
• Blogger at NickRoshon.com
• Also Blogs at NicksCarBlog.com
• Ohio Native / Scottsdale Transplant
• Dog Lover
• Race Car Driver
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6. “If you cannot measure it,
you cannot improve it.”
– Lord Kelvin
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7. WHY ELSE?
Why not?
• FREE!
• Easy to setup
• Easy-to-use
• Understanding what works, what doesn’t
• Tracking success of marketing campaigns
• A/B testing and Tracking ROI
• Understanding your visitors – demographics, interests, keywords, etc.
• Seeing trends – mobile, local, social, etc.
• Finding opportunities for growth and optimization…
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8. NOT WHY, BUT WHAT?
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
• As a marketer, KPIs define what success is to our
clients/bosses
• Measure outcomes, not behaviors
• Marketing Analytics vs. Web Analytics
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9. WHAT ARE YOUR KPIS?
Basic KPIs: Better KPIs:
• Page Views • Increase Conversion Rate by 10%
• Improve Average Order Value
• Unique Visitors
• Increase Visitor Loyalty (Return
• Form Completions Visitors) by 20%
• Increase Time Spent on Site by 5%
• Increase Pages Viewed per Visit by
100%
Pro tip: try to focus on only a few.
• Reduce Abandonment Rate by 15%
“Collecting more information, just • New RSS Subscribers
because you can, inevitably leads to
more confusion, not clarity. “ – Brian
Clifton
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10. REMEMBER: SALES AREN’T THE ONLY KPI…
Macro Conversions Micro Conversions
• Sales • Download white paper
• Return visit
• Orders
• View product detail page
• Coupon Redemptions
• Customer Service Contact
• FAQ page view
• Store lookup
• Tweet/Like/+1
• Email sign-up
• RSS Subscriptions
• Comment/Review Added
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11. FACTORING IN SALES LIFECYCLES
“On average it takes 14 days to convert for travel - visitor loyalty is key
here.” – Avinash Kaushik
Metrics to consider for long sales cycles:
• Visitor loyalty & repeat visits
• Multi-channel funnel analysis
• Pages viewed per visit
• Time spent on site
• Repeat visitors vs new visitors
A photo of me, sitting in front of a computer,
holding an iPad, taken from my iPhone. 3
devices = 1 user = 3 “unique visitors”
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12. SETTING KPIS
“Why does my website exist?”
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14. INITIAL CODE SETUP Log in and go to Admin – Tracking
Info to find code
Copy & paste in the header OR
CENSORED footer of each web page you want
tracked
Asynchronous code = loads
independent of the rest of the
page, doesn’t matter if it’s in the
header, footer or elsewhere
Audit your tag presence
CENSORED
quarterly…
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15. ACCOUNTS, PROPERTIES & PROFILES
• Setup one master profile, which
contains no filters and tracks all
visitors and all sections of your site –
consider this your “raw data”
• Setup additional profiles to filter, or
segment by section of your site, etc.
for analysis
• The master profile is useful for
historical needs, while your other
profiles may be more useful for day-
to-day analysis
• Different users may prefer different
Image credit: profiles & customizations, so this
https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/conce
pts/gaConceptsAccounts#profiles provides great flexibility at the
enterprise level…
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16. CROSS-DOMAIN TRACKING
• By default, GA will treat each subdomain separate
• Tracking code can be customized to have all subdomains as well as new
domains (blogspot, wordpress, microsites, etc) under one property
• View
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingS
ite for setup best practices & code examples for cross-domain tracking
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17. FILTERS
• Filter out by IP (company IP addresses)
• Filter out by ISP (an entire ISP you don’t want included)
• Filter out by subdirectory (good for restricted content)
• Filter out by hostname (filter out server calls/applications)
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18. GOALS
• 20 goals included in the free
version
• Goal Types:
– URL Destination – visit a URL
(exact URL or wildcard)
– Visit Duration – visit for X
amount of time (or more)
– Page/Visit – visit X number of
pages (or more)
– Event – used with event
tracking code (click a button,
send a form, etc.)
• Setup funnels to track
abandonment
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19. E-COMMERCE TRACKING
Requires investment in coding &
development, but free to track in
Google Analytics…
• Enable e-commerce tracking in
Google Analytics
– http://support.google.com/anal
ytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ans
wer=1009612
• Modify website code to include GA
e-commerce tracking parameters
– https://developers.google.com/
analytics/devguides/collection/g
ajs/gaTrackingEcommerce
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20. CAMPAIGN TRACKING
• By default, Google tracks Organic
Search, Direct, AdWords and
Referral sources as mediums
• By customizing URLs, you can also
have separate reports for
email, social media, PPC (non
Google), etc.
• As simple as adding parameters
to the end of a URL
• URLs are case sensitive, so be
deliberate…
• Use Google Analytics URL Builder:
http://support.google.com/analyt
ics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer
=1033867
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21. CUSTOM SEGMENTS
• Segments data by type
• Good uses: geography, referral source, campaigns, etc.
• Quickly drill down to the data you are most interested in
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22. EVENT TRACKING
Common uses for event tracking:
• Any Flash-driven element
• Embedded AJAX page elements
• Video plays & File downloads
• Gadgets/widgets/on-page experiences
• A/B test different calls to action
(different buttons, same URL for
conversion)
• Affiliate links
Check out this event tracking code
generator: http://gaconfig.com/google-
analytics-event-tracking/
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23. ENABLE SITE SEARCH & PROFILE SETTINGS
Go to: Admin - Profile
Settings
Enable Site Search, set
default URL, ensure all
settings are correct…
Useful for learning user
behavior, improving UX,
understanding when people
search
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24. CUSTOM REPORTS
• Allow you to setup specific reports/metrics to be accessed later
– Set a dimension first, then metrics to plot within that dimension
• Dimension: category of metric you want to see
• Metrics: actual number that would be plotted
• Get started here: http://nickroshon.com/internet-
advertising/awesome-custom-reports-for-google-analytics
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25. OTHER FEATURES TO CHECK OUT…
• Custom Variables - classify visits on page-level (category), session
level (logged in, logged out), or visitor level (premium visitor, free
visitor)
• Sync with Google Webmaster Tools – good for SEO & site health
metrics in one place
• Sync with AdWords or AdSense
• Account Administration – add users to help analyze data, set roles
• Mobile App tracking – track the usage of your apps, too!
• Cross-domain tracking – especially useful for ecommerce sites
• Check out the full setup checklist from Google:
http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/setupchecklist.html
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27. WHAT’S NEW IN GA 5?
• GA 5 launched in 2011, now
standard for everyone
– Old version finally killed off in July,
4.0 2012
• Useful additions:
– Multi-channel funnels
– Customizable dashboards
– Event Goals
– Ability to plot additional rows
(metrics) in charts
– Site speed report
– Intelligence alerts
5.0 – Improvements to custom reports,
map overlay, mobile reports
– Easier goal & filter creation
workflows
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28. CREATING DASHBOARDS…
A pain the butt to setup – but only needs done
once.
• Good for high-level metrics to keep a finger on
the pulse of your site…
• Use “Add to Dashboard” shortcut in reports to
build quickly…
Sharable & importable, like custom reports…
• Basic Blog Dashboard:
https://www.google.com/analytics/web/permali
nk?type=dashboard&uid=5QS16SB7QA2ymSu75
PBAZQ
• Site Performance Dashboard:
https://www.google.com/analytics/web/permali
nk?type=dashboard&uid=0pLYNL9eTO6EbusjAm1
2kQ
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29. MULTI-CHANNEL FUNNELS…
Good for understanding ROI of
channels that don’t frequently
convert directly (e.g. social media)
and determining channel mix and
budgeting priorities.
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30. PLOT ADDITIONAL ROWS…
• Add extra rows of data to any standard report to get more granular
• Useful for understanding behaviors and demographics
• Better to create custom reports for frequently referenced rows/additions
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31. SOCIAL REPORTS – YAY!
Shows top referring social sites,
assisted conversions, and many
other useful metrics for
understanding social media
behavior, influence & value…
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32. INTELLIGENCE ALERTS
• Provides automated alerts & analysis of major changes shifts
• Access through Home – Intelligence Alerts
• Available on Daily, Weekly or Monthly basis
• Setup Custom Alerts for major changes to KPIs
• Alerts can be sent via email when they hit certain sensitivity thresholds
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35. GENERAL TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE ANALYSIS
• Check in regularly, daily if possible
• Compare time periods for trends
• Filter out words/URLs (e.g. Exclude
/products/) to diagnose SWOT
• Plot a second metric to compare
against (e.g. Unique Visitors vs Page
Views)
• Use Sort Type = Weighted to sort
results by most importance
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36. FILTER OUT BRANDED TERMS
• Create an Advanced Segment
– Include - Medium - Containing organic and/or paid
– Exclude – Keyword – branded term
• Can be done to filter out any terms from SEO or SEM traffic…
• Can also be setup as a profile to view entire GA account
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37. CUSTOM REPORT: KEYWORD GROUPS
Grouping keywords into categories
gives a better breakdown of how
each set of keywords is performing.
This will allow you to identify
possible low hanging fruit.
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38. CUSTOM REPORT: KEYWORD LENGTH
The keyword length report breaks
down keywords by the length of the
phrase to help ID low hanging fruit:
• 1 Word Phrase - ^s*[^s]+s*$
• 2 Word Phrase -
^s*[^s]+(s+[^s]+){1}s*$
• 3 Word Phrase-
^s*[^s]+(s+[^s]+){2}s*$
• 4-10 Word Phrases –
^s*[^s]+(s+[^s]+){x}s*$...Repla
ce the “x” up with digits up to 9.
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39. PAGES WITH HIGH BOUNCE RATES
• Find by going to Content – Site Content – Content Drill Down
– Sort by Bounce Rate and choose Sort Type = Weighted
– Consider applying custom segments (e.g. Search) when drilling down
• Fix or optimize content to reduce bounce rate, make your site more sticky
– For more CRO tips, check out this link: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/tips-for-
improving-high-bounce-low-conversion-web-pages/
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40. FIND YOUR BEST PERFORMING CONTENT
• Use the “Content
Efficiency” custom
report to find top
performing content
• Export and sort by
author, or content type,
to understand your best
performing content
• Replicate & expand style
of content or authors
that are most successful
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41. PAGE LOADING SPEED
• A one second delay in
loading time can cause a 7%
drop in conversions –
Avinash Kaushik
• Find page speed by page
through: Content – Site
Speed – Page Timings
• Use Google PageSpeed
plugin for Chrome to help
find ways to improve
loading speed
• Typically very easy to find
improvements and get your
site to load faster…
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42. REFERRING SITES
• View standard report: Traffic Sources – Sources – Referrals
• Use Advanced Filter to remove Google, Bing, etc.
• Find sites sending traffic, and continue to partner/invest there (for instance,
forums that may send traffic, blogs you comment on or guest post for, etc.)
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43. FUNNEL ANALYSIS
• Conversions – Goals – Funnel
Visualizations
• Drill down by each goal and look
for goals with high abandonment
• Analyze pages to find room for
improvement:
– Removing steps from funnel
– Testing calls to action
– Adding incentives to complete action
– Reducing friction to complete
• Keep testing & optimizing…
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44. CONVERSION PATH ANALYSIS
• Found in Conversion – Multi-Channel Funnels – Top Conversion Paths
• Useful for understanding customer journey
• Good starting point for attribution modeling and budget mix decisions
• Use channel groupings to do the same for brand vs non-brand keywords
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45. DEMOGRAPHICS/AUDIENCE REPORTS
• The standard Audience reports have lots of useful data
• Find most popular demographics – target them more in Facebook, AdWords
• Learn timing of when people like to view your content – share via social/email
at that time
• Good for understanding your visitors better…
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46. MOBILE REPORTS
• Audience – Mobile – Devices (or Overview)
• Overview – understanding percent of mobile vs non-mobile visitors
• Devices - Most popular devices – consider an app, or at least ensure mobile
experience is flawless on those devices…
• Drill down by goals and custom segments to find most valuable mobile users
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47. SOCIAL REPORTS
• Traffic Sources – Social
• Conversions & assisted conversions help justify social media investment
• Find most valuable social media traffic sources by drilling down by
goal, efficiency from each hub
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48. ANNOTATIONS
• Useful for understanding correlation & impact of major events
• Annotation-worthy events may include: new content posted, redesign
of important content/templates, web development sprints, seasonal
promotions, offline marketing initiatives, etc.
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49. PANGUIN REPORT BY BARRACUDA
• Check it out at http://www.panguintool.com/
• Creates annotations for major Google Updates & changes
• Good for seeing if you were hit by an algorithm update
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50. EMAIL REPORTS
• Set important reports
to be emailed on a
regular basis
• Click “Email” button
near top of the report
you’d like sent and
configure options
• Great for sending to
managers or those
who do not normally
login but want to get a
regular update on
performance…
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52. KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Agree upon KPIs
• Setup Goals based on those KPIs
• Setup Dashboards & Custom Reports to track
progress & measure against those KPIs
• Use advanced segments & filters to drill down on
data that matters the most
• Check in regularly for best results…
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53. LEARN MORE…
• Google Analytics Training (and Certification!) by Google:
http://support.google.com/adwords/certification/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=examstudy.c
s&exam=reporting
• Google Analytics Video Training by Google:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/iq.html?&rd=1
• Market Motive Training: http://www.marketmotive.com/internet-marketing-training-and-
certification-signup?top=home&topic=WebAnalytics
• Google Analytics Blog: http://analytics.blogspot.com/
• Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
• SEOmoz: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/category/8?show=50
• Conversion Optimization: http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/
• Event Tracking Guide:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/eventTrackerGuide
• KissMetrics Google Analytics Top 50: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/google-analytics-
resources-2011/
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54. BOOKS TO CHECK OUT…
• Web Analytics 2.0 – Avinash Kaushik
• Web Analytics: An Hour a Day – Avinash Kaushik
• Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics – Brian Clifton
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60. A GOOD ROI CALCULATION CONSIDERS…
• Calculated value of micro-conversions
• Actual value of sales
• Lifetime value of new customer
• Sales lifecycle
• Multi-channel attribution
• Branding value
• Actual costs of inputs
– Media spend
– Human effort
– Time for analysis
Image credit: http://next.inman.com/2012/09/can-an-agent-truly-
prove-the-roi-of-social-media/
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Notas del editor
Without KPIs, you cannot measure success…ask yourself “Why does your website exist?”
Even with the above, it’s still an approximation. Users have several devices, but these will be counted as separate users since cookies do not transfer from device to device…
Have a framework for your metrics/goals:e.g. Acquisition Metrics – Behavior Metrics – Action Metrics – Advocacy MetricsUnderstand multi-channel funnels & attributionCalculate & assign value to micro-conversionsKnow your average time to purchaseFactor in the life-time value of a customerRemember time-to-purchase – not all sales are one-night stands
Acquisition - Behavior - Outcome = how to filter your reports. Too many focus on Acquisition but not what happens during (bounces, time spent on site, etc) and after (sales, tasks completed, etc).