10 Tips for Web Analytics as presented at Marketing Festival in Brno, Czech Republic on 1st Nov 2014

1. one + two + three + four
Making Analytics Valuable

2. G’day, I’m Peter
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3. Making Analytics Valuable
 A lesson learnt over the years – understand your
Audience
 You just heard from Avinash
 You are inspired
 I can’t compete
 Instead of inspiration, I am aiming for
immediately actionable
 This is a set of tips to get more impact in less
time
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4. one + two + three + four
one area you must get sorted
two items to record in your analytics tool
three (sets of) goals for Google Analytics
four reports to create, automate & use
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5. ONE AREA YOU MUST GET SORTED
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6. One area – Campaign Tracking
 You MUST get this right
 I really hope you know this
 Means adding campaign parameters to the URL
 Structure varies by analytics tool
 If not done, analytics tool relies on referrer data
 If within an app – no referrer
 If redirects – not the actual referrer
 Plus only tells you source, no detail
 So why are so many companies not doing it?
 Don’t you want to know what your work is worth?
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7. Options for resolving Campaign Tracking
 Can do it manually one by one
 GA URL Campaign Builder
 Chrome extension
 Can bulk create manually – use Excel tools
 L3 Analytics GA campaign builder
 L3 Analytics SiteCatalyst campaign builder
 Autotag for Adwords
 Most vendors can add automatically
 Email, Affiliates, Display, Buffer
 Most don’t do it by default – request/insist!
 There are no excuses, GET THIS SORTED!
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8. TWO ITEMS TO RECORD IN YOUR
ANALYTICS TOOL
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9. Item 1 – Basic Page Information
 Always record:
1. the full URL of the page being viewed
2. the referrer to this page
 Key use is identifying the cause of 404 error pages
 url that generated error
 referrer to that page
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10. Item 2 – Search Results
 Record the number of search results
 Key use is search terms with ZERO search results
 Fix it so people can find what they were looking for
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11. THREE (SETS OF) GOALS FOR GOOGLE
ANALYTICS
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12. Goal Set 1 – Negative Goals
 Goals can be about negative website experiences
1. Create a goal for viewing 404 Error pages
2. Create a goal for experiencing Form Validation errors
 If “Goal Completion Rate” is above X%, take action
 Set own limit but should be below 5%
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13. Goal 2 – True Sessions by Channel
 Direct Entry sessions report as the previous traffic source
 This is a clever (hack) solution
 Create goal for all sessions
 Destination goal – Begins with /
 Use Assisted Conversion report
 Select “All Sessions” Goal
 Last Click metric is now true
Sessions
 Compare against Channels
report
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14. Goal Set 3 – Create a Horizontal Funnel
 We all love funnels
 Create a goal for each checkpoint
 It creates a horizontal funnel
 Can then view funnel for all dimensions values
within any report
 Use to identify differences in performance
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15. FOUR REPORTS TO CREATE, AUTOMATE
& USE
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16. Reports 1 – Weekly Performance Reporting
 Analytics is not about reports
 But we need information spread
across the company
 Reporting has its place
 My approach
 No speedometers, pie charts, flashy
elements
 Small number of key metrics
 Comparison number
 Trended over time
 Segmented
 Multiple Dashboards
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17. Reports 2 – Tactical Reports – Merchandise
A. Most popular product
B. The money maker
C. Something is wrong
D. Another issue here
E. Opportunity product, make
more visible
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18. Reports 2 – Tactical Reports – Content
1. Article #2
 Popular
 Not very
effective
 Access via
other sites
2. Article #11
 Less popular
 High reads,
shares &
comments
 Access via
internal links
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19. Reports 3 – Entry Points vs Traffic Sources
 Overview of where people enter the website from each channel
 Evaluate quality of each traffic source/entry
 Using Bounce Rate or Conversion Rate or metric of your choice
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20. Reports 4 – Performance Diagnostic
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21. Reports 4 – Using Performance Diagnostic reports
 Extend the report
 Metrics – traffic, engagement, performance, etc
 Dimensions – traffic source, entry point, device, gender, etc
 Create Internal Benchmarks
 Internal benchmarks are the maximum for each metric
 Look for biggest gaps in performance vs these benchmarks
 If ecommerce conversion rate is 3.2% for domestic traffic using Chrome on desktop
devices – why is it so poor elsewhere?
 Identify the weak points & calculate value of fixing
 Based on data, this is a prioritisation list for improving performance
 Gives you a set of actions for the next 3 months (to make more money)
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22. Summary of Approaches to Make Analytics Valuable
1. Ensure all campaigns are tracked
2. Track URL & Referrer – fix 404 Errors
3. Track # Search Results – ensure results for common terms
4. Create Negative goals – trigger action when above X%
5. Create All Sessions goal – get accurate Direct Entry traffic
6. Create Goals for a Horizontal funnel – easily evaluate performance for any
segment of data
7. Use Weekly Performance Dashboards – spread the knowledge
8. Create Tactical Reports – ensure daily actions are informed & smart
9. Review Entry Points vs Traffic Sources – overview of website access
10. Review Performance Diagnostic – identify where fixes are required
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23. Access Templates
 All templates can be found & downloaded from
www.l3analytics.com/marketing-festival
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24. THANK YOU
I can be found at
• peteroneill@l3analytics.com
• @peter_oneill
• +44 7843 617 347
• www.linkedin.com/in/peteroneill
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