Slides 1-7: Social Media Analytics Slides 8-44: Google Analytics for WordPress or Drupal sites Slides 45-114: Google Analytics for OpenScholar sites

1. Social Media
at Harvard
Kimberly Moniz, HPAC
August 2019

2. Harvard University is an institution
of higher learning that:
● is available to everyone
● is dedicated to the virtue of truth
● strives to be a pioneer in research and
education
While Harvard is elite, it is not insular.

3. Harvard’s flagship social media
accounts aim to be:
● Honest
● Educational
● Accessible
● Relevant

4. Facebook
facebook.com/harvard
● Highlight a variety of topics
● Feature Harvard’s schools
● Different types of content:
photos, videos, and links
● Post once each day
Audience size: 5.4 million

5. twitter.com/harvard
● Optimize language for interest
and sharing
● Be timely and participate in
timely topics
● Amplify stories from around the
University
● Tweet multiple times each day
Audience size: 974K
Twitter

6. instagram.com/harvard
● Increasingly global audience
● Views of campus
● The people of Harvard
● One feed post each day
Audience size: 1.2 million
Instagram

7. instagram.com/harvard
● Share Harvard stories
● A chance to engage with our
audience
● New, fun, informal
● One Story each week
Audience size: 1.2 million
Instagram

8. Analytics
Workshop
with Aaron
AARON BAKER, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF CONTENT STRATEGY
HARVARD PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS

10. 1
2
3 Analyze performance using your
own baseline of what’s normal
Analyze
Distribute on different platforms:
web, social, email
Distribute
Create content using best
practices and align to
communication objectives
Create
Decide what to change or how
to optimize
Optimize
4
Content Strategy Cycle
Refine your process using a focus on analytics strategy and measurement planning

11. default analytics
what do you already know?

12. Metrics are quantitative
measurements
- Pageviews: the default metric
- Events: any count of measured user
interaction on the page
- Users: number of people*
- Sessions: count of the user’s visit to
Dimensions are attributes
or characteristics
- Browser & OS: the browser/OS the user
visited the website (Chrome, Firefox,
Safari)
- Page: Page url the user visited
- Location: Country/region/city where
your sessions are coming from
Dimensions and Metrics
Ways to use the data you already have

14. Channel
Grouping
- search
- email
- social
- referral
- paid ads
Traffic Sources
- source/medium
- campaign
Dimensions List
Types of dimensions available in Google Analytics
User
- new/returning
- age/gender*
Device and
System Info
- OS/browser
- mobile device
- screen size
Geolocation
- city/state/countr
y
Goal Conversions
- URL
- steps
Custom*
- scroll depth
- element visibility
- engaged time
- video plays
Session
- duration
Content Grouping
- configurable
categories
Page Tracking
- title/URL
Event Tracking
- category/action/
label
Internal Search

15. analytics wishlist
what do you really want to track?

16. Analytics Wish List
Newest tracking possibilities, best (easiest) via Google Tag Manager
Predefined percentage checkpoints
on your page that, when scrolled
into view, triggers an event that is
sent to Google Analytics. You can
further customize this by creating a
custom metric, such as “percentage
of pageviews that reached X%.”
SCROLL TRACKING
This page is really long. How do I
know if users are seeing this thing
that exists way down the page? The
element visibility trigger is used to
send an event to Google Analytics
when whatever you configured is
shown to the user.
ELEMENT VISIBILITY
Google Analytics doesn’t actually
use a stopwatch to track your users
as they race through the circuit of
your website, unless you tell it to.
This GA “plugin” is used improve the
quality of user behavior time
measurements.
ENGAGED TIME

17. match data to goals
identify the best KPIs for your content

18. Audience
Acquisition
Behavior
Conversions
Default web metrics
Ways to use the data you already have

19. conversion
is what success looks like

20. Goal Conversions in Google Analytics
Destination
A “thank you” page after filling out a
web form
Duration
Spent time on the site
Pages per session
Visited a number of pages
Event
Performed a specific interaction

21. Static, but evolving.
Website homepages,
program or initiative
landing pages, pages used
for wayfinding and general
information.
Optimization can occur at
the page level over time
through A/B testing.
Homepage
Constantly updated
with new stories.
Published and done
(you wouldn’t optimize
a news story after
publish)
Optimization is used for
better acquisition, SEO,
and encouraging user
engagement.
News site
VS
Content type determines optimization
Different approaches to improving your content based on type

22. ● Calls to action such as
clicking on featured
content or scheduling a
campus tour
● Time to task completion
(useful for navigation
analysis—how long did it
take to find the right
link?)
● Sessions with on-site
search
Homepage metrics
● Time on story pages
(attention minutes)
● Scroll depth
● Engagement with
embedded media
● Stories pages per
session
● Clicks on share
buttons
News site metrics
VS
In a redesign situation...
Think about how each kind of site meets different needs

23. measurement plan
decide what you are going to measure

24. Turn a School objective into a goal in GA
School objective
● Increasing applicants directly
referred by alumni
Macro conversion (KPIs)
● Applications
Micro conversion
● Interest form submits
● Event registrations
● Number of clicks from paid ads

25. Turn a School objective into a goal in GA
School objective
● Solicit donors to fund private
scholarships
Micro conversion
● Email engagement rates (open
rate, click rate)
● Number of pageviews to
donation page that came from
homepage
● Number of users who watched
an embedded video on the
giving page to at least 75%
Macro conversion (KPIs)
● Dollars
● New Donors

26. Turn a School objective into a goal in GA
School objective
● Raising brand
awareness
Macro conversion (KPIs)
● Newsletter subscriptions
● Returning visits to the website
Micro conversion
● Social media follower growth
percentage
● Shares
● Number of pageviews from
campaign-tagged posts or
emails
● Pageviews from referral sources
● Sessions from organic search
● Faster page loading speed for
desktop and mobile devices

27. tag and track
everything you do is a campaign

28. What are link tags?
Query strings that go on the end of links to indicate to Google Analytics
the point of origin of your website visitors - including source, medium,
campaign and content
Example:
http://hls.harvard.edu/page/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
&utm_campaign=alumninews&utm_content=fall

29. What is campaign link tracking?
Your website is the destination of the call to action across a wide variety of promotional channels.
Campaign tracking allows you to evaluate website performance of traffic coming from specific marketing channels
All traffic to your website
Goal conversions
Audience demographics
Pages visited
Print ad campaign
Facebook post
Linkedin post

30. Why does link tagging matter?
● Provides powerful insight into your campaign performance and web traffic
● Allows to evaluate performance related to your goals and objectives instead of guessing
● Enables powerful segmentation abilities based on your tagging approach

31. Sample tagging solutions
Link Shortener Service (bit.ly,
rebrandly, YOURLs, etc.)
● Pros: Easy to use, tags and shortens
links at the same time
● Cons: Free versions are limited. Self-
hosted solutions require a web
developer

32. Sample tagging solutions
Shared Google Sheet
● Pros: Free! Extremely customizable,
unlimited users
● Cons: Not user friendly (it is after all a
spreadsheet), and it can be complicated
to setup and maintain

33. Tagging Tips
Use consistent case and capitalization:
● FallEventInvite and falleventinvite are different.
Use dashes and underscores to make things readable:
● Fall_event_invite is easier to read
Start all your campaign names with the same unique
characters:
● univ-newsletter
● univ-facebook-post
● univ-fall-event-invite

34. Example: Recruitment Campaign
Source: facebook
Medium: social
Campaign: recruitment
Content: linkpost
Source: twitter
Medium: social
Campaign: recruitment
Content: contest
Source: bannerad
Medium: display
Campaign: recruitment
Content: campus

35. Track anything that happens beyond the pageview
Common uses for Event Tracking:
1. Navigation menu usage
2. Off-site, or outbound links
3. Buttons like submit, apply, download, etc.
4. Video embed interactions
5. Scroll depth engagement, etc.
6. Anything you want!
Event Tracking
1
2
3
4

36. segment your
analysis
signal vs noise

37. Show the user journey with your metrics
Funnel
Awareness
Interest
Consideration
Intent
Conversion
Metric Ideas
facebook impressions, video views, instagram engagements
social follower growth, news story engagements
visits to key recruitment pages, time on page goal completions
inquiry form completions
application completion

38. Word of Mouth
Room assignment
Consider the user journey
Consideration Prospect Admit / EnrollAwareness
PR
Radio/TV/Print
Online Ads
Email
Social Posts
Blogs Call from faculty
Open House
Test scores
Financial Aid letter
Advice from family
Meeting with recruiter
Friends are going

39. Consider your report format options
● Insight reports
● Google Analytics dashboards
● Google Data Studio
● Custom report

40. What to consider when approaching a report
● Objectives and Goals
Return to these to shape your overall reporting strategy
● Metrics and KPIs
Be extremely selective: how do they report back to your objectives and goals?
● Report audience
Who are you reporting to? What level of detail would best suit them?

41. change
how do you report insights to enact change?

42. The Harvard Gazette
2017 Redesign

43. ● Menu navigation and category label
● Share buttons
● Trending box (or “next in series” box)
● In-story media players and links
● Editor’s picks
● Up next footer
Walkthrough of a Gazette article
To illustrate tracking points

44. Q & Aaron

45. GOOGLE ANALYTICS TRAINING
Harvard OpenScholar Sites
August 9, 2019

46. ABOUT US
➔Web analytics consulting firm
➔Tag management & data science
services
➔Partner of Google, Tealium, other top
technologies
➔Started in Washington DC in 2002
➔Founders Harvard and Georgia Tech
MBAs

47. About Us: Clients
➔ Media
➔ Ecommerce
➔ Hospitality
➔ Business-to-Business
➔ Government
➔ Not-for-Profit
➔ Agencies

48. About Me: Elizabeth Brady
➔ Account Director, Empirical Path
➔ Background:
◆ Previously solo consultant with EWB
Analytics LLC
◆ Led ecommerce web analytics at
Monster.com
◆ DAA Certified
◆ Working with Harvard since 2011
➔ Expertise:
◆ Tag Management
◆ Implementation Strategy
◆ Tool migrations
◆ Ecommerce, higher ed

49. Open Scholar
Analytics Platform
◆Data Collection
◆OpenScholar Analytics Code
◆OpenScholar Specific Configuration

50. now analytics.js for Universal
Analytics and newest gtag.js for
non Google Tag Manager sites
Introduction: How GA Works

51. Open Scholar Analytics Code
➔ Automatically integrated on site build
➔ GA.JS version (older) code
◆ Won’t work with certain analytics.js
features
➔ Automatically tracks certain actions
◆ Outbound Links
◆ Downloads
◆ Clicks to email addresses
Ga.js (prior code
verision)

52. Google Analytics ‘Page’ Collection
➔ Page defaults to entire URL (except hash, and campaign
tags)
➔ Page URL components
➔ Extra query string parameters can be stripped off under
‘Admin’ Settings
Source: Tealium Learning Community

53. Interaction Not Collected
➔ Non-Page events beyond the auto-tagged events
➔ Example - newsletter subscription confirmation, below

54. On Site Search for OpenScholar Sites
➔ Custom code rewrites page URL with a ‘search’ query
string parameter
➔ Be sure to configure this under View settings

55. ➔ Cookies allow a site to:
◆ Write information to user’s computer &
store as name-value pairs
◆ Later retrieve it
➔ Weaknesses
◆ Some users browse anonymously or clear
cookies
◆ Can be blocked
◆ Browser-dependent
◆ 2 browsers on the same page are seen as 2
unique visitors
◆ Browsers are reducing cookie lifespan (esp.
Safari)
Introduction: Cookies
OpenScholar
sites have these
‘older’ cookies

56. Introduction to GA &
Selected Google
Analytics Reports
◆Navigation
◆Audience Reports
◆Acquisition Reports
◆Behavior Reports
◆Conversion Reports

57. Navigating GA
Dimensions & Metrics
Web Analytics Terminology
Introduction to GA

58. Introduction: Navigating GA
➜ Visit analytics.google.com
➜ Select your Account, Property and View on Home page
➜ Use Top Nav for quick access to:
◆ Accounts & Views
◆ Notifications
◆ GA Apps (GTM, Optimize, etc.)
◆ Overflow Menu
◆ Personal Accounts
◆ Google Account
Settings,
Help
Access to accounts and views

59. Introduction: Navigating GA
➜ The Left Nav offers quick access to:
◆ Accounts & Views
◆ Customizations
◆ Standard Reports
➜ Search reports is now located in the top combined
search box
Standard
reporting in one
place
Access to
Accounts & Views

60. Account > Property>Views
Introduction: Navigating Account Structure
Views
Account
Properties

61. Introduction: Navigating Help
➜ Help is always at right side of the Top Nav
◆ Search box allows you to perform a free-
text search on any Help topic
◆ Articles on Support site often link to
technical documentation on Developer site
➜ Help articles are also available in the combined top
center search box

62. Introduction: Navigating Reports
➜ Left nav allows access to standard Reporting in two ways
◆ GA Search at the top of the page
◆ Helps locate a specific report
◆ Just begin typing in a keyword
◆ Major Report types below in Left Nav
◆ Dashboards
◆ Saved Reports
◆ Alerts
◆ Real-Time
◆ Unsampled Reports (360 customers)
◆ Audience
◆ Acquisition
◆ Behavior
◆ Conversions
Click to
search
reports

63. ➔ A metric is a quantity, ratio, or time that is expressed as a
numerical value (black in GA)
◆ E.g., sessions, bounce rate, time per
session
➔ A dimension is a way to segment data that is expressed as a
label (blue in GA)
◆ E.g., page, country, date
Dimension Metrics
Values
Labels
Introduction: Dimensions vs. Metrics

64. ➔ Bounces: The total number of single-page (or single-engagement-hit) sessions
➔ Exits: The number of exits, typically from a given page
➔ Goal Completions: The total number of completions for a Goal (defined by Page, Event, or Time or Pages per Visit)
➔ Pageviews: The total number of views of pages, including duplicate views of one page in one session
➔ Unique Pageviews: The total number sessions that had a view to that page (use this metric with pages instead of session)
➔ Time on Page: How long a visitor spent on a particular page in seconds (Calculated by subtracting the initial view time for a
particular page from the initial view time for a subsequent page or hit. Thus, this metric does not apply to exit pages for your
property)
➔ Users: Total number of visitors to your property for the requested time period (as defined by cookies or other identifier (formerly
Unique Visitors)
➔ Sessions: Total number of sessions (session ends after 30 min of inactivity by default, can be customized in admin console)
➔ Goal Conversion Rate: Rate at which visitors achieve key actions on your site or app
Introduction: Select GA Metrics

65. ➔ Age/Gender: Age bracket of visitor (if ‘advertising reporting features’ are set to ‘on’ in admin console)
➔ Category of Product Purchased
➔ Day of Week Name: The name of the day of the week (in English).
➔ Device Category: The type of device: desktop, tablet, or mobile.
➔ Landing Page: The first page in a user's session, or landing page.
➔ Medium: Paid Search, Organic Search, Referrals from other sites
➔ Metro: The Designated Market Area (DMA) from where traffic arrived on your property.
➔ Page: A page on your website specified by path and/or query parameters. Use in conjunction with hostname to get the full URL of
the page.
➔ Search Term: Site Search terms used by visitors within your property.
➔ Traffic Source: Assigned to user visiting site e.g. Open Table, Facebook, Google, direct
➔ Visitor Type: A boolean indicating if a visitor is new or returning. Possible values: New Visitor, Returning Visitor
Introduction: Select GA Dimensions

66. Geo
Behavior
Technology
Mobile
Users Flow
Audience Reports

67. ➔ Visitor location based on IP lookup including:
◆ Continent and Subcontinent Region
◆ Country and Region (state)
◆ City and Metro (MSA)
➔ Map Overlay drills down to the city level
◆ Also the usual Explorer table data tab
◆ Can plot metrics on and apply Segments to
Map Overlay
➔ Also include Language
◆ Based on browser settings
Audience Reports: Geo

68. Audience Reports: Technology
➔ Technology used to view site:
◆ Internet Service Provider
◆ Operating System
◆ Browser
◆ Screen
● Resolution
● Colors
◆ Flash Version
◆ Java Support

69. Audience Reports: Mobile
➔ Mobile technology used to view site:
◆ Desktop/Mobile/Tablet share
◆ Within Mobile Devices, slice & dice mobile
devices by
● Mobile Device Info
● Mobile Device Branding
● Service Provider
● Mobile Input Selector
● Operating System
● Screen Resolution
◆ Note: Mobile Device = Tablet + Mobile
(really Mobile Phone)

70. Audience Reports: Cross Device (if Google Signals Enabled)
➔ Enables reports for device category overlap and device combinations prior to conversions

71. Audience Reports: Users Flow
➔ Illustrates top visit paths and exit points through the site
◆ Line thickness of connection represents volume
◆ Exits are red
◆ Nodes “roll-up” all URLs with same root but different query strings or parameters
◆ Can view by Keywords, Campaigns or other ad dimensions
Node
Node
Connection

72. Acquisition - All Traffic
Channel Groupings
AdWords
Search Console
Social
Campaigns
Campaign Tagging Basics
Acquisition Reports

73. ➔ Drill into key channels via dedicated reporting, including:
◆ Referrals
● Visits via links that lack utm or AdWords parameters on other sites that aren’t search engines
◆ Campaigns
● Visits to URLs with utm or AdWords gclid parameters
◆ Keywords
● Visits from paid and organic search engine results
◆ AdWords
● Visits from Google paid search ads (with detailed AdWords metrics & dimensions)
◆ Social
● Visits from links on sites defined by GA as social, whether posted by you or by fans (with detailed Data Hub
metrics & dimensions) plus Plugins reports
◆ Search Engine Optimization
● Clicks from Google organic search results (with Search Console metrics & dimensions)
Acquisition Reports

74. Acquisition - Channel Groupings
➔ ‘Alt’ channel grouping uses existing _mmc codes to attribute tagged traffic to high level channels
◆ Channels include Display, Paid Search, Display, Organic Search, Affiliates
➔ For custom channel groupings, updates/adjustments are retroactive, unlike for ‘Default Channel Grouping’
Attribution is ‘last
non-direct click’

75. ➔ Go beyond reports in AdWords for PPC
◆ Acquisition, Behavior & Conversion by campaign, keyword, and AdWords-specific dimensions
➔ Requires GA-AdWords integration
➔ Access AdWords-specific metrics GA via the “Clicks” tab
➔ Allow reporting by those without AdWords access
Acquisition Reports: AdWords (if linked)

76. Acquisition Reports: Search Console (if linked)
➔ Unmask “(not provided)” organic keywords
◆ Which search terms returned your site in organic results
◆ Which landing pages were returned in organic results
➔ Be sure to link to correct search console account (ie, https)
Search
Console
metrics

77. ➔ Understand three kinds of Social Media activity
◆ Sessions, landing pages and conversions from social sites
◆ Users Flow for this audience
◆ Social sharing via Plugins on your site (requires ‘track social’ tags to be implemented)
Acquisition Reports: Social

78. ➔ Ensure proper utm tagging so Campaign reports can:
◆ Detail the campaigns, mediums, sources, and more granular categories…
◆ …that drove visits, conversions and engagement
Acquisition Reports: Campaigns
Mediums
Campaigns
(=cross-channel
initiatives)

79. ➔ Get greater detail on traffic sources you control
◆ Must link to URLs tagged with utm (or AdWords gclid) tracking parameters on landing pages
➔ utm parameters are:
◆ Medium
◆ Source
◆ Campaign
◆ Content
◆ Term
➔ Example landing page and parameters:
◆ https://ngl.cengage.com/assets/html/eSamples/
?utm_medium=email
&utm_source=lead-list
&utm_campaign=summer-sample
Acquisition Reports: Campaign Tagging Basics

80. Site Content, Content Grouping
Site Search
Events
Behavior Reports

81. ➔ What visitors do while on your site
◆ Which pages do they view most (All Pages)
◆ What groupings of pages do they view by URL path (Content Drilldown)
◆ Where do they start (Landing Pages)
◆ At what point do they leave (Exit Pages)
Behavior Reports: Site Content What are
users doing
on the site?

82. ➔ Overview of the popularity of individual pages on the site
◆ Pageviews and Entrances
◆ Average time viewed
◆ Bounce and Exit Rates
◆ Page Value (Defined with Goal Value or Ecommerce Revenue)
➔ By URL, Page Title or Content Grouping
➔ Tab for Navigation Summary
Behavior Reports: All Pages

83. Content Grouping: Content Groups
➔ Roll up date by key site sections - if enabled in the back-end
➔ Compare metrics across general page groups
➔ Rules can be created - grouping pages together into a
‘Content Group’

84. ➔ Shows how visitors navigate to and away from any Page
◆ URL only, not Page Title
◆ Can be viewed by Content Groups
◆ Accepts Segments
◆ No visualization
➔ Use Behavior Flow or Users Flow for visualization
Behavior Reports: Navigation Summary

85. Behavior Reports: Landing Pages
➔ Session metrics -- as opposed to Page metrics -- for every site entry point
◆ Acquisition
◆ Behavior
◆ Conversion (for all Goals or each one)

86. Behavior Reports: Site Search
➔ Details audience usage of key site navigation feature
◆ Percent of visits using + useful metrics on search effectiveness & impact
◆ Specific terms searched and categories
● Help surface how users describe what they seek
◆ Pages where searches initiated
➔ Site Search requires setup configuration to enable reporting
Specific metrics on search
effectiveness
Specific metrics on
search effectiveness
Specific metrics on
post-search impact

87. Behavior Reports: Events
➔ Track user activity on pages separately from pageviews
◆ Outbound links to other domains
◆ Social Shares
◆ Slideshow advances
◆ File downloads
◆ Interaction with multimedia/video
◆ Clicks to CTA buttons
◆ Load times for data
➔ Correct Bounce Rate by defining visits with these user activities as not Bounces (if interactive events)
Auto-tracked
events include
downloads,
email clicks and
outbound links

88. Behavior Reports: Event Reports
➔ Core events reports in Standard Reporting > Behavior
section
◆ Top Events lets you drill down from
Categories
◆ Overview rolls up all Categories, Events, and
Actions
➔ Metrics on total & unique events
◆ And any optional value tracked
➔ Standard Metric Groups also available for session with each
event/event type:
◆ Site Usage: Visits, Avg. Duration, % New
Visits
◆ Ecommerce: Revenue, Transactions, Avg.
Order Value

89. Behavior Reports: Behavior Flow Reports
➔ Explore user ‘pathing’ through the site
◆ By ‘grouped’ pages
◆ By content group
◆ By events
➔ Also apply any session/user dimension for further
segmentation
➔ Caution! Reports get complicated quickly!

90. Conversion Reports
Goal Reports
Defining Conversion Goals

91. Conversion Reports
➔ Completion of an activity that is important to the success of your business
➔ Conversions are steps that visitors take such as:
◆ Make a purchase (or intent to purchase
◆ Register
◆ Sign up for Newsletter
◆ Otherwise engage with the site
➔ Using OpenScholar Data
◆ View a specific page
◆ View a type of page
◆ Trigger a specific event
◆ Trigger a type of event

92. Conversion Reports: Goal Overview
➔ Goal Completions, Value and Rates
◆ Overall
◆ Per Goal
◆ By Day via sparkline
➔ Summary Reports on Goals
◆ Completion Locations (pages)
◆ Source|Medium combinations of Last Interaction Visits

93. Conversion Reports: Goal URLs
➔ Displays Goals Completed by page, and value for goal conversion (seen in same session)
◆ Whether defined by:
● Destination URL
● Duration
● Pages per Visit
● Event

94. Conversion Reports: Reverse Goal Path
➔ Shows the steps taken by visitors prior to completing Goal
◆ Steps can include Entrances
◆ Includes Goals whether defined by:
● Destination URL
● Duration
● Pages per Visit
● Event

95. Conversion Reports: Funnel Visualization
➔ Visualizes progress along a predefined path to a Goal
Completion Page
◆ Completion Rates
● Overall
● Step-to-step
◆ Plus all entrances and exits along the way
● Expected and unexpected entry points into the
Funnel
● Pages next viewed by those who abandon the process
Visits that
bailed out
Step
Completion
Rate
Entry points
to Funnel

96. Conversion Reports: Goal Flow
➔ Next generation of Funnel Visualization
➔ Same controls as Visitor and Behavior Flows
◆ Can apply Segments
◆ Shows Traffic Sources, Technology, other Dimensions at left
◆ Size of Nodes and Paths represent number of visits
◆ Click and hover over Nodes and Paths for more detail

97. Goal Creation
Can track goal by
URL, Visit Duration,
Pages/Visit or Event
➔ Accessible via Admin in Top-Nav
➔ 20 per View
➔ Goals can be:
◆ Destination
◆ Duration
◆ Pages/Screens per Session
◆ Event
➔ Optional Goal Value can be helpful for ‘page value’ reports

98. Defaults to
Equals to, but
others useful
Goal URL Destination
Names appear
in 2 reports
➔ URL Destination is most common Goal Type
◆ Confirmation or “thank-you” pages
➔ Match type critical
◆ Regular expressions come in handy to count
multiple variations of a page
➔ Goal Funnel defines 2 reports:
◆ Funnel Visualization
◆ Goal Flow
● Required Steps affect Funnel but not Goal
Completion count

99. Match Type again
critical as values
come from site code
Goal Event
➔ Event Goals capture actions that don’t generate a Pageview
◆ Exit link clicks
◆ Mailto clicks
◆ Downloads
◆ Form submissions with no unique thank-you
URL
➔ Lack Goal Funnel option
◆ Can use Virtual Pageview instead of Goal if
needed
➔ Can pull Goal Value from Event Value in code
➔ Good reason to name Events carefully

100. Custom Analysis
◆Creating Custom Reports
◆Segmentation -

101. Custom Reporting - How to Create
Adding Metrics
Adding Tabs & Filters
Saving to Views
Best Practices

102. ➔ Create the exact report that you need
◆ Pick the dimensions (or custom): ways of describing visits, visitors, pages, products, and events
● E.g., Visitor Type (whether new visitor or returning visitor), Source (the name of a referring website/search engine ),
Page Title (the HTML title of a page on your site), and Product SKU (the SKU code for a product purchased on your
site)
◆ Pick the metrics (or custom): numeric measurements
E.g., Visits, Pageviews, and Bounce Rate
◆ Decide how they should be displayed - Drill-down vs. flat table
Custom Reporting

103. Custom Reporting: Adding Metrics & Dimensions
Step 1: name
2: tab name
3: metrics
4: dimensions

104. Custom Reporting: Adding Tabs & Filters
5: new tab(s)
6: filter dimensions,
match type, and
value

105. Custom Reporting: Saving to Views
7: add to
Views
8: save

106. ➔ Name reports, tabs and metric groups very clearly, so a future analyst will understand
➔ Use Categories of Custom Reports to organize them
➔ Add key Custom Reports to Shortcuts and Dashboards for quick access
➔ Add Custom Reports to Views sparingly
➔ Share with colleagues so everyone is on the same page
➔ Place the metric by which you want to sort in the first column
➔ Avoid replicating combinations of metrics and dimensions found in Standard Reports
Custom Reporting: Best Practices
Custom reports are stored
at the user (login) level, will
only be seen by those who
have ‘saved’ the report

107. Segmentaion
Basic Segments
Custom Segments

108. ➔ Segments let you specify which Visits or Users to include or exclude
◆ Based only on Demos, Tech, Behavior, Cohorts, or Traffic Sources
◆ Using extensive match types
Basic Segments

109. ➔ Advanced Custom Segments let you specify exactly which Visits or Users to include or exclude
◆ Based on any Metrics and Dimensions
◆ Include or Exclude options and “AND” and/or “OR” logic
◆ Based on custom sequences of Dimensions & Metrics
◆ ‘Sequence’ Segments are also possible
Advanced Custom Segments

110. 3: Include or
Exclude
4: metrics or
dimensions
2: Name &
scope
Step 1: Create in any
Report or Admin >
Personal Tools &
Assets
Defining Custom Segments

111. 7: Boolean
Step 5: match
type
6: match
term
8: additional
Filters
Defining Custom Segments

112. Step 9: test in
Reports
10: save to
View(s)
Defining Custom Segments

113. THANK YOU
Questions Now?
Questions Later
‣ elizabeth.brady@empiricalpath.com
‣ @EmpiricalPath
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