In this presentation, Trevor Jones discusses how Google Analytics can be used to increase inbound lead generation. He discusses the importance of SMART goals and explained the concept of the website funnel. Using these components as a framework, he discussed how analytics can help: 1.) Drive traffic by gaining a better understanding of your audience and the content that is meaningful to them through social referrals. 2.) Increase click through on promotional offers by testing various offers and call-to-action designs using Google Analytics Content Experiments. 3.) Increase conversions by A-B testing landing page designs and the conversion path using Google Analytics Content Experiments. The presentation includes a step-by-step explanation of how to create a Google Analytics Content Experiment with screen shots, Presented at Social Media Breakfast Central Maine on November 12, 2013

1. Using Testing & Analytics to
Increase Lead Growth
By Trevor Jones

2. Introduction
• About Me
– Director of Marketing and
Product Development for GWI
– Telecom marketer since 1997
– USM Grad (Business)
– Gorham resident, born in
Bangor, (BHS Class of ‘89)
– Passions: technology, social
media, music, outdoors
– @trevorjones71
– linkedIn.com/in/trevordjones
– Blog at:
blog.gwi.net, onemanmarketin
g.wordpress.com, maineoutdo
orliving.blogspot.com
• About GWI
– Maine based since 1994, based
in Biddeford
– Internet access, phone
service, cloud computing for
home and business
– Serving 60 communities
statewide
– www.gwi.net
– @gwimaine
– Linkedin.com
– http://youtube.com/gwimaine
– http://facebook.com/GWIInc

3. Agenda
• The role and importance of goals
• The website funnel
• Stimulating traffic by optimizing for our
audience - How analytics can help
• Increasing click through on offers by testing
calls-to-action
• Increasing conversion by testing landing pages

4. Analytics are useless until you have a
goal that defines success.

5. S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Your goals should be:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bounded
Example
Generate 260 leads before the
end of 2014.

6. The Website Funnel
To increase sales we can:
• Increase traffic
• Increase clickthrough rates
• Increase
conversion rates
• Increase closing
ratio

7. USING ANALYTICS TO OPTIMIZE
FOR YOUR AUDIENCE

8. Traffic Generating Tactics
are Changing
• Could be a whole presentation
–
–
–
–
–
SEO
PPC
Display advertising
Social media marketing
Offline methods
• The Future: Optimize for your audience, not search
engines.
– If you write good content your audience is looking for using
the language they use, keywords will take care of themselves
– Social proof – Likes, shares, recommendations and reviews.
“Likes are the new links”
– Content relevance and quality – Bounce rates, site usability,
conversion rates

9. How Analytics Can Help
Optimize for Your Audience
• How’s your bounce rate?
• What devices and browsers are in use?
• What is the age, gender and location of your
audience?
• Who’s linking and sharing? Is it an appropriate
audience?
– Social media referrals
– Inbound links
• What content?
– Blog articles getting the most views/shares
– Product pages getting the most views/shares

10. What Analytics Tell You
About Social Sharing

11. Who’s Sharing?

12. My Social Sharing
Takeaways
My Takeaways:
• Photos are very important –
spend more time on them
• Pinterest is a good place to
promote my blog
• Dutch oven recipes and howto articles about novelty
cooking techniques are my
best content
– Most traffic, lowest
bounce rate
• A large percentage of my
audience are not Boy Scout
leaders, but Girl Scout leaders

13. Other Evidence of Your
Best Stuff
• Look for similar results
in other areas.
– Acquisition>Keywords
– Behavior>Site
Content>All Pages
High views +
lots of sharing +
low bounce rate =
your best content

14. TESTING CALLS TO ACTION
GET CUSTOMERS TO ENGAGE WITH
OFFERS

15. Anatomy of a
Call to Action
• Start with an offer - something
free that you give away in
exchange for engagement
• Design a “Call To Action” (CTA)
that invites the customer to
the offer page
– Clickable button, banner or text
link
• Place adjacent to relevant
content
– Try multiple placements
• Get a high volume of views
– Place on multiple pages
– Above-the-fold placement is
best

16. Increasing CTA
Click-Through with A-B Tests
• Create a second variation of
the CTA
– Different text/headlines
– Different designs (aesthetically
pleasing isn’t always effective)
– Different offers
• Test 2 variations of the CTA in
an A-B offer test
• Tools for button optimization
– Paid tools: HubSpot
– Free Tool: Google Analytics
Content Experiments
– Free Tool: Button optimizer
from http://SiteApps.com

17. Testing Two Button Styles
GWI’s Home Page
Original
Test CTA

18. Process for Testing CTA’s
with Google Analytics
• Define goal pages
– The target page our CTA links to or the page after it
– Map out conversion path
• Take baseline measurements
– Conversion rates
• Create a Content Experiment
– (We’ll go over that for landing pages.)
• Monitor the results of your Content Experiment
• Be patient!
– Considerable traffic is needed for a meaningful result
– Be prepared for some experiments to yield no difference!
• Conduct another experiment using the winner of the first as the
new control

19. Monitoring Test Results
with Content Experiments

20. USING ANALYTICS TO INCREASE
CONVERSION

21. What is a Landing Page?
• Designed to obtain
customer contact
information
• Always contains a form
• Usually short content
designed to encourage
conversions
– Explain offer - persuasive
– Longer sometimes works –
test it!
• Minimal other
navigation/links
– Earns them the nickname
“squeeze page” or “jail page.”

22. Increasing Conversion:
Setting Up Analytics
•
Define goal pages
– Usually the “thank you” page after form submission
– Map out conversion path
•
Baseline measurements
– Conversion rate
– Abandoned funnels
•
•
•
Create a Content Experiment
Monitor the results of your Content Experiment
Be patient!
– Considerable traffic is needed for a meaningful result
– Be prepared for some experiments to yield no difference!
•
•
Conduct another experiment using the winner of the first as the new control
Tools to test landing pages:
– Hub Spot: A-B testing
– Google Analytics Content Experiments: Multivariate Testing

23. A Recent Test of GWI’s Residential
High Speed Internet Page
Existing Page
Test Variation

24. Test: Simplified
Conversion Path

25. Setting Up Content
Experiments: Step 1

26. Setting up
Content Experiments: Step 2
1.
2.
3.
Give your experiment a name
Identify the goal set you
would like to test
Specify how much of your
traffic should be included in
the test.
a.
4.
Larger percentages result in
quicker results, but may put
conversions at risk
Specify the minimum test
duration and level of
confidence needed for the
test.
a.
Default is two weeks and 95%

27. Setting Up
Content Experiments: Step 3
1. Name the current page
2. Add the url of the test
page
a.
Google analytics tracking
code must be on this
page
3. Give the test page a
name
4. You can add as many
variations as you like
a.
More variations will
increase the time
required to complete
the test

28. Setting Up
Content Experiments: Step 3
1. Add the Google
Analytics Content
Experiment code to
your original page
a. Options to do this
yourself or send to
your administrator
2. Make sure both pages
are live on the web
with analytics code
installed

29. Setting Up Content
Experiments: Test & Launch
1. Google automatically
checks to see if the
code has been added
correctly – fix any
errors and re-test.
2. You can add notes at
the bottom to explain
what you are testing.
3. Click start experiment
to begin testing.

30. Monitoring Content
Experiments
• You can periodically
check to see how
your experiment is
going.
• You can pause or
change your
experiment at any
time.
• Note at bottom tells
you the experiment
is still running.

31. Takeaways
• Our Result:
– Overall conversions are up 64% in November
– Traffic has been flat, so this is really the result of
testing new CTA’s and conversion paths.
• Getting this result on your site
– Create offers
– Create and test calls to action
– Create and test landing pages

32. THANK YOU! ANY QUESTIONS?