12 Days of Google Analytics

Copyright © 2017 Web Savvy Marketing | @RebeccaGill
12Days
Of
Google
Analytics

The Basics of Google Analytics
Every time a page loads, the tracking
code will collect and send updated
information about the user’s activity
Google Analytics groups this activity
into a period of time called a
“session”
A session begins when a user
navigates to a page that includes the
Google Analytics tracking code
A session ends after 30 minutes of
inactivity
If the user returns to a page after a
session ends, a new session will
begin

The Basics of Google Analytics
Accounts - An account is your access
point for Analytics, and the top-
most level of organization
Properties - A property is a website,
mobile application, or device
Views - A view is your access point
for reports or a defined view of data
from a property

Google Analytics: Pros
It’s free
It’s easy to install
It integrates with other Google
products
Tracks acquisition, behavior, and
conversions
It allows customized data
collection
It allows custom report creation
It tracks ecommerce and goals
It’s being developed constantly, so
new stuff magically arrives
Google provides free training

Google Analytics: Cons
It tracks URL movement only
It can be overwhelming
It’s constantly changing
There are limitations with data
usage like:
– Accounts
– Dashboards
– Goals
Custom reports options are
pretty darn limited

#1: Filters
Filters are used by Views to
segment the data into smaller
groups
Filters can be used to:
– Include only specific subsets
data
– Exclude unwanted data like
that crazy spam that magically
arrives
– Search and replace information
Common filter usage:
– Exclude internal traffic
– Include specific hostname
– Exclude dev site traffic

#2: Real-time Data
Best ways to use it:
– Track the popularity of new content
– Track the success of a social media share
– Track the success of your email campaign
– See whether a promotion is driving traffic
– Watch visitor movement as it happens
Available data includes:
– Active users
– Pages being viewed
– Location of visitors
– Visitor source
– Conversions and events

#3: Goals
Goals are configured at the view level
Goals can be applied to:
– Destination: Specific pages your users visit
– Duration: How many pages they view in a session
– Pages/Session: How long they stay on your site
– Events: The events they trigger while they are
there
Every goal can have a monetary value, so you can see
how much that conversion is worth to your business
When a visitor completes a goal, Analytics records
that as a “conversion”
Goals use funnels so you can also track failure to
complete goals

#3: Goals
Real-world usage:
– Contact form submissions
(lead)
– Newsletter or podcast
subscriptions
– A download of a ebook, white
papers, etc.
– An account creation
– Blog comment
– Review left
– A purchase
– An extended amount of time
spent on the website

#3: Goals
Goals are limited to 20 per
reporting view
To track more than 20 goals, you
have to create an additional view
for that property
Goals only apply to the data you
collect after the goal has been
created
Goals can't be deleted, but you
can stop recording data for a goal
You have to have a URL movement
for goals to work - i.e. a contact
page needs a thank you page

#4: Annotations
Annotations are simply a
way to date stamp
something (really anything)
that may have altered
traffic and data
Think of annotations like
virtual post-it notes
They are recorded at the
view level
Once added they are
available throughout the
reports for this view
They can be private or
shared
Google
Analytics
Reminder

#4: Annotations
Real-world examples and
applications include:
– Relaunch or redesign
– Hosting outage
– Malware or hacking
attack
– Hire or fire an SEO
consultant/employee
– Specific marketing
campaign
– Industry or competitor
activity
– Search engine penalty
Google
Analytics
Reminder

#5: Dimensions
Every Google Analytics report contains two types of
data: dimensions and metrics
A dimension is the attribute of visitors to your
website like:
– Source – organic, referral, email, direct, etc.
– Device – desktop, tablet, mobile
– Geography – country, state, city, etc.
A metric is a number which is used to measure one of
the characteristics of a dimension
A dimension can have one or more characteristics –
i.e. pages per session and bounce rate
Custom dimension can be set up and used as an
advanced segment in reports

#5: Dimensions
My favorite use of
dimensions is to view
conversions by source
When doing so you
don’t just see what
leads or sales you have
You now see what
sources are driving
those leads or sales
In this report the
number of
conversions is the
metric and source is
the dimension

#6: Events
Events are user interactions that can be tracked
without the need of a page load
Examples of event usage include:
– Video play, stop, pause
– Downloads
– Ad clicks
Events have three core components:
– Category: Videos
– Action: Play
– Label: Schema Webinar Replay
You connect events to your
website with Google Tag
Manager

#7: Google Tag Manager
A tag is a snippet of JavaScript code
that collects data and sends
information to other services
Tags can come from AdWords,
Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics,
Floodlight, 3rd party or custom tags
Tag Manager allows you to quickly
update tags and code snippets on
your website
You no longer need to maintain each
of these code snippets (aka tags) in
your source files

You simply specify the tags that you
want to “fire” and when you want
them to fire
Think of a tag fire as a trigger for an
action or event
Common “trigger” include:
– Clicks
– Views
– Downloads
– Scrolling
– Submissions
– Purchases

Tags can become overwhelming to a lot of people, so
there are some templates available to assist in
execution
Examples of triggers that would fire a tag:
– Click to call
– Clicks on external links
– Social media activity
– PDF download
– Form submission
– e-mail address click
– Video play
– Ad activity
– Error tracking

#8: Search Console Integration
While you don’t have to integrate
Analytics with Search Console, you should
want to do so
Search Console integration helps bring
back some of the “not provided” data
Data will only be available for 90 days,
since this is the limit for Search Console
Analytics reports under the Search
Console section include:
– Landing pages
– Countries with drilldown
– Devices
– Queries

Reports offer keyword based data
for:
– Impressions
– Clicks
– Click through rates
– Average position (across multiple
URLs)
– Sessions
– Bounce rate
– Pages per session
– Transactions and revenue
– Goal conversions, values, and
rates

Data won’t match 100% between
report types and here is why:
– Disabled JavaScript in browsers
– Missing Analytics tracking code
– Search Console display limitations
– Bot filtering
Reports can be confusing because:
– One keyword can show data for
many pages
– One page can show data for many
keywords
This confusion goes away if you drill
further down into the default reports

#9: Custom Dashboards
Benefits:
– Get quick access to data
– View most important data
– View data like you want
– Create dashboards from scratch
– Grab and import templates (over
19,000 available)
– Modify templates as needed to
fit your needs
Limitations:
– 20 private dashboards
– 50 shared dashboards
– 12 widgets per dashboard

#9: Custom Dashboards
Template categories:
– Acquisition
– Analytics Academy
– Campaign
– Conversion
– Display Advertising
– Ecommerce
– Engagement
– Lead Generation
– Site Optimization
– Branding
– Mobile
– Organic Search
– Paid Search
– Publishing
– Referral
– Social
– Support

Day #10: Scheduled Reports
Schedule up to 400 reports from existing screens or
custom dashboards
You can export reports as:
– CSV
– TSV
– TSV for Excel
– Excel (XLSX)
– Google Sheets
– PDF
You can select to send reports:
– Daily
– Weekly
– Monthly

Day #11: Google Data Studio
Create unlimited Data Studio custom
reports
Combine data into reports from
sources like:
– Analytics
– Search Console
– Adwords
– YouTube
– Google Sheets
– APIs
Create 100% unique reports
Use templates for faster deployment

Day #11: Google Data Studio
Benefits:
– Lots prettier than Google
Analytics or Google Search
Console
– Google is pushing product
updates monthly
Limitations
– You need to define data
sources before you can use
the studio
– Not overly intuitive
– Easy to break report layouts

Day #12: Mobile Access to Reporting
Get your Analytics data on the go with mobile apps
Check key metrics via standard reports
Compare date ranges
Monitor real-time data
Build your own reports
Save any reports to your dashboard

More Information
Data Studio
datastudio.google.com/navigation/reporting
support.google.com/datastudio/topic/7450642?hl=en&ref_topic=6267
740
Dashboards
support.google.com/analytics/answer/1068218?hl=en
analytics.google.com/analytics/gallery/
Dimensions
Events

More Information
Filters
Real-time Data
Search Console
serps.com/library/guide-google-analytics-google-search-console-
integration/
Schedules
Tag Manager
ipullrank.com/google-tag-manager/
orbitmedia.com/blog/gtm-tracking-codes/

12 Days of Google Analytics

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