Google Analytics has a lot of features. Maybe too many. In this deck, learn some of the key reports, metrics and basic rules that can preserve your sanity.

1. Google Analytics 101
Ian Lurie
@portentint

2. I run an agency: Portent, Inc.

3. Rule #1
Time travel is not currently possible

4. Rule #2
Data is subjective

5. Rule #3
These are what ma‫﬙‬er
Track macro and micro-conversions
Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

6. Setup: The essential bits
Measurement & tagging
Paid search measurement
Some cool reports

7. Example site
KPI = Revenue
Micro-conversions = E-mail signup, contact us

8. A KPI goes straight to the heart of
business performance

9. A micro-conversion measures
positive behavior
these are just
ian’s definitions.

10. Setup: The essential bits
Measurement & tagging
Paid search measurement
Some cool reports

11. Rule #1
Time travel is not currently possible

12. h‫﬙‬ps://google.com/analytics
Use the same login for
Adwords and Analytics!!!!
That lets you link the
accounts.

14. If you already have
Google Analytics and
want to add a site

15. Turn on so you have it later.

16. Check this. It lets you access
benchmarking data

17. Turn on so you have it later.

18. Turn on so you have it later.

19. This is your tracking
code. Cut and paste it
into your site pages.

21. Most carts let you paste in the
ID, though. No code necessary

22. Link to your Adwords account

23. Configure Onsite Search Tracking

24. You want to track what
people search for.
That means figuring out
the query a‫﬙‬ribute
Run a search

25. Look at the URL of the search
results page. In this case, “s”
is the query a‫﬙‬ribute.

27. Look at the URL of the search
results page. In this case, “s” is
the query a‫﬙‬ribute.
voila

28. Set Up Goal Tracking

29. What happens on your site
that ma‫﬙‬ers to you? More than
just sales.

30. The contact us form?

31. E-mail list signups?

32. Or:
Someone visiting a certain page
Someone spending more than X minutes on
the site

33. Microconversions

36. Example: E-mail subscribe

37. We need to figure out the
destination page
Go perform whatever
action is a conversion

38. When I click “sign up,” I land on a page.
Here, it’s “newsle‫﬙‬er-thanks”

39. Done

40. Note the other options

41. For multi-step goals, like a
multiple-page registration
process, identi﬌ each page and
add them. Then you’ll see the
entire “funnel”

42. Advanced options will track by “wildcard,”
originating page, phase of the moon…

43. Set Up E-commerce Tracking
(sort of)

44. Caution: Major nerdiness
Too much to explain here

45. If your cart “lives” on a separate
domain:
“cart.mysite.com”
You can still track it!!! Look up
“cross domain tracking” in Google
Analytics

46. Done

47. Set up to match code

48. General stuff

49. Note: It can take over 24 hours for first reports
to appear

50. You can filter out visits from
your own company/office

51. Setup: The essential bits
Measurement & tagging
Paid search measurement
Some cool reports

52. Rule #2
Data is subjective

53. Rule #3
These are what ma‫﬙‬er
Track macro and micro-conversions
Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

54. Time to look at some data

55. First: There are no “good” or “bad” numbers
Be‫﬙‬er than what you have now is “good”
Worse than what you have now is “bad”

56. The basics

57. Session: The time a
user is engaged
with your site
One person, visiting
your site one time,
is a session

58. A user is any one person
visiting for any number
of sessions

59. Pageviews and pages/
session are just what
they sound like

60. Average length of
time people spend
on your site during
one visit
Is this “good?” I
don’t know. Is it
“bad?” Maybe.

61. A bounce is a
single-page visit

62. A bounce is a single-
page visit

63. A bounce is a single-
page visit

64. Benchmarking.

65. PANIC! NOOOOOO!!!!

66. oohhmmmm

67. Look at these numbers together

68. Consider context

70. Digging deeper: Top content

75. If you have e-commerce or goal
values, this is the value per
unique pageview

76. i am pumped

77. A Side Note: Organic Keyword Data

78. For our privacy…?

79. Riiigghhh‫…﬙﬙‬

80. Regardless, we have no organic keyword data
Look at traffic, micro-conversions and $$, instead

81. Digging deeper: A‫﬙‬ribution

82. A‫﬙‬ribution: Where the money’s coming from

84. By channel
Channel is a
category of traffic
generator, like
“organic search”

85. Switch between KPIs
and micro-conversions

86. By source and medium
Source is a site, like Google
Medium is a ‫﬚‬pe, like organic or
cpc (cost per click, aka ppc)

87. In most reports, you
can “drill down” but
other dimensions

88. For example, I might want to
see sources and mediums by
landing page, to find
combinations of high-
performing pages and channels

89. Organic search generates a
lot of revenue, but below-
average conversion rates

90. I always look at the
landing pages first: The
pages people land on when
they come from that source

91. Now bounce rate can
help out. I need to
look at these pages.

92. As it turned out, these products were
out of stock. We provided links to
alternatives. Boom. All fixed.

93. Digging really deep: Multi-touch a‫﬙‬ribution

94. PPC $$$$
Sometimes, sure.

95. PPC SEO Facebook e-mail PPC $$$$

96. stop doing seo
and social. ppc pays
off the best.

97. PPC SEO Facebook e-mail PPC $$$$

98. auuughhh what
happened?!!!
$

100. Let’s look across
channels, shall
we?

101. Conversions touched by
these channels. Turn off
the channels, potentially
lose the conversions
Look at organic
search!!!!

103. why did you stop
doing SEO!!!!

104. Tagging: A quick intro

105. “This click came from a cost per click ad on bing, foo
campaign, keyword capybara, and this was the creative
called test1”
?utm_medium=cpc
&utm_source=bing
&utm_campaign=foo
&utm_term=capybara
&utm_content=test1

106. “This click came from social post on Twi‫﬙‬er, foo campaign,
and this was the creative called test1”
?utm_medium=social
&utm_source=twitter
&utm_campaign=foo
&utm_content=test1

107. “This click came from sponsored post on Twi‫﬙‬er, foo
campaign, and this was the creative called test1”
?utm_medium=cpc
&utm_source=twitter
&utm_campaign=foo
&utm_content=test1

108. (Adwords is tagged automatically)

109. Case sensitive!!!
cpc, not PPC
Use standard sources/mediums

110. URL builder:
h‫﬙‬p://portent.co/ga-url-scoe

111. Rule #3
These are what ma‫﬙‬er
Track macro and micro-conversions
Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
THIS
THIS

112. Setup: The essential bits
Measurement & tagging
Paid search measurement
Some cool reports

113. I want to see if there are any
opportunities I’m missing

117. Do some keywords perform
be‫﬙‬er from mobile?

118. Do some keywords
perform be‫﬙‬er from
mobile?

119. Setup: The essential bits
Measurement & tagging
Paid search measurement
Some cool reports

121. h‫﬙‬p://portent.co/top-ecom-scoe

122. h‫﬙‬p://portent.co/monthly-analysis

123. h‫﬙‬p://portent.co/profitable-landers

124. Bonus Round!!! Today only!!!
Filtering and Segmenting

125. Just show me stuff w/
“Twi‫﬙‬er” in it

126. Show me stuff from Twi‫﬙‬er with
an average order value > $1

127. Limit this to…

128. …visits from mobile organic

129. …visits from mobile organic

130. What Else?
Search Console integration
Custom report creation
Data import
Advanced a‫﬙‬ribution modeling
Events
Nerdy gotchas

131. Rule #4
Bite off what you can chew

132. Commence Hecklement
Ian Lurie
@portentint