Corridor Meetup Analytics 101 - Vardaman Converge

Google Analytics 101

Becky Vardaman – Vice President of Strategy

March 16, 2015

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Welcome & Thank You

Becky Vardaman

@BeckyVardaman Becky@ConvergeConsulting.org

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CONVERGE CONSULTING IS A HIGHER EDUCATION INBOUND MARKETING FIRM We use what’s new and next in content strategy, search engine optimization, digital advertising, web analytics and video storytelling to positively impact student recruitment and alumni engagement for colleges and universities

around the world.

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• Why do web analytics matter? • What can we learn? • What is Universal Analytics?

Today We’ll Answer...

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Why do web analytics matter?

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You Don’t Hear From Everyone You’ve Turned Off

Sometimes they just don’t call.

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A Process, Not a Task

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What can we learn?

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Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, Conversions

• Geography (metro, city, state, country) •  Behavior (new vs. returning) •  Technology (network, browser) •  Device (tablet, mobile or desktop) •  Even demographics (male/female, interests) • What pages they visit • How long they’re here • Where they came from • What they did (event, goals)

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Is This Good or Bad?

•  2,000 page views •  70% returning visitors •  80% bounce rate

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Goals: What Are Our Website Audiences?

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Goals: Why Do We Have a Website?

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Types of goals

URL destination Goal completed when visitor views defined URL

Time on site Goal completed when visitor spends X amount of time on site

Pages / visit Goal completed when visitor views X number of pages on site

Event Goal completed when visitor takes a predefined action

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Web Analytics Framework: Audience - Prospective Client

1 Business Objectives Request More Information

2 Website Goals Fill out our contact form

3 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Visits to Thank You page of contact form

4 Targets Increase by X%

5 Segments Geography, Traffic Sources, Service Provider

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Traffic Sources

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Types of Traffic Direct

Visitors who come directly to the website using the domain name.

Search engines By default, GA tracks 20+ different search engines.

Referrals Links that appear on other websites.

Social By default, GA is tracking the popular social networks

Email Anything you’ve tagged as email. (TAG YOUR EMAIL!)

Campaigns Custom! You decide.

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Why It Matters So Much to Marketing

• Which traffic sources convert best on goals? •  At what rate? Over time? • Which traffic sources do we spend money on? • Which traffic sources do we spend time on? • What unexpected trends can we capitalize on?

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Spam Referrals

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Spam Referrals

https://megalytic.com/blog/how-to-filter-out-fake-referrals-and-other-google-analytics-spam

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Events

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Events

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Google Tag Manager

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Dashboards: Regular Reporting

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Dashboards

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Dashboards

Where to start? •  Goals •  Current reporting (replace with a dashboard) •  Content heavy sections of your site (blog, news) •  Content contributors •  A specific Campaign •  A specific Traffic Source (social media, ppc, referrals) •  Inbound marketing process (attract, convert, delight)

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What is Universal Analytics?

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The Road to Universal

Traditional, Synchronous and Asynchronous Universal Analytics

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Universal  Analy-cs  •  The Measurement Protocol •  Offline Conversion Import •  Server Side Sessionization •  Custom Dimensions/Metrics and Dimension Widening •  Multi-Platform Tracking •  Demographic Data

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Universal  Analy-cs:  Example  

WEBSITE

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Universal  Analy-cs:  Example  

WEBSITE

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How do we make the transition?

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Universal Analytics Upgrade Option 1: Transfer

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Universal Analytics Upgrade Option 2: Both

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And if we don’t upgrade?

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People Involved: •  Marketing •  IT •  Third party applications •  Internal Stakeholders (Admissions, Academics, Athletics, Sales, Product)

Universal Analytics Upgrade

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Time Involved: •  Actual transition is very quick (replace code) •  Making and executing a plan takes longer (up to six months)

Universal Analytics Upgrade

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This is a great time to be sure you have a strategic analytics plan: •  Accurate, reliable data •  Audience based goals and events to support them •  Regular dashboard reporting and improvements •  Tag management

Universal Analytics Upgrade

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Thank You & Questions