Analytics ebook-sample

The Fat-Free Guide to Google Analytics Using Google Analytics for Business Analytics

By Ian Lurie

Portent Interactive

Conversation Marketing

From Google Analytics to Business Analytics 2

Legal, Notes and Other Stuff © 2010, The Written Word, Inc. d/b/a Portent Interactive and Ian Lurie. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Click here to read the license.

That’s a fancy way of saying: Ian scrapes out a living writing and selling books like these. Please, buy a copy.

If you like this book, you might want to check out Ian’s blog at www.ConversationMarketing.com, and his company, at www.portent.com.

If you want to talk to Ian, you can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter at

@portentint


Table of Contents

The Cure For Analytics Phobia ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6

A Business Analytics System ............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 A Business Analytics System: B2B.................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 A Business Analytics System: Charities........................................................................................................................................................................ 9 A Business Analytics System: News ............................................................................................................................................................................... 9

1. How to: Install Google Analytics.............................................................................................................................................................10 Resources: Google Analytics Install.............................................................................................................................................................................15

2. Setting up and tracking goals..................................................................................................................................................................16 Figuring out your goal and goal page.........................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Example: A membership site ........................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Setting up a page-based goal in Google Analytics..................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Setting up a non-page-based goal in Google Analytics.........................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Lots of goals ........................................................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3. Calculating & Applying Value..................................................................................................................................................................17 Customer value: E-commerce.......................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Customer value: Lead generation ...............................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Customer value: Publishing ..........................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Customer value: Anything else.....................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Lead conversion rate.......................................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Click conversion rate.......................................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.


Click value: An e-commerce site..................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Click value: A business-to-business site ...................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Fudging it.............................................................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Sample data ........................................................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Resources: Value Calculation .......................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4. Measuring and Building Growth ............................................................................................................................................................19 Tracking content performance: A quick trick.........................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Tracking traffic sources .................................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Tracking traffic sources: Referring sites ..................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Referring sites: An example ..........................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Tracking traffic sources: Keywords ...........................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Improving growth using traffic sources: Examples ..............................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Tracking content performance....................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Tracking content performance: Context matters ..................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Finding high-performing content ...............................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Other ways to find ‘good’ content................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Improving growth by finding ‘good’ content: E-commerce................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Finding and improving poor-performing content.................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Final points about growth .............................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

5. What’s next.................................................................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Additional resources .......................................................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. About Ian Lurie & Portent Interactive.......................................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

Other stuff by Ian Lurie.....................................................................................................................................................................................21 Contacting Ian Lurie .........................................................................................................................................................................................................21


Google Analytics Scares the Snot Out of You

You’re not alone.

It’s a great program. But with

dozens of metrics and dozens

more possible ways to view them,

there are literally thousands of

possible reports, data points

and other goodies in your

analytics report.


The Cure For Analytics Phobia

Google Analytics is overwhelming because

people often let the reports drive their

research & strategy. So they click

around, trying to take in every last digit.

The cure? Have a goals-focused

method for using Google Analytics.

That will help you pick and choose

which reports to use and when,

and keep you from getting lost in the data.

You need a business analytics system.


A Business Analytics System

You need to perform business analytics.

You can do that by focusing on what really matters to your business: Things that

generate value and improve growth.

Value comes from whatever generates bottom-line dollars or results for your

organization. Value = the value of one click that brings a visitor to your site. It’s

the King (Queen) of all analytics. Without it, nothing else matters.

Growth is all about reach and audience access. Growth is what you get when you

can bring more visitors and introduce them to the pipeline. The pipeline only

improves if your visitors want what you’re offering and find it when they arrive

on your site. Growth is all about visit source and quality: Where visitors come

from, how long they stay on your site, how many pages they look at, and how

engaged they really are.


That value-growth duo is what drives your business, whether you know it or not.

If you use it when you look at Google Analytics, it’ll keep you focused on your

business, instead of the reports.

As you read this e-book, you’re going to create an at-a-glance system that’ll let

you do this efficiently day-to-day. Web analytics can work that way, if you use it

right.

This system will work whether you’re in an e-commerce business or not. Here are

some examples:

A Business Analytics System: B2B

If you’re a purely business-to-business, lead-driven company, then your value

comes from leads.

Your growth opportunities come from expanded company reach (more people

finding you online), and from more, higher-quality visitors to your site.


A Business Analytics System: Charities

If you’re a charity and/or a non-profit, your value comes from funding and

grants, as well as subscribers and supporters you recruit online.

Your growth opportunities come from reach, much like B2B. But in this case,

you’re attracting potential donors.

A Business Analytics System: News

If you’re a news site or other publication, your value comes from pageviews you

can turn into advertising sales.

Growth results from additional readers who find their way to your site. Your

business improves when those potential readers look at more pages per visit and

spend more time on your site. It also improves when readers subscribe to your

site’s RSS feed or newsletter, or pass stories along to friends.


1. How to: Install Google Analytics

It’s easy! If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your site yet,

this is where you start. Otherwise, skip ahead to Calculating &

Applying Value.


First step: If you don’t have a Google Account, get one.

1. Go to www.google.com/accounts

2. Click ‘Create an account now’:

3. Fill out the form. All done.


Next: Set up your Google Analytics account.

1. Go to www.google.com/analytics.

2. Click ‘Sign up Now’.

3. Log in using your Google Accounts password (you set that up on page 11).

4. Click ‘Sign Up’, and you’re ready to set up your first site.


Once you click ‘sign up’ you’ll see the form below:

You can track multiple sites in a single Google Analytics account. This form sets

up your first one.

For Website’s URL, enter the exact address of your site. That means, if your

site is at www.gibblegibbet.com, include the ‘www’. If your site address doesn’t

include ‘www’, use gibblegibbet.com. Account Name will automatically reflect

the site address. If you’re going to manage multiple sites, you might want to


change this to something you’ll recognize. Select your time zone and country, and

click ‘Continue’.

Finally, grab the code that Google Analytics provides and paste it into your web

site per their instructions. In about 24 hours, you’ll start seeing data. Woo hoo!

You’re off and running.


Resources: Google Analytics Install

A few resources you can use to help you install Google Analytics:

I did a video tutorial:

http://bit.ly/dh8zPs

And, of course, Google’s own tutorial ain’t bad:

http://bit.ly/9yTERy


2. Setting up and tracking goals

Every business web site has one or more goals: An action they’d

like every visitor to take. That action might be a purchase, or a vote,

or a simple, “Hmmm, that’s interesting”. Before you can start

applying value and measuring growth, you have to set up Google

Analytics to measure those goals.


3. Calculating & Applying Value

Last chapter, you learned to set up goals. That’s great, but a goal,

when accomplished, delivers value. Value is real cash generated,

not ‘attention’ or ‘eyeballs’. If you can’t calculate value, goals data is

one more distracting bar chart.


4. Measuring and Building Growth

Time to apply all that cool stuff you just learned. In this section,

you’ll match value to specific sources, and tie them together with

goal measurement.


Other stuff by Ian Lurie

The Fat-Free Guide to SEO Copywriting

The Web Marketing All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies

Conversation Marketing

The Fat Free Guide to Internet Marketing (subscription-based)


Contacting Ian Lurie

E-mail: [email protected]

Twitter: @portentint

Blog: www.ConversationMarketing.com

Analytics ebook-sample

Documents

Transcript of Analytics ebook-sample