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AN INDUSTRY GUIDE TO Analytics Education and Skills For The Professional Advertiser

MODULE 5

American Federation

The Unifying Voice of Advertising is a freemium service that records what is happening at a . CONTENTS

Tracking the actions of a website is the essence of Google MODULE 5 Google Analytics Analytics.

Google Analytics delivers information on who is visiting a Learning Objectives...... 1 website, what visitors are doing on that website, and what Key Definitions...... 2-3 actions are carried out at the specific URL. Audience Tracking...... 4-5 Information is the essence of informed decision-making. The The A,B,C Cycle...... 6-16 website traffic activity data of Google Analytics delivers a full Acquisition understanding of customer/visitor journeys. Behavior Focus Google Analytics instruction on four(4) Conversions basic tenets: Strategy: Attribution Model...... 17-18

Audience- The people who visit a website Case History...... 19-20 Review...... 21 Acquisition- Where they came from Student Exercise...... 22 Behavior- What they did when they were there

Conversion- The percentage of people who performed a specific or desired activity on the site.

(Example: sign up for company ) Google Analytics LEARNING OBJECTIVES PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

1. Establish Google Analytics as a tracking tool that allows 1 Sign up for Google Analytics marketers to capture website audience, behavior, and activity data for successful marketing.

2. Expose students to the audience, acquisition, behavior, and conversion data delivered by Google Analytics.

3. Articulate the value of website audience, acquisition, behavior, 2 Add Tracking Code and conversion data to students and how to use in strategy development.

4. Show how Google Analytics’ ability to “track actions” can be the basis of building an “attribution model” to identify the very steps and sequence for conversion actions (purchase, click) to 3 Learn about your audience occur. WHAT IT IS

Google Analytics is a snippet of code that may be inserted on each

page of a website. The code organizes all of the site traffic data Get Started into a collection of reports. The reports are specific to a particular theme like , where visitors came from, content viewed, and more. These reports are the bread and butter of Google Analytics. They are what make the platform so valuable.

https://www.google.com/analytics/web/provision?et=&authuser=#provision/SignUp/

Google Analytics 1 Key Definitions Event THERE IS TERMINOLOGY IN THE WORLD OF When users interact with a content, it is tracked as an GOOGLE ANALYTICS THAT STUDENTS NEED TO event. These may be downloads, mobile ad clicks, when someone LEARN. BRIEFLY, HERE ARE THE KEY TERMS. plays a video or acquiring a pdf. Conversion This action is carried out by a site user. A micro conversion may Attribution simply be clicking on a form. A macro conversion may occur two This is the process of assigning credit for sales and conversions to months later when they place an order. Everything that leads up touch points in site conversion paths. It is assigning a quantitative to that macro conversion may be tracked in Google Analytics. value to the contribution of each step in the process of an site action which may be a sale, conversion, sign up or event. Goal A series of actions that must occur for a conversion event. Attribution Mode This is set of rules established through Google Analytics that Metric determines how credit for sales or conversions are assigned to each A metric is a quantitative measurement of data. Metrics can be point in the site user’s journey. There are different types of models sums or ratios. An example is how many people reside in a city. like “last click” attribution or “first click” attribution. Example: Last Screen views, pages per session, and average session duration click attribution would assign 100% credit to the final touch point are all examples of standard metrics. before a customer purchased. Say a user went to Google, looked for a site, found a blog, clicked on a blog, read another article, and then clicked on your site. A pageview is every time a page is loaded or reloaded in a browser. The pageview metric is the total number of pages on a website Dimension viewed. One unique visitor can contribute multiple . This is one way Google Analytics organizes data. Dimension is a descriptive attribute or characteristic of data. Browser, landing page, Session and campaign are all examples of dimensions in Google Analytics. A session is a period of time that a user is active on a site. By Other examples are geographic location, city name, state, exit page, default, if a visitor is active for 30 minutes or more, any future screens and sessions. activity is attributed to a new session and they will be flagged as a repeat visitor.

Google Analytics 2 Key Definitions

Source These are a sampling of the metrics provided by The origin of a web visitor such as a , Google, or a Google Analytics. particular domain name such as GrizzlyCiderworks.com.

Medium The general category of a source. For example, organic search is the case of Google. It could be social in the case of . It could be cost per click or even a referral from another website.

Bouncerate A metric expressing the percentage of visitors who left the entry page without interacting.

Google Analytics 3 Audience Tracking

The First major look of Google Analytics is the Audience Overview. It shows total sessions on a site within a given time frame, total users, pageviews, pages/session, average session duration (how long each visitor stayed on site) and the bounce rate. It is a true snapshot of site activity.

Introduce students to this page first. Cover the six metrics. And immediately direct them to the left hand side bar. Focus their attention first on Audience and the sub-titles beneath (overview, cohort, demographics, interests, geo, behavior, technology, mobile, custom).

The first page, the Audience Overview, is the 10,000 foot view what going on. From there students can drill down into the subcategory sections that deliver rich data of gender and age site visitors. The strategy implications are obvious.

Direct students to become intuitive and click on the various top and side menus. The obvious is the date range on the far right hand side. Allow students to change dates and click on menu selections to grasp the depth and variation potential of Google Analytics.

Google Analytics 4 Audience Tracking

The richness of demographic data continues with additional data on interests, geographic location, behavior, technology and even mobile platform visitors and the devices they use, whether Android, iPhone, Google, Samsung or others.

Begin to talk “Strategy” with students early on in discussion here. Pose the gains of simple geographic targeting by region, state or city Perhaps take them deeper into targeting by users of specific Android mobile devices or iPhones. Let them create a specific consumer profile and grasp the Google Analytics metrics that expose the targeting opportunity.

Google Analytics 5 THE A,B,C CYCLE THE A,B,C CYCLE IS THE KEY GOOGLE ANALYTICS Acquisition Reports

Google Analytics provides a series of reports that may be grouped • Reveal where you users are coming from in an ongoing cycle. Make it memorable for students by calling it The A,B,C cycle. • Outline their behavior on the site • Provide their conversion pattern A = Acquisition: How people actually get to a website. B = Behavior: The specific actions people do when they get site. C = Conversion: The way to measure success.

The A,B,C cycle is the strategic environment created by the data tracking of Google Analytics’ dynamic capture of website traffic activity.

Step One: Acquisition In the Acquistions section of Google Analytics are a variety of Reports that point to how people find a website. Use Acquisition Reports to identify what marketing efforts are working and which ones aren’t. From , to Social media, to Search Engine Optimization, these Reports will identify which Channels are bringing in site visitors and which channels are sending the highest quality traffic.

To get to Acquisition Reports, select “Reporting,” from the top navigation of Google Analytics.

Google Analytics 6 A,B,C CYCLE

In the left-hand navigation, scroll down to Acquisition. The first screen will be the Overview Report seen here.

The Acquisition Overview gives you an at-a-glance view of all of the Top Channels sending visitors to a website, as well as any associated conversions, behaviors, and details for all of those channels.

Reports in the Acquisition section are broken out primarily by Channel, Source, Medium, Keyword and Campaign.

Channels, or Channel grouping is where Google gathers the most common sources of traffic and categorizes them.

In the example here, the channel groupings of Sources are Google/organic, direct (meaning visitor went directly to the URL), yahoo/organic and more. Source is the origin of traffic.

Another channel grouping to examine is the next button down from Source/Medium on the left hand side called Referrals. This means sites like Facebook that may have been driving referrals to the site versus search or direct traffic.

A referring site is simply a fancy way to describe sites that link to sites that are driving traffic to a website. Google Analytics can detect an incoming visit from a link, and then it records that down as the referring site. From then on, anything that is done during that visit, including, say, a goal or an event, will be credited and attributed back to the referring source.

Google Analytics 7 A,B,C CYCLE

A final important drop down menu on Attribution is Adwords. Google Analytics seamlessly links with Adwords to deliver complete tracking data for keywords, campaigns, and efforts.

Step Two: Behavior The Behavior section is about how users interact with a website or app. The Behavior Reports identify the most popular content on a site to give a better understanding of how visitors are navigating between pages.

To get to Behavior Reports, simply click on “Behavior” from the left side navigation section of Google Analytics. From there, several dropdown navigation bars appear which will be discussed on the following pages.

Google Analytics 8 A,B,C CYCLE websites exist to achieve a desired action However, that website may been viewed multiple times by the same individual who mayhave looked at one page, ...gone to The Behavior Reports show what a site does to help visitors another, ...returned for a second look, and on. The second column achieve a desired action. That action may be learning, is Unique Pageviews, meaning that if a person viewed a page downloading an app or pdf, acquiring information to prequalify several times on a visit, they’re still only counted as one visitor. a major purchase, or even to carry out a transaction right at the site, online. The third column shows Average Time on Page. The longer time spent on page may indicate engaging content. Short durations In the example here, on the very first Overview page, the time may mean the page lacks effectiveness and should be redesigned period is 2/14/14 to 3/26/14. Be sure to emphasize that this or content adjusted. In the case of the example page an average period may be adjusted to days, weeks, months or years of visit was 1 minute 31 seconds. examination. The final two columns, Bounce Rate and % Exit indicate just how The overview data show that during the 2/14-3/26/14 period, engaging each pages content were with visitors. In the example the page examined was seen 4908 times or Pageviews. here, 59.65% came to the page and then left the site and among all site visitors for the period, it was the exit page 46.35% of the time.

Google Analytics 9 A,B,C CYCLE

• LEARN WHAT VISITORS ARE INTERESTED IN ON THE SITE. • DRILL DOWN INTO SECTIONS TO SEE WHAT VISITORS LOOK AT. • LEARN WHERE VISITORS ENTER AND EXIT A SITE.

The Site content reports allow one to drill down deeper into each individual page to assess effectiveness and track visitor actions on a content section.

To get to the Site Content Reports, simply click on “Behavior Flow” from the left side navigation section of Google Analytics. The first drop down is the Pages section. Here one may go page-by-page into a site, examine the number of views for each page relative to the entire site as well as between site pages.

Bounce rate and exit are key items to examine. And it is here that students should learn to examine for strategy. If an individual page is underperforming or possibly has a high bounce rate students should consider adding an interaction strategy such as adding a short video to further articulate content or add visual elements for higher engagement.

Google Analytics 10 A,B,C CYCLE Start with the objectives

Another important dropdown is the Landing Pages report.

Here one can actually see each page, what’s happening, how long each is viewed, and what interactions if any are taking place. One can look at higher and lower performing pages and determine what is working and what can be done to improve interaction on lower time spent or high bounce rate pages.

Google Analytics 11 A,B,C CYCLE

Another important dropdown is the Exit Pages report.

Here one can actually see where people actually leave a site. This is where any call to action or information needed is delivered prior to visitor exits. It is here that one is literally “waving good bye” to those on a site. So if there is a contact request or other desired action, place it here. Make sure that page gives the visitor the information they need before they go.

Google Analytics 12 A,B,C CYCLE

Perhaps the most intriguing section is the Behavior of a site aren’t getting as much exposure as hoped. In the example Flow report. here there are 755 sessions on a page, but 669 drop offs. From there one can see where the first interaction pages were, how Here one can actually see each page, what’s happening, and the many, and where they went next (or exited). Any drop off will also path visitors take on a site---from the first page they view to the appear. Explore the drill down capabilities by clicking on the gear last page they view before they leave the site. This is a great way to icon which will allow further contents views. It’s like the ultimate identify problems, popular content, and understand which sections crosstabing tool for website content.

Google Analytics 13 A,B,C CYCLE

Step Three: Conversion A point that is challenging to teach, but essential for students to What to do with the information? Decide on “the goals” of a understand as they move forward into real world professional website. This is what Conversion is all about. Depending on the careers, is that many clients work without focus on specific model of the website company, entity or organization, the business benchmarks of accomplishment, or goals. Truth be told, many objective or goals may vary as such: are too preoccupied with ongoing work that they, for repeat of a familiar phrase, “fail to see the forest through the trees.” As such, • Ecommerce: Sell products actual performance goals are overlooked. Many will look at all the • Lead Generation: Contact for sales prospects fascinating Google Analytics reports yet never apply actionable • Content Publisher: Show advertising to visitors measures for success. This is where Google Analytics takes charge • Support: Help customers solve problems with “Goals” demonstrated in the following. • Branding: Drive awareness and engagement.

To get to Conversions, simply click on “Conversions” from the left side navigation section of Google Analytics. From there a “Goals” dropdown selection will appear. Click on it.

One of the altruistic commitments of Google is to provide a successful experience for users, visitors, advertisers, customers, and all who come in contact with any of their product services. Google Analytics is testimony to this. Aside from all of the Acquisition and Behavioral reporting, the Analytics user is guided in conversion goal setting.

Goal Type Description Example

Destination A specific location loads Visitor reached the "thank you for singing up for our newsletter!" page

Duration Visits that lasts a specific amount of time or longer Visitor spend ten minutes reading the volunteer application section

Pages/Screens per visit Visitor views a specific number of pages or screens Visitor viewed at least five pages on the site

Event An action defined as an event if triggered Visitor watched our promotional video

Google Analytics 14 Goals

Goals are an essential part of Google Analytics. 1 Goal setup

If goals are absent, the website missing out on a tremendous Template amount of data. Goals measure how well a site is meeting its objective. Typically, goals are a completed activity called a Select a template to state with a pre-filled configuration

conversion that contributes to the success of a business. A goal REVENUE could be to fill out a feedback form, sign up for an account, Place and order Completed purchase or pre-order request download a whitepaper, or buy something from an e-commerce store. ACQUISITION Place and order Successful sign up, account, or view created Goal conversions are a great way to see if website marketing INQUIRY efforts are paying off. Google Analytics goals can deliver the critical Contact us Completed purchase or pre-order request information such as number of conversions and the conversion Read reviews Viewed reviews and ratings rate for a site. And without that data, it’s almost impossible to Get callback Requested service or a phone call evaluate the effectiveness of online business and marketing Live chat Contacted via chat campaigns. Because the web is so trackable, it’s actually pretty Update Downloadable or installed new version easy to configure Google Analytics in such a way to see when goal conversions actually happen. ENGAGEMENT Compare information Compared features, products, or options Add to favorites Saved product or information to a list First Step Media Play Played interactive media, like a video, slideshow, or product demo To set up a Goal, go to the top of the page and choose Admin. Share / social connect Shared to a social network or emailed Choose Goals, which is the third item down from the top of this Sign up Subscribe to newsletter, update alerts, or join group list. Click on the New Goal Button in the upper left-hand corner. A list of goal templates will appear (See Example). Select a template if a selected industry is relevant to using the predefined goal templates. The industry may be edited by going into Admin, selecting the property, and editing it to add an industry category. Give the goal a name. And proceed with reports.

Google Analytics 15 Goals

Second Step  Goal setup Edit Give a description for the goal. Again, Google Analytics walks Template: Submit content users through the process of identifying which type of goal to identify: 2 Goal description • Destination • Duration Name

• Pages/Screens per visit Email Newsletter Signup • Event

Type A Destination goal may be getting a visitor to a specific page Destination ex: thanks. such as an email newsletter sign up. A Duration goal may be Duration ex: 5 minutes or more a predefined time each user spends on the site as a metric of Pages/Screens per visit ex: 3 pages successful engagement. A Pages/Screen goal may be another Event ex: played a video engagement measure whereby visitors click to a certain number of site pages. Finally, an Event may be a whitepaper download, 3 Goal details playing a video, purchase or other specific activity.

Destination Third Step Equals to 6 www.waidenspuddle.org/thanks.html Case sensitve To define specific activity of Goal. Here again, Google Analytics For example, use My Screen for an app and /thankyou.html instead of www.example.com/thankyou.html for a webpage program wizard provides guiding options such as specific website Value OPTIONAL clicks, monetary value of activity, or other options. Off Assign a monetary value to the conversion Final Step Funnel OPTIONAL Click Create Goal. That’s it! Now watch reports happen. Off

Specify a path you expect traffic to take towards the destination. Use it to analyze the entrance and exit points that impact your goal

Verify this Goal See how often this Goal would have converted based on your date from the past 7 days

Google Analytics 16 Strategy: Attribution Model

Google Analytics can provide information to make important business decisions such as which traffic sources are important, who are visitors and their demographics, which sites refer traffic and other information that may guide search engine optimization and even allocate advertising budgets.

What is even more exciting to develop in students is an understanding that Google Analytics can assist in the development of “predictive behavior” called “Attribution Models.” Look at the A,B,C cycle. Visitors exhibit predictive site originations and demographics. Once on a site, they may interact in a predictable manner (or the site may be tailored to their actions). Their behavior is captured, analyzed, and put into a path-to-action predictive model. This is the future of advertising, marketing and business. Plant the seeds in students now. Data is omnipresent. Google Analytics is a tool to make it happen. Show them how to use it.

Google Analytics 17 Strategy: Attribution Model

GOOGLE ANALYTICS REFERENCES

Academy

https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com

Help

https://support.google.com/analytics

Blog

http://analytics.blogspot.com

Use Forum

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/analytics

YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/googleanalytics

Tools

http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Google Analytics 18 Case Study When luxury, pre-owned watch retailer Watchfinder discovered less than 1% of customers were purchasing on their first site visit, the company knew it was time to take action. Google Analytics WATCHFINDER unlocked valuable insights that allowed the retailer to reconnect with site visitors, encouraging them to return and complete a purchase. As a result, in just six months Watchfinder saw stellar results, including a 1,300% ROI.

Goals • Encourage site visitors who don’t purchase initially to return and complete a purchase • Encourage foot traffic to new London boutique

Approach • Created 20 highly focused lists of visitors who demonstrated intent but did not purchase

• Defined groups according to funnel stage, location, language, on-site behavior, ISP and more

WATCHFINDER CLOCKS 1,300% ROI USING Results PRECISION REMARKETING WITH GOOGLE • Resulted in 1,300% ROI • Average order value (AOV) increased by 13% ANALYTICS • Remarketing campaigns resulted in 34% lower CPAs than non- brand search campaigns

Watchfinder is a leading U.K. retailer of premium, pre-owned watches. The company was founded in 2002 as an online-only store selling watches from more than 80 premier manufacturers. Today, Watchfinder has an annual turnover of £25 million and has recently opened a flagship boutique in the London Royal Exchange. Google Analytics 19 Counting the hours Additionally, traffic performance analysis across a variety of GA Considering the average order value on Watchfinder’s site is dimensions revealed that certain service providers (ISPs) more than £3,500, the company found buying decisions tended in the London financial district yielded traffic with much higher to take time, often spanning weeks or months. In fact, less than engagement and above average conversion rates. As a result, 1% of visitors were completing purchases on their first site visit. Periscopix designed segments of interest to investment banks Watchfinder’s challenge was to reengage and also maintain a such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to engage with employees conversation with these visitors, encouraging them to return and at these companies. place an order. In addition to driving customers back to its site, Watchfinder also wanted to encourage customers to visit its new Google Analytics’ functionality enabled Periscopix to convey physical boutique in the London Royal Exchange. tailored to these key groups of interested consumers. For example, London-based users were retargeted with ads A moment to reconnect encouraging visits to the new London store, while visitors to the Watchfinder’s agency, Periscopix, a Google Analytics Certified .co.uk site from France were retargeted with ads promoting the Partner, suggested Remarketing with Google Analytics as a French site. great way to reconnect with users. Remarketing with Google Analytics allows advertisers to tap into valuable insights about Time well spent website visitors who show an interest in products, identify the Thanks to clear reporting in Google Analytics, it’s been easy to see most relevant audiences and run ads across the Google Display the impressive results from Watchfinders’ remarketing campaign. Network that are tailored to that audience using the industry’s Six months in, Periscopix reveals the return on investment is most powerful segmentation capabilities. 1,300%. Average order value on the site has also increased by 13%, resulting in 34% lower CPAs than Watchfinder’s non-brand search Periscopix created 20 highly focused lists of visitors who campaigns. demonstrated intent but did not purchase. Specifically, lists were based on various aspects of user context such as location, Across all tactics used, the remarketing list that produced the language and what stage of the purchase funnel they were in. highest conversion rates, both in terms of goals and transactions, On-site behavior helped identify groups that had spent a certain was made up of visitors who browsed for ten minutes or more on amount of time on the site or had viewed a certain number of their initial site visit without purchasing. pages. Other lists were based on users who had viewed a specific watch brand on the site. Given Watchfinder’s early success with Remarketing with Google Analytics across the Google Display Network, they are excited to increase investment in this area going forward.

Google Analytics 20 Review Time CHALLENGE 1: WHAT IS GOOGLE ANALYTICS? CHALLENGE 4: BEHAVIOR REPORTS Google Analytics is a tracking tool that allows marketers to capture Important metrics to grasp are: website audience, behavior, and activity data for successful marketing. • Pageviews • Unique Pageviews • % Exit • Average time on page Google Analytics is available as a freemium snippet of code for • Landing Pages • Bounce Rate any business, organization, company, or individual with a website. • Exit Pages CHALLENGE 2: THE IMPORTANCE OF TRACKING CHALLENGE 5: BEHAVIOR FLOW Focus students on the importance of website data for decision- Site content analysis is more than metric numbers and ratios. making. Important data tracking dimensions are: Specific behaviors as well as their sequencing (Example: entry pages and following pages flowed to-and-from) are important to • Audience effective websites. • Geographic location • Landing page • Exit page CHALLENGE 6: CONVERSIONS Websites should have at least one conversion goal. That may be: • Session

• Browser type • Ecommerce: Sell products • Lead Generation: Contact for sales prospects CHALLENGE 3: THE A,B,C CYCLE • Content Publisher: Show advertising to visitors Develop a firm understanding of Google Analytics three basic • Support: Help customers solve problems reporting areas: • Branding: Drive awareness and engagement. Acquisition Behavior Conversion CHALLENGE 7: ATTRIBUTION Google Analytics can be the basis of a powerful “predictive behavior” strategy called an Attribution Model.

Google Analytics 21 Module 5 Student Exercise Google Analytics

Complete the learning module with several commit-to-memory exercises

1. Match the following terms with the appropriate description: 3. What are the three elements of the A,B,C cycle? Explain each.

A. Landing Page The percent of website visitors going 4. Give an example of a “destination” goal. to a web page and never interacting 5. Give an example of a “duration” goal. B. Metric The first page that is visited on a website 6. Google Analytics tracking shows a website has a landing page with a 2 minute 22 second time spent on page for both 18- C. Bounce Rate Every time a web page loads or 34 year olds as well as 45-54 year olds. However, each reloads for a visitor ensuing page has less than 18 seconds time spent on page metric for 18-34 year olds versus 2 minutes for 45-54 year olds. D. Page View A quantitative measure of numbers, What may you conclude? percentages or ratios 7. Your client is concerned that long term customer traffic is 2. A website has two pages with similar garment ski coats. Both declining, yet they’re still seeing sales increases. What Google are priced at $79.95. Both have colors Red, Green, Blue. Both Analytics metrics should you examine to give them a true look are similar quality. However, one has a page Bounce Rate at the situation? of 79%; the other has a 32.4% Bounce Rate. Given those Google Analytics, what analysis may you conclude? What recommendations may you put forth?

Google Analytics 22 Please send comments to www.aaf.org/learningmodules American Advertising Federation 555 11th ST NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004 www.aaf.org

Compiled by Daniel J. Petek American Advertising Federation, National Education Executive Committee