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Posts Tagged ‘google analytics’
Aug 04
2011
 Back in August 2008, I wrote a post on how to optimize form length with input analysis with Google Analytics. This is still a very relevant topic, as forms are still essential to collecting data from visitors. I still cringe when I see a form that has a ton of fields, and I know many of you do as well. This post will show you how to take action to shorten your forms and remove unneeded fields, which usually results in higher conversion rates for your forms.
The old post referenced the traditional/syncronous version of the Google Analytics tracking code. This new post features the newest release by Google, which is the asynchronous code execution.
Please note that I am not going to re-do the entire post, just the code portion.
So here is the code update:
Traditional Snippet (Synchronous):
function validate()
{
isEntered(document.getElementById('name'),'name');
isEntered(document.getElementById('email'),'email');
isEntered(document.getElementById('phone'),'phone');
isEntered(document.getElementById('company'),'company');
isEntered(document.getElementById('comments'),'comments');
frm.action='/thankyou.aspx?src=contact_us.htm';
}
function isEntered(el, field_name)
{
if((el.value=="") || (el.value==null))
{
pageTracker._trackPageview('/contact_us.htm/empty/'+field_name);
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
Asynchronous Snippet (NEW):
function validate()
{
isEntered(document.getElementById('name'),'name');
isEntered(document.getElementById('email'),'email');
isEntered(document.getElementById('phone'),'phone');
isEntered(document.getElementById('company'),'company');
isEntered(document.getElementById('comments'),'comments');
frm.action='/thankyou.aspx?src=contact_us.htm';
}
function isEntered(el, field_name)
{
if((el.value=="") || (el.value==null))
{
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/contact_us.htm/empty/'+field_name]);
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
Related Posts:
Technorati Tags: form optimization, google analytics, web analytics
Tags: form optimization, google analytics, web analytics
Posted in web analytics | No Comments »
Jul 29
2011
Back in January 2009, I wrote a post on how to track traffic from Press Releases in Google Analytics. That posts referenced the old synchronous version of the Google Analytics tracking code and needed a code update with the most recent tracking code release by Google, featuring asynchronous code execution.
Please note that I am not going to re-do the entire post, just the code portion.
So here is the code update:
Traditional Snippet (Synchronous):
<script type="text/javascript">
var srcPage = getDomain (document.referrer);
var parameter = get_parameter('id');
function get_parameter(name)
{
name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
var regexS = "[\\?&#]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
var regex = new RegExp(regexS);
var results = regex.exec(window.location.href);
if( results == null )
return "";
else
return results[1];
}
function getDomain (thestring) {
var urlpattern = new RegExp("(http|ftp|https)://(.*?)/.*$");
var parsedurl = thestring.match(urlpattern);
if( parsedurl == null )
return "";
else
return parsedurl[2];
}
if (parameter == '1')
{
window.location.hash = "utm_source="+srcPage+"&utm_medium=press_release&utm_campaign=hurricane_katrina";
}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setAllowAnchor(true);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>
Asynchronous Snippet (NEW):
<script type="text/javascript">
var srcPage = getDomain (document.referrer);
var parameter = get_parameter('id');
function get_parameter(name)
{
name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
var regexS = "[\\?&#]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
var regex = new RegExp(regexS);
var results = regex.exec(window.location.href);
if( results == null )
return "";
else
return results[1];
}
function getDomain (thestring) {
var urlpattern = new RegExp("(http|ftp|https)://(.*?)/.*$");
var parsedurl = thestring.match(urlpattern);
if( parsedurl == null )
return "";
else
return parsedurl[2];
}
if (parameter == '1')
{
window.location.hash = "utm_source="+srcPage+"&utm_medium=press_release&utm_campaign=hurricane_katrina";
}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-X']);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowAnchor', true]);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
Related Posts:
Technorati Tags: google analytics, press releases, web analytics
Tags: google analytics, press releases, web analytics
Posted in web analytics | No Comments »
Mar 30
2011
 You just attended an informative digital marketing and analytics conference and you’re pumped to make it a banner year for your organization. Your analytics and marketing goals are set and now you are serious about making a difference and you want to:
- Better understand your customers
- Improve your site performance
- Squeeze every bit of ROI from your marketing initiatives, and
- Provide valuable insight/recommendations to the business
Lofty goals and they should be. But are they achievable? Yes! Supercharge your marketing by implementing the 6-step Analytics Framework outlined in this post (although, for those of us addicted to data, it seems as though we might benefit more from a 12-step program  ).
Before I dive into the framework, and for the (hopefully small) minority that is still getting familiar with analytics, it’s time to get serious about measurement or risk falling behind. Here’s why everyone should jump on the analytics bandwagon:
- Millions of sites, from start-ups to Fortune 25, use enterprise-class analytics solutions such as Google Analytics to improve their site performance.
- Today, analytics literature is abundant. Do a quick search for “web analytics” on Amazon and you’ll get over 200 results.
- Even in this day and age, it seems that only a few companies are serious about measurement and analysis. It’s time to move beyond the basics and treat data as a strategic asset. So if you’re looking for gold, it’s clear where you have to dig. Big companies like IBM can’t acquire analytics companies fast enough!
So we have established that there is more interest in data and more access to enterprise level analytics – but what is missing? We need smart people and commitment to a process. And as importantly, we need practical tips to guide us through the web of analytics. Assuming you have (or can get) smart people who care about the business and ask the right questions, here is a tried and tested framework guaranteed to take your marketing optimization to the next level.
The 6-step Analytics Framework
- Know Thy Channels
- Metrics: Less is More
- Segmentation: Give Me Context
- Intelligence at Your Service
- Reporting
- Automation
Let’s get started!!
1 – Know Thy Channels
Your traffic is skyrocketing and you don’t know why. Not a good thing. You deserve more visibility. And since you’re smart and up-to-date, you know you can’t measure every channel using old metrics and by using just one tool. Hello Multiplicity! The good old pageviews won’t cut it anymore. Because channels are constantly evolving (did you know of anyone measuring “tweets” three years ago? ), it’s crucial to understand the characteristics of each channel and identify meaningful metrics specific to that channel.
For example:
- If you are a content site, and you are busy producing videos, you want to measure the success of this digital content. Look at user behavior and events (play, pause, forward etc) and understand where and when your audience is most engaged with your content.
- If blogging is your forte, measure number of comments, average words per post and average words per comment. Successful blogging is comprised of an engaged audience. We use WordPress’ Blog Metrics.
- If you’re one of the millions on FaceBook, listen to the conversation through comments, ‘likes’, shares, etc. Today, conversations happen outside of your own site.
Power tip: Identify all your channels and document what engagement and outcomes you expect and want to measure.
2 – Metrics: Less is More!
Are you drowning in rivers of data? To prevent sinking, critically examine your load. Just because you have access to large amounts of data and reports in Google Analytics (and the four other tools you have on your site), you don’t need it all. When sorting through data, remember: less is more. Just focus on what keeps your CEO awake at night (or jumping for joy ). Focus on key results, here are recommendations:
- eCommerce: report on revenue, ROAS and compare to expected outcomes
- B2B businesses: report on qualified leads and cost/lead
- Report on conversion rates and what channels are best/worst performers
- If you are just starting your analytics journey and you don’t have your analytics solution fully implemented, reporting on a “basic” yet powerful metric such as bounce rate will help you identify your worst offenders (campaigns and pages) and that’s something you can improve fairly quickly
- If you’re really advanced, develop your own custom KPIs. For example, check out how philly.com has done it. This newspaper website is measuring engagement on a new (and slightly complex) level. They are asking very thoughtful questions to help them understand their user behavior.
Power tip: Identify and trend 2-3 metrics for each of your stakeholders (business, marketing, IT, product, support)
3 – Segmentation: Give Me Context
Last month, you had one million visitors to your site. Sounds good, but is it? Not if you had three million visits two months ago. So always give your data context, segmentation is key. With Google Analytics, you can apply advanced segmentation capabilities to slice and dice your data in almost every other way you need (e.g. paid vs. non paid searches, engaged vs. non-engaged, geography, visitor type, browser, time comparison, etc. you name it). If you are the deep-dive type, you should then zoom in on your segments for more meaningful data and whatever makes sense for your business.
- If you have an eCommerce site, report on sales this month, planned sales, sales last month and sales during the same month last year
Power tip: Review your current dashboard and assess where to add an additional dimension to each report
4 – Intelligence at Your Service
Let computers do all the number crunching. Make faster, smarter decisions with reports that automatically detect and surface significant changes in your key performance indicators. It’s your site and you’re responsible for it. So log into Google Analytics, set your preferences, and let intelligence do the work. As a result, you’ll have more time to analyze and properly present your data.
Power tip: Set Google Analytics custom alerts for each of the KPIs on your dashboard
5 – Reporting
It’s the end of the month again and reports are due and you know that your site is no longer the center of the universe. You have offline data sources, campaign cost data, mobile applications, surveys etc.) So you want to blend the data for a meaningful presentation, insight and actionability. For your Analytics dashboards, bring in data from different sources and organize it under one framework.
Power tip: Trend and report on those 2-3 KPIs you identified earlier
6 – Automation
Better manage your time by automating your reports. Manual reporting can take so long that we eventually neglect properly analyzing the information. Many tools are available to send data to your inbox (or dashboard). So once you have selected your key performance indicators, and to the extent possible, automate report generation. Why you might ask? Trust me, you’ll have much more time to act on the data. But, wait, there’s more!
For example:
- Say you run an eCommerce site and you are using Google Analytics, find your favorite tool in the Google Analytics Application Gallery and get that data out of GA and in to your favorite application. Check out the application from our good friends at ShufflePoint who leverage the Google Analytics API to export data into Excel and Powerpoint (we simply are very impressed by what they have done and do recommend their solution to our clients). Done are the copy and paste days. Voila! One click and your data is in Excel! You can then use simple trending/charting options, advanced pivots or more elaborate dashboards as you see in these snapshots. Analyzing the data requires smart people, but getting reports should be a piece of cake. Now, spend your time wisely on important things (like reading E-Nor blog posts ).
Concluding Notes
To summarize, marketing optimization is not a one time thing, or something that we “set and forget”. You want to “measure.. analyze… optimize” and start again. I encourage you to establish a weekly, monthly and quarterly set of activities to improve your measurement framework. The details will depend on your business and marketing activities but you definitely want to audit what you do to ensure you:
- Stay updated on new marketing channels
- Measure only what matters
- Run reports efficiently
- Dedicate time to analysis
- Upgrade your team’s Excel/reporting/analysis/presentation skill-sets
- Act on findings to positively impact the business and make sure the organization is aware of the impact!
So here it is. The 6-step framework to supercharge your marketing optimization effort! I hope you put it to use and I welcome your input, comments and feedback.
Related Posts
Technorati Tags: analytics process, automation, channel segmentation, google analytics, intelligence, report automation, reporting, Segmentation, web analytics framework
Tags: analytics process, automation, channel segmentation, google analytics, intelligence, report automation, reporting, Segmentation, web analytics framework
Posted in marketing strategy | No Comments »
Jan 13
2011
 Just recently, one of our clients asked me to share with their analysts a number of custom segments and custom reports that I’ve created for them. With the new “Share” segment button, it was very easy to share the URL of the segments/report and email them to the client.
When the analysts clicked on the segments’ URLs, they imported the report structure exactly as it was configured under my login. But when they saved the segments under their login, the segments were saved under wrong profiles!
Why to share segments?
First of all we need to know that Advanced Segments and custom reports in Google Analytics are tied to the user login and not to the account/profile under which these segments are created in. So if two users have access to the same profile but they are using different login to access the GA account, the segments created by user A are not accessible to user B unless they are manually shared by user A. So, all the amazing segments and custom reports that E-Nor creates under their Google Analytics login will not be visible to their clients who are using a different login credential, even though both E-Nor and their clients are logged into the same GA account.
What went wrong with the segments I shared with our client?
When our client’s analysts clicked on the shared segment’s URL, the segment showed up by default under the first profile of the first account that the login of each user has access to. Because the relevant profile applicable to the segment was not the first profile in their accounts list, they failed to add the segment to the right profile and when they later logged in they were unable to allocate the segment under the given profile.
Disclaimer
The “share” functionality in the Advance Segment and Custom Report is good as long as the recipient of the shared segment applies the segment to the right profile using the “Visible in” menu (See point# 6 of this post). But if you want to make the life of the recipient much easier then follow the simple solution provided below.
Solution:
After looking at the Segment link and other GA reports links, I noticed that if we add the Profile ID to the link URL as parameter, then the segment will be populated under the right account and the right profile. So the solution is simply to attach the profile ID with the segment link
How:
Let me translate the above solution to 5 simple steps to follow:
1. How can I get the profile id?
Google Analytics assign a unique ID for each profile. This profile ID is different than the account ID [UA-123456-1], which we add to the website pages along with the JavaScript pixel. In order to find the Profile ID, just log in to Google Analytics and locate the account and the profile under which you created the “Advanced Segment”. Click on Analytics Settings > Edit, and the Profile ID will be in the upper left corner of the profile settings page.
2. How to create advanced segments and custom reports?
This is not the focus of this blog post, nevertheless, to learn how to create your own advanced segment read the following help topics:
3. How to get the custom segment Link?
Click Share for the relevant segment or report. [Go to Advanced Segments > Manage your advanced segments > Share > Copy the URL]
4. How to add the profile ID that I got from step# 1 to the segment Link URL that I got from step# 2?
Very simple! Just append the Profile ID [ex. id=18900120] to the end of the segment link URL
5. What is next?
Send the enhanced segment link to anyone who has access to the Google Analytics account. When the recipient clicks the link, a template of your advanced segment or custom report loads under the correct account and correct profile.
6. What if I receive a segment link that doesn’t contain the profile ID?
Well, then you need to manually apply the segment to the desired profile.
At the bottom of the segment page, use the “Visible in” menu to select the profile(s) where you want the segment to be available.
Happy Analysis
Technorati Tags: advanced segment, Custom Reports, google analytics, Segmentation, web analytics
Tags: advanced segment, Custom Reports, google analytics, Segmentation, web analytics
Posted in web analytics | 2 Comments »
Jan 10
2011
I have recently guest-authored a series of posts on mobile analytics strategy on the Google Analytics blog. Each of the three posts highlights simple yet key steps for marketers to track their mobile traffic and improve their returns.
For those of you on the go, here’s a quick glance at the material I covered. Try to make time to read each post in-depth, even if you have to read it on your smart phone!
1 – Look for Mobile Trends
In the first post, I detail how to monitor and analyze mobile traffic using key performance indicators. This is best done by customizing your GA settings to receive mobile traffic reports, custom alerts, and for the enthusiast, using the Google Analytics data export API.
2 – Give Your Reports More Dollar Power
So you’re mobile trends are positive, do you just throw the data to your boss? No. You always want to give your reports more dollar power. The second post centers on the power of presentation. If you’re CEO can easily connect the dots, two bottoms will be covered — your company’s and yours!
3 – Act on Your ROI
The average analytics guy will stop at step 2, but the third post encourages you to do more. Additional segmentation and leveraging AdWords’ reports will allow you the much needed visibility into campaign performance to maximize your results.
And There’s More!
For tor the technically inclined, and to get a more comprehensive perspective on your mobile presence, there is more you can do. Check out the code site page on mobile to:
- Track native iPhone or Android applications
- Track activities on websites from low-end mobile devices
And be on the lookout for niche analytics solutions specifically built for mobile.
Remember, it’s never too late to start maximizing your company’s mobile investment and implementation. Be sure to check out each post for more details and practical tips.
For more analytics tips and insights, follow @ferasa on twitter. Happy analyzing!
Technorati Tags: google adwords, google analytics, mobile analytics, mobile traffic, pay per click, search engine marketing, Segmentation, web analytics
Tags: google adwords, google analytics, mobile analytics, mobile traffic, pay per click, search engine marketing, Segmentation, web analytics
Posted in web analytics | No Comments »
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