The Power of Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for measuring the success and impact of a website. “Google Analytics not only lets you measure sales and conversions, but also gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site, how they arrived on your site, and how you can keep them coming back” (“Google Insights”, 2013).  Google Analytics is also a free tool, making it extremely practical for blogs and businesses of all sizes to implement.

One of Google Analytics’ major benefits is its ability to easily create custom reports.  This feature allows the user to determine what reporting statistics are most valuable and worth monitoring over time.  For example, a blogger might find more value in tracking where inbound traffic is coming from or how often users are coming back.  On the other hand, an e-commerce business would be more interested in bounce rates, sales conversions, and the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. 

Now, let us explore the basics of Google Analytics and some of the most interesting metrics for bloggers to keep track of.  First off, Google Analytics uses a dashboard to organize all of the available reports. 

The default dashboard shows the metrics for site usage at the top.  These metrics include:

•        Visits: The number of visits to your site during a given time period.
•     Page views: The number of pages these visitors viewed.
•     Pages/Visit: The average visit in terms of page views.
•         Bounce Rate: The percentage of people who only visited one page on your site before they “bounced” somewhere else.
•     Avg. Time on Site: The average amount of time a visitor spends at your site.
•      % ofNew Visits: The percentage of new visitors to your site as compared to allvisitors. Some businesses might want lots of new traffic, while others mightwant generate repeat visits, driving down this percentage."

Kaushik is an advocate for creating custom dashboards for specific purposes.  If you are the only one monitoring your blog, then you might only need one dashboard.  However, if you have a team of people accessing this information, you might want to create separate dashboards that break down the information into appropriate funnels for each of your audiences.  The most important thing to remember is to adhere to the following framework: “Always,always, always let the Acquisition, Behavior and Outcomes framework be yourguide. After you've created a dashboard, check to see that you have all threeelements. If you don't, you are not showing the end-to-end picture. Withoutthis you fail in your duty (and the data recipients will make poor decisions)."

So, with the understanding that Google Analytics allows you to create custom dashboards for the most impactful reporting, it is time to explore which reports a blogger should include.

Traffic Sources Report

The traffic sources report is extremely valuable for a blogger.  This report shows a wealth of data and can help make sense of how engaged people are (average visit duration), how many people are accessing your site (visits), which pages are the most popular (page visits), and how many new people you are reaching (% of new visits). This information is the foundation needed to understand the very basics of your web analytics.  This data provides a succinct snapshot of your overall site activity in either real-time or over a set time period.  The site usage report should be the first thing you check when monitoring your site.

Sources Overview Report

This report is important because it shows visually where your traffic is coming from.  This allows you to see if your traffic is driven by search engines, referrals, direct traffic, or campaigns.  For a blogger, this information is invaluable because it allows you to have a deeper understanding of where your readers are finding out about your content.  Kaushik says, “Like everything in life, you want a balanced portfolio” meaning that ideally your traffic is coming from a variety of sources in a somewhat even split.  This report will also allow you to drill down into the search feature to see what terms are driving traffic to your site.  This can help in creating key word tags and also “understand the macro balance betweenOrganic and Paid [search]."

Engagement

The engagement report is found under the Behavior tab. This report is extremely valuable for a blogger because it shows how long your visitors were on your site and it also explores page depth, or “the number of pages viewed in a session."  For a blogger, this information is valuable because it shows if readers are tuning in for your latest post or if they are hanging around and exploring other content. It can also help shine a light on what content is the most interesting or engaging, and perhaps help focus future content.

Overall, these three reports offer a blogger great insight into who is visiting the blog, where they are coming from, what content they find engaging, and how long they stay.  Another nice feature that Google Analytics offers is the ability to create custom alerts so you don’t have to constantly check in to see your activity.  These alerts can be set up for anything you deem important.  Kaushik gives the example, “With smart alertsset, you don't have to remember to check the data every eighteen seconds. Anemail, or a text message, will poke you into action…one of my favorite customalerts [is that] I would like an alert when goal conversion rate for any day isgreater than 25%. My normal is around 18%, so if it jumps up by that much I canget an alert and I can do deeper analysis to figure out what might have causedthe spike."

A blogger could set up a daily alert to check for overall activity and a custom alert for when there are more than 100 visitors per day.  If you see a spike in visitors, you can examine where they are coming from and what content they are there for.  This data will help with future posts and can also show you where you should be targeting for future readers.  Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can help you grow your blog by providing valuable consumer insights and a roadmap for success through measured analytics. 

Online Advertising in a New Era

Online advertising is an integral component of any strategic IMC plan, yet there is often confusion surrounding which advertising options are truly the best choices.  Online advertising is big business—“online display ad spend in the U.S. will reach $12.7 billion thisyear and will grow by 17% annually to be worth $28 billion by 2017, with CPMsalmost doubling in that time to $6.64”.  In today’s vast sea of choices, the two front-runners whittle down to Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. 

Google Adwords and Facebook Ads have several similarities that might make it seem like a toss up, but upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that each platform has distinct advantages, depending on your goal.  For instance, a business must first establish its objectives, and depending on what those are, one platform might be better suited than the other.  “Your answer willgo a long way to determining which channel is a better fit. The reason isfairly straightforward: the Web audience doesn't search Google and check theirFacebook Profile—excuse me, Timeline—in the same way”.

If your objective is to increase brand awareness, then Facebook Ads might make more sense.  “Facebook session tends tolast much longer than the typical Google search, the former be a better matchfor building brand awareness or getting a specific message across”.  Facebook Ads also allow you to target very specific groups of people with the ability to use geo-targeting, demographics, and even specific interests or birthdays to define who sees your message.  Facebook also offers several advertisingchoices, ranging from display ads, sponsored stories, Facebook “like” ads, and Facebook offers. All of these choices tend to be more affordable than Google Adwords, making these ads appealing to small and midsize businesses.  If you choose to use Facebook Ads, make sure you understand the differences between each type of ad because it will impact who sees your ad and how much you will pay (as you can see in the chart below):

On the other hand, if your business goal is to sell a specific item or drive website to a certain website, then Google Adwords might make more sense.  “Facebook isn't strong in pure Web searches;Google has the clear advantage there, and as a result could be the better fitfor driving actual clicks and conversions around specific products”.  Google Adwords excels in providing metrics that demonstrate actual ROI, making the investment understandable and measurable.  Google Adwords also helps improve your SEO—something that Facebook ads cannot do; “While working on your site’s SEO, you can put resourcesinto an AdWords campaign and start getting impressions and clicksimmediately. Because it’s so speedy, it’s also a good way to test whether agiven keyword or audience is worth pursing via organic search – if it convertswell in AdWords, you can deduce that it’s worth trying to rank for in SEO andbuild out your content in that area".

Overall, both Google Adwords and Facebook Ads offer viable online advertising solutions capable of reaching large-scale audiences.  Both platforms offer metrics for evaluating success, but that’s where the similarities end.  Understand why you are advertising, what you are trying to achieve, and then evaluate which platform can help you get there.  Here is a great infographic outlining some of the key differences—which platform do you think has the advantage?

Content vs. Conversation—Which Reigns Supreme?

There is an old adage in marketing that says, “content is king.”  What this means is that marketers need to develop relevant, timely and engaging content in order to keep consumers coming back to their website (or social media channel) time after time.  While this formula for success might have been true as recent as a few years ago, it is no longer enough. Nowadays, content is the cost of entry and we have moved on to conversation as the currency of the future.

This is not to say that content is now unimportant—in fact, the exact opposite is true. Content is more important than ever before, but it is no longer enough.  Marketers should seek to connect with consumers by creating content that echoes their larger content calendar. By weaving in content that is already appearing in other channels (advertising, promotions, in-store-displays, etc.) a company can reinforce its message and maintain consistency across its touch points. “Developing the content necessaryto drive social and other content marketing initiatives is just an extension ofthat marketing calendar. If you establish a cadence, say, of two new contentpieces per month, these can just get inserted into the calendar”.  It all starts with content, and then grows from there…

Once a company has created the framework for its content with the content calendar, it can then begin to focus on the crux of the issue: conversation.  Great content can only get a company so far—it is the ability to engage with consumers through conversation that really drives long-term brand loyalty and profitability. “Content without conversation isjust broadcasting, or just advertising.  It goes to thelistener/reader/viewer/visitor… and stops there.  If the sender is lucky,it may lodge as a piece of information in the receiver’s consciousness, andthey may act on it someday.  If the sender is luckier, or perhaps moreengaging, it may be something that the receiver wants to talk about.  Andthen the message gets a whole new burst of energy.  The energy behind themessage is what gives it meaning, and a life of its own.  That happensbecause we humans like to communicate with each other.  Thus the conversationbegins”.

A great real-world example of the “content vs. conversation” debate in action is Starbucks.  The coffee giant understands that rather than pushing content, it is more valuable to engage in conversation to drive sales, increase engagement, and gather new ideas.  Starbucks uses its social channels (especially Facebook and Twitter) as customer relationship management tools (CRM) to answer customer questions and furthering interaction.  Here is a screen cap of a conversation in action on Facebook:

Starbucks hosted a live coffee-tasting online and invited consumers to chime in with their comments on Facebook.  The company also launched its own social network—MyStarbucksIdea.com—to listen to consumers’ ideas and implement the ones with the most votes.  This vibrant online community has served as an excellent source for conversation and the company shows it is not only listening, but acting on consumers’ comments.  This in turn drives more conversation and increase the brand’s credibility and likeability.

Overall, the debate between content vs. conversation is one that will continue to persist.  Those who understand that content is no longer enough, and that conversation is what drives long-term engagement, are the ones who will come out on top. 

Are All Web Metrics Created Equal?

To short answer to the question is NO.  We live in a world where there are more tools and metrics at our fingertips than ever before, but not all of them are needed, and some of them can actually cause damage by leading marketers down unnecessary rabbit holes. In order to choose which metrics are essential for your business, it is first vital to understand what the goals and objectives for your website are.  For example, are you trying to increase sales? Increase blog subscriptions? Grow your social following?  Each of these goals will require different measurement tools to define and track success.  Not each metric is a one-size-fits all solution, and not every metric is necessarily useful—it depends on your goals!  As Kaushik says, “focus on the critical fewand not the insignificant many. The principle of critical few encourages focus and, more importantly, a focus on the handful of things that matter”.

Once you have defined your goals, you can then begin to research which metrics make the most sense for you to track, and how you can gain access to that information.  Will a free website like Google Analytics get you what you need?  Or do you need to invest in paid services? If so, how much are you willing to invest and what will your ROI be?  You can pay a ton of money for not much more than the free stuff, but if that extra sliver of information will help quantify your objectives, then it might be worth it to you. Do your research! 

Bounce Rate: this metric helps identify how many people are either visiting a single page of your website and leaving, or leaving after five seconds or less.  Bounce rates are important because they can identify weak points on your website and “This will help you understand what percent of yourwebsite traffic is actually engaging with your site”.  Here is a great infographic from Kissmetrics explaining how bounce rates work and why they aren’t always a bad thing (for example, blogs can expect high bounce rates because people usually visit, read the most recent post and, well, bounce).

Conversion Rate: This metric assesses if you are accomplishing your goals and not just engaging visitors, but converting them to do the task your website was built for (ex: selling, gaining subscribers, growing loyalty, etc.). “Whether your goal is increasingonline sales or simply educating website readers about a certain topic, have amethod for tracking conversion rates -- the ratio of website visitors whoconvert from visits into desired actions, such as signing up for a newsletteror making a purchase”.  This metric is calculated by analyzing the “percentageof people who completed a desired action on that page, such as filling out aform”. Here’s an infographic outlining how to increase your conversions:

Visitor Engagement: This metric will help you understand if your visitors are getting the most out of your website and therefore more likely to come back, make a purchase, subscribe, etc.  “This is not just about how many page views you aregenerating, but the level of trust your customers are starting to put in yourbrand, and how curious they are about you”.  High engagement can be tracked in a number of ways, including:

•     Average time on site, which should be as high as possible.

•    Bounce rate, which measures the number of visitors who don't navigate beyond the first page of your website that they land on. It should be lower than 50 percent.

•    Average pages per visit, which should also be as high as possible.

•    Number of social media shares, which should be high in order to demonstrate that visitors find enough value in your content to share it with friends.

I hope these basic metrics have given you the building blocks to monitor and analyze your website and help you achieve your goals and objectives.