Google

Analytics
Presentation | September 23, 2009
Agenda
• Google Analytics Basics
o Reasons for using Google Analytics
o Cookies
o Other Google Analytics info
• Goals & Funnels
o Reports (Funnel Visualization & Reverse Funnel)
• Bounce Rates
• Profiles
• Tracking Across Domains
o Subdomains
• Filters
• Campaign Setup
• Custom Reports (Keyword Performance)
• Internal Site Search
o Reports (Search Terms & Start Pages)
What is Google Analytics?
• Wikipedia defines GA as a free service offered by Google
that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a
website.
• Delphic Sage should define it as a place where we can:
o Build, track, and improve the goals we help set with/for
our clients
o Stem ideas for SEO & marketing campaigns including
newsletters, press releases, etc.
o Utilize the data repository for monthly
reporting/recommendations
o Be Proactive!
Why use Google Analytics?
• Analytics & Optimization
o Activity & “Transaction”
Monitoring
o Correlate to Business
Results
 CPA, ROAS, ROI
 Other KPI’s
 Activity Analysis
o Provides Business
Sample Optimization
Justification & Direction Effort
o Dashboards & Tools $50M Sales
Increase From 2.0 To 2.1%=
• Primary Objective $2.5M In Increase In Revenue
o Optimize Spend 2,200%  Increase In Annual
o Prioritize Investments  Revenue
Basics of Google Analytics
• Visitors
o Cookie is first party/random
visitor id + first initial
timestamp
• Visits
o Session is defaulted to 30
minutes (closing browser or
inactive ends session)
• Pageviews
o Refresh = new page view
• Bounce Rate
o Enter on one page do not go to
any other page and exit
• Ex. 1 Visitor can visit the site 2
times and have 5 pageviews
Cookies
What data won't get through to Google Analytics?
• Disabled Javascript
• Blocked all cookies
• Deleted Cookies
o comes up as new visitor though
• Error in Javascript prior to analytics code
• Mobile Devices can with no javascript enabled
Cookie Info
• __utma - Visitor identifer (expires after 2 years)
• __utmb -Session Identifier (expires after 30 minutes of
inactivity)
• __utmc - Session Identifier (temporary cookie; destroyed
when you quit browser; notes as new session)
• __utmz - Campaign Values (Expires after 6 months or if
overwritten)
What Does Web Analytics Measure?

• Visitors
o Characteristics
 Browser, new vs. return,
location
• Traffic
o Origins
 Keywords, refers, pages
• Content
o Effectiveness
 Bounce rate, paths,
navigation summary
 Specifics about Google Analytics
Other Important Facts
• Tagged vs. log file • Enter before </body> or footer
• Strips out known bots/spiders
• Highly • Works on mobile phones if they
Customizable support javascript and store
cookies
• Basic install is • Account number below = 1111111
robust o The 1 after the - represents

• Worth more as part what implementation

of process
• Set goals
• Use campaigns
<script type="text/javascript"> vargaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." :
• Tons of Reporting
"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"> varpageTracker =
_gat._getTracker("UA-1111111-1"); pageTracker._initData(); pageTracker._trackPageview();

</script UA-1111111-1 >

How to Optimize
• Have a Plan
• Define Goals
• Measure trends (ex.
Bounce rates)
• Track campaigns (ex.
Email Newsletter)
• Be methodical
Goals
• Select page you want visitor to see to reach the goal
o Goal is usually Thank you or confirmation page
 Types of Goals
 Thank you page on contact form
 PDF Download for White Paper
 Newsletter Signup
 Feed Subscriptions
• Set-up Goals under
o Analytics Settings -> Profile Settings -> Conversion Goals and
Funnel
 Select up to 4 goals per profile
 Set up duplicate profiles to add more goals
o Enter URL of Goal Page
 Ex. /Confirmation.aspx
o Name the goal
• Funnel steps on next page

Image via www.headachecare.com

Funnel/Match Types
• Funnels show where enter and how go through process
o Show where you may lose would be customers
• Add URL of pages leading to goal page
o Name Steps (Ex. Select Contact Form)
• Match Type
o Defines how google analytics identifies a goal/funnel
o Match Types
 Head Match
 /offer1/ (anything after / will still be counted)
 Exact Match
 /offer1/signup.html
 Regular expression match
 If you have multiple signup forms under one goal
(/.*/signup\.html
 /offer2/signup.html and /offer3/signup.html
Goal Value
• Assign monetary value for non-ecommerce goals
• Example
o Sales team can close 10% of people who request to be
contacted
o Average Transaction is $500
o Assign $50 (i.e. 10% of $500) to your "Contact Us" goal

Image via http://risingsouthfoundation.com

Funnel Visualization Report
• Displays visual representation of certain goal and path
before and after each step in funnel (Left = step before,
Right = step after)
• Goals -> Funnel Visualization
Reverse Goal Path Report
• Displays exactly how people got to the goal page
• Shows funnels you may have not thought of before
• Goals -> Reverse Goal Path Report
Bounce Rates
• The percentage of web site visitors who arrive at a web site
entry page, then leave without going any deeper into the
site.
• If page is higher than avg. site bounce rate percentage,
focus on changing content on that page (blogs are different
though)
o Content - > Content by Title
o Comparison View
o Sort by Pageviews
o Select "Bounce Rate" for compared to site average
Other Things you May Not Know
• Some sites make extensive use of
Flash or other interactive
technologies.
o These sites don't load new pages
and user interaction is on single
page
o Equals high bounce rates and low
times on site
o Avoid this with virtual pageviews
or events
• Paid keywords with high bounce
rates, show landing pages need to
be fixed Image via http://latimesblogs.latimes.com
Creating User Accounts/Profiles
• One login can have access to 25 accounts
• Difference between Admins/Users
o Users are read only; restricted to specific profiles
o Admins can do everything (view all reports/edit account settings)
• Profiles typically per domain
o set up for subdomains
o setup for subset of data for one domain
o set up reports for one domain where different users get different
access
Creating User Accounts/Profiles ctd
• New domains will have new tracking numbers
o UA-1111111-2 ad UA-1111111-3 as they are
entered sequentially
• Go to Analytics settings page
o Click add Website profile
o Select radio button to add profile for NEW domain
o Enter URL into text field (choose http or https)
 Can enter subdomain
o Click Finish
Tracking across domains
• _link method allows track a user across multiple domains
• Add few lines to GA code
o pageTracker._setDomainName("none");
o pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);
• Add the _link() method to all links between domains
o Ex. <a href ="http://www.your2ndsite" onclick =
"pageTracker._link('http://www.your2ndsite.com');return
false;") Go to our other site</a>
Transfer forms across domains
Mostly used to track from one site to a 3rd-party shopping cart
site.
• Transfer visitors by linkByPost() for forms
o Also, can be used to send cookie data to other domains
in pop-ups or Iframes
o Modify forms as follows:
 <form action =
"http://www.shoppingcartsite.com/myService/formProc
essor.php" name ="f" method="post" on
submit="pageTracker._linkByPost(this)">... </form>
 will add query string values to action attributes when
user submits form
Filters
• Increases Flexibility of GA
• Apply multiple filters to profiles
• Maintain unfiltered profile (aka backup)
• Predefined filters
o Ex. Exclude all traffic from a certain IP Address
 Won't track internal visits
• Other possible filters
o Convert URI/URL to lowercase
o Filter out mydelphic traffic by hostname
o Filter out client traffic by IP
Filter Setup
Enter via Filter manager on main analytics page or add a new
profile with a filter
Custom Filters
• Muiltiple include or exclude filters can be applied to a single
profile
• Filers are executed sequentially
• The output from filter one is used as input for next filter

What not to do
• Create 2 separate filters because they will cancel each other
out
• Instead, Create one filter that uses a regular expression to
indicate that the Visitor region is California or Texas (Filter
Pattern = Texas/California)
Tracking across sub domains
• Add _setDomainName to tracking code on each page of
each subdomain
• Add this line to GA code
o pageTracker._setDomainName(".parentsitename.com");
• One issue is pages named the same in subdomain will not
see separate visits
o Best practices to avoid subdomain issues
 Set up Profiles for each subdomain as well as a main
profile with no filters
Filter for subdomains
• Apply an advanced filter to differentiate subdomains within
one profile (Add Filter from Main accounts screen)
o Filter Type: Custom Filter > Advanced
o Field A: Hostname
o Extract A: (.*)
o Field B: Request URI
o Extract B: (.*)
o Output To: Request URI
o Constructor: /$A1$B1
• With this filter, results appear within subdomain attached
o Ex. /maps.google.com/home.html &
/mail.google.com/home.html
• More info here
Campaign URL Tagging
• utm_source: Identify as an advertiser (google, citysearch,
newsletter)
• utm_medium: Advertising medium (cpc, banner, email)
• utm_campaign: Campaign name (product, promo code, or
slogan)
• Optional campaign variables
o utm_term: Paid search keyword
o um_content: Use to track different versions of an ad
• URL Builder here:

Example from recent Newsletter campaign we set up:

• http://www.sitename.com/news/in-the-
news.aspx/d=84/title=CP?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&ut
m_campaign=9-15-09NL
Create Custom Report
• Decide what report should show
o Ex.Source and Keyword Performance Report
 Dimensions - sources and keywords
 Metrics - Pageviews, bounces, visits
Internal Site Search
Why set this up?
• Visitors use site search as a form of navigation
• Analyze internal search can help identify:
o Missing or hidden content
o Ineffective search results
o Keywords not previously identified for search campaigns
• Set up through Analytics account -> Edit profile
o Track Searching
o Perform search on the site you will track to see what part
of querystring identifies search
 Ex. Google search = q
 Ex. Yahoo search = p
Search Terms and Start Pages Reports
• Search Terms Report
o Can compare metrics between internal search queries
o Useful for identifying new keywords
o Can refine down through cross segmentation
 Ex. What city did they search from for this term?

• Start Pages Report

o Useful to assess effectiveness of landing pages
o Click on the page listed in table and learn more about
searches on that page
 Ex. News page
 Search term = Photo Gallery
 Should Reference Photo Gallery on that page
For Further Information...

Go to Google Analytics IQ Lessons

• http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/?hl=en

To Contact Delphic Sage, email us: [email protected]