Google Analytics is a powerful tool for businesses looking to take the next step in lead generation. Not only does Google Analytics filter out and highlight useful data, but it also gives you the management capabilities necessary to run a successful advertising campaign.
Sometimes it can be easy to let the fast moving nature of online marketing derail you from making the most out of your advertisements, but understanding how to use tools like Google Analytics can make your job much easier. In today’s blog, we’ll explain why you need Google Analytics and three helpful features you can use to better define your business objectives.
Make sure to check out the end of this article for an exclusive event announcement!
Defining Google Analytics
Google Analytics has the ability to provide web administrators with a lot of useful data. As soon as you start an account and put a tracking code on your site, Google begins collecting information. Simply collecting data isn’t enough to effectively operate Google Analytics. Georgene Nunn of Business 2 Community offers some helpful suggestions for making the most of your Google Analytics account.
“[…] One thing Google Analytics doesn’t know right out of the box is your business and the definition of a successful transaction or interaction on your website,” Nunn explains. “By itself, the data doesn’t tell a story, or answer the detailed questions about your visitors without help from you.”
What he’s trying to say is that no one knows your customers better than you. You know what they want, but more importantly, you know what counts as success for your business. Whether it’s conversions on your website, engagement with your advertisements, subscriptions, downloads, or anything else, you know what you want to see happen with your business. Google Analytics has the ability to give you the data you need to achieve your ideal business interaction.
All you have to do is let Google know what information you need from them. Answer these questions to help define what information is relevant to your business.
- What are the activities visitors to your site perform that help generate revenue? Within this category, which actions actually earn you money and what actions contribute to more visitors or repeat visitors?
- Which circumstances lead to success or failure? This involves separating the signal from the noise and then implementing strategies to capture a greater number of customers.
How to answer these questions
In particular, three features of Google Analytics—Segments, Goals and Events—can provide helpful answers to these questions.
Segments
Segmenting your data enables you to identify the visitors who really count. It also allows you to see what your most popular pages are and which pages lead to the highest converting volumes.
One of the chief advantages of Segments, compared to other features in Google Analytics, is that it can be applied for the entire duration of your website’s life and all of your data, both current and historical. By contrast, Goals and Filters begin collecting data from the time they are created.
Goals
With Goals, you gain a means of outlining and measuring specific actions you want users on your site to fulfill. Typically, businesses use Goals as their main method of showing conversions in built-in reports. Examples of Goals are a visitor filling out a lead form or email signup form or a visitor completing a purchase.
Events
Event tracking enables you to document many things about your site which were previously untrackable, including video plays, file downloads, and checking filter boxes.
As Nunn explains, “Events go beyond the standard visitor data to help you answer detailed questions about user behavior.” It’s helpful to track meaningful activities on your site, such as whether people watched your video, at what point they are abandoning forms, or whether or not they’re using share buttons.
Taking action
Using Segments, Goals, and Events helps you gain more insight into the actions and circumstances that drive sales, referrals, and traffic to your website. In turn, you gain more information about who your visitors are, what they’re doing, how they interact, and why they take certain actions relating to your business. This allows you to better tweak your website to attract more customers and generate further conversions and revenue.
Event announcement
If you’re interested in learning even more about Google Analytics, we’re excited to announce that we will be hosting another Cities on the Map event in Pierre SD on January 19th. During this event, you’ll also learn how to start and operate a Google AdWords account. Seating for the event is limited, so don’t waste any more time and register for the event today.
Fill out the form below to save your seat.