GOOGLE ANALYTICSInsights & Analysis with Google Analytics

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SAM TOMLINSON

Vice-President, Strategy & Analytics, Warschawski Agency

I bring a diverse background spanning finance,

business and marketing communications to create

outsized, bottom-line results for organizations. I also

teach classes at some of the world’s most notable

institutions.

MAKING GA WORK FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

GOING FROM AVERAGES TO INSIGHTS

GA offers several ways for us to drill down into more granular levels of reporting (and with it, more granular levels of insights):

• Segments

• Cohorts (technically, it’s a subset of segments)

• Funnels

LET’S ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS!

EVENTS

EVENT TRACKING

The easiest way to begin getting more from your Google Analytics is by using Event Tracking. This is one of the most useful and versatile tools in any Google Analytics expert’s toolbox –allowing you to track just about anything.

Events can be set up using two methods:

• Google Tag Manager (recommended for most)

• Direct Code

NOTE: For GA4, ALL tracking is event-based, which (ironically) makes your life easier/better.

EVENT TRACKING

WHY SHOULD I TRACK EVENTS?

Lead Submissions

One of the easiest + most

reliable ways to track lead

submissions is events fired

on form submission.

Video Views

If you’d like to track how much

of your video (Abs. or %) that

people have watched, you

can do that.

External Link Clicks

Want to track which external

link people are clicking on

(i.e. Donate, Register, etc.)?

Using A Quiz or Tool

By default, most web

quizzes and tools don’t

generate a pageview, so

events are necessary

Form Issues

More on this later, but you

can use events to

determine where people

are abandoning forms

Scroll Depth

Want to see how far down

a page people are

scrolling? Events!

GOOGLE TAG MANAGER METHOD

Capturing events via GTM is (IMO) the easiest and most intuitive way to handle what can be a complex process.

More details on methods for tracking common events here; for those of you who desire to track more complex items (or to start using GTM for capturing custom metrics/custom dimensions, here’s a nifty how-to from Google Developers).

DIRECT CODE METHOD

One challenge for the DCM is that you must ensure that the event format matches the Analytics configuration, otherwise the event won’t fire. Different GA formats have slightly different calls, as well as different “Required” fields.

The GA event Code looks something like this:

Gtag(’event’, ‘Play’,{

‘event_category’:’videos’,

‘event_label’:’Introduction’,})

Or: ga(‘send’,’event’,’CATEGORY’,’ACTION’,’LABEL’,’VALUE’)

EVENTS IN SQUARE SPACE

Another challenge for marketers using a website builder is figuring out how to create these events within your site.

For Square Space, this almost always involves using “Post-Submit HTML” or GTM. There’s a nice write-up here on different ways to use GTM + GA to track key events within Square Space.

But GENERALLY – you’ll need a developer or GA expert’s help to make events work the way you want within Square Space.

LET’S ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS!

SEGMENTS IN GA

WHAT IS A SEGMENT?

Segments within Google Analytics can be created at the Session or User level:

• Session = 30-minute (default) blocks of time; one user can have multiple sessions, and only sessions that match are included.

• User = all sessions by one user/one device over a period of time

WHAT IS A SEGMENT?

Those sessions or users are then grouped

based on one (or more) characteristics –

demographics, devices, behaviors, etc. – that

are shared among all of them.

So we could create a segment of all female

users who visited an FAQ page at least once,

or all sessions from people under age 40 who

used live-chat.

CHARACTERISTICS TO USE IN SEGMENTS

Demographics

Age, Gender, Location,

Language, etc.

Technology

Device, Operating System,

Screen Size, Screen

Resolution

Behavior

How the user interacts with

your site (pages visited, time

on site, events, etc.)

Date of 1st Visit

When the user first visited

(great for short-term

promotions/BFCM)

Traffic Sources

Where the user came from

(FB Ads, Google, etc.)

Conditions and

Sequences

The single-most robust way

to build segments –

combine just about

anything together.

SEGMENT CREATION IN GA

SEGMENTS

• Source/Medium

• Location/Geo

• Content Type

• Landing Page

• Device Type

• Value

• Demo

• Content Viewed

SEGMENTS LEADING TO INSIGHTS

HOW SEGMENTS HELP YOU

Performance

Do certain segments (esp.

user-focused segments)

perform better than others?

If we find this to be true,

why is that?

Gaps

Do you see gaps emerging

in performance or user

behavior? Does one

segment simply ignore one

content set? Why could

that be?

Hidden Issues

We’ve often found that

when performance suffers

on a device type or

browser, it’s because of an

issue impacting that

specific

device/browser/OS.

SO WHAT DOES “PERFORMANCE” MEAN?

Qualification

The first question: how

many people within the

segment actually

remained on the site?

This is critical when

comparing different

sources/mediums.

Activity

Once the users were

on the site, what did

they do? What does

their behavior flow look

like? Did they use site

search more often than

other segments?

Abandonment

Funnels + Flows are

one of the best ways to

understand if users are

moving through your

site in the way you’ve

designed – and if not,

it’s helpful to see which

segments aren’t doing

that.

Outcomes

Finally, how do

segments compare to

one another from an

outcomes (goal

completions, value +

purchases) standpoint

on a per-user or per-

session level?

AVOIDING ANALYSIS PARALYSIS

• Clarifying the core business question I need to answer

• Forming a hypothesis as to the cause or contributing factors

• Identifying what data I need to answer the question

• If (3) isn’t conclusive, asking “why is that happening” until I have a good (2) to re-test

FROM SEGMENTS TO VIEWS

If you have a specific set of segments that you will use all the time - and (ideally) if those

segments have different groups of team members who are responsible for them (i.e. users

in USA vs. user in EU; or subscribers vs. non-subscribers; careers page visitors vs.

current employees; etc.), moving from a Segment to a View could be a good idea.

A View is (basically) a permanent segment, applied to data moving forward (segments are

retroactive). You can have 25 views per account, and you can set different goals for each

view.

MAKING USE OF VIEWS

US Marketing

The marketing team can

have a designated view,

which eliminates job

seekers and individuals

from outside the US

EU Marketing

The EU marketing team

can have a designated

view, which eliminates job

seekers and individuals

from outside of the EU

HR

Your HR team can also

have a designated view,

which covers all people

who visit the careers page,

or submit an application

For many organizations with different teams, stakeholders or departments, utilizing views can

make Google Analytics more accessible and helpful throughout the organization.

LET’S ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS!

COHORTS IN GA

COHORTS IN GA

A cohort is a special type of segment, where the

shared characteristic is temporal vs. behavioral

or demographic.

Cohorts can be incredibly helpful in providing a

more complete understanding of the purchase

journey, how often users return before making

purchases, and how (or if) visitors acquired

during specific events (like a fundraiser, a sale,

or a key date) re-engage with your organization.

THE STANDARD COHORT REPORT

CUSTOMIZATIONS TO COHORTS

Size

Cohorts can be grouped on

a day basis, a week basis

or a monthly basis, based

on your needs

Metric

You can group users based

on retention (default),

revenue, profit, goal

completions, pageviews,

etc.

Range

You can generate a cohort

report for as few as 7 days

(“last week”) or as many as

84 days (“last 12 weeks”).

If you were worried that this report wasn’t endlessly customizable, fear not! In addition to

standard adjustments (time period + overlaying segments), you can also adjust:

COHORTS AND SEGMENTS

Combining Cohorts and Segments can lead to

interesting insights

Here’s an example (from the Google Website

Store) of how a cohort + segment report can

reveal that desktop + tablet users (segment at

the bottom) return at a higher rate than mobile

traffic. This is a fertile ground for inquiry moving

forward.

USE CASES FOR COHORTS

Cohort Reports are incredibly powerful tools – especially when combined with segments. Here are three use cases, for when these reports can be particularly useful to your business/organization:

• Marketing Campaigns and Events – how do users acquired during a major event or marketing campaign re-engage with your org?

• Disengage Points – visualize inflection points where specific grounds disengage with your organization – is it after 1 week? 2 weeks? 4 weeks?

• UX Changes Over Time – retention trends at a specific point in the report, viewed over time, provide insight into overall UI/UX.

LET’S ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS!

FUNNELS & FLOWS

GA FUNNELS AND FLOWS

Funnel Report

If your website has a funnel structure, then

a funnel report can be useful. It visually

shows you how users move through the

steps you’ve created, and (critically) where

the drop-offs are.

Once you’ve identified those, you can get to

work fixing them!

Goal Flow Report

The “sister” report to the funnel report is the

goal flow report. It has several meaningful

differences, including:

• It does NOT backfill steps

• It shows steps in order completed, not order documented

• It shows loopbacks (ie. 1->2->1)

• It supports advanced segmentation

GOOGLE ANALYTICS: FUNNELS

Most websites/organizations have defined flows

or funnels – specific steps you’d like users to

take along their journey.

Maybe this is a checkout process, an event

registration process, or simply an educational

series.

FUNNEL REPORTS

If your organization has a funnel, then your

funnel report (if configured properly) can help

with the following:

• Understanding where traffic drop offs

occur within your funnel

• Identify high-converting pages or

entrance points

• Find points of confusion, trouble or friction

(content, technical, etc.)

GOAL FLOW REPORTS

Loopbacks

The funnel report does not

show loopbacks (i.e. if a

customer goes from #1 ->

#2 -> #1). This can be

helpful information, as it

often shows that the user

“missed” something

Segments

Goal Flow reports support

advanced segmentation –

so you can see if the

journey varies based on

device type, acquisition

source/medium or location

(for instance)

Not Order Dependent

The goal flow report shows

steps in the order

complete, not in the order

specified – which allows

you to see if users are

“sneaking” in or bypassing

steps. And segments allow

you to understand how/why

that’s happening

THE GOAL FLOW REPORT IN GA

LET’S ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS!

THE GA REPORTS(LIVE WALKTHROUGH)

LET’S ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS!

NEXT SESSION

Advanced Google Analytics

Features and Functions

February 18, 2021

TECHIMPACT.ORG

THANK YOU!