Google Analytics is a must-have tool for any business with a website. Every Digital Marketer should install this platform. There are over 40 million users of GA.Whether you collect leads from your site or run a full e-commerce business, Google Analytics(GA) can help increase performance. Here are some great ways to use this free platform to help your business:
Examine Channels
Channels refers to the kinds of online traffic that comes to your site. Typical channels will include Organic, Paid, Social, Email etc. The Channels report will provide all of the metrics for each of these broad categories, informing you of the total visits, new visits, bounce rates and conversions. Depending on the goals you have set up you can even see the revenue each channel has generated. Based on which channels are performing well and which are not you can advance to the next report:
Source/Medium
The Source/Medium report starts with the Source, which might be Social and then identifies the Medium, which could be Facebook. All of the data available is specific to places on the web which send visitors to your site, whether paid or organic. If you advertise on several social media, you can see how Facebook performs versus Twitter. Maybe your channel report indicated that Social Media was not performing well. Now you can dig deeper in Source Medium. You might find that Twitter drives more traffic to your website, but Facebook generates more leads. To increase performance, take budget from Twitter and move it to Facebook.
Landing Pages
After examining your Channels and Source/Medium reports you see that a number of your traffic sources are driving good traffic to your website but conversions are low. It is possible the problem is not your traffic but your website. The Landing Pages report will show how much traffic comes in to each page of your site and what happens next. The viewer metrics will measure the engagement of visitors to your pages and site. Of particular importance are Bounce Rate and Exit Rate. Bounce Rate refers to people who leave your site immediately after arriving from a different site. Exit Rate measures people who leave your site from a particular page, having come from elsewhere on your site. Both metrics play a role in Google’s ranking site ranking. Pages with particularly high Bounce and Exit rates need to be re-examined for changes in copy, layout or more.
Ecommerce
The Product Performance report in the Ecommerce section of GA shows how site visitors interact with products on your site and which products convert. GA will provide that information based on product name, category, brand or even SKU. Based on product performance this is a great time to review your ad copy for accuracy or adjust product pricing.
Your Audience
Get to know who is visiting your site and who is converting. In the Audience section of Google Analytics you will find reports on the Age and Gender of your site visitors. This is a good place to compare who you think visits your site, or store, with who actually visits your site. Examine who is converting. This will tell you how to write your copy and where to place it.
You can also add a dimension that shows the time of day or day of the week that people are visiting your site. This may alter when you post to Facebook or advertise on Google.
Knowing where your audience comes from will also inform decisions. Here you can find what countries, states, and towns your visitors come from. Poor performing geographies can be blocked, so that you don’t spend ad dollars where they don’t convert.
Google Analytics is a popular topic in this newsletter, and for good reason. By reviewing the various reports in GA you can gauge different aspects of your marketing and make adjustments to increase performance. Whether your activities are paid, organic or some combination, all traffic to your site can be measured and analyzed by GA. You can make incremental changes or seismic shifts and see the results. Google Analytics is an invaluable tool to increase website performance. By the way, have we mentioned it is free?
