8 Google Analytics Tricks For Marketers
By Varun Sharma
When someone wants a tool to analyze the traffic coming to their website, nothing comes close to Google Analytics (GA). Almost every other website uses it, making the Google software the most popular and trusted analytic solution on the globe today. By tracking traffic you can gain insight into your own strategies. Google Analytics can help you boost your social media engagements, increase your conversion rates, and ultimately achieve business goals.
Unfortunately, most webmasters still follow the basic graphs and stats that GA provides. So to help the webmasters dig deeper, I will explain some of the advanced features of GA:
1. Filters
It’s good to set up filters to prevent spammers from visiting your website (subsequently throwing off your marketing data). The filter verification feature of GA can help marketers test various filters before applying them.
Verifying your filters is beneficial because:
– It allows you to visualize the possible effects of your filter in the present moment.
– You can preview the effects of a filter on inbound traffic before the filter is actually applied.
– The preview can help you detect errors or issues before saving the filter.
2. Goals
While most digital marketing advisors place high value on traffic, what really matters are conversions. Conversions are defined as the specific actions taken by visitors on your website, something that GA labels “Goals” and allows you to track.
With Goals, webmasters can measure how well their website fulfills their objectives. Examples of goals include submitting contact information (for a lead generation website) or making a purchase (for an e-commerce site).
In addition to this, GA also provides an alternative conversion tracking method called Smart Goals, which are designed specifically to help AdWords marketers who may not have adequate conversions to use the AdWords optimization tools.
3. AdWords
The AdWords reports in GA provide you the details of post click performance metrics for visitors who clicked on your AdWords ads and then visited through to your website. These reports offer a window into the acquisition-behavior-conversion (ABC) cycle of your users, which specifies how you acquire users, their behavior on your site post acquisition, as well as their conversion patterns.
The AdWords reports showcase valuable ABC metrics from both AdWords and Analytics. This overview can help marketers determine which advertising strategies are working well for them and which ones could be improved. Simply, AdWords reports can be used to view the outcomes of users clicking on your AdWords ads.
4. Campaigns
Campaign tracking refers to a method of identifying the means by which users discover your website. Particularly, campaign tracking is used in Google Analytics to better understand the results from the AdWords generated campaigns, but also from other advertising sources. The best part is that it’s very easy to setup campaigns via Google’s URL Builder tool.
5. Tag Manager
Creating tags through Google Tag Manager (GTM) saves developers time and money. It also ensures all your tags are fully organized and archived, which means you can switch to the old versions at any time. With GTM:
-Marketers need not involve a developer for tweaks to tags.
-Changing tags can be done quickly and does not require adjustments to website code.
-You are positioned to make a gradual shift to Universal Analytics.
6. E-commerce Tracking
E-commerce tracking is crucial to the success of an e-commerce website. This tracking allows marketers to figure out the number of transactions and revenue their website generates on average. With the GA e-commerce tracking, businesses can compare their sales data with website usage data regarding sessions, traffic sources, bounce rate, landing pages and much more.
Enhanced E-commerce tracking can also help you track what products are seen, which products are added to your cart and how your internal banner ads are performing.
7. Multi-channel Reports
The Multi-Channel Funnels report answers questions about the roles that website referrals, searches and ads play in your conversions, and answers questions about what leads users from initial interest to a final purchase. It also showcases how your marketing channels or traffic sources work together to create sales and conversions.
For instance, many people may make a purchase on your website after searching Google for your brand. However, there is a chance that they were introduced to your brand through some blog or during a search for another company’s product or service. At this time, the Multi-Channel Funnels report will show how earlier referrals and searches added to your sales.
8. Site Search
If your website has a search bar, GA can let you see see what people are searching. With the Site Search Report, you can find out what users think is missing from your website. For this, simply connect your GA account to your internal site search. You’ll get a list of every keyword visitors are searching for on your website.
Conclusion
All the above features of Google Analytics prove that it is an amazing tool that can give you the best insight into your brand’s success, when used correctly. We hope using the aforementioned features will help you boost your account and ensure you’re using GA to its full potential.
Varun Sharma has been a digital marketing expert since 2004 and is a Director of one of the fastest growing digital agency in India KVR WebTech Pvt. Ltd. from last 5 years.
