Analytics Results - Google Analytics Blog by Mangold Sengers

What is 'Required Step' for Google Analytics Goals?

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:10:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered what 'Required Step' means when you are setting up a goal in Google Analytics?

Personally, I think it is the most confusing configuration option within Google Analytics, so now I am going to attempt a simple explanation.

Turning on 'Required Step' means that in order for a conversion to be reported a visitor MUST view that page (or step) before they view the conversion page.

Looking at a simple example...

Let's say you have a website where one objective is to get visitors to signup for an email newsletter. You have a dedicated page with the email newsletter signup form that you link to from other pages on your site. Plus you also have a news page that has the signup form on the right.

Both forms (on the dedicated signup page and the news page) go to the same conversion page after a visitor has signed up to receive your email newsletter.

You have setup a goal within Google Analytics to report and measure conversions (people signing up for your newsletter). This reports on conversions no matter how someone signs up (including the dedicated form page and the news section).

You then decide that you want to focus on driving people through to the dedicated signup page, so if you create a new goal where you enter the URL of the dedicated signup page and click 'Required Step'.

You will then be able to look at the funnel report to see the funnel ONLY for visitors who convert after viewing the dedicated signup page.

Setting 'Required Step' ONLY Affects Funnel Visualization Report

Firstly, selecting 'Required Step' on the goal settings page only modifies what you see in the funnel visualization report.

So if you were to create the goal in the above scenario and selected 'Required Step' you would still see a total number of conversions for visitors. This would include those who did and didn't convert through the dedicated signup page. If you just want to see those who did view the dedicated signup page you would need to view the funnel visualization report.

Example funnel report (with 1st step required):

Then for the same goal you will still see total conversions:

Getting Technical...

If you are still with me – great work! Now for some technical things about 'Required Step' and goals, so if you are not technical don't worry if it doesn't make sense straight away.

If you have multiple steps on the goal settings page and you have selected 'Required Step' it simply means that a visitor must view that page at some point before viewing the conversion page. (Just like all goals the order of the steps is not critical to how Google Analytics reports.)

Also, like all other goals a visitor can only convert once within a single visit (or session) to your website. So if they view the 'Required Step' page, come back to you site in a week and view the 2nd step and the conversion page they will have converted, but not be displayed in the funnel visualization report (due to the required step and the fact they did not view the required step page within that visit to your site).

Done!

Fingers crossed, I just explained what I consider to be the most confusing setting option within Google Analytics.

Tracking PayPal with Google Analytics and Google AdWords

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:10:00 +0000

Setting up ecommerce tracking is essential if you are selling online (if you don't sell online check out Monetizing Non-Ecommerce Sites). But not all ecommerce systems integrate with Google Analytics. And if you are selling online chances are you accept PayPal® as a method of payment. So how do track visitors who have purchased via PayPal?

First step, create a thank you page for successful PayPal transactions and set that URL within PayPal so visitors are returned to your site.

The problem is that when the visitor returns to your site after payment has been received (or cancelled) PayPal gets the credit for the conversion and not the original way the visitor found your site.

Steps For Tracking PayPal With Google Analytics:

1. Log into PayPal.

2. Under the 'My Account' tab click on the 'Profile' link.

3. Click on 'Website Payment Preferences' (under 'Selling Preferences' in the right column).

4. Turn 'Auto Return' on and enter the URL of your PayPal thank you page.

Then add ?utm_nooverride=1 to the end of your URL (highlighted in blue below), this will ensure that transactions (i.e. conversions) are credited to the original traffic source, rather than PayPal.

For example, if a visitor came from a Google search for 'gardening book' the conversion will be credited to Google, organic, gardening book (and not PayPal, referral).

At this point if you simply want to track the conversions using goals you can setup a new goal for the thank you page within Google Analytics. However, if you want to also get Google Analytics ecommerce tracking up and running you will need to get a little more technical.

PayPal's payment data transfer allows you to receive transaction details once a visitor is back on your site (visit the PayPal technical overview article for details).

Getting Advanced With Ecommerce Tracking:

6. Turn 'Payment Data Transfer' on.

Please note that once you turn on 'Payment Data Transfer' it will be applied to all Auto Return payments unless otherwise specified within the button or link for that Website Payment.

7. You will now either have to create your 'Buy Now' buttons or modify your existing buttons.

If you are creating new 'Buy Now' buttons leave the return URL blank (or if you specify a different URL ensure it has ?utm_nooverride=1 at the end).

If you already have buttons on your site you will need to look for the following code:

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">

And add the following before the </form> element (with your correct thank you page URL):

<input name="return" type="hidden" value="http://www.site.com/paypal-thanks.php?utm_nooverride=1" />

8. Finally you will need to modify your thank you page to grab the PayPal data being transfered using either the POST of GET methods (you will have to talk to your web developer or IT person if you are not familiar with the coding of your site).

Basically, you will need the Google Analytics ecommerce tracking code to automatically (or dynamically) grab the correct values and place them in the code. You will be able to get total price, tax, shipping, transaction id, item name, quantity, etc.

Example Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking Code:

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "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">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-1");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
pageTracker._addTrans(
"6NB836968U296223E", // Order ID
"", // Affiliation
"20.00", // Total
"2.00", // Tax
"0.0", // Shipping
"", // City
"", // State
"" // Country
);
pageTracker._addItem(
"6NB836968U296223E", // Order ID
"ProductId123", // SKU
"Green T-shirt", // Product Name 
"T-Shirts", // Category
"20.0", // Price
"1" // Quantity
);
pageTracker._trackTrans();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

For Google AdWords conversion tracking you simply need to grab the total value and pass that into the conversion script as the value.

Example Google AdWords Conversion Tracking Code:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var google_conversion_id = 12345678;
var google_conversion_language = "en";
var google_conversion_format = "2";
var google_conversion_color = "ffffff";
var google_conversion_label = "U10bCNfstvhghO6gM";
var google_conversion_value = 0;
if (20) {
  google_conversion_value = 20;
}
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js">
</script>
<noscript>
<div style="display:inline;">
<img height="1" width="1" style="border-style:none;" alt="" src="http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/12345678/?value=20&label=U10bCNfstvhghO6gM&guid=ON&script=0"/>
</div>
</noscript>

Read about Google Analytics ecommerce tracking

Read about Google AdWords conversion tracking

Finally, we strongly recommend that you test everything out using the PayPal Sandbox.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us directly and if you are located in Australia check out our Google Seminars for Success for the best Google Analytics training available!

Thanks to ROI Revolution for inspiring this post who originally discussed Google Analytics and PayPal back in 2007.

Google Analytics Goals and Funnels: Back to Basics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:49:00 +0000

Goals are great and it is amazing how many people don't have them setup! Goals allow you to track visitors who convert on your site, so they can provide you with really quick insights with only a few minutes of setup time.

And if you already have goals setup within Google Analytics, then I would encourage you to take a few minutes to double check you have everything setup correctly. Also, checkout the new engagement goals that are available.

Uses For Google Analytics Goals And Funnels:

Ecommerce transactions
Email newsletter subscriptions
Contact form leads
Whitepaper and PDF downloads
Views of critical pages

Getting Started:

To start out I would suggest setting up a traditional goal, which is simply based on the view of a key page on your site, a thank you page is best.

Start by navigating and completing the steps you expect people to take to get to the thank you page. As you go record the URLs of the pages you visit, all the way to the thank you page.

Here is an email newsletter subscription example;

1. http://www.site.com/index.html
2. http://www.site.com/news/
3. http://www.site.com/news/subscribe.html
4. http://www.site.com/news/thank-you.html

In this example I have gone from the homepage, to the news section, to the subscription form to the thank you page.

I would suggest that you just use the subscription form and the thank you page as the goal steps in this case, because people might come from other sections or pages on your site to the subscription form and so the first two steps are considered optional.

Setting Up Your Goal:

1. Click 'Edit' for the profile you are setting up a goal for on the Google Analytics account overview page.

2. Click 'Add Goal' next to a goal set.

3. Give the goal a suitable name (e.g. Newsletter Subscription).

4. Ensure 'Active Goal' is set to 'On'.

5. Set 'Goal Type' as 'URL Destination'.

6. By default match type is set to 'Head Match', leaving this default setting works in most cases.

Head Match: matches part of the URL (e.g. entering /page.html will match for /page.html?id=18 and /page.html?id=204)
Exact Match: matches the exact URL (check the top content report to ensure the URL is being tracked by Google Analytics)
Regular Expression Match: matches the URL based on regular expressions.

7. Enter the final conversion page as the goal URL. This is generally the thank you or receipt page. You generally want to set a goal URL that is not accessible unless a visitor has completed your desired process.

8. Optional: If your goal has a particular value you can set the dollar value for the 'goal value' input. (If you have an ecommerce site, you should setup ecommerce reporting and not set a goal value.)

9. Enter the URLs of the steps required to complete the process and give each step a suitable name. (Click 'Add Goal Funnel Step' and repeat for all the steps you have defined as critical to completing the goal.)

10. Click 'Save Changes'.

Q+A: Grouping Pages in Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:19:00 +0000

Question: How can I group pages together for reporting within Google Analytics?

In this post we will look at how we can use; Advanced Table Filters, Profile Filters and Multiple Custom Variables to group pages together for reporting within Google Analytics.

We are going to use an online toy shop as an example for this post. Let's say the website has toys in the following categories:

Bicycles
Dolls
Games
Learning

Basic: Content Drilldown

If the site already has a logical folder structure then there are very simple ways to group content.

Firstly, browse your website and look at the URLs for the individual pages you want to group.

If you see URLs such as the following:

www.toys.com/bicycles/
www.toys.com/bicycles/bmx-bikes
www.toys.com/bicycles/product.php?id=3012

Where all the pages you want to group have a common element in the URL (in the example above you can see /bicycles/ is in all the URLs we want to group), then you can navigate to Content > Content Drilldown to see all the pages rolled-up into /bicycles/.

If you have pages that don't have a common element in the URL then you will have to be a little more advanced!

Intermediate: Advanced Table Filters and Profile Filters

If you see URLs such as the following:

www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=3829 for a boys bicycle
www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=1258 for a teens bicycle
www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=7248 for a doll
www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=3457 for a preschool board game
www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=1263 for a brain game

And you only want to group the boys bicycles and teens bicycles, then you have two options.

Firstly, you can navigate to Content > Top Content within Google Analytics and then apply an Advanced Table Filter that only matches those two pages.

Click 'Advanced Filter' and enter 3029|1258 (this will match 3029 OR 1258 within the report using | which is the pipe symbol):

Once you click 'Apply Filter' the Top Content report will only include data for the two bicycle pages. You will have to add the ID numbers for any other pages you want to include in the report (e.g. 3029|1258|9620|3892 etc.)

Once you have done this you you can consider setting up a filtered profile that will only report on the pages you have identified. Create a new profile and apply a filter like the following:

The above is an include filter with the following as the filter pattern: ^/product/index\.php\?id\=(3829|1258) this will match /product/indexphp?id=3829 AND /product/indexphp?id=1258.

Advanced: Multiple Custom Variables

Advanced Table Filters and Profile Filters are fantastic but if you change your site you also have to update your filters which could be a pain. You might also have a LOT of pages, and filters might be restrictive and take a lot of time to setup. If you fall into this area then Multiple Custom Variables are going to be the best solution.

Multiple Custom Variables are going to be more involved to setup because they need to be placed within your site's code but with the help of yourweb developer or IT support it shouldn't be too hard to get it setup correctly.

Once you have defined which pages should be grouped (e.g. all the bicycle pages) then you will need to dynamically create Multiple Custom Variables within the code of your pages.

So for all the bicycle pages you will need the following to be within your tracking code:

pageTracker._setCustomVar(
   1, // Multiple Custom Variable is set to slot 1
   "Product Section", // Overarching name (or category)
   "Bicycles", // This value of the custom variable
   3 // Sets the scope to pageview-level
);

Then for your games pages you might need:

pageTracker._setCustomVar(
   1, // Multiple Custom Variable is set to slot 1
   "Product Section", // Overarching name (or category)
   "Games", // This value of the custom variable
   3 // Sets the scope to pageview-level
);

And so on for each section you want to track. Once your pages are dynamically tracking into the Multiple Custom Variables, you will be able to access the Custom Variables report within Google Analytics.

Make Notes in Google Analytics with Annotations

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:51:00 +0000

Until the release of Annotations within Google Analytics you were probably referring to a calendar or spreadsheet to find out what caused certain spikes in traffic. Annotations solves this by allowing Google Analytics users to add notes to dates within Google Analytics reports.

Creating Annotations Within Google Analytics

1. Click the annotation toggle link below the graph within your Google Analytics profile.

2. Select the date for the annotation and click '+ create new annotation'.

3. Enter your note (up to 160 characters), select if you would like the note to be shared or private and click 'save'.

A shared annotation will be visible to all users who have access to the particular Google Analytics profile. A private annotation will only be visible to you.

Top 5 Events To Track Using Annotations:

Email newsletters and email marketing campaigns
Offline advertising launches (e.g. print, radio, TV)
Marketing events or milestones (e.g. product launches)
Website changes (e.g. interface design or promotional banner)
Key calendar events (e.g. public holidays, Valentine's day)

How Much is 'Google Analytics' Costing You?

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:46:00 +0000

Omniture recently presented a webinar and published a white paper titled "How Much is 'Free' Costing You?" where they engaged research company Forrester and an Omniture client to discredit free web analytics tools.

What did you just call Google Analytics?

John Lovett of Forrester tries to convince us that free tools are like free puppies. Two things come to mind, the first being that I don't think anybody would ever assume that a puppy is entirely free (much like a free webinar from Omniture would give us something more than a sales pitch).

Here is how John describes free web analytics tools:

"Thinking about free tools you also have to consider how much work they are. What's going to go into taking that free puppy home? Did you think about the fact that you are going to have to take it home for walks?"

Google Analytics is like a free puppy? You have got to be kidding me!

John almost completely skips the most critical piece of information in his presentation – that you need to dedicate resources to analysis in order to turn web analytics data into actions.

Now we are talking, if we invest resources and dollars into getting Google Analytics set up correctly or we invest (considerably more) in Omniture and we don't get any value or return from that investment, then yes, we fail.

Google Analytics vs. Omniture SiteCatalyst

Tony Bradshaw and Tim Munsell of DaveRamsey.com follow on from John's presentation and they take direct aim at Google Analytics.

They refer to the features (left column below) that in their opinion Google Analytics does not provide. I have taken the liberty of filling in the blanks (right column below):

Omniture SiteCatalyst	Google Analytics
Highly customizable reports	Google Analytics has over 90 standard reports, plus Custom Reports and Advanced Segments
Visitor paths	Site Overlay, Navigation Summary and Entrance Paths reports
Robust dashboards	Customizable dashboard
Sharing of custom reports	Sharing of custom reports and advanced segments and apply these to multiple profiles and account
Upload offline data	No data upload, but you can create your own mashups with data from the Google Analytics Data Export API
Access to support	Google support articles, Google support forum, Google Analytics Authorized Consultants
40 custom event metrics	Track up to 500 events per visitor session
80 custom event variables	Define custom event variables (with categories, actions, labels and values)
'Large' number of custom variables	Track up to 50,000 custom variables (with up to 5 with any given request)
Custom variable attribution	Only last click attribution by default, but can be customized with scripting and use of Multiple Custom Variables
Custom variable persistance	Set scope to pageview, session or visitor
Create custom metrics inside the tool	No mashup of metrics by default, but can be acheived with the Google Analytics API
Site sectioning and hirarcy	Content Drilldown reports, create hirarcy with account and profile structure and use Multiple Custom Variables for advanced requirements
Change funnels on the fly	Funnels do not apply to historical data, but historical conversions can be viewed with Advanced Segments and Content Reports
Funnels for pages, groups of pages, variables and events	Funnels for pages, groups of pages and engagement metrics
Unlimited dashboards	Only one dashboard, but many 3rd party dashboard solutions available
Export 50,000 rows of data to Excel	Export 50,000 rows of data with slight modification to report URL

(Multiple Custom Variables, engagement base goals and report sharing became available shortly after Omniture's webinar.)

Tony and Tim also take aim at the support available to Google Analytics users. They suggest that the consulting and professional services offered around Google Analytics are lacking and questionable at best. As one of over 100 Google Analytics Authorized Consultants around the world we provide enterprise level services and training specifically for Google Analytics addressing individual and shared client needs.

I won't go through all the available support options available because Feras Alhlou of e-nore (a US based Google Analytics Authorized Consultant) has already highlighted them in his post about Omniture's webinar. But in summary there are support articles, forums, professional services (from Google Analytics Authorized Consultants like us), Google Analytics Training (Google sponsored Seminars for Success) and many other related support and training offerings available.

Consider Your Web Analytics Investment

Tony and Tim also included the following graph to highlight the Return On Investment (ROI) they received from implementing Omniture SiteCatalyst. I have highlighted the inclusion of the cost of web analytics staff as a percent of the investment. Without somebody driving action from a web analytics tool you are never going to see ROI.

I have created the following graph to propose a question. What if they had invested the cost of Omniture SiteCatalyst 100% towards real people to drive action?

Really what you should be asking yourself; is how much is 'not acting on my data' costing me? And maybe you should think about allocating that budget you have saved by not buying Omniture's SiteCatalyst to engage leading consultants and hiring dedicated staff.

Apparently Google Analytics is a free puppy. But what does that make Omniture's SiteCatalyst if we are spending $50,000 or more on it a year? A really freaking expensive dog!

A big thank you to Cameron for provoking this post!

New Google Analytics Features Unveiled

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:12:00 +0000

Powerful. Flexible. Intelligent.

Google has officially announced the release of new Google Analytics features which strongly position the product as an enterprise-level web analytics platform. Much anticipated additions to the tool include the ability to define up to 20 goals per profile (previously limited to 4), Intelligence reports that provide automated and custom alerts to changes in metrics and dimensions, and the ability to track visitors into Multiple Custom Variables (previously known as Custom Segments).

New Google Analytics features include:

Intelligence Reports
Automatic and Custom Alerts
Expanded Goals
Site Engagement Goals
Advanced Table Filtering
Expanded Mobile Reporting
Share Advanced Segments
Share Custom Reports
Multiple Custom Variables

Google Analytics Gets Smart With Intelligence Reports

The new Intelligence reports allow you to see if significant changes are occurring within your Google Analytics data. For example; you received more visitors than expected, your bounce rate is increasing or you have experienced a spike in revenue from new visitors to your site. The Automatic Alerts within Google Analytics Intelligence provide you with this level of detail automatically and it is provided for historical data (back to mid 2008) in your profiles.

Automatic Alerts also let you know when things aren't going well:

Taking Intelligence reports to the next level with Custom Alerts allows you to define your own alert triggers and receive an email alert. For example you can create a Custom Alert to notify you (within Google Analytics and via email) when your Google AdWords campaign traffic meets a revenue target or when your organic (or free) keyword term from your SEO efforts has resulted in a certain number of visitors to your site.

Now Google Analytics really is smart!

Want More Goals In Google Analytics?

Google Analytics: Now With 20 Goals Per Profile

One feature that we have all wanted for a while now is the ability to set more than 4 goals per profile. Each Google Analytics profile can now be setup with 20 goals. These are also conveniently arranged in 4 groups containing 5 goals each.

Site Engagement Goals In Google Analytics

Evaluating the effectiveness of content based sites just got easier with site engagement goals in Google Analytics. Standard goals are great for reporting on particular actions you want your visitors to take (buying online, filling out a contact form or registering for your email newsletter) but what if your primary objective is providing quality content and an engaging experience for your visitors? Site engagement goals are your answer, now you can set a goal conversion for time on site or pages per visit allowing you to access the power of goal reports within Google Analytics.

If you are a SMB (Small to Medium Business), non-profit, government or any organization with a content or branding focused site you should definitely begin using site engagement goals.

Filtering Within Google Analytics Reports

Google Analytics Table Filtering allows you to filter the data presented within particular table reports. This allows you to quickly refine the data to your particular parameters, for example removing particular dimensions (like pages) based on metrics (like time on page) that are skewing your analysis.

Exploring the example further, you could take your Top Content report and then use Table Filtering to only include pages where visitors spend more than 0 seconds and less than 30 seconds.

This gives you direct access to under performing pages based on time on page. Then you can drill-down further by applying advanced segments (All Visitors, Search Traffic, Direct Traffic and Referral Traffic) to the report to establish if Traffic Sources relate to the under performance of the pages.

Expanded Mobile Reporting In Google Analytics

Google Analytics now allows for improved tracking of mobile devices, so you can now track interactions within your iPhone and Android apps to measure usage and engagement.

A new tracking code for mobile sites built using PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX will also become available, allowing you to track all web-enabled mobile devices (not just mobile devices that run JavaScript).

Share Your Advanced Segments And Custom Reports

Advanced Segments and Custom Reports are powerful tools to drill deeper into your data. Now you can quickly share your Advanced Segments and Custom Reports with your colleagues making it easier to collaborate on the analysis of your site.

Multiple Custom Variables

This advanced feature opens up more opportunities for custom tracking using Google Analytics. Our team will be updating our custom Google Website Optimizer tracking solution to make use of Multiple Custom Variables, as well as looking at how we can make use it to attribute first and last click to conversions.

Previously Custom Variables (also known as custom segments or _setVar) allowed you to assign a visitor with one User Defined value, now with Multiple Custom Variables you will be able to set each visitor with numbers User Defined values.

Measuring Social Networks with Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Lets Start with a Quick Overview

Social networking can be used to increase traffic to your website, generate more sales and leads, and enhance your visibility to potential and existing customers. In order to achieve these objectives you need to assign value to each initiative you undertake and align social networking with your business objectives.

If you want to increase the number of visits or improve your visibility in the marketplace, you should focus on listening to clients and competitors (Google Alerts, Twitter), share content (Flickr, YouTube, Blogger, RSS, MySpace), build good relationships (Facebook, LinkedIn), dialogue with customers (Twitter), generate buzz (Digg, Twitter) and participate in a wider community (Twitter, Facebook).

Once you are active within social networks you need to determine how you are performing and calculate your ROI (Return On Investment).

Measuring Social Networks in Google Analytics

By default Google Analytics allows us to track visitors from social network via referral source (or which social networking site linked to your site). You can view visits from social networks within the All Traffic Sources report (located under Traffic Sources).

Begin by searching for the top social networking site, this can be acheived by using the filter (or search) at the very bottom of the report.

Once you have established your primary social networking referrals you can input multiple social media domain names into the filter option. Then you can begin to compare the true value of your social networking efforts.

Do basic engagement metrics differ between networks?
Are social network visitors converting for your goals?
And more importantly; how do conversion rates compare?

The following image highlights the ecommerce conversion rates between 4 social networking sites. We can now see that Twitter is driving the highest conversion rate, therefore if we focus our efforts on driving more traffic from Twitter we should see even more revenue being generated.

In this example we could aim to increase Twitter visitors by 50% or 100% which would result in additional revenue of $37,886.85 to $75,773.69 - more than enough to cover a member of your team Tweeting an hour a day!

Google Analytics allows you to measure metrics for visitors accessing your site from social networks in quantitative terms, but it is also important to understand the qualitative value of your efforts.

Drilling Deeper into Social Networking Visitors using Google Analytics

Okay, now that you have the basics down you can start to get deeper into your Google Analytics social networking data.

Creating a social networking advanced segment will allow you to see this level of detail throughout the majority of Google Analytics reports.

Creating an Advanced Segment for Social Networks:

Navigate to Advanced Segments
Click 'Create new custom segment'
Search or browse for 'Source' within the Dimensions options
Click and drag 'Source' over to the custom segment builder
Select 'Matches regular expression' as the condition
Enter your social networks (we have used twitter\.com|flickr\.com|youtube\.com|digg\.com)
Name your segment
Test your segment to ensure it works
And finally, click 'Create Segment'

You should end up with the following:

Now when you apply your custom advanced segment your Google Analytics reports will only include visitors coming from the social networking sites you have defined.

Posted by Daniela Fernandez and Benjamin Mangold, Analytics Team

Does Bing Equal Cha-Ching?

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Advertising on Bing? Thinking of advertising on Bing? Then you need to know what you are being charged for. A click on your ad might not achieve the result you expect, especially if you are used to advertising with Google AdWords.

First let's look at Google AdWords. When your ad displays on Google the ad headline becomes the link to our landing page (destination URL).

Your ad's link on Google: (highlighted in red)

This is good in my opinion because when someone clicks we know there is a very good chance they wanted to click the ad. This is supported by the fact that the ad headline is presented as a link - it is blue and underlined.

Okay, now let's look at your ad's link on Bing: (highlighted in red)

Wow! That's a big difference in the way Bing classifies your ad's link compared to Google!

Even if someone only clicks the white space around your ad you receive the click and more importantly the cost. Looking at the link area this becomes a concern especially if someone is actually trying to click the next ad below and ends up on your site. I wonder if they will bounce?

I would also argue that being in the 1st ad position (as highlighted in the image above) has the additional effect that clicks on 'Sponsored sites' also sends a click your way. What if it is a competitor wanting to know how to advertise on Bing?

So now that you know what Bing considers a link (and a click on your ad) you can make an informed decision on how to proceed. You should definitely segment your analytics resports for Bing traffic and evaluate if there are any differences to your other CPC (Cost Per Click) campaigns.

Automatically Tracking Downloads and Outbound Links

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:53:00 +0000

The following post outlines one method for achieving automatic download and outbound link tracking for Google Analytics.

Although manually tagging files and links is the best way to track your downloads and outbound links, it is not very practical. Tagging more than a handful of links becomes painful.

Okay, so what are the downsides to automatic tracking?

The JavaScript required to modify the links is going to add to the loading time of your site.
If you have many, many files or links on a page it is going to take time for the script to run through your page and apply the tags to each file or link.

Quick steps:

Download the following file (gatag.zip), unzip it and upload it to your server (in this example we have uploaded it into a folder called /javascript/).
Place the following code above your Google Analytics Tracking Code:

<script src="/javascript/gatag.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

This script only works for the ga.js Google Analytics Tracking Code, if you are still using urchin.js you will need to update this first.

This script was originally developed by Goodwebpractices.com with the help of ShoreTel, MerryMan and Colm McBarron. Our version has had some slight modification from VKI Studios and ourselves, Mangold Sengers.

Your Google Analytics Tracking Code should now look something like this:

<script src="/javascript/gatag.js" type="text/javascript"></script> 
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "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">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-123456-1");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

Check your Google Analytics reports in 12 to 24 hours to ensure that file downloads and outbound links are tracking correctly. You should see your downloads and links being tracked into the Top Content and Content Drilldown reports e.g. /downloads/path-to-file/file.pdf and /outbound/www.externalsite.com/index.html

(Please note that this post outlines the tracking required for a standard Google Analytics installation, if you are tracking multiple domains or doing any advanced tracking you should consult your Google Analytics provider or get professional Google Analytics support.)

Google Analytics Site Search: Setup Options

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:08:00 +0000

There are a number of ways to setup Google Analytics Site Search depending on the way your website functions and the URLs your search function creates.

Site Search: Option 1

Perform a search for 'analytics' on your website and look at the URL.

What do your Site Search URLs look like?

If the resulting URL looks like one of the following:

http://www.example.com/search?q=analytics
http://www.example.com/index.php?id=search&term=analytics
http://www.example.com/search.asp?search_term=analytics&id=ac9024

You can follow our steps to setup Google Analytics Site Search.

Site Search: Option 2

If the resulting URL looks like one of the following:

http://www.example.com/index/search/analytics
http://www.example.com/search.php/keyword/analytics/id946
http://www.example.com/searchterm/analytics

Because Site Search reports are processed before filters are processed you cannot simply create a filter to modify your Site Search URL within Google Analytics. Instead you need to modify the tracking code on the search results page to dynamically pass the search term using a virtual pageview (see 'option 3 below').

If you or your web developer is unable to modify the tracking code on the search results page, then you might want to consider one of the following filters to at least make the Top Content report easier to scan for internal search terms. Remember, that this does not allow you to use the Site Search reports within Google Analytics.

Possible filters:

If your URL looks like http://www.example.com/index/search/analytics you will need to setup the following filter:

Field A -> Extract A: Request URI: ^/index/search/(.*)
Output To -> Constructor: Request URI: /search?q=$A1

If your URL looks like http://www.example.com/search.php/keyword/analytics/id946 you will need to setup the following filter:

Field A -> Extract A: Request URI: ^/search.php/keyword/(.*)/id
Output To -> Constructor: Request URI: /search?q=$A1

If your URL looks like http://www.example.com/searchterm/analytics you will need to setup the following filter:

Field A -> Extract A: Request URI: ^/searchterm/(.*)
Output To -> Constructor: Request URI: /search?q=$A1

These filters will modify your Top Content reports:

But won't allow you to use Site Search reports:

Site Search: Option 3

If the resulting URL does not contain the keyword you searched for then you will either need to modify your search form or modify your Google Analytics Tracking Code to create a virtual pageview.

For example you search for 'analytics' and the URL of your search results page looks like:

http://www.example.com/search
http://www.example.com/index.php?id=search
http://www.example.com/search-results.asp

View the source of a page on your site that contains the search input, if your form looks something like this:

<form name="gs" method="post" action="search.php">

Then try changing the method to 'get'. Your source code should look something like this:

<form name="gs" method="get" action="search.php">

If you now perform a search you should see a URL along the lines of those in 'Option 1'.

If you are unable to modify the form method or the change does not provide the search parameter in the URL then you will need to modify the Google Analytics Tracking Code to dynamically create a URL that is correctly structured for Site Search.

For example:

<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-123456-1");
pageTracker._trackPageview('/search?q=analytics');
} catch(err) {}</script>

The keyword ('analytics' in the example above) will need to be dynamically passed to the tracking code for each term that is searched. Talk to your web developer if you need help achieving this, you can then look at 'Option 1' because you are creating a virtual pageview for http://www.your-site.com/search?q=analytics

Goal Abandonment Rate in Google Analytics Explained

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:40:00 +0000

So what is Goal Abandonment Rate in Google Analytics? And what do those numbers mean anyway?

The Goal Abandonment Rate report allows you to see what percent of people have commenced your defined conversion process, but have failed to convert on the goal. But how are those numbers calculated?

Total Percent of Goal Abandonment

The total percent is calculated as follows (for the currently selected time period):

[ ( Unique Goal Starts - Goal Completions ) / Unique Goal Starts ] X 100 = Total Goal Abandonment Rate

Percent of Goal Abandonment by Day

Starting from the right, the (68.75%) uses the same method of calculation, but each row is calculated by day. For example;

[ ( Day Unique Goal Starts - Day Goal Completions ) / Day Unique Goal Starts ] X 100 = Day Goal Abandonment Rate

Moving to the right, the 97.50% is a comparison of each days abandonment rate to the overall abandonment rate for the selected time period, calculated as follows;

[ Day Goal Abandonment Rate / Total Goal Abandonment Rate ] X 100 = Comparison Goal Abandonment Rate

New Features Added To Motion Chart

noreply@blogger.com (Daniela Fernandez) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:56:00 +0000

The Google blog (Motion Chart Scavenger Hunt Followup) revealed new motion chart features, comments on the changes have already been posted. Here, there are some of the changes I discovered and their possible benefits.

1. Data Selection

The first new feature easy to find is the select/deselect option. It is possible to select 0, 1 or more items from the list, making easier to know which information is displayed.

2. Bar chart

At the top-right side of the graph you can find a new tab to see the same information shown in the bubble graph but this time as a bar chart. When you move from one type of graph to the other, some information about the new settings is kept such as the elements selected, and opacity, but not the zoom in/out property.

3. Zoom in - Zoom out

Now it is possible to zoom in the information shown in the bubble and bar chart. The steps are explained in the tool in order to Zoom in.

a. Put your mouse in the chart area.
b. Hold down the left mouse button and draw a rectangle over the items you want to zoom in.
c. Release the left mouse button.
d. In the menu that pops up, select 'Zoom in'.

4. Bubble opacity

In my opinion one of the most useful new features is the ability to manage the bubble opacity. At the right side of the graph there is a tool icon[], clicking in there you can find a slider from 0% to 100% to define how opaque do you want the items that are not selected. In the next 2 images you can see the same element with using the opacity in 0% and in 50%.

5. Tools advanced

Finally, there is an option for advanced users that shows a piece of code to be embedded in flash code.

Those who have previously used the motion chart can notice that there was also a change in the way to show the color dimension bar. Before it was placed horizontally, now it is vertical, making easier to see the scale in numbers but taking more space in the page.

Some of the benefits I have discovered so far are:

1. Hide/Show Information: The rule used to manage the opacity is very useful when you don't want to show some information. You can select the items you want to display and set the opacity to 0% or if you want to see all the bubbles without any difference between the selected and unselected, you can setup the opacity to 100% e.g. imagine that you need to record the behaviour of three dot points to show them in a presentation and you want to hide irrelevant information related to the other points. Well, with the new select and opacity option it is possible, you only have to select the dot points you would like to show and set the opacity to 0%. Then, click on the "play" [] button to see the chart in action during the period of time selected.

2. Clean Graph: Also the opacity is useful to clean the screen in order to understand better the graph when you are using the trail option and you want to see only the information of one, two or other specific number of bubbles.

3. Using bubble opacity and zoom in together help to focus on information that you really want to see and avoid distractions.

4. Zoom in small Data: The "zoom in" is really useful for those cases where you have the dimension size setup and some small bubbles or overlapped compared to other data. In the previous version when this happened you had to leave the dimension size set to "same size". However, now it is possible to have different sizes and for those we are interested in just use the zoom in functionality.

5. Quick Data Selection: The selection feature is useful when you want to show information quickly about some specific data. It is easier to select from the list of the 10 first items displayed in the right side rather than check every element in the graph. If we want to reset that, we just need to click in the option "deselect all" which is enabled once we have selected at least one item from the list.

These are just some of the benefits of the new features. I'm pretty sure you will find more, specially when you start playing with the tools together e.g. bubble, zoom in, trails and different size dimension together.

I think the motion chart is a utility that allows us to visualize different data in one single graph. There is only one more feature I would like to have to give 10 points to this tool, and it is the option to change the range of date without going back to the normal report located in the menu.

Google Analytics Kicks Microsoft Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:43:00 +0000

Almost 1 year ago I wrote a brief article about why Microsoft Analytics sucked and today Microsoft have announced the end of Microsoft Analytics. Competition in the web analytics market place is essential and as feature sets increase, greater competition drives innovation and creative thinking.

Microsoft Analytics has remained clunky and more importantly slow - way, way too slow! So it does not come as a surprise that Microsoft has had to rethink the analytics front.

Microsoft's announcement raises 2 interesting questions:
How closely is search engine marketing tied to web analytics innovation?
Where are web analytics tools, like Google Analytics, heading?
I am not going to dwell on the first question - maybe you have some thoughts you would like to add on that topic. So I will move on to my (current) Google Analytics wish list.

Google Analytics Wish List

Google Analytics Site Overlay

The current site overlay feature is easy to hate, but aside from making it functional, I would love to see each link tracked independently and lets apply custom segments.

Google Analytics Heatmaps

Heatmaps are loveable and useful for evaluating where people think they can click and how people are interacting with your site. It may not be eye tracking, but it is definitely effective. Crazy Egg does it well, Google Analytics will rock it.

Google Analytics Realtime Tracking

Everybody wants their data now! Yahoo can do it, so, fingers crossed Google comes to the party.

Google Analytics Client Information

Who else would love to be able to tag visitors within Google Analytics and import information you have about your clients and leads? I know I would! Imagine being able to segment based on form input fields to see your clients or leads who have registered interest in a particular product or service.

Google Analytics Custom Segments For Sites

How about using the custom segments from within Google Analytics to present particular content to particular visitors on your website. While I am in this dream, why don't we combine Google Website Optimizer and Google Analytics and allow us to input the targeted content straight into Google Analytics to present on our website? Oh, and lets keep it really easy to use and make it pretty!

Google Analytics and SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:36:00 +0000

Fixing Campaign Tagged URLs for Improved SEO

While attending the 2008 GAAC Summit at the Googleplex Robbin Steif of Lunametrics raised an interesting point regarding URLs that have Google Analytics campaign tags. Robbin pointed out that campaign tagged URLs can adversely effect SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as a result of duplicate content and that the _setAllowAnchor(true) function can be used to alleviate the problem.

Okay, great, but can you repeat that in English?

Basically, Google sees a page on your site and campaigned tagged URL for the same page as actually being two separate pages. Then when we come to SEO, websites and pages can be given lower priority if there is duplicate content.

We have a landing page about being a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant: www.mangoldsengers.com/google-analytics-authorized-consultant

And we have a campaign tagged link to the same page on the Google Analytics partner page that looks like this: www.mangoldsengers.com/google-analytics-authorized-consultant?utm_source=gaac-listing&utm_medium=referal&utm_campaign=google-analytics

Although these are the same page Google sees them as two separate pages, so now the question is how do I fix the problem?

How to Fix Campaign Tagged URLs for SEO

Luckily, Google doesn't index anything after a # in a URL, so basically we need to change this: www.mangoldsengers.com/google-analytics-authorized-consultant?utm_source=gaac-listing&utm_medium=referal&utm_campaign=google-analytics to this: www.mangoldsengers.com/google-analytics-authorized-consultant#utm_source=gaac-listing&utm_medium=referal&utm_campaign=google-analytics

Google does not index anything after a destination anchor (i.e. the #), so now: www.mangoldsengers.com/google-analytics-authorized-consultant and www.mangoldsengers.com/google-analytics-authorized-consultant#utm_source=gaac-listing&utm_medium=referal&utm_campaign=google-analytics will be seen as the same page by Google. No more duplicate content!

Now that you have fixed the URLs, we need to get the campaign variables into Google Analytics. This is simply achieved by using the _setAllowAnchor(true) function that Robbin mentioned at the summit.

Your GATC (Google Analytics Tracking Code) will need to be modified (you will need to replace UA-XXXXXXX-X with your Google Analytics profile ID):

If you have any questions or need help implementing SEO friendly campaign tags for Google Analytics then please get in touch!

Web Analytics Wednesday in Sydney

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Join us for Web Analytics Wednesday on 27 August in Sydney, Australia.

We will be meeting at Industrie from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. The event will begin with a brief panel discussion titled 'Getting Management Involved in Web Analytics' followed by networking. Light snacks will be provided and the first 20 people to arrive will receive a complementary drink, everybody attending will be in the draw for a web analytics door prize.

Industry panelists will be announced soon.

Web Analytics Wednesday is a free event, open to anyone interested in web analytics and online marketing, including professionals and vendors. Come along to discuss web analytics and network at Sydney's Web Analytics Wednesday.

Event Details

When: Wednesday 27 August 2008
Time: 6pm to 8pm
Venue: Industrie Bar and Restaurant
Where: 107 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

Please RSVP by emailing events@mangoldsengers.com or on the Web Analytics Wednesday in Sydney page.

Free Webinar by Google

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:43:00 +0000

The Google Trifecta: Webmaster Tools, Analytics, Website Optimizer

DATE: Tuesday, July 8, 2008
TIME: 9:00 - 10:00 am PT (Pacific Time)
JOIN US: Register to attend

Tom Leung, Senior Google Product Manager and Google Website Optimizer Guru has asked us to mention the upcoming Google Trifecta webinar.

I encourage all of our US and Canadian readers to attend and for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, I will post an update if a recording becomes available after the event.

For more details visit the Google Website Optimizer blog.

How to analyze results in Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:12:00 +0000

Google Analytics gives us so many pretty graphs, but value is only gained when that data is used to drive action to improve your site. So how do we begin to analyze results in Google Analytics?

Firstly, you need to understand what your website is about and what it actually does for your business. This may seem like a obvious place to start, but you would be surprised at how many people I meet that cannot answer this question.

What is the purpose of your website?

To generate leads? To sell products? To register subscribers? To sell services? To provide support?

Once you can identify the purpose of your website you can begin to identify ways to improve your site. Generally your initial focus will either be content or a specific process you want to optimize.

3 ways to improve your website content by analyzing Google Analytics reports:

1. Analyze the Keywords report

Review the Keywords report, do the keywords align with the purpose of your site or business?

If you identify an organic keyword that is important to your business, but has a high bounce rate, then develop content that specifically targets visitors using that keyword.

2. Analyze the Site Search report

Setup Site Search to identify gaps in content. Are people searching for something that your site already answers? If so, you should look at your navigation system, can they get there easily?

If Site Search contains search terms that you know won't bring up relevant content on your site, you need to ask yourself why? Do these search terms identify opportunities to generate new content or fill the desires of your website visitors?

3. Analyze the Top Content report

When you look at top content report are there any pages that have a low average time on page or a high bounce rate? This generally indicates that a page isn't giving visitors what they are seeking. Review the pages that have the lowest time on page and highest bounce rate.

You can begin to see how to analyze results in Google Analytics based on the purpose of your website. Once you understand how your site works as a business tool, you can use Google Analytics to inform your process.

Google AdWords Scam

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Watch out for all the Google AdWords phishing emails circulating at the moment.

Those of you who are new to Google AdWords are probably already familiar with the simple text-only emails that Google sends out for confirming your account details. But you should look out for any emails that request you to update your account and payment details.

Always login directly by typing www.google.com/adwords messages will be displayed directly on the Campaign Summary or Account Snapshot page.

If you receive any suspicious emails forward them directly to phishing@google.com

Google Analytics vs. Microsoft Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:48:00 +0000

Why Microsoft adCenter Analytics suck!

I use Google products every day, there are a lot of things I like about Google products and some things that drive me insane but on the whole Google does the right thing - it keeps things fast and simple. This is exactly why Microsoft Analytics suck, Microsoft Analytics is what Google Analytics might be like if it had a hangover the day after its 75th birthday. I can almost hear it grumble each time a report loads.

There are a couple of things that don't suck about Microsoft Analytics when compared to Google Analytics but my dislikes push me over the edge. Each task seems to take more clicks in Microsoft Analytics and the touted gender, occupation and age segments leave a lot to be desired.

Stick with the snappy, responsive and friendly Google Analytics!

Dislikes:

Slow loading time
Not optimized for viewing on normal size screens
Dynamic images rather than flash lead to a lot of loading and reloading
Breaks web browser back button
Times out quickly and forces you to log in over and over again

Likes:

Simple media and downloads tracking (via modified tracking code)
Simple outbound link tracking (via modified tracking code)
Unrestricted number of goals and funnels

The great thing about Microsoft Analytics (and Yahoo! Analytics just around the corner) is that we all know the team at Google is going to be pushing even harder to make Google Analytics the best analytics solution on the market. Go you good thing!

The Microsoft Analytics visitors report is overly complex:

In comparison, the Google Analytics visitors report is a minimalists dream:

Benchmarking reports in Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:37:00 +0000

The Google Analytics benchmarking reports are now available for those of us who have opted in to anonymously share our data. The reports are available within the Visitors report section.

The benchmarking reports include:

Visits
Pageviews
Average pages per visitor
Bounce rate
Average time on site
Percent of new visitors

These reports allow you to compare your site's performance to that of sites within your industry. The feature only compares your site to "site of similar size" which ensures that small sites (e.g. a local business) are not being compared to goliath sites (e.g. a multi-national). Ensuring that you can only compare your site to a "site of similar size" also ensures a level of democracy for the reports, large organizations will be prevented from creating a tiny site to try and get access to competitive data.

An example of an site under-performing in comparison to the benchmark:

An example of a site that is better than the benchmark:

By default the initial benchmarking reports compare your site to "all sites of a similar size". To get the juicy reports and really see how you are performing you need to select "Open category list" and select a category that is the closest match to your industry. It is also a good idea to take a look at your data in comparison to other industries, for example, a winery could check their data against Food & Drink > Alcoholic Beverages > Wine and Travel > Attractions & Activities.

The available categories are expanding rapidly, so even if you do not currently see your industry, check the report in the couple of days and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Benchmarking category selection tool:

Tracking Google Docs with Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:53:00 +0000

Google Blogoscoped has just posted an article about tracking Google Docs using Google Analytics. You are now able to input a Google Analytics Tracking Code on your Google Docs settings page.

Unfortunately it appears that we can only track published documents with the new tracking feature. Hopefully Google Docs will soon allow us to track published forms and shared documents.

Industry benchmarking comes to Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:24:00 +0000

Google has released the new benchmarking feature which allows you to compare your site to data provided from similar sites. We are now able to not only see internal site context (i.e. how different pages or areas of your site are performing), but how a site is performing within industry context (i.e. how the site compares to similar sites).

The new benchmarking report allows you to better understand overall site performance.

In order to take advantage of the new benchmarking feature you will need to opt-in on your Account Settings page, Google will then anonymously share your data within your industry vertical to generate reports. If you do not wish to share your data, then simply select "Do not share my Google Analytics data".

Along with industry benchmarking, Google Analytics now allows you to opt-in to share your Google Analytics data with other Google products, this will allow for integrations with AdWords, AdSense and other Google products.

If you have any questions about sharing your data or the new benchmarking feature you can email me at analytics@mangoldsengers.com

Resources:

5 tips for getting the most out of Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:38:00 +0000

I have been writing a '101 tips for using Google Analytics' article since late last year and it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of my priority list. Rather than letting them go stale in Google Docs I have decided to share a couple of tips with you - let's put them to work!

If you have a tip you would like to share or have a pressing Google Analytics question that might become a tip, then send an email to analytics@mangoldsengers.com

Setup website goals. A website goal is a high value action that you would like your website visitors to perform. On a content or lead generation site, this could include subscribing to an email newsletter or completing a contact form. On a e-commerce site this could be the completion of a checkout process. You can access goal data across numerous reports within Google Analytics, plus you will have access to goal specific reports under the 'Goals' tab.

Setup e-commerce tracking. If you have an e-commerce website make sure you enable e-commerce tracking within your Google Analytics website profile and add appropriate e-commerce tags to your website. If you don't have an e-commerce website you can still use e-commerce reports to associate a dollar value to particular website visitors.

Link your Google AdWords account to your Google Analytics account. Once your accounts are linked you will have access to AdWords visitor data within Google Analytics.

Track your marketing campaigns. Campaign tracking is a crucial element in understanding how your marketing campaigns are performing. By tagging online and offline campaigns you can begin to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. Tag everything!

Manually tag your CPC (Cost Per Click) campaigns. If you use a CPC system other than Google AdWords, you will need to manually tag your campaign URLs. CPC campaigns that are not tagged will be logged as "organic" (or unpaid) searches within Google Analytics.

Google Analytics vs. Urchin 6 vs. Urchin 5

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Mangold) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:04:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks I have been consulting with large companies on using Google Analytics for enterprise. I have been asked about the differences between Google Analytics and Urchin on a couple of occasions during these workshops, so this post is all about the differences. I have decided to include Urchin 5 in this comparison because a lot of people use Urchin 5 because it is provided by their hosting companies.

Brett Crosby on Urchin

"Urchin Software is a downloadable software product which makes it appealing to organizations with restrictive data policies or those wishing to analyze firewall-protected content, such as an internal company network.

"Urchin is also useful for those who want to perform ad-hoc historical log processing, who want to store their web analytics on local servers, hosting providers wishing to provide a value-added analytics service, and those requiring third-part audits." Brett Crosby, Google Analytics Group Product Marketing Manager

Compare, compare, compare

Here are the key features compared...

Feature	Google Analytics	Urchin 6	Urchin 5
Install and manage on your own server
Hosted and maintained by Google
Reprocess historical data (from logfiles)
Track content behind firewall
Track search engine robots/spiders
Goal tracking			Add-on
Campaign tracking			Add-on
Automatic Google AdWords tracking
E-commerce reports			Add-on

Break the firewall

One of the key differences between Google Analytics and Urchin, is that Urchin is installed on your own server, which allows you to track content that cannot be tracked by Google Analytics, for example a company intranet.

Google Analytics rocks Google AdWords

When it comes to tracking your Google AdWords campaigns, Google Analytics is your answer!

Google Analytics is a critical tool if you are running Google AdWords campaigns, once you have linked your accounts you have access to reports that are not available within Urchin. These reports provide incredible insights into the success of your campaigns and where improvements can be achieved.

Auto-tagging makes tracking easy (apologies to Avinash)
See if your Ads are actually making you money
Compare the success of Ad variations
Compare other campaigns to Google AdWords
See your best Ad positions on Google.com
Understand the engagement of your paid visitors
Segment and compare your data to site goals and e-commerce reports