Google have just announced the limited release (gradual roll out) of new AdWords reports available to Google Analytics users with a linked Google AdWords account. Watch this short video to get an overview:
Whereas Google AdWords reporting focuses on the click received on an advert, Google Analytics AdWords reports will allow you to see how respondents from your PPC advertising interact and engage with your site. Good stuff, Google!
The filters within Google Analytics allow the tracking, monitoring and recording of a variety of different metrics. One particularly useful filter allows you to track your site’s position within the search engines when a visitor clicks on your listing.
This information can be incredibly valuable as you may be optimising your site for one phrase, but this filter can show that a slightly reworded phrase delivers better quality traffic. If you have e-commerce tracking and goals set up then the real value of these visitors will clearly be displayed.
Before creating the filters it is important that you create a new profile in your Google Analytics Account. Give an appropriate title like, ‘Search Engine Rankings’. There should always be a profile in your Analytics Account which has all your data with no filters, otherwise you won’t have a record of your overall traffic.
Now that you have set up your AdWords Account and have traffic going to your website, it is important that you know what all these people are doing on your website. That’s where Google Analytics can help you.
Analytics can separate the traffic you are paying to visit your site from the remainder of your traffic, allowing you to see if your advertising budget is converting to profit.
We are eagerly awaiting a new feature for Google Analytics which Google says will be rolled out in January 2010.
Annotations will allow you to be able to click on a date and leave a note describing an event or occurrence which happened on that individual day. These notes can be shared or set to private so only you can see them.
More…
In April, a new conversion column started appearing in AdWords reports and eventually the main AdWords homepage; it was called “Conversions (many-per-click)” and the old Conversion column was changed to “Conversions (1-per-click)”. This was done with no real fanfare at the time, especially considering the importance of the column. But what is “many per click” and is it better than plain old conversions?
Last week, Google released the latest wave of updates to Google Analytics. New functionality includes:
To find out more check out the videos on the Google Analytics Blog.
Does your email marketing and Google Base traffic get mixed up with your direct, referral and organic traffic?
In today’s modern, online world where return on investment (ROI) is at the centre of all spending decisions, it is essential that you are able to separate all of your marketing activities in Google Analytics.
More…
The multi-dimensional graph which brings your data to life before your eyes.
Have you had a chance to use the new Motion Charts feature in Analytics? I would recommend you spend some time reviewing your Motion Charts in your Google Analytics Account to obtain an understanding of the patterns of your traffic and conversions.
When we initially take on a new client, one of the first things we always check is to see if Google Analytics has been correctly implemented. We regularly see websites which have the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) implemented incorrectly. You will be amazed at some of the scenarios including only adding half the code, or only adding the code to a selection of pages.
Very often if the Analytics Account isn’t recording the data it is normally due to the tracking code not being implemented correctly on every page. It needs to be every page otherwise nothing will be recorded. Don’t forget to add the code to your 404 page so you are able to monitor how often your error page is shown.
No Tracking Code = No Data!
Whether you are focused on search engine optimisation or pay per click, it is important that you know which pages receive the highest volume of traffic and maybe more importantly the pages which have the highest bounce rates.
If a page is underperforming then you need to take immediate action to improve it where required. Landing pages need to make an immediate impact upon visitors and encourage them to interact further with your site.
Now that Google Analytics has the functionality of advanced segments, how and when do you decide if it is right to create a customised segment or create an additional profile?
Once you have logged into your Analytics Account, the advanced segments can be found in the top right hand corner of the account. This functionality allows the data to be segmented depending upon the data you would like to view.
Bit.ly have published a new tool this week which allows you to segment bit.ly social media traffic within Google Analytics.
The tool can be found here – bit.ly Google Analytics Campaign Tool. You will be required to download a copy of the tool by choosing ‘File > Create a copy’
Clearly you need to be talented to work at Google. Sometimes though, this can lead to a superiority complex and following hot on the trail of Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, calling Twitter a “poor man’s email”, it’s now been reported in MediaPost that their analytics evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, has made a comment that “hits”, far from being a way of measuring online success, is actually an acronym standing for “How Idiots Track Success”.
Whilst there may be a degree of truth in the point, the way the message was delivered could have been delivered more subtlety.
In terms of success criteria, he does goes on to make a valid point that bounce rate is a more meaningful measure of how successful your site is performing. Obviously, there are many ways to drive traffic to a website but if visitors aren’t finding what they want when they arrive, why bother spending time and money on getting them there in the first place?
On the 4th Day of Christmas, we present 4 Google Analytics tips:
1. Ensure that the Google Analytics code is implemented on all pages on your site and correctly
How can you expect visitors to be tracked on a page which doesn’t contain any code to record their visit? Also make sure the code is exactly the same as the code shown in your analytics account, don’t make any changes as this could cause in error in the code and prevent good data from being recorded.
2. Set up Goals
Goals are there to help you find out if visitors are doing what you want them to do on your site, whether it be a purchase, completing an enquiry form or signing up to a newsletter. Goals are there to help you get more information out of your data so make sure you use them.
3. Link AdWords account to analytics account
If you are using AdWords you will want this traffic source to be identified within your analytics account so you can monitor your paid visitors’ activity.
Login to your AdWords account, and then click on the green Analytics tab, which is between Reports and My Account. As long as you have the same login email address for both accounts then AdWords should have automatically detected your Analytics account. If you have a different email address for you Analytics account then just, make sure the email address for your AdWords account is listed within the User Manager in Analytics.
You should also make sure that the Auto Tagging is enabled within your AdWords account within your Account Preferences – this should be enabled automatically.
4. E-commerce sites use e-commerce tracking
Shopping sites can enable the e-commerce tracking which Google Analytics offers. This is a little bit more complicated to implement and you may need your web developer’s help.
By implementing the e-commerce tracking you will be able to see sales values and transactions and identify pages which have contributed to a sale. Just remember that Google Analytics is an analytical tool and not a sales system so not all numbers may match exactly to your sales orders.
E-commerce tracking can also be used to track non e-commerce sites but this is slightly trickier, but can provide you with a great insight to user activity.
To make the most of your Internet marketing strategy, you will undoubtedly be using some form of pay per click (PPC) advertising system. If you aren’t yet using it, pay per click is a form of online advertising that involves paying only for the number of clicks that your advert receives from web users. The most popular PPC system is Google AdWords, although there are other options such as Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. But simply gaining clicks on your advert is not enough; these clicks need to be converted into a desired outcome.
To anyone using PPC, tracking conversions is essential. A conversion in this sense happens when a user clicks a PPC advert, and that click leads directly to one of your required results. This may include buying, signing up, leaving their details or simply reading something.
Tracking these conversions is of vital importance to your business because it allows you to make better decisions about how to use your ads. It allows you to adjust and experiment with different headlines and keywords and check that ads lead to optimum conversions. It is a simple way to check your ROI (Return on Investment), make budgeting alterations and make future choices based on this data.
The tracking of a conversion is carried out by a cookie, which is automatically placed on the user’s computer when they click your Ad. In the case of Google, if the user continues from your PPC ad to one of your conversion pages, the cookie on the user’s computer web browser sends a notification back to Google. When this occurs, Google tracks this as a successful conversion.
There are several tools that Google uses to analyse your conversion rates. However, in order to set these up, a small piece of code needs to be placed on your conversion pages so that Google can monitor the conversion. Once Google’s conversion tracking software is running, it will deliver conversion reports for you automatically.
Calculating your conversion rates involves some basic mathematics. If I sell Blue Widgets, I put up a Google AdWords Ad Group and see that I have 500 sales from 5000 unique visits.
Ad Group Keywords Unique Visitors Sales
Blue Widgets1 Blue Widgets 5000 500
The calculation for conversion is simply SALES divided by VISITORS multiplied by 100 to get the rate as a percentage. If you had more than one Ad Group/Set of Keyword, you could compare their performance.
Using this calculation, you can see a direct relationship between your PPC spending and the income it generates by comparing the cost of the PPC ad clicks against profit. If you choose a PPC rate of £0.25p per click and each sale creates £250 profit, you can see that your total PPC cost is £1250, whereas your gross profit is £125,000.
Tracking your conversions is imperative, but it’s what you do with that information that counts. It’s the action that you take as a result of your conversion rate analysis that will enable you to be successful. Of course, your conversions also rely on the content of your website being valuable and relevant to the visitor.
Hopefully this article will prove useful but if you need help with your Pay per Click management, please get in touch with the team at Impact Media!
Older Posts »
XHTML 1.0 CSS
