An overview of Google Analytics from setup and installation to terminology, campaign tagging, and how to use Google Analytics to answer business questions such as who your visitors are and what they're doing on your site.

1. Google Analytics
Charles Davis
Blast Analytics Marketing
VP, Solutions Director
Jeff Dunn
Polynesian Cultural Center
Head of Digital Commerce

2. 3: Asking Answering Business Questions
1: Setup Installation
Learning Objectives
2: Terminology
4: How People Get to Your Site
5: What People Do on Your Site
6: Information About the People on Your Site

3. 1. Setup and Installation
What is Google Analytics and How Does It Work?
Google Analytics is a service offered by Google that generates detailed
statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources, and measures
conversions and sales.
Secure Google Server Report Data

4. 1. Setup and Installation
Visit google.com/analytics to sign up for a new
account.
- Click the create an account link
- Sign in with your gmail account
- Click Sign up
GA Training and Certification is free and user-
friendly
http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/index.html
*Note: If you do not have a gmail account, you
have to at least have an account that is registered
with google. This means you can register a non-
gmail account here:
https://accounts.google.com/SignUpExpress?
service=analyticscontinue=https%3A%2F
%2Fwww.google.com%2Fanalytics%2Fweb%2F
%3Fhl%3Denhl=en
How Do I Sign Up?

5. 1. Setup and Installation
Setting up your website or
mobile app
Name your account
- Website URL
- Choose your industry
- Choose your time zone
- Click “Get Tracking ID”
Registering My Property

6. 1. Setup and Installation
Place the tracking code on
every page of your website.
- Ensure you place it in the head of the
document because it is asynchronous
and won’t slow down loading the rest of
the page
- Also ensures that if elements further
down on the page do not load you will
still receive your tracking
How Do I Implement the Tracking Code On My Site?

7. 1. Setup and Installation
Collection:
- The Javascript code collects/sends this info to GA via a package (“hit” or “interaction”)
- For mobile apps, you must add extra code to each activity you want to track.
What Happens Next?

8. 1. Setup and Installation
Collection:
- The Javascript code collects/sends this info to GA via a package (“hit” or “interaction”)
- For mobile apps, you must add extra code to each activity you want to track.
Processing:
- Turns raw data into useful data
What Happens Next?

9. 1. Setup and Installation
Collection:
- The Javascript code collects/sends this info to GA via a package (“hit” or “interaction”)
- For mobile apps, you must add extra code to each activity you want to track.
Processing:
- Turns raw data into useful data
Configuration:
- Applies your settings, such as filters, to the raw data
- Once your data is processed, the data is stored in a database. Once the data has been
processed and inserted into the database, it can’t be changed.
What Happens Next?

10. 1. Setup and Installation
Collection:
- The Javascript code collects/sends this info to GA via a package (“hit” or “interaction”)
- For mobile apps, you must add extra code to each activity you want to track.
Processing:
- Turns raw data into useful data
Configuration:
- Applies your settings, such as filters, to the raw data
- Once your data is processed, the data is stored in a database. Once the data has been
processed and inserted into the database, it can’t be changed.
Reporting:
- Use the web interface at www.google.com/analytics to access your data
What Happens Next?

11. 1. Setup and Installation
User permissions and roles
• Manage Users
• Edit
• Collaborate
• Read Analyze
Who Can Access My Data?

12. 3: Asking Answering Business Questions
1: Setup Installation
Learning Objectives
2: Terminology
4: How People Get to Your Site
5: What People Do on Your Site
6: Information About the People on Your Site

13. 2. Terminology
Basic terminology
• Hit
• Sessions
• Users
• Pageviews
• Bounce Rate
• Traffic Sources
• New / Returning Users
• Source / Medium
• Conversions
• Landing Page
How Do I Make Sense of These Reports?

14. 2. Terminology
Users Sessions
A user is a unique person that
visits your site. Users are
associated with an individual
identifier.
Users and Sessions
Any time a user comes to your
site a new session is initiated.
Sessions expire after 30 minutes
of inactivity.

15. 2. Terminology
Users and Sessions

16. 2. Terminology
Metrics:
• Source / Medium
• Page
• Campaign
• Landing Page
Dimensions:
Values of Interest that count how
often things happen on your
website
• Sessions
• Pageviews
• Users
• Bounce Rate
Metrics and Dimensions
Elements of interest that are a
descriptive attribute or
characteristic of an object

17. 2. Terminology
Metrics and Dimensions
Dimension: Element of
Interest
Metric: Value of Interest

18. 2. Terminology
Metrics and Dimensions

19. 2. Terminology
Metrics and Dimensions

20. 2. Terminology
Metrics and Dimensions

21. 2. Terminology
Bounce
A bounce is when a user comes
to your site, views a single page
and immediately leaves without
viewing any other pages.
Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate is the percentage of
single-page sessions.
Is a High Bounce Rate Always a Bad Thing?
Possible reasons for bounce rates:
• Does the content on that page meet the expectations of
whatever drove them there?
• Is the purpose of the page to provide specific information
quickly?

22. 3: Asking Answering Business Questions
1: Setup Installation
Learning Objectives
2: Terminology
4: How People Get to Your Site
5: What People Do on Your Site
6: Information About the People on Your Site

23. 3. Asking and Answering Business Questions
Google Analytics is an awesome
tool, but there is a misconception
that you just place some code on
a page and it tells you everything
you need to know.
Doesn’t It Just Tell Me Everything I Want to Know?

24. 3. Asking and Answering Business Questions
Yes! Can you answer these questions?
• What are my business objectives?
• Why do we as a business, exist?
• What service or products do we provide and why?)
What is a Measurement Plan? Do I Really Need It?

25. 3. Asking and Answering Business Questions
Yes! Can you answer these questions?
• What are my business objectives?
• Why do we as a business, exist?
• What service or products do we provide and why?)
• What strategies and tactics support those objectives?
• Ecommerce - selling products or services
• Lead generation - collecting potential leads/customers
• Content - engagement and frequent visitation
• Support - helping users find what they need
• Branding - awareness, engagement, and loyalty
What is a Measurement Plan? Do I Really Need It?

26. 3. Asking and Answering Business Questions
Yes! Can you answer these questions?
• What are my business objectives?
• Why do we as a business, exist?
• What service or products do we provide and why?)
• What strategies and tactics support those objectives?
• Ecommerce - selling products or services
• Lead generation - collecting potential leads/customers
• Content - engagement and frequent visitation
• Support - helping users find what they need
• Branding - awareness, engagement, and loyalty
• How am I going to measure this?
What is a Measurement Plan? Do I Really Need It?

27. 3. Asking and Answering Business Questions
Defining Your KPI’s
• Your key performance indicators should be the metrics that measure your
previously outlined business strategies and tactics
How Do I Know How We’re Performing?

28. 3. Asking and Answering Business Questions
Defining Your KPI’s
• Your key performance indicators should be the metrics that measure your
previously outlined business strategies and tactics
• Are you selling products?
• Revenue generation
• Average order value
• Downloading/printing coupons
How Do I Know How We’re Performing?

29. 3. Asking and Answering Business Questions
Defining Your KPI’s
• Your key performance indicators should be the metrics that measure your
previously outlined business strategies and tactics
• Are you selling products?
• Revenue generation
• Average order value
• Downloading/printing coupons
• Worried about engagement?
• Recency and frequency
• Sharing of your content
How Do I Know How We’re Performing?

30. 3. Asking and Answering Business Questions
Choose Targets for Your KPI’s
Finally, you’ll want to add some context to
your KPIs and what you are measuring in
order to better understand performance.
Without goals, you’re just guessing.
Don’t Forget to Set Goals!

31. 3: Asking Answering Business Questions
1: Setup Installation
Learning Objectives
2: Terminology
4: How People Get to Your Site
5: What People Do on Your Site
6: Information About the People on Your Site

32. 4. How People Get to Your Site
• Direct: A user types in your website address or the source is
unidentifiable (lack of referral information).
• Organic: When a user finds your site through a search engine result.
• Referral: When a user visits your site through another website.
• Paid Search: When a user visits your site through a paid search ad.
• Campaign: When a user visits your site through a link tagged with UTM
parameters (e.g. tagged email link).
Where Are They Coming From?

33. 4. How People Get to Your Site
Google Analytics assigns the session's traffic source to the last non-
direct source.
Visit Number Source In GA
1 Organic Search Organic
2 Direct Organic
3 Referral Referral
Google Analytics Attribution Model

34. 4. How People Get to Your Site
Paid Search
A session will be classified as Paid Search when custom campaign
parameters or AdWords/DoubleClick IDs are used.
Google Analytics can be linked to AdWords in order to import campaign
related data such as impressions, clicks, cost and more.
How to Track Paid Search

35. 4. How People Get to Your Site
How Do I Track My Campaigns?
Campaign tracking is a method of identifying how users discover your site.
http://www.blastam.com/blog/index.php/2014/10/google-analytics-
shopping-merchandising-analysis-3-2?
utm_campaign=November2014Newsletterutm_source=general_interest-
mailchimputm_medium=emailcontent=blog_ee_Part3
Campaign Tagging URL Builder:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en

36. 4. How People Get to Your Site
• utm_campaign: Campaign names should be: consistent across actions,
lower case and contain no spaces.
Campaign Tagging Best Practices

37. 4. How People Get to Your Site
• utm_campaign: Campaign names should be: consistent across actions,
lower case and contain no spaces.
• utm_source: Source is where the visitor was sent from, either a site
name or a database. tripadvisor for tripadvisor.com, subscribers for an
email subscriber database.
Campaign Tagging Best Practices

38. 4. How People Get to Your Site
• utm_campaign: Campaign names should be: consistent across actions,
lower case and contain no spaces.
• utm_source: Source is where the visitor was sent from, either a site
name or a database. tripadvisor for tripadvisor.com, subscribers for an
email subscriber database.
• utm_medium: Medium is the channel through which the visitor arrived
to your site (email, display, social, cpc, printad or social-paid). Do not
tag Google Paid Search/Display, instead enable auto-tagging.
Campaign Tagging Best Practices

39. 4. How People Get to Your Site
• utm_campaign: Campaign names should be: consistent across actions,
lower case and contain no spaces.
• utm_source: Source is where the visitor was sent from, either a site
name or a database. tripadvisor for tripadvisor.com, subscribers for an
email subscriber database.
• utm_medium: Medium is the channel through which the visitor arrived
to your site (email, display, social, cpc, printad or social-paid). Do not
tag Google Paid Search/Display, instead enable auto-tagging.
• utm_content (optional): Used for increased reporting/analysis
granularity.
Campaign Tagging Best Practices

40. 4. How People Get to Your Site
Campaign Tagging Best Practices

41. 3: Asking Answering Business Questions
1: Setup Installation
Learning Objectives
2: Terminology
4: How People Get to Your Site
5: What People Do on Your Site
6: Information About the People on Your Site

42. 5. What People Do on Your Site
Doesn’t Google Analytics Automatically Track
Those Things?
Events are user interactions with content that can be
tracked independently from a web page or a screen
load. By adding a simple piece of code to the link for
each image, tab, button, graphic, or even text link –
we can run easy to read and understand reports on
how our visitors are interacting with our websites.
Although Event tracking requires a little extra work to
set up, we strongly recommend you use it. Events are
a flexible way to collect data about interactions
specific to your site or app that might not otherwise be
tracked.
Which Button Did They Click?

43. 5. What People Do on Your Site
What Are they Most Interested In?

44. 5. What People Do on Your Site
Site Search

45. 5. What People Do on Your Site
Engagement

46. 5. What People Do on Your Site
All Pages

47. 5. What People Do on Your Site
What About Goals, Ecommerce, etc?

48. 3: Asking Answering Business Questions
1: Setup Installation
Learning Objectives
2: Terminology
4: How People Get to Your Site
5: What People Do on Your Site
6: Information About the People on Your Site

49. 6. Who Are They?
Age Gender

50. 6. Who Are They?
New vs. Returning

51. 4. How People Get to Your Site
What Devices Do They Prefer?

52. 6. Who Are They?
Location Geographic Data - By Country

53. 6. Who Are They?
Location Geographic Data - By City

54. 6. Who Are They?
Segmentation on Reports

55. Google Analytics Resources
Blast Analytics Marketing Blog:
www.blastam.com
Blast Google Analytics Reference Guide:
http://www.blastam.com/resources/Blast-Google-Analytics-Reference-Guide.pdf
Google Analytics Dimensions Metrics Reference Guide:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/core/dimsmets
Google Analytics Developers Reference Guide:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/
Google Analytics Blog:
http://analytics.blogspot.com/
Avinash Kaushik Blog:
http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/

56. Thank You!
QA – We’d love to answer any questions!
Charles Davis
Blast Analytics Marketing
VP, Solutions Director
sales@blastam.com
(888) 252-7866
Jeff Dunn
Polynesian Cultural Center
Head of Digital Commerce
www.blastAM.com www.polynesia.com