1. Analytics Tracking Best Practices
November 2014 Presentation
Jake Peterson, Head of Customer Success at Segment

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3. Jake Peterson - Segment - @DirtyAnalytics
Jake Peterson leads the customer success team at Segment,
making sure that customer get great fast help, writing beautiful
docs, and bringing you expert advice through Analytics
Academy. Before Segment, Jake ran his own wildly successful
analytics consultancy, Dirty Analytics, where he helped
companies integrate analytics tools and analyze their data,
oftentimes with Segment.

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5. Introduction
1

6. What is Segment?
A single hub to collect, translate and route your data with the flip of a switch.

7. Overview
Tracking Plan
How to plan out your analytics tracking.
Important Pages
Only record what you need.
Identifying Users
Keep users and anonymous activity straight.
Recording Funnel Events
Iteratively record funnel steps and revenue.

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9. Tracking Plan
Know what you need to track

10. Planning Outline
First, prepare an outline of all the things you want to track
The outline is useful in:
• Brainstorming your most valuable events
• Team collaboration to make sure everyone on the team has the data they need
• Thinking ahead so your data structure is flexible enough to evolve
• Scheduling iteration phases or development cycles
Tracking Plan

11. Planning Outline Example
Tracking Plan
Signed Up
We need to differentiate paid signups, organic signups, and invitation signups. We’ll use automatically
recorded utm parameters to analyze paid, and then a type event property to differentiate organic and
invitation signups (and in the future maybe referral program stuff, etc.)
Event Property: Signup Type
…
Debugger Call Expanded
When people use the debugger we’re interested in knowing which calls they most often debug. For that
we’ll need to track the coding language being debugged and the method being called.
Event Properties: Code Language Name, API Method
…

12. Detailed Tracking Plan
Next, transfer your outline into a detailed plan
Why
…collect each data point?
Tracking Plan
Ensure that all the events from your outline are important and useful.
What
…data gets recorded?
Exact event names, properties and how each one is calculated.
How
…does the data get recorded?
Supply an example code snippet for developers.
When
…should the tracking script fire?
Explain firing rules for the event.
e.g. When a new user sees the Thank You page after registration.

13. Detailed Tracking Plan Example
Tracking Plan
Sub heading or paragraph Event Why? can go hePrer operties Firing Rules Code
Signed Up
Leads! Also the
key identifying
event.
type: ‘invite’ if the user
was invited and ‘organic’
if they signed up directly
On the welcome page
after a new user registers.
analytics.track('Signed
Up', {
userLogin:
‘DirtyAnalytics’,
type: 'invite’,
organizationId: ‘12345’
});
Enabled
Integration
Key step in
activation and
indicator for
retention.
Integration: the
integration being enabled
User enables an
integration that was
previously disabled.
analytics.track(’Enabled
Integration', {
integration: ‘KISSmetrics’
});
Segment’s Tracking Plan is available for download here:
https://segment.com/help/best-practices/tracking-plans/

14. Pro Tips
Tracking Plan
No unbounded event names!
Establish a finite set of events and event properties for your team to choose from.
• Rather than Clicked X Button use Clicked CTA with properties for type, label and destination.
• Rather than Bought Blue Shirt, record Completed Order with properties for color and product.
Example Best Practice Guides: Tracking Call to Actions and Tracking Landing Pages
Keep things up to date
Integrate updating the tracking plan and installing analytics into your existing business processes
• Sending marketing emails
• Launching new products
• Running advertising campaigns

15. Important Pages
Group important content together

16. Treat pages just like events
Important Pages
• Create a short list of your important page types
• Group them together (use Google Analytics content groupings and/or KISSmetrics events
and properties)
Looking at pages this way allows you to really understand how different groups of pages
affect your funnel. And how each variation inside those groups perform.

17. Important Pages for Segment
Landing Pages
Important Pages
Docs Pages
Blog Pages

18. Section Three
Which landing pages bring in
the most leads?

19. Section Three
Which blog posts lead to the
most signups?

20. Section Three
Does the integrations or tour
page convert better?
Integrations Page Tour Page

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22. Identifying Users

23. Section Three
Choosing a User ID
Database ID
• Pro: Unlikely to change
• Con: Not always available
Email Address
• Pro: Easy to get
• Con: Most likely to change

24. Section Three
When to Identify
Email Opt In
• Pro: You know the user early
• Con: Less accurate
User Account Created
• Pro: Database ID is available
• Con:

25. Section Three
How to Identify
Client Side
Important for merging anonymous browsing history.
Server Side
Usually unnecessary.
Only send user properties from your server if they are
sensitive.

26. Section Three
Good Traits
• Email
• Plan
• Address
• Phone
• Company
• Created Date
• Friend Count
• Lifetime Revenue

27. Section Three
Create a user segment to send
a targeted email campaign

28. Section Three
Do men or women invite more
friends to our site?

29. Section Three
Get a list of users who have
done X, Y, and Z

30. Funnel Events
Focus on 3-5 key events

31. Section Three A generic funnel
Interested
A visitor to your site shows interest in your
product or service.
Identified An anonymous visitor raises their hand and
identifies themselves.
Activated Someone completes the key event that qualifies
them as a potential customer.
Purchased You got paid!
Engaged This type of event signals engagement with your
product.

32. Section Three Segment’s funnel
Viewed
Tour / Pricing / Docs
Interested.
Signed Up Identified.
Sent Project Data Activated.
Started Subscription Purchased!
Enabled Integration Engaged.

33. Section Three An e-commerce funnel
Viewed Product Even more interested.
Added Product
[to cart] Activated.
Completed Order Purchased! And identified.
Viewed
Blog / Promotion Engaged.

34. Section Three
Tracking Revenue
Client Side
• Pro: Easy to setup & maintain
• Con: Numbers won’t be perfect
Sync in Batches
• Pro: Accurate (when it’s working)
• Con: Hard to maintain, not always up to date
Trigger in Real Time
• Pro: Accurate and up to date
• Con: Hardest to maintain (without zapier, iron.io)

35. Install KISSmetrics with the flip of a switch
Email friends@segment.com with the code KISSwebinar to get 60 days free on the
Segment Startup plan today!

36. THANK YOU
Jake Peterson
Head of Customer Success at Segment