Analytics Blog: May 2009

Top Ten Myths About Google Analytics

May 28, 2009

MYTH 1: "You get what you pay for." Google Analytics is free, which means the system is down a lot.

Google Analytics makes use of the same network of secure and reliable data centers used to power Google.com, making downtime an extremely rare occurrence. We have a large team focused exclusively on keeping your data safe and accessible, and benefit from multiple redundancies in our infrastructure around the globe (this makes us fast as well).

We even rely on Google Analytics for our own mission-critical products such as AdWords, which see huge volumes of traffic every day. If you're still having doubts, we'd encourage you to talk to some users and ask them how their experience has been with uptime.

MYTH 2: Google Analytics is basic and doesn't have any "advanced" features or metrics
Ack, this one is a tough one to swallow! A more frequent complaint is actually that Google Analytics has too much data. The product includes over 90 standard reports with more than 125 metrics and dimensions covering everything from visits to internal site search queries.

Custom reports and user-defined variables allow you to create your own metrics and reports where the standard ones don't meet your needs. With Pivoting, Advanced Segmentation, Secondary Dimensions, Event Tracking and the ability to share customizations, Google Analytics reports are more powerful than ever.

Google Analytics may look "basic," on the surface, but it can do a lot more than you think! If you have complex needs try talking to a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant or diving into the documentation on the Google Code Site.

More Info (Feature List, Custom Reports, Advanced Segmentation, Analytics API)

MYTH 3: Google Analytics only supports third-party cookies

False! Google Analytics has always used first-party, not third-party cookies. First-party cookies are important because they allow Google Analytics to track repeat visitors, so you can see which keyword, referring site, etc is responsible for bringing buyers even when it takes multiple visits for them to convert.

MYTH 4: Google Analytics is not really accurate

If you've spent time doing web analytics work, you'll know the sinking feeling that comes when two sets of numbers don't match. If you're experiencing a data discrepancy, don't panic. There are many others in the same boat.

Google Analytics uses JavaScript tags to collect data. This industry-standard method yields reliable trends and a high degree of precision, but it's not perfect. Most of the time, if you are noticing data discrepancies greater than 10%, it's due to an installation issue. Common problems include JavaScript errors, redirects, untagged pages and slow client-side load times.

For tips on how to sensibly approach data reconciliation, check out this post by Avinash Kaushik, Google's Analytics Evangelist, or this whitepaper on accuracy in Google Analytics. You can also talk to an expert.

All web analytics tools face the same technical limitations posed by JavaScript tags, so if another vendor claims their tool is more accurate, ask for some evidence.

More Info (Web Analytics Data Reconciliation Checklist, Whitepaper)

MYTH 5: It's not possible to export your data from Google Analytics

Not true! You have two options for exporting data. Use the "export" button at the top of each report to export the current view in PDF or XML (up to 500 rows). Or, use the new Analytics Export API to extract large amounts of data in any format you like. Also, if you want to share data with a colleague, you can schedule reports to be delivered directly to their email inbox, or even send regular updates to your own email address.

More Info (How to Export your Data, Analytics API)

MYTH 6: With Google Analytics you can't control your data
You have three options for data sharing in Google Analytics. You can change these options at any time from inside your Analytics account.

do not share your data
share your data with Google to improve its products
share your data anonymously for benchmarking

No matter which option you choose, your data is protected by several layers of defense:

Dedicated security and infrastructure teams
Multiple redundancies to prevent data loss
Network redundancies to keep data accessible
Advanced security, firewalling and routing to keep data secure
Restricted access and principle of least privilege for personnel

If you opt-out of data sharing, your data will remain within Google Analytics and will not be shared with other products or services. If you decide to share your data with Google, it will be used to improve those products and services. Lastly, if you decide to share your data anonymously with others, it will be blended with other data to support the Google Analytics benchmarking feature. For more information on these options and what they mean, refer to the Google Analytics data sharing FAQ.

If you're still concerned, Google also offers a software product called Urchin (www.urchin.com) that you can run locally.

More Info (Data Sharing FAQ, Google Privacy Policy)

MYTH 7: There is no professional support for Google Analytics

Contrar! We flipped the model. Instead of providing an expensive analytics product with a one-size-fits-all professional services plan, we provide a free product and let you purchase the professional services that fit your needs.

There are several ways to get support: email support, help forums, the help center, and a network of Authorized Consultants. Authorized Consultants speak your language, accept your currency and often share your timezone. More than 80 companies across the globe provide a full range of installation and analysis support for Google Analytics. Some examples of things they can help you with are:

Validate and troubleshoot your installation
Integrate your analytics data with other data sources or CRM
Optimize your marketing efforts
Train your staff on how to use Analytics
Respond to support tickets, phone calls and provide on-site consulting

To find out more, give one or two of them a call. Our Authorized Consultants are hand-picked and are the best in the business.

More Info (Google Analytics Authorized Consultants)

MYTH 8: Google Analytics does not support A/B or multivariate testing and isn't well-integrated with other tools

Google offers a full range of marketing products including a free testing tool called Google Website Optimizer. You can use it to test different page elements and find out which ones yield the highest conversion rate and ROI. You can also use Google Analytics in conjunction with Website Optimizer to create an optimization plan for your site.

Google Analytics is also integrated with many of Google's other business products including AdWords, AdSense, and AdPlanner. It is also widely supported by third party tools ranging from content management systems, to email suites, to call center applications. In addition, you'll find many products that are complementary to Google Analytics including DoubleClick, TVAds, Webmaster Tools, Google Trends, Insights for Search, Feedburner, and more.

More Info (Google Website Optimizer, GWO Blog)

MYTH 9: You can't segment data in Google Analytics

In the fall of 2008, Google Analytics released three new Enterprise Features: Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reports and Motion Charts. Advanced Segmentation lets you segment visits by dozens of metrics and dimensions such as geographic location, time on site, referral site and much much more. You can create segments on the fly and apply them to virtually all the standard reports in Google Analytics as well as custom reports.

More Info (In Depth Look at Advanced Segments, Video) MYTH 10: You have to spend a lot of money to get "real" web analytics

Getting a return from your Analytics data does take an investment. The most important investment to start with is making sure you or someone at your organization has the expertise and time to put your data to use. If at that point you still feel you need to pay more for a more complicated tool, that's OK, but remember that every dollar you spend on a tool takes away from money you could be spending on actually getting results, i.e. hiring or contracting a talented analyst (see the 90/10 Rule).

The question sometimes comes up, "if Google Analytics is free, what's in it for Google?" Google benefits from Google Analytics in two ways. First, if webmasters build better sites, it helps us connect searchers with the information they need faster. Second, if advertisers use Google Analytics, they are able to see their advertising ROI, which helps us demonstrate the value of Google AdWords. Both aspects have helped create a strong business case for Google Analytics over the years.

Google Analytics is getting more powerful with each new update, and you may be surprised by what it can do. Find out more by attending an Analytics Seminar for Success or talking to an Authorized Consultant in your area. If you're an AdWords advertiser, you can also speak with your Customer Service Representative.

More Info (90/10 Rule, Google Analytics Authorized Consultants, Seminars for Success)
Leave a comment

That's it for the top 10 myths. Still not convinced? Leave a comment and let us know!

Share Your Google Analytics Data With Everyone

May 22, 2009

share their Analytics traffic dataintegration with Google Ad PlannerAnalyticator pluginSprial Web Consulting

Example of the Analyticator plugin displayWordPress plugin Website"

Analytics Tracking for YouTube Brand Channels

May 20, 2009

YouTube Biz BlogPosted by , Google Analytics Team

How to Setup Goals in Google Analytics

May 19, 2009

rules of basketballhow to configure ecommerce tracking

Understanding Goals in Google Analytics

Business Objective

Visitor Action

Success Measure

Generate Leads

Complete Contact Form

form_submitted.html

Drive Loyalty

subscription_confirmed.html

Drive Revenue

Complete a Purchase

thankyou.html

Raise Awareness

Whitepaper Download

download_redirect.html

Understanding the Goal Funnel

Kobe Bryant: kobe-bryant.html

Derek Fisher: derek-fisher.html

Pau Gasol: pau-gasol.html

Point: point.html

How to set up a Goal and Funnel: Step 1) Define your Goal Funnel
Navigate to your website, and move through through the steps required to complete your Goal. As you navigate, note down the URLs for each page in the sequence (or take screenshots).
If the sequence includes only one step (the Goal) than you don't need to define a funnel at all. If the sequence includes events other than pageviews (such as clicks), you will need to use virtual pageviews or another method beyond the scope of this tutorial.
In our Lakers example, the funnel is defined as:

Another example might be:

start_registration.html

enter_shipping_info.html

enter_subscriber_preferences.html

finalize_registration.html

thank_you.html

Step 2) Configure Goal Settings for Each Profile
Log in to your Google Analytics account and then click "Edit" beside your profile. You will need to configure goals for each profile you want them to show up in.
Go to Conversion Goals and Funnel and click "Edit"

Set "Match Type" to to either "Exact Match," "Head Match," or "Regular Expression Match." In our example, we chose "Exact Match," because there is only one exact URL for our Goal page "point.html."
If you have multiple Goal pages, or multiple pages for one of the steps leading up to the goal, you might need to use a different match type. For more information about the difference between Head, Exact, and Regular Expression match, visit this Help Center article.If your Goal has a specific dollar value, be sure to enter it under "Goal Value". You may need to look at your financial data to determine how much a Goal completion is worth to you.
Step 3) Define Your Goal FunnelEnter the URL and a meaningful name for each step in your funnel. In our example the Goal URL is "/point.html" and the name we gave it is "Point." If you only have one step (the Goal) than you don't need to complete this section.

Step 4) Wait a Few Days and Analyze your Goal PerformanceYour Goals will not work backwards, so you will need to wait for Goal data to appear in your reports. Once you have data to analyze, navigate to the Goals section and open the Funnel Visualization Report.

Now we can analyze the entire goal funnel or just an individual page.

This report shows

356 visits entering the funnel (at kobe-bryant.html)

88 visits in which the person moved from "kobe-bryant.html" to the next step in the funnel "derek-fisher.html"

55 visits that completed the entire funnel and reached the Goal

Summary

Before implementing Google Analytics Goals, identify what your business objectives are for your website, and what visitor actions they correspond to.

Identify the steps visitors must go through to complete the desired action, and note down the specific pages that make up those steps.

Use this information to configure Goals and Funnels.

Take action on the data. Make simple design changes or try using Website Optimizer to make improvements.

Other Resources

Google Analytics IQ Lesson: Goals in Google Analytics

How to Use Ecommerce Tracking

Tracking E-mail Clicks as a Goal

All About Analytics Goals

Goals for Bloggers

Video: Setting up Google Analytics Conversion Funnels

Video: Goals and Ecommerce

Still have questions? Get help at the Google Analytics help forum. Or, leave a comment and let us know how you use goals.
E-NorGoogle Analytics Authorized Consultant

Back to Basics: Graph mode

May 18, 2009

One way Google Analytics can help you quickly spot trends and anomalies is through the 'Graph mode' feature. This feature lets you compare multiple metrics on your graph to see if there are any obvious correlations. You can graph by one metric, compare one metric to another (e.g. visitors versus average time on site), or compare a metric to your site average. Once you graph your selected metrics, you can roll your mouse over the graph to see the actual values of the two metrics you're comparing.

For example, let's say your site saw a sudden surge in traffic from an search engine optimization effort. You can use the 'Graph mode' option to graph 'visits' and '% new visitors' on the same graph. This will show you whether the SEO campaign successfully reached new visitors or whether it was more successful in driving repeat visits.

To use graph mode, click the pulldown menu in the top left of the graph of a selected report. Then, select the graph view you'd like to see. To finish, click the pulldown menu tab one more time.

Posted by Christina Park, Google Analytics Team

Lollapalooza Tracks Social Media Campaigns with Google Analytics

May 15, 2009

Lollapalooza Music FestivalSocial Media ApplicationsC3 Presents

Questions to Answer

Who’s using these sharing and social media outlets? Are they benefiting?

Which ones are being used the most and what are their applications?

Does social media make a visitor more likely to buy a ticket?

Are we driving more traffic to our site as a result? Are we driving more sales and revenue?

WebShare

The impact on those who use social media applications while on the site

The impact of those who arrive at the site as a result of social media

The Implementation Event Tracking

*Actual values have been modified

*Actual values have been modified
Campaign Tagging

*Actual values have been modifiedThe Results

Over 2/3 of the traffic referred from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter is a result of sharing applications and Lollapalooza’s messaging to its fans on those platforms.

Users of the social media applications on Lollapalooza.com spend twice as much as users that don’t.

“Fan Engagement” metrics such as time on site, bounce rate, page views per visit and interaction have seen significant boosts across the board as a result of social media applications.

digital marketing blogOther Resources

Event Tracking with Google Analytics

Campaign Tagging and tracking traffic sources

Secondary Dimensions and Pivot Tables

WebShareGoogle Analytics Authorized Consultant

Temporary System Error this Morning - Now Resolved

May 14, 2009

For approximately one hour today starting at 7:48 am Pacific Time, Google had an error in routing traffic that prevented Google Analytics from collecting a small amount of data for some web properties.

On average, this will appear as roughly a 1% decrease in traffic for Thursday, May 14. The exact amount may be more or less depending on the concentration of traffic your site experienced during this one hour time period.

On behalf of our team, we're very sorry for the inconvenience this error has caused. For additional information on the error, see the Official Google Blog. Posted by Sebastian Tonkin, Google Analytics Team

The World's Best Advanced Segment Contest

May 12, 2009

new featuressegment for iPhone users

this postPosted by Sebastian Tonkin, Google Analytics Team

Back to Basics: Emailing reports

May 11, 2009

Usually reports are mailed out to marketing managers or directors to measure any change in progress from week-to-week. With Google Analytics, you can make the process completely automated -- you can schedule your reports to be emailed daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. To start emailing your reports in PDF, CSV, XML, and TSV format, just click the 'Email' icon above all your reports:

This Help Center article has comprehensive instructions on how to schedule your reports or email them on the fly.

If after scheduling reports you want to delete them, you can do so at any time by going to the 'Manage Scheduled Emails' dashboard. This may be a little hard to find since you have to click a separate 'Email' icon in the reports page.

To delete a scheduled email, please follow these steps:

1. Find the other 'Email' icon on the left hand side of the reports page. Look at the image below to get an idea of where it's located.

2. After clicking the icon, you should see a list of scheduled reports. Click the icon that looks like a trash can in the upper right hand corner to delete them forever.

Hopefully after reading this post, you've automated sending out reports and have one less thing to worry about on Mondays!

Posted by Christina Park, Google Analytics Team

How to Use Ecommerce Tracking in Google Analytics

May 7, 2009

EpikOneEcommerce Tracking Part 1: How it Works This post is the first in a series of e-commerce transaction tracking with Google Analytics. Why is e-commerce tracking important? Well, transaction data is a vital piece of information when analyzing online business performance. Sure, it’s great to measure things like conversion rate, but revenue is much more tangible to many business owners. Having the e-commerce data in your web analytics application makes it easier to perform analysis. Do you need to set up e-commerce tracking? No, but it sure helps. :)

The Big Pictures E-commerce tracking is based on the same principal as standard pageview tracking. JavaScript code sends the data to a Google Analytic servers by requesting an invisible gif file. The big difference is that e-commerce data is sent rather than pageview data.
But how does Google Analytics get the e-commerce data? That’s the tricky part. You, the site owner, must create some type of code that inserts the transaction data into the GA JavaScript. Sounds tricky, huh? Well, its not that bad.

Step by Step: How it Works Let’s break it down and walk through what actually happens.

The visitor submits their transaction to your server.

Your server receives the transaction data and processes the transaction. This may include a number of steps at the server level, such as sending a confirmation email, checking a credit card number, etc.

After processing the transaction the server prepares to send the receipt page back to the visitor. While preparing the receipt page your server must extract some the transaction data and insert it into the Google Analytics JavaScript. This is the code that you must create.

The receipt page is sent to the visitor’s browser.

While the receipt page renders in the visitor’s browser the e-commerce data is sent to Google Analytics via special GA JavaScript.

Here’s a basic diagram of the process. Again, the biggest challenge during implementation is adding code to your web server that inserts the transaction data, in the appropriate format, into the receipt page. I’ll cover the setup in part 2 of this series.

What Data can be Tracked? Google Analytics collect two types of e-commerce data: transaction data and item data. Transaction data describes the overall transaction (transaction ID, total sale, tax, shipping, etc.) while item data describes the items purchased in the transaction (sku, description, category, etc.). All of this data eventually ends up in GA reports. Here’s a complete list of the data:
Transaction Data

Transaction ID: your internal transaction ID [required]

Affiliate or store name

Total

Tax

Shipping

City

State or region

Country

Item Data

Transaction ID: same as in transaction data [required]

SKU

Product name

Product category or product variation

Unit price [required]

Quantity [required]

A few notes about the data. First, the geo-location data is no longer used by Google Analytics. The new version of GA tries to identify where the buyer is located using an IP address lookup.
Also, you should avoid using any non-alpha numeric characters in the data. Especially in the numeric fields. Do not add a currency identifier (i.e. dollar sign) in the total, tax or shipping fields. this can cause problems with the data.
Continue reading parts 2-4 of this series on EpikOne's Blog, Analytics Talk

Share Customizations and Dive Much Deeper, Available Soon...

May 6, 2009

Pivoting and Secondary Dimensionsvisits and pages/visit

Share Custom Reports and Advanced Segment Customizations

Manage Customizations Across Profiles

In addition, if you have multiple profiles you will be able to pick and choose which ones get which Custom Reports and Advanced Segments associated with your account. So if you import or create the ultimate Search Engine Marketing report and one of your profiles doesn't do SEM, simply don't add it to that profile.

All of these new features are in beta and will first be available to show attendees, then will begin rolling out in everyone's reports over the coming weeks.Posted by Brett Crosby, Google Analytics Team

Surface your Google Analytics data in Google Ad Planner

May 5, 2009

announcingGoogle Ad Planner Publisher Centertraffic estimates

To see how your site is currently displayed in Google Ad Planner, visit the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center and search for your site. If you want to get started managing your site profile in Google Ad Planner and opt in your Google Analytics traffic metrics, first enable the "Share my Google Analytics data with Google products only" from within your Google Analytics data sharing settings page. Then, go to your Google Ad Planner account, sign in, and select the Google Analytics metrics you'd like to share publicly. Once you do, your Google Analytics traffic metrics will replace Google Ad Planner's estimates of your traffic, and potential advertisers can see the important metrics that you are seeing.*

For more information about the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center, visit the Ad Planner Help Center, or watch our video below:

*Please note that publishers who decide to share their Analytics data for the first time may have to wait up to 48 hours to see the traffic data in their Ad Planner account.

Posted by Wayne Lin, Google Ad Planner Team

Back to Basics: An easy way to spot quality traffic

May 4, 2009

Your site may be getting a lot of traffic from referring sites, but which websites refer visitors that actually convert to a goal? There’s a basic report that can show you where your quality traffic is coming from: the Traffic Sources report.To spot which website links are referring visitors that convert to your goals, follow these steps:

1. On the main ‘View Reports’ screen, choose Traffic Sources in the lefthand navigation.

2. In the same area you'll now see a list of subset of reports. Click on 'Referring Sites.'

3. Now you'll see a report of all the top sites that refer traffic to you ("referral" = the user clicked a link on the sourcesite). Click on the Goal Conversion tab.

4. Now you'll see the top 10 referral domains. In the bottom gray section, choose a larger number for 'show rows' in order to see them all.

5. You'll get a breakdown of goal conversion percentages for every referral. Right above the data table, you'll see a score card listing your site average's data so that you can compare it to the information coming from specific sources.

Of course, for this report to actually show goal conversion data, you’ll need to have created goals for your website. You can either read a quick how-to from our Help Center, watch a video, or view a GA IQ learning module on it.If you run an ecommerce site and would like some more information on identifying valuable referrers, you may want to check out this post written by one of our Authorized Consultants.Posted by Christina Park, Google Analytics Team

Nine New Google Analytics API Client Libraries To Get You Started

May 1, 2009

visualizing search data as tag cloudsgenerate plots of online buzz9 new Google Analytics Export API client librariesJavaScript interactive samplesGoogle Analytics API discussion group.Posted by Nick Mihailovski,

Google Analytics 360 + Salesforce.

Top Ten Myths About Google Analytics

Share Your Google Analytics Data With Everyone

Analytics Tracking for YouTube Brand Channels

How to Setup Goals in Google Analytics

Back to Basics: Graph mode

Lollapalooza Tracks Social Media Campaigns with Google Analytics

Temporary System Error this Morning - Now Resolved

The World's Best Advanced Segment Contest

Back to Basics: Emailing reports

How to Use Ecommerce Tracking in Google Analytics

Share Customizations and Dive Much Deeper, Available Soon...

Surface your Google Analytics data in Google Ad Planner

Back to Basics: An easy way to spot quality traffic

Nine New Google Analytics API Client Libraries To Get You Started

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