Showing posts with label avinash kaushik. Show all posts
Showing posts with label avinash kaushik. Show all posts
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Thursday, July 24, 2014
3 Awesome, Downloadable, Custom Web Analytics Reports
Occam's Razor
by Avinash Kaushik
In a world where we are overwhelmed with data and metrics and key
performance indicators and reports and dashboards and. . . sometimes all
it takes to make some sense of all this "mess" is someone stepping up
to share a tiny slice of wisdom from their experience.
That's my plan for this blog post. To share with you three custom reports that I find to be super valuable when I am doing web data analysis. Not only will I tell you about them, I'll give you downloadable links so you can get going right away!
I must forewarn you that my hidden agenda is also to expose to you metrics you might not be using, views of data that you might be ignoring, best practices that are of value and teach you how to fish. Consider yourself fully forewarned!
I love custom reports. They allow us to step away from the oppression of standard reports (/data pukes) and bring an increased amount of relevancy, calm and focus to our day-to-day work and to our beloved data consumers.
If your daily practice of web analysis does not hugely rely on custom reports (and advanced segments) then I am afraid you might be a lot more in the Reporting Squirrel mold and a lot less in the Analysis Ninja mold. Sorry.
With that motivational speech, :), below are three custom reports that are of incredible value. You can use them as is, or, better still, you can download and adapt them to your unique business needs. Either way I promise you'll deliver actionable insights faster!
[While I am using Google Analytics here, you can do custom reporting in pretty much any tool you have access to, be it Yahoo! Web Analytics or Site Catalyst or WebTrends.]
#1: Page Efficiency Analysis Report.
I am often irritated by how fractured page level reporting is. Four or six or ten reports that all tell you how your website pages are doing, except that you don't know which report to use and what the heck to do. So you, and I, do nothing. Faith rules.
My goal was to create one single report for you that would serve as a valuable starting point for page analysis for any type of website, especially a content rich non-ecommerce website. Here it is. . .
Optimally, to judge a page you'll look at three different pieces which are often not on the same report or not in any standard report. We fix that above.
First, what we want to know is: How often does this page act as our home page (Entrances) and how well is it doing its job (Bounces)?
I like reporting by Page Title (hopefully you are good at SEO and have taken care of this). I can quickly see which pages have high/horrible bounce rates. In an instant I know which pages need emergency surgery.
[For the minority of you who believe high bounce rates are ok, I encourage you to see this post: http://zqi.me/akbounce I especially recommend reading comments #153, #157 & #164. Thanks.]
Second, we worry about content consumption: How many Unique Visitors came, how many page views were generated and what content was more consumed more / less?
A lot of focus is on measuring Visits, which in this case I don't find to be of any value. I want to know how many People (approximated by Unique Visitors, plus or minus a few) saw a piece of content. Pageviews gives me a great proxy for knowing how often they might have seen it (not surprisingly more than once for my looooooong blog posts!).
The final metric in this bucket – and this is lovely – focuses on which pieces of content are really consumed. I write really long posts; it is gratifying that people spend 14 minutes reading one, but I can also easily see posts/topics people just skip (not good!).
Super awesome right?
Third, (the part almost everyone ignores), "show me the money!!!!": What value was created by the content for our business? And by business I also mean non-profit, university, newspaper, government websites and chicken farmers!
I don't care about page views if I am not making money / adding value to my non-profit or university. The data in the last two columns shows-pay attention please-differences in value created (for you!) when that piece of content was consumed.
Per visit goal value column shows ultimately how much a page might have influenced impact on your business during a visit where someone viewed that page. So People who see Page 2 end up creating 0.82 value for you, and People who see Page 3 end up creating $1.15 worth of value. Hence content on Page #3 was more valuable to your users and your business during this time period.
I like having Total Goal Completions because sometimes raw $ value hides insights. For example see pages #3 and #4. See what I mean?
Initial job greatness, consumption / "engagement", and value delivered to your business. Do you know this about your content?
Here's how you can get this report:
[Update, Jan 2013]
Instead of downloading the above report, please try the updated version of this report: Page Efficiency Analysis Report v2.
So what changed… Unique Pageviews and Pageviews think of them as rough equivalents of Unique Visitors and Visits for the Page dimension. Entrances/Pageviews shows how often this page is the landing page. Bounce Rate and Time on Page, you know what they are. The last metric (to replace PVGV, TGC) is Page Value, this is, in English, the value created for the business by each page that exists on the site. Page Value works across ecommerce and non-ecommerce sites. For a more technical definition of Page Value, check out: Valuing Content Using Page Value
This updated version of the report is cooler, more focused, uses new metrics in GA that were not around when this post was originally written, and has an additional sweet bonus tab with the technical performance of your site pages!
[/Update, Jan 2013]
Bonus Items:
You'll note that I have pre-built two drill downs into this report. If you click on the Page Title you'll see Visitor Type (New vs. Returning). I like to see for my great / awful pages if the behavior and data differs for those two segments. Then I like to drill down by City, again to see deltas. But you can change this to anything you want.
Remember you can apply segmentation (oh yesss!) to this report. Scroll all the way to the top of the report. Click the drop down next to Advanced Segments. Click on Mobile Traffic (or whatever) and. . . Boom! Mobile page efficiency analysis! Sweetness.
If you have an Ecommerce website you can replace Per Visit Goal Value with Per Visit Value and Total Goal Completions with Transactions.
If seven metrics seem to be too much to analyze click on the Comparison icon on top of the table (in Google Analytics) and you'll magically get this:
An easy peasy fast way to compare two metrics of most value to you and quickly identify the winners and losers. In this case I am answering a common question: Which content is consumed the most by People on my site and of that content which is most "engaging," i.e. cause them to read all of it?
Play with this feature; it is to die for. Change the pairings. Faster insights, guaranteed.
#2: Visitor Acquisition Efficiency Analysis Report.
We tend to be far too obsessed about Search Engines and Twitter and the Next Shiny Object.
Or we are organized by silos. Daniel's responsible for email and Gemma's responsible for Bing and Harun's responsible for display. They never talk (there is no incentive to). There are a ton of reports of course. But everyone's optimizing for their local maxima rather than for the global maxima.
Hate that.
My goal was to create one report where I can review the efficiency and performance across all streams of traffic to the site. Paid media (PPC, Display etc), Earned media(Social Media), and Free media (SEO, Referring Sites etc). I don't want the Next Shiny Object nor the Current HiPPO Obsession to drive our acquisition strategy.
Here's the report that is a fabulous starting point. . .
Let's break down a report you are soon not going to want to live without. :)
First, it shows all traffic sources. This is key. Organic and paid search, direct traffic, Twitter and Facebook, Facebook display ads, email marketing, top referring sites etc etc. No more silos! One place to judge how all streams perform. No egos.
Second, we focus on input metrics: How many sessions (Visits) by how many Unique Visitors and how many existing vs. new?
Senior folks seem to love Visits; I find them harmless. I really care about People. So one column for each of us. Are your marketing dollars chasing visits from people who have already visited your site, rather than prospects? New Visits to the rescue. For example notice the delta between Facebook ads vs. Facebook referrals. Ouch. Cute to know this key performance metric, right?
Third, this one's really important: How many people engage in behavior we value?
Typically you would look at metrics like Average Time on Site or Page Views per Visit. In this context why not use something significantly more insightful? I have created a Goal for the site where anyone who spends more than x amount of time or sees more than y number of pages is really giving me a precious gift: their attention. Regardless of whether they buy or submit a lead or do anything else of value, for me it's success.
Looking at this Goal, rather than Avg Time on Page, is significantly more insightful in judging the initial blush of success. You see even if these people don't buy on the website they might buy offline. Or even if they don't donate or download, they'll at least be much better aware of my brand. Or even if my acquisition campaign (Paid, Earned or Free) did not result in conversion in this visit, maybe they'll come back later.
Use this type of clever behavioral goal measurement rather than Avg Time / Pages.
[Important: When you download this report, below, this column might have a zero or show something incorrect - if you have Goal 6 defined. To use the smart strategy I am recommending you'll have to 1. work with your business leaders to identify what "engaged" behavior is in your case is, 2. create a goal for it and then 3. add that to the report you'll download here, then 4. celebrate.]
Fourth, outcomes baby! How much business value was added.
I don't have to teach you the value of using Conversion Rates and Goal Values. The whole point of this report is to prioritize our focus.
A vein should have popped in your head when you saw the conversion rates between google/cpc and google/organic. Good lord!
You can quantify that your Twitter earned media efforts yield 21 cents of extra value for every visit when compared to Facebook earned media efforts, and a shocking 62 cents more than your efforts with Facebook display ads! OMG.
Will that help you prioritize your efforts better? As Sarah would say: You betcha!
Fifth, this is very important: What did it cost you to get this traffic to your site?
This column in the report will often be zero. If your AdWords account is linked to Google Analytics perhaps you'll see Cost here. But most of the time it will be zero.
I still want you to have it.
Just to remind yourself, and your decision makers, that not all these rows have the same cost to bring that traffic to your site, to get it to engage and finally deliver the value you see in the Outcomes column.
Often we de-prioritize Earned Media and Free Media in favor of Paid Media (it seems sexy). That column is to encourage you to get cost numbers, even rough ones, and then, you'll do this in Excel, add something like Cost Per Conversion or Cost Per Visitor to the report (in Excel). Then and only then will your company be making the smartest possible decisions.
Remember no acquisition is free. Even "Free Media", it just costs less. It is your job to identify that and make your company smarter.
Are you providing this view of Acquisition Efficiency to your HiPPO's?
Here's how you can get this report:
Bonus Items:
You'll note that I have pre-built two drill downs into this report.
If you click on the Source/Medium you'll drill down to Medium. For your email / search / display / social media / video / whatever else campaigns you'll now see the next level of detail (banner ad or rich media ad or. . .).
If you click on Medium you'll drill down to Campaign Name (certain size, duration, destination, promo code, whatever you have coded).
So you can hold all your $$$ accountable.
If you have an Ecommerce website replace the Goal Conversion Rate metric with Conversion Rate and Per Visit Goal Value with my favorite Average Value.
As with the above report you can apply segmentation to this report (please do!) and you can also use the Comparison view and, another love of mine, Advanced Table Filtering.
Faster insights, and massive increase in hugs and kisses, guaranteed!
#3: Paid Search Performance Analysis Micro-Ecosystem!
Allow me to kvetch for a second. I pull my hair out, and a small part of my soul dies, every time I log into someone's Omniture or Google Analytics or Unica NetInsight account. For the thing that greets me is a massive data puke. Tons and tons of reports created for God knows what reason.
They are the bubonic plague of our existence.
It is as if our lives were not miserable enough with the 80 or 100 standard reports we have no idea what to do with. Now those not savvy in the first place about Visits and Visitors have to wade through even more irrelevant nonsense.
I have championed the elimination of standard reports (who the heck is "standard" anyway? you?) and instead advanced the creation of focused custom "micro-ecosystems" that 1. reduce the number of reports 2. provide a one-stop destination for most answers on one topic, and finally, most importantly, 3. are hyper relevant.
Here are the three steps to creating a self contained micro-ecosystem of relevant data:
STEP 1: Identify & understand who will consume the data.
STEP 2: You are not going to believe this. . ., talk to them (!) to understand their needs and success criteria.
STEP 3: Insert two ounces of your raw brain power. What do they need, beyond what they want?
That's it. I know it sounds simple. Trust me everything below is easy (actually I am going to give you the report for free!), the steps above are really hard.
The micro-ecosystem I have created for you is to analyze the performance of a Paid Search Marketing program. The above examples have been non-ecommerce; this one is focused on ecommerce.
There are three key parties I need to satisfy (as might be the case in your company). The SEM team, who actually spend all the paid search marketing budget day-to-day. The second party is the person who owns the website (Director). Finally the VP of Digital who is responsible for all the spend, across multiple efforts.
Following my three step process above I have noted what each party wants, and, this is important, I have, from my experience, identified what they need.
Here is the micro-ecosystem. . . piece number one. . .
Everyone in the company goes to just one report to analyze the performance of the paid search campaigns. When they log in they choose their relevant tab. It's that simple.
The first tab is focused on the SEM team. Four metrics on this page are what they directly asked for, things they watch every day, things their bonus depends on. I have added two more from my experience to prompt good behavior (Bounce Rate) and tie them to the bottom-line (Average Value).
First, we look at the "input." How many ad impressions were served? How did our ad perform in terms of Click-thru Rate? The team obsesses about this. Match types. Ad Copy. Quality Score. Ad Position. Campaign Structure. Search query. So many things in play, this is where you find out where to start looking for problems.
Second, we look at activity. It is exceedingly rare that the SEM team (or, even worse, the Search Agency) is responsible for Bounce Rate. I think this is criminal. They can't just be responsible for spending money and dumping traffic on the site. However painful, they have to work with the site owner to ensure landing page relevancy, ad message consistency from Bing/Google to website and quality of their ad targeting. This humble metric is to force them to do that.
Third, I am sure you see a theme in all my work, outcomes! The team cares about Cost Per Click and total Cost. Give 'em that. But you'll be shocked that most of the time they don't care about conversions. So I add Average Value (essentially Average Order Size) so they can see which keywords to focus on more or less (see the range above from 82 to 211!) and not just clickthru rate, etc.
The SEM team / Agency will do lots of other reporting and segmentation and deep dive analysis. But they now have a simple and effective starting point.
Next up. . . the person who owns the process after the traffic shows up. This might be different in each company, but typically the website is owned by one person. Here is their tab. . . on the exact same report!
We shift our focus quite a bit as we move to the Director / Site Owner. They don't care about all the upfront stuff. They care about what's happening under their responsibility.
First, we focus on how many Visits occurred and what kind of Visitors they were? Specifically are we attracting just the same old visitors we have always seen or is our money being spent optimally to attract new people to our site? Percentage of New Visits is here as a conversation starter between the Director & the SEM Team / Agency.
Second, what's happening on the website? Are the entry home pages great? Bounce rate is a joint responsibility. Then it is important to realize that sadly not everyone will convert (boo!). I have chosen Pages per Visit as a proxy for an activity of value completed by the Visitor to the site. We know what the Average Pageview per Visit is; this column tells us if by keyword the difference, and if people don't bounce do they connect with our content? If not then why not? As a Director that is my job to figure out.
Third, surely my neck is on the line for ensuring that money (lots of it) is being produced. Hence the Revenue column. It takes less than ten seconds of eyeballing to figure out where there is a mismatch between crowds of visits and a mass of revenue (or not), and between non-bounce content consumption and revenue production.
Sweetness. One report. We are all on the same page!
The SEM team is probably logging into the system all day long; the Director perhaps a few times a week; the VP of Digital probably just a few times a month. But when She/He does they'll go to the exact same report and click on Her/His tab.
Here's what they'll see. . .
[Note: Here are things good Analysis Ninja's worry about. You'll notice Impressions in all three personalized tabs. The Director and VP don't really care about this metric. It is there as an "anchor." Whichever tab you go to the data will always be sorted the same! Tiny detail, but it matters so much.]
The VP is greeted with a lot fewer metrics (remember: always fewer relevant metrics!).
First, they might pay a cursory glance at the summary view provided in the scorecard(which will be on top of the above report but I have cropped for clarity). They do care about traffic. Just seeing the sorting of the Visits, in context of the Impressions, will give them pause. Note the questions that might pop up, even to a VP, as you compare the queries "accuracy vs. precision" and "kaushik". Or "customer service questions." What is up with that?
Second, VPs care about cost and they care about productivity. These are two columns they use to praise you and get you and themselves a bonus. What is the Cost per Click and, for that expense, what is the Revenue per Click? I don't have to tell you what to do with these two columns. Love them a lot.
Third, VPs care about their bonus. Sorry, I mean they care about company revenue. :) Knowing RPC is important, having Revenue right there is fantastic context about overall achievement. You could have stuffed number of transactions or orders or conversion rate or all that other junk. You don't need to. Remember: fewer relevant metrics!
Your effort into the three STEP process above pays off rich dividends by killing data pukes, focusing on what's important, and creating one destination for everyone to go to and for everyone to point to.
It is so amazing when this works.
Here's how you can get this report:
[Update: Rob Taylor has created a nice version of the above paid search report by applying filters to it, a feature of Google Analytics V5. You can download Rob's version here: http://goo.gl/9jLTm ]
Bonus Items:
If you click on the Keyword you'll drill down to Campaign. This is important because your campaign structure has so much influence on your ultimate performance. If you click on Campaign you'll drill down to Ad Group level (which needs constant love and caring).
You can easily create a micro ecosystem for your Email campaigns. For your Social Media efforts. For your. . . any place your company is spending money.
This report is for Ecommerce. It will work just fine if you're a non-profit or a government entity using AdWords or adCenter. Just swap the outcome metrics with ones mentioned in the first two reports.
You can do segmentation, advanced table filtering and all other good stuff here. Do it.
Extra Special Bonus Items:
Except for the last report, you can create all the above reports in five minutes in any web analytics tool you are using. You will not need to touch the JavaScript tag or go on a date with the IT team or update the contract with your Paid Vendor. If you are using Omniture or CoreMetrics etc you can still create the third report in Excel. Please do.
If you are using Google Analytics check out the delightful quick start guide to Custom Reporting. It covers designing, building and viewing a custom report. Also checkout this helpful article on definitions of dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics..
You will fail at all the above reports if you have not identified your Goals and Goal Values. If you are starting from scratch use the Web Analytics Measurement Model to identify your Goals. If you need more tactical examples from different types of websites please refer to my blog post on Macro & Micro Conversions.
Gentle reminder: No Goals, No Glory.
I had a lot of fun creating these special reports for you. I hope you'll have just as much fun adapting them to your own companies and their unique needs. But most of all I hope you'll release your data customers from the tyranny of data pukes and irrelevant standard web analytics reports!
Ok it's your turn now.
Do you have a favorite custom report? Care to share a downloadable version with the super smart audience of Occam's Razor? Do you have some version of one of my reports above that is even better? Care to share that one?
Incentive:The person who shares the best report will get a personalized signed copy of Web Analytics 2.0! Please share the report via comments, I know we all would love to benefit from your wisdom and experience.
There were some wonderful reports submitted, please see the comments, but the one I loved the most was by Peter van Klinken [comment #41]. It was a very clever report and the use of pivot tables in GA was particularly cool. I'll be sending Peter a signed copy of W A 2.0.
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful submissions.
by Avinash Kaushik
3 Awesome, Downloadable, Custom Web Analytics Reports
In a world where we are overwhelmed with data and metrics and key
performance indicators and reports and dashboards and. . . sometimes all
it takes to make some sense of all this "mess" is someone stepping up
to share a tiny slice of wisdom from their experience.That's my plan for this blog post. To share with you three custom reports that I find to be super valuable when I am doing web data analysis. Not only will I tell you about them, I'll give you downloadable links so you can get going right away!
I must forewarn you that my hidden agenda is also to expose to you metrics you might not be using, views of data that you might be ignoring, best practices that are of value and teach you how to fish. Consider yourself fully forewarned!
I love custom reports. They allow us to step away from the oppression of standard reports (/data pukes) and bring an increased amount of relevancy, calm and focus to our day-to-day work and to our beloved data consumers.
If your daily practice of web analysis does not hugely rely on custom reports (and advanced segments) then I am afraid you might be a lot more in the Reporting Squirrel mold and a lot less in the Analysis Ninja mold. Sorry.
With that motivational speech, :), below are three custom reports that are of incredible value. You can use them as is, or, better still, you can download and adapt them to your unique business needs. Either way I promise you'll deliver actionable insights faster!
[While I am using Google Analytics here, you can do custom reporting in pretty much any tool you have access to, be it Yahoo! Web Analytics or Site Catalyst or WebTrends.]
#1: Page Efficiency Analysis Report.
I am often irritated by how fractured page level reporting is. Four or six or ten reports that all tell you how your website pages are doing, except that you don't know which report to use and what the heck to do. So you, and I, do nothing. Faith rules.
My goal was to create one single report for you that would serve as a valuable starting point for page analysis for any type of website, especially a content rich non-ecommerce website. Here it is. . .
Optimally, to judge a page you'll look at three different pieces which are often not on the same report or not in any standard report. We fix that above.
First, what we want to know is: How often does this page act as our home page (Entrances) and how well is it doing its job (Bounces)?
I like reporting by Page Title (hopefully you are good at SEO and have taken care of this). I can quickly see which pages have high/horrible bounce rates. In an instant I know which pages need emergency surgery.
[For the minority of you who believe high bounce rates are ok, I encourage you to see this post: http://zqi.me/akbounce I especially recommend reading comments #153, #157 & #164. Thanks.]
Second, we worry about content consumption: How many Unique Visitors came, how many page views were generated and what content was more consumed more / less?
A lot of focus is on measuring Visits, which in this case I don't find to be of any value. I want to know how many People (approximated by Unique Visitors, plus or minus a few) saw a piece of content. Pageviews gives me a great proxy for knowing how often they might have seen it (not surprisingly more than once for my looooooong blog posts!).
The final metric in this bucket – and this is lovely – focuses on which pieces of content are really consumed. I write really long posts; it is gratifying that people spend 14 minutes reading one, but I can also easily see posts/topics people just skip (not good!).
Super awesome right?
Third, (the part almost everyone ignores), "show me the money!!!!": What value was created by the content for our business? And by business I also mean non-profit, university, newspaper, government websites and chicken farmers!
I don't care about page views if I am not making money / adding value to my non-profit or university. The data in the last two columns shows-pay attention please-differences in value created (for you!) when that piece of content was consumed.
Per visit goal value column shows ultimately how much a page might have influenced impact on your business during a visit where someone viewed that page. So People who see Page 2 end up creating 0.82 value for you, and People who see Page 3 end up creating $1.15 worth of value. Hence content on Page #3 was more valuable to your users and your business during this time period.
I like having Total Goal Completions because sometimes raw $ value hides insights. For example see pages #3 and #4. See what I mean?
Initial job greatness, consumption / "engagement", and value delivered to your business. Do you know this about your content?
Here's how you can get this report:
- Log into Google Analytics.
- Come back here.
- Now click on this link Page Efficiency Analysis Report. It will open in Google Analytics.
- Click on the Create Report button and it will save it in your account.
[Update, Jan 2013]
Instead of downloading the above report, please try the updated version of this report: Page Efficiency Analysis Report v2.
So what changed… Unique Pageviews and Pageviews think of them as rough equivalents of Unique Visitors and Visits for the Page dimension. Entrances/Pageviews shows how often this page is the landing page. Bounce Rate and Time on Page, you know what they are. The last metric (to replace PVGV, TGC) is Page Value, this is, in English, the value created for the business by each page that exists on the site. Page Value works across ecommerce and non-ecommerce sites. For a more technical definition of Page Value, check out: Valuing Content Using Page Value
This updated version of the report is cooler, more focused, uses new metrics in GA that were not around when this post was originally written, and has an additional sweet bonus tab with the technical performance of your site pages!
[/Update, Jan 2013]
Bonus Items:
You'll note that I have pre-built two drill downs into this report. If you click on the Page Title you'll see Visitor Type (New vs. Returning). I like to see for my great / awful pages if the behavior and data differs for those two segments. Then I like to drill down by City, again to see deltas. But you can change this to anything you want.
Remember you can apply segmentation (oh yesss!) to this report. Scroll all the way to the top of the report. Click the drop down next to Advanced Segments. Click on Mobile Traffic (or whatever) and. . . Boom! Mobile page efficiency analysis! Sweetness.
If you have an Ecommerce website you can replace Per Visit Goal Value with Per Visit Value and Total Goal Completions with Transactions.
If seven metrics seem to be too much to analyze click on the Comparison icon on top of the table (in Google Analytics) and you'll magically get this:
An easy peasy fast way to compare two metrics of most value to you and quickly identify the winners and losers. In this case I am answering a common question: Which content is consumed the most by People on my site and of that content which is most "engaging," i.e. cause them to read all of it?
Play with this feature; it is to die for. Change the pairings. Faster insights, guaranteed.
#2: Visitor Acquisition Efficiency Analysis Report.
We tend to be far too obsessed about Search Engines and Twitter and the Next Shiny Object.
Or we are organized by silos. Daniel's responsible for email and Gemma's responsible for Bing and Harun's responsible for display. They never talk (there is no incentive to). There are a ton of reports of course. But everyone's optimizing for their local maxima rather than for the global maxima.
Hate that.
My goal was to create one report where I can review the efficiency and performance across all streams of traffic to the site. Paid media (PPC, Display etc), Earned media(Social Media), and Free media (SEO, Referring Sites etc). I don't want the Next Shiny Object nor the Current HiPPO Obsession to drive our acquisition strategy.
Here's the report that is a fabulous starting point. . .
Let's break down a report you are soon not going to want to live without. :)
First, it shows all traffic sources. This is key. Organic and paid search, direct traffic, Twitter and Facebook, Facebook display ads, email marketing, top referring sites etc etc. No more silos! One place to judge how all streams perform. No egos.
Second, we focus on input metrics: How many sessions (Visits) by how many Unique Visitors and how many existing vs. new?
Senior folks seem to love Visits; I find them harmless. I really care about People. So one column for each of us. Are your marketing dollars chasing visits from people who have already visited your site, rather than prospects? New Visits to the rescue. For example notice the delta between Facebook ads vs. Facebook referrals. Ouch. Cute to know this key performance metric, right?
Third, this one's really important: How many people engage in behavior we value?
Typically you would look at metrics like Average Time on Site or Page Views per Visit. In this context why not use something significantly more insightful? I have created a Goal for the site where anyone who spends more than x amount of time or sees more than y number of pages is really giving me a precious gift: their attention. Regardless of whether they buy or submit a lead or do anything else of value, for me it's success.
Looking at this Goal, rather than Avg Time on Page, is significantly more insightful in judging the initial blush of success. You see even if these people don't buy on the website they might buy offline. Or even if they don't donate or download, they'll at least be much better aware of my brand. Or even if my acquisition campaign (Paid, Earned or Free) did not result in conversion in this visit, maybe they'll come back later.
Use this type of clever behavioral goal measurement rather than Avg Time / Pages.
[Important: When you download this report, below, this column might have a zero or show something incorrect - if you have Goal 6 defined. To use the smart strategy I am recommending you'll have to 1. work with your business leaders to identify what "engaged" behavior is in your case is, 2. create a goal for it and then 3. add that to the report you'll download here, then 4. celebrate.]
Fourth, outcomes baby! How much business value was added.
I don't have to teach you the value of using Conversion Rates and Goal Values. The whole point of this report is to prioritize our focus.
A vein should have popped in your head when you saw the conversion rates between google/cpc and google/organic. Good lord!
You can quantify that your Twitter earned media efforts yield 21 cents of extra value for every visit when compared to Facebook earned media efforts, and a shocking 62 cents more than your efforts with Facebook display ads! OMG.
Will that help you prioritize your efforts better? As Sarah would say: You betcha!
Fifth, this is very important: What did it cost you to get this traffic to your site?
This column in the report will often be zero. If your AdWords account is linked to Google Analytics perhaps you'll see Cost here. But most of the time it will be zero.
I still want you to have it.
Just to remind yourself, and your decision makers, that not all these rows have the same cost to bring that traffic to your site, to get it to engage and finally deliver the value you see in the Outcomes column.
Often we de-prioritize Earned Media and Free Media in favor of Paid Media (it seems sexy). That column is to encourage you to get cost numbers, even rough ones, and then, you'll do this in Excel, add something like Cost Per Conversion or Cost Per Visitor to the report (in Excel). Then and only then will your company be making the smartest possible decisions.
Remember no acquisition is free. Even "Free Media", it just costs less. It is your job to identify that and make your company smarter.
Are you providing this view of Acquisition Efficiency to your HiPPO's?
Here's how you can get this report:
- Log into Google Analytics.
- Come back here.
- Now click on this link Acquisition Efficiency Analysis Report. It will open in GA.
- Click on the Create Report button and it will save it in your account.
Bonus Items:
You'll note that I have pre-built two drill downs into this report.
If you click on the Source/Medium you'll drill down to Medium. For your email / search / display / social media / video / whatever else campaigns you'll now see the next level of detail (banner ad or rich media ad or. . .).
If you click on Medium you'll drill down to Campaign Name (certain size, duration, destination, promo code, whatever you have coded).
So you can hold all your $$$ accountable.
If you have an Ecommerce website replace the Goal Conversion Rate metric with Conversion Rate and Per Visit Goal Value with my favorite Average Value.
As with the above report you can apply segmentation to this report (please do!) and you can also use the Comparison view and, another love of mine, Advanced Table Filtering.
Faster insights, and massive increase in hugs and kisses, guaranteed!
#3: Paid Search Performance Analysis Micro-Ecosystem!
Allow me to kvetch for a second. I pull my hair out, and a small part of my soul dies, every time I log into someone's Omniture or Google Analytics or Unica NetInsight account. For the thing that greets me is a massive data puke. Tons and tons of reports created for God knows what reason.
They are the bubonic plague of our existence.
It is as if our lives were not miserable enough with the 80 or 100 standard reports we have no idea what to do with. Now those not savvy in the first place about Visits and Visitors have to wade through even more irrelevant nonsense.
I have championed the elimination of standard reports (who the heck is "standard" anyway? you?) and instead advanced the creation of focused custom "micro-ecosystems" that 1. reduce the number of reports 2. provide a one-stop destination for most answers on one topic, and finally, most importantly, 3. are hyper relevant.
Here are the three steps to creating a self contained micro-ecosystem of relevant data:
STEP 1: Identify & understand who will consume the data.
STEP 2: You are not going to believe this. . ., talk to them (!) to understand their needs and success criteria.
STEP 3: Insert two ounces of your raw brain power. What do they need, beyond what they want?
That's it. I know it sounds simple. Trust me everything below is easy (actually I am going to give you the report for free!), the steps above are really hard.
The micro-ecosystem I have created for you is to analyze the performance of a Paid Search Marketing program. The above examples have been non-ecommerce; this one is focused on ecommerce.
There are three key parties I need to satisfy (as might be the case in your company). The SEM team, who actually spend all the paid search marketing budget day-to-day. The second party is the person who owns the website (Director). Finally the VP of Digital who is responsible for all the spend, across multiple efforts.
Following my three step process above I have noted what each party wants, and, this is important, I have, from my experience, identified what they need.
Here is the micro-ecosystem. . . piece number one. . .
Everyone in the company goes to just one report to analyze the performance of the paid search campaigns. When they log in they choose their relevant tab. It's that simple.
The first tab is focused on the SEM team. Four metrics on this page are what they directly asked for, things they watch every day, things their bonus depends on. I have added two more from my experience to prompt good behavior (Bounce Rate) and tie them to the bottom-line (Average Value).
First, we look at the "input." How many ad impressions were served? How did our ad perform in terms of Click-thru Rate? The team obsesses about this. Match types. Ad Copy. Quality Score. Ad Position. Campaign Structure. Search query. So many things in play, this is where you find out where to start looking for problems.
Second, we look at activity. It is exceedingly rare that the SEM team (or, even worse, the Search Agency) is responsible for Bounce Rate. I think this is criminal. They can't just be responsible for spending money and dumping traffic on the site. However painful, they have to work with the site owner to ensure landing page relevancy, ad message consistency from Bing/Google to website and quality of their ad targeting. This humble metric is to force them to do that.
Third, I am sure you see a theme in all my work, outcomes! The team cares about Cost Per Click and total Cost. Give 'em that. But you'll be shocked that most of the time they don't care about conversions. So I add Average Value (essentially Average Order Size) so they can see which keywords to focus on more or less (see the range above from 82 to 211!) and not just clickthru rate, etc.
The SEM team / Agency will do lots of other reporting and segmentation and deep dive analysis. But they now have a simple and effective starting point.
Next up. . . the person who owns the process after the traffic shows up. This might be different in each company, but typically the website is owned by one person. Here is their tab. . . on the exact same report!
We shift our focus quite a bit as we move to the Director / Site Owner. They don't care about all the upfront stuff. They care about what's happening under their responsibility.
First, we focus on how many Visits occurred and what kind of Visitors they were? Specifically are we attracting just the same old visitors we have always seen or is our money being spent optimally to attract new people to our site? Percentage of New Visits is here as a conversation starter between the Director & the SEM Team / Agency.
Second, what's happening on the website? Are the entry home pages great? Bounce rate is a joint responsibility. Then it is important to realize that sadly not everyone will convert (boo!). I have chosen Pages per Visit as a proxy for an activity of value completed by the Visitor to the site. We know what the Average Pageview per Visit is; this column tells us if by keyword the difference, and if people don't bounce do they connect with our content? If not then why not? As a Director that is my job to figure out.
Third, surely my neck is on the line for ensuring that money (lots of it) is being produced. Hence the Revenue column. It takes less than ten seconds of eyeballing to figure out where there is a mismatch between crowds of visits and a mass of revenue (or not), and between non-bounce content consumption and revenue production.
Sweetness. One report. We are all on the same page!
The SEM team is probably logging into the system all day long; the Director perhaps a few times a week; the VP of Digital probably just a few times a month. But when She/He does they'll go to the exact same report and click on Her/His tab.
Here's what they'll see. . .
[Note: Here are things good Analysis Ninja's worry about. You'll notice Impressions in all three personalized tabs. The Director and VP don't really care about this metric. It is there as an "anchor." Whichever tab you go to the data will always be sorted the same! Tiny detail, but it matters so much.]
The VP is greeted with a lot fewer metrics (remember: always fewer relevant metrics!).
First, they might pay a cursory glance at the summary view provided in the scorecard(which will be on top of the above report but I have cropped for clarity). They do care about traffic. Just seeing the sorting of the Visits, in context of the Impressions, will give them pause. Note the questions that might pop up, even to a VP, as you compare the queries "accuracy vs. precision" and "kaushik". Or "customer service questions." What is up with that?
Second, VPs care about cost and they care about productivity. These are two columns they use to praise you and get you and themselves a bonus. What is the Cost per Click and, for that expense, what is the Revenue per Click? I don't have to tell you what to do with these two columns. Love them a lot.
Third, VPs care about their bonus. Sorry, I mean they care about company revenue. :) Knowing RPC is important, having Revenue right there is fantastic context about overall achievement. You could have stuffed number of transactions or orders or conversion rate or all that other junk. You don't need to. Remember: fewer relevant metrics!
Your effort into the three STEP process above pays off rich dividends by killing data pukes, focusing on what's important, and creating one destination for everyone to go to and for everyone to point to.
It is so amazing when this works.
Here's how you can get this report:
- Log into Google Analytics.
- Come back here.
- Now click on this link Paid Search Analysis Micro-Ecosystem. It will open in GA.
- Click on the Create Report button and it will save it in your account.
[Update: Rob Taylor has created a nice version of the above paid search report by applying filters to it, a feature of Google Analytics V5. You can download Rob's version here: http://goo.gl/9jLTm ]
Bonus Items:
If you click on the Keyword you'll drill down to Campaign. This is important because your campaign structure has so much influence on your ultimate performance. If you click on Campaign you'll drill down to Ad Group level (which needs constant love and caring).
You can easily create a micro ecosystem for your Email campaigns. For your Social Media efforts. For your. . . any place your company is spending money.
This report is for Ecommerce. It will work just fine if you're a non-profit or a government entity using AdWords or adCenter. Just swap the outcome metrics with ones mentioned in the first two reports.
You can do segmentation, advanced table filtering and all other good stuff here. Do it.
Extra Special Bonus Items:
Except for the last report, you can create all the above reports in five minutes in any web analytics tool you are using. You will not need to touch the JavaScript tag or go on a date with the IT team or update the contract with your Paid Vendor. If you are using Omniture or CoreMetrics etc you can still create the third report in Excel. Please do.
If you are using Google Analytics check out the delightful quick start guide to Custom Reporting. It covers designing, building and viewing a custom report. Also checkout this helpful article on definitions of dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics..
You will fail at all the above reports if you have not identified your Goals and Goal Values. If you are starting from scratch use the Web Analytics Measurement Model to identify your Goals. If you need more tactical examples from different types of websites please refer to my blog post on Macro & Micro Conversions.
Gentle reminder: No Goals, No Glory.
I had a lot of fun creating these special reports for you. I hope you'll have just as much fun adapting them to your own companies and their unique needs. But most of all I hope you'll release your data customers from the tyranny of data pukes and irrelevant standard web analytics reports!
Ok it's your turn now.
Do you have a favorite custom report? Care to share a downloadable version with the super smart audience of Occam's Razor? Do you have some version of one of my reports above that is even better? Care to share that one?
Incentive:
There were some wonderful reports submitted, please see the comments, but the one I loved the most was by Peter van Klinken [comment #41]. It was a very clever report and the use of pivot tables in GA was particularly cool. I'll be sending Peter a signed copy of W A 2.0.
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful submissions.
Web Analytics Segmentation: Do Or Die, There Is No Try!
Occam's Razor
by Avinash Kaushik
My
love for segmentation as the primary (only?) way of identify actionable
insights is on display in pretty much every single blog post I write.
I have said: All data in aggregate is "crap".
Because it is.
One of my earliest blog posts extolled the glorious virtues of segmentation:
Excellent Analytics Tip#2: Segment Absolutely Everything.
Many paid web analytics clickstream analytics tools, even today (!), don't allow you to do on the fly segmentation of all your data (not without asking you to change javascript script tags every time you need to segment something, or not without paying extra or paying for additional "data warehouse" solutions).
So it was with absolute delight that I wrote a detailed post about the release of Advanced Segmentation feature in Google Analytics in Oct 2008: Google Analytics Releases Advanced Segmentation: Now Be A Ninja!
Of course Yahoo! Web Analytics, the other wonderful free WA tool, had advanced segmentation from day one.
And as recently as two weeks ago I stressed the importance of effective segmentation as the cornerstone of the Web Analytics Measurement Framework.
[Update: Please read this post first in its entirety. Internalize it. Then when you are ready to get a jump start on advanced segmentation, download three super cool segments directly into your account from this post: 3 Advanced Web Analytics Visitor Segments: Non-Flirts, Social, Long Tail]
The Problem.
You can imagine then how absolutely heartbreaking it is for me to note that nearly all reporting that I see is data in aggregate.
All visits. Total revenue. Avg page views per visitors. Time on site. Overall customer satisfaction. And more. Tons of data "puking", all just aggregates.
The achingly tiny percent of time that the Analyst does segmentation it seems to stop at New vs. Returning Visitors! I have to admit I see that and I feel like throwing a tomato against the wall.
Yes new visitors and returning visitors are segments. But they are so lame that I dare you to find any insight worth, well, a tomato based on those two. You can't. Because new and returning are still two big indefinable globs!
Even if your business actually is tied to understanding the first and then subsequent visits by a person then you are far better off segmenting using Visitor Loyalty (in GA count of visits).
But I am getting off track (this whole non-segmentation business drives me bananas!).
Deep breath.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Segmenting your data is key to your success and that of your company.
It is not very difficult to segment your data. Many tools include some default segments you can apply to any report you are looking at.
For example when you look at your revenue or goal performance it takes a trivial amount of effort to look at All Visits but add to that report the Paid Search Traffic and Non-Paid Search Traffic and get deeper insights.
You can tell your boss: We made 900k, and while you are obsessed with Paid Search please note that 850k of the revenue came from Organic and only $25k from Paid.
PS: Our business is in trouble because we are over-reliant on Search!
See what I mean, a bit better insights.
Among things in the above image I love analyzing Direct (to understand value of the free traffic), Visits with Conversions (to understand my BFF sources and pages and behavior), and Non-bounce Visits (to understand people who give me a chance to do business with them).
But true glory will only come from going beyond the default segments.
Because default segments are created to appeal to everyone / the lowest common denominator, and we all know that there is no such thing as "everyone".
You are unique. The top three things your business is working on are unique. The multi-channel strategy you are executing is unique. Your investment in tools vs people in your company is unique (you are 90/10 instead of 10/90!). You are struggling with your own unique challenges.
You have to have a segmentation strategy that is unique to you. And if you don't then your employment with the company needs to be re-evaluated. (Sorry.)
So how do you go about identifying unique segments for your business or non-profit?
Ask a lot of questions. Tap into the tribal knowledge. Force your leaders (ok HiPPO's) to help you define Business Objectives, Goals and Targets. [Key elements of the Web Analytics Measurement Framework.]
Let me tell you that without the above there is no hope. The first two will tell you what is important and currently prioritized. The third will tell you where to focus you analytical horsepower (based on actuals vs targets).
If you have O, G & T then it is time to select the segments to focus on, the micro-groups of data you'll focus on.
The Segmentation Selector Framework.
My humble recommendation is that as a best practice you should pick at least a couple of segments in each of these three categories:
1. Acquisition. 2. Behavior. 3. Outcomes.
You'll choose to focus on the micro group that is of value to you, and just to you, in each category. You'll apply those segments to web analytics reports where you hope to find insights (and if you choose the right segments you will!).
Let us look at each category I am recommending.
Segment Category #1: Acquisition.
Acquisition also includes search engine optimization (SEO), because it is an activity on which you spend time and money.
Ask yourself this question: "Where is my company currently spending most amount of time and money acquiring traffic?"
Bam! There's the most important segment you will focus on.
Why? If you do your analysis right you can lower cost (by identifying and eliminating the losers!) and you can increase revenue (by identifying and investing where things are going well).
See the process I followed there?
Paid search. A specific group of keywords. Television campaigns.
Email campaigns to prospective customers in Florida, New Mexico, Arizona
and Utah. Coupon affiliates. "Social media campaigns" (context). Billboard ads on side on highways. Business cards handed out at trade shows.
All of the above are examples of acquisition strategies.
When you look at your web analytics data look at All Visits AND at least one of the above.
Two acquisition segments is normal.
If you make it three then choose one acquisition strategy that your company is experimenting with.
Say you have 1/10th of one person doing some tweeting or facebooking, :), then add that one segment to your top two. This will allow your management to look at what they are focused on and also one thing that sounds cool but they have no idea if it is actually worth it.
(Short term focus) Win – Win (Long term focus)
How To Apply Segments / Analyze Data.
The reports you'll apply your acquisition segment to will depend on the Key Performance Indicators you have chosen. But a typical set of metrics you'll evaluate will hopefully represent a spectrum of success, like for example. . .
The effort will be to try and understand if for our acquisition
segment (say all my brand keywords or for email campaigns to increase
sales of the most expensive products). . . .
This is not the end of your journey but it is a darn good start!
[If you have Web Analytics 2.0 pop the CD at the back into your computer. In dashboard examples look for Stratigent_Sample_Dashboard.xls, via my friend Bill Bruno at Stratigent. It has an excellent example of segmented acquisition display, you can immediately steal it for your company!]
Segment Category #2: Behavior.
Even people who sometimes have segment their web analytics data often forget to segment by online behavior.
Many, but not all, behavior segments fall into these two buckets: People who see x pages. People who do y things.
Here are some specific examples (all of which you can create in Yahoo! Web Analytics or Google Analytics in a few seconds without having to pay anything extra for vars and slots or having to update your javascript tag or having to buy an add-on, you can also apply them to all your data including all your historical data).
Visits with more than three page views. . .
This can be so valuable on content only websites (more page views
more impressions of irrelevant display ads!) or even on ecommerce
websites (more pages views the deeper you sink your hook into the
visitor, engagement baby!).
Where do these people come from? Do they buy a lot? A little? Do they write reviews? Did we acquire them or did they just show up? If they see so many pages what type of content are they interested in (politics? naked pictures? sports?)?
So on and so forth. Segmenting one behavior, understanding its value.
Similarly another could be focusing on people how add to cart and then abandon the site.
Or people who enter the site on the home page and their behavior. . .
Or all those who did not enter the site via the home page!
Or people who use the site's product comparison chart or car configurator or, my fav, internal site search. Vs. those that don't.
Or people whose Days to Purchase (/Transaction) are 5 vs for those for whom the Days to Purchase is 1. . .
Or, cuter, those whose last visit to our website was 100, or whatever, days ago. Why? And what do they want?
Or people who visited the site more than 9 times (!) during the current time period. . .
Where are these sweet delicious people coming from? (Note: To a blog
updated only twice a month!) What do they read? What do they buy? What
can we learn from them and do more of?
Those are the types of questions you'll answer from your behavioral segments.
The more you understand what people are doing on your site, the more likely it is that you'll stop the silliness on your site (kill content, redo navigation, make cross sells better, eliminate 80% of the ads, learn to live with 19 days to conversion, don't sell too hard, and so much more).
It is also likely (I want to say guaranteed) that you'll find the delta between what you want to have happen and what your customers want. You'll choose to make happier customers, who in turn, in the naughtiest way possible, will make you happy.
And it all stars with being able to identify and focus on the right behavior segments.
Pick at least two.
But I have to admit in this segment category I truly "play" with the data a lot because it is so hard to know what the right segments are, because visitor behavior is such a complicated thing (they are constantly trying to mess with us Analysts!).
It is only after experimentation (a lot) that I end up with something sweet.
Segment Category #3: Outcomes.
But first what is it?
Segments with outcomes are people or visits where you get a order (at an ecommerce website) or you get a lead (at Organizing for America).
Those two are obvious right?
Segment out people who delivered those two outcomes. Give them a warm hug and a kiss. Now go figure out what makes them unique when compared to everyone else who showed up at your website, all those other people who you worked so hard to impress but failed to.
Take the insights and do more of what works for this group.
Or segment out everyone whose order size is 50% more than the average order size. . .
These are your "whales", people who spend a lot of money with you. Don't you want to get to know them a lot better? : )
But there is more.
Remember macro AND micro conversions!
No one is going to sleep with you on the first date. (Ok maybe a few will!)
So focus on micro conversions that lead up to a macro conversion… like people playing a product video (or on content site watching five videos!). . .
Or adding a product to their Wish List.
Or signing up to show up for a protest for your ultra liberal policies!
Or apply for a trial, or download a trial product.
You can also focus on micro conversions that all by themselves are of value to you, even if not as much as the macro conversion.
For example submitting a job application.
Or signing up for a RSS feed.
Or clicking on a link to go to a different site you want them to go to (like clicking on the amazon link to go buy my book – great outcome :)).
Of course if you are really really good you'll also segment my absolute favorite metric in the whole wide world: Task Completion Rate. It is the ultimate measure of outcome (from your customer's perspective).
Net, net. . . it is absolutely critical that you segment your data by the key outcomes important to your business. Not just because your site exists to add economic value, but also because I cannot think of another way you can earn the love of your boss or get promoted.
By understanding what it is about people who deliver outcomes you can understand what to do with all those that don't convert.
Outcomes. Outcomes. Outcomes!
Pick at least two.
If you pick three or four that is ok.
If you pick nine it might be a signal you don't know what you are doing (and you want to corner your boss in a non-HR-violation manner and ask her to help you focus on the most important).
In Summary.
Segment or die.
It is as simple as that.
The next time you start to do true analysis of your data I hope you have your minimum six segments in hand (two for each category). If you do you'll find that web analytics, this world full of web metrics and what not, suddenly becomes a lot more interesting (and you no longer feel like jumping out of your office window in frustration!).
Love, money and glory await you.
Not to mention how proud I'll be of you when I see your analysis. ; )
Ok now your turn.
Are you a segmentation God? What are some of your favorite segments? Have you used this three category framework in the past to find segments? Do you think they'll work in real life? In the context of segments what do you think is missing from this blog post? What did I overlook / not stress enough?
What's your excuse for not leveraging segmentation? (Best answer to this question win's a copy of Web Analytics 2.0!)
Please share your thoughts / wisdom / critique / guidance.
Thanks.
PS:
Couple other related posts you might find interesting:
by Avinash Kaushik
Web Analytics Segmentation: Do Or Die, There Is No Try!
My
love for segmentation as the primary (only?) way of identify actionable
insights is on display in pretty much every single blog post I write.I have said: All data in aggregate is "crap".
Because it is.
One of my earliest blog posts extolled the glorious virtues of segmentation:
Excellent Analytics Tip#2: Segment Absolutely Everything.
Many paid web analytics clickstream analytics tools, even today (!), don't allow you to do on the fly segmentation of all your data (not without asking you to change javascript script tags every time you need to segment something, or not without paying extra or paying for additional "data warehouse" solutions).
So it was with absolute delight that I wrote a detailed post about the release of Advanced Segmentation feature in Google Analytics in Oct 2008: Google Analytics Releases Advanced Segmentation: Now Be A Ninja!
Of course Yahoo! Web Analytics, the other wonderful free WA tool, had advanced segmentation from day one.
And as recently as two weeks ago I stressed the importance of effective segmentation as the cornerstone of the Web Analytics Measurement Framework.
[Update: Please read this post first in its entirety. Internalize it. Then when you are ready to get a jump start on advanced segmentation, download three super cool segments directly into your account from this post: 3 Advanced Web Analytics Visitor Segments: Non-Flirts, Social, Long Tail]
The Problem.
You can imagine then how absolutely heartbreaking it is for me to note that nearly all reporting that I see is data in aggregate.
All visits. Total revenue. Avg page views per visitors. Time on site. Overall customer satisfaction. And more. Tons of data "puking", all just aggregates.
The achingly tiny percent of time that the Analyst does segmentation it seems to stop at New vs. Returning Visitors! I have to admit I see that and I feel like throwing a tomato against the wall.
Yes new visitors and returning visitors are segments. But they are so lame that I dare you to find any insight worth, well, a tomato based on those two. You can't. Because new and returning are still two big indefinable globs!
Even if your business actually is tied to understanding the first and then subsequent visits by a person then you are far better off segmenting using Visitor Loyalty (in GA count of visits).
But I am getting off track (this whole non-segmentation business drives me bananas!).
Deep breath.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Segmenting your data is key to your success and that of your company.
It is not very difficult to segment your data. Many tools include some default segments you can apply to any report you are looking at.
For example when you look at your revenue or goal performance it takes a trivial amount of effort to look at All Visits but add to that report the Paid Search Traffic and Non-Paid Search Traffic and get deeper insights.
You can tell your boss: We made 900k, and while you are obsessed with Paid Search please note that 850k of the revenue came from Organic and only $25k from Paid.
PS: Our business is in trouble because we are over-reliant on Search!
See what I mean, a bit better insights.
Among things in the above image I love analyzing Direct (to understand value of the free traffic), Visits with Conversions (to understand my BFF sources and pages and behavior), and Non-bounce Visits (to understand people who give me a chance to do business with them).
But true glory will only come from going beyond the default segments.
Because default segments are created to appeal to everyone / the lowest common denominator, and we all know that there is no such thing as "everyone".
You are unique. The top three things your business is working on are unique. The multi-channel strategy you are executing is unique. Your investment in tools vs people in your company is unique (you are 90/10 instead of 10/90!). You are struggling with your own unique challenges.
You have to have a segmentation strategy that is unique to you. And if you don't then your employment with the company needs to be re-evaluated. (Sorry.)
So how do you go about identifying unique segments for your business or non-profit?
Ask a lot of questions. Tap into the tribal knowledge. Force your leaders (ok HiPPO's) to help you define Business Objectives, Goals and Targets. [Key elements of the Web Analytics Measurement Framework.]
Let me tell you that without the above there is no hope. The first two will tell you what is important and currently prioritized. The third will tell you where to focus you analytical horsepower (based on actuals vs targets).
If you have O, G & T then it is time to select the segments to focus on, the micro-groups of data you'll focus on.
The Segmentation Selector Framework.
My humble recommendation is that as a best practice you should pick at least a couple of segments in each of these three categories:
1. Acquisition. 2. Behavior. 3. Outcomes.
You'll choose to focus on the micro group that is of value to you, and just to you, in each category. You'll apply those segments to web analytics reports where you hope to find insights (and if you choose the right segments you will!).
Let us look at each category I am recommending.
Segment Category #1: Acquisition.
Acquisition refers to the activity you undertake to attract people (or robots!) to your website.This would include campaigns you run, like pay per click marketing (PPC), email, affiliate deals, display / banner ads, facebook marketing campaigns.
Acquisition also includes search engine optimization (SEO), because it is an activity on which you spend time and money.
Ask yourself this question: "Where is my company currently spending most amount of time and money acquiring traffic?"
Bam! There's the most important segment you will focus on.
Why? If you do your analysis right you can lower cost (by identifying and eliminating the losers!) and you can increase revenue (by identifying and investing where things are going well).
See the process I followed there?
- Ask the question to identify what's important / high priority for the business.
- Create a segment (and then micro segments) for that one thing.
- Apply on the relevant reports to measure performance using key performance indicators.
- Take action. It will have an impact!
All of the above are examples of acquisition strategies.
When you look at your web analytics data look at All Visits AND at least one of the above.
Two acquisition segments is normal.
If you make it three then choose one acquisition strategy that your company is experimenting with.
Say you have 1/10th of one person doing some tweeting or facebooking, :), then add that one segment to your top two. This will allow your management to look at what they are focused on and also one thing that sounds cool but they have no idea if it is actually worth it.
(Short term focus) Win – Win (Long term focus)
How To Apply Segments / Analyze Data.
The reports you'll apply your acquisition segment to will depend on the Key Performance Indicators you have chosen. But a typical set of metrics you'll evaluate will hopefully represent a spectrum of success, like for example. . .
- How many visits did we get (to get context)
- Of those how many were new visits (if that is a focus)
- How many could we get to give us one pathetic click (bounce rate!)
- What was the cost of acquisition (if you can get total cost give yourself a gold star)
- What value could we extract at a per visit level
- How many people could we get to convert (replace total goal completions with conversion rate if you want)
- What was the total value added to our business or non-profit
This is not the end of your journey but it is a darn good start!
[If you have Web Analytics 2.0 pop the CD at the back into your computer. In dashboard examples look for Stratigent_Sample_Dashboard.xls, via my friend Bill Bruno at Stratigent. It has an excellent example of segmented acquisition display, you can immediately steal it for your company!]
Segment Category #2: Behavior.
Behavior refers to the activity people are undertaking on your website.When people show up, what is it that they are doing? Is there anything discernable / important in their behavior that is adding value to your online existence? Or, the flip side, what do we want people do to on our site, and is anyone exhibiting that behavior?
Even people who sometimes have segment their web analytics data often forget to segment by online behavior.
Many, but not all, behavior segments fall into these two buckets: People who see x pages. People who do y things.
Here are some specific examples (all of which you can create in Yahoo! Web Analytics or Google Analytics in a few seconds without having to pay anything extra for vars and slots or having to update your javascript tag or having to buy an add-on, you can also apply them to all your data including all your historical data).
Visits with more than three page views. . .
Where do these people come from? Do they buy a lot? A little? Do they write reviews? Did we acquire them or did they just show up? If they see so many pages what type of content are they interested in (politics? naked pictures? sports?)?
So on and so forth. Segmenting one behavior, understanding its value.
Similarly another could be focusing on people how add to cart and then abandon the site.
Or people who enter the site on the home page and their behavior. . .
Or people who use the site's product comparison chart or car configurator or, my fav, internal site search. Vs. those that don't.
Or people whose Days to Purchase (/Transaction) are 5 vs for those for whom the Days to Purchase is 1. . .
Or people who visited the site more than 9 times (!) during the current time period. . .
Those are the types of questions you'll answer from your behavioral segments.
The more you understand what people are doing on your site, the more likely it is that you'll stop the silliness on your site (kill content, redo navigation, make cross sells better, eliminate 80% of the ads, learn to live with 19 days to conversion, don't sell too hard, and so much more).
It is also likely (I want to say guaranteed) that you'll find the delta between what you want to have happen and what your customers want. You'll choose to make happier customers, who in turn, in the naughtiest way possible, will make you happy.
And it all stars with being able to identify and focus on the right behavior segments.
Pick at least two.
But I have to admit in this segment category I truly "play" with the data a lot because it is so hard to know what the right segments are, because visitor behavior is such a complicated thing (they are constantly trying to mess with us Analysts!).
It is only after experimentation (a lot) that I end up with something sweet.
Segment Category #3: Outcomes.
Outcomes are site activities that add value to you (business/non-profit).I find that here the problem is less that the Analysis Ninjas don't segment, rather it is that they are incredibly unimaginative.
But first what is it?
Segments with outcomes are people or visits where you get a order (at an ecommerce website) or you get a lead (at Organizing for America).
Those two are obvious right?
Segment out people who delivered those two outcomes. Give them a warm hug and a kiss. Now go figure out what makes them unique when compared to everyone else who showed up at your website, all those other people who you worked so hard to impress but failed to.
Take the insights and do more of what works for this group.
Or segment out everyone whose order size is 50% more than the average order size. . .
But there is more.
Remember macro AND micro conversions!
No one is going to sleep with you on the first date. (Ok maybe a few will!)
So focus on micro conversions that lead up to a macro conversion… like people playing a product video (or on content site watching five videos!). . .
Or signing up to show up for a protest for your ultra liberal policies!
Or apply for a trial, or download a trial product.
You can also focus on micro conversions that all by themselves are of value to you, even if not as much as the macro conversion.
For example submitting a job application.
Or signing up for a RSS feed.
Or clicking on a link to go to a different site you want them to go to (like clicking on the amazon link to go buy my book – great outcome :)).
Of course if you are really really good you'll also segment my absolute favorite metric in the whole wide world: Task Completion Rate. It is the ultimate measure of outcome (from your customer's perspective).
Net, net. . . it is absolutely critical that you segment your data by the key outcomes important to your business. Not just because your site exists to add economic value, but also because I cannot think of another way you can earn the love of your boss or get promoted.
By understanding what it is about people who deliver outcomes you can understand what to do with all those that don't convert.
Outcomes. Outcomes. Outcomes!
Pick at least two.
If you pick three or four that is ok.
If you pick nine it might be a signal you don't know what you are doing (and you want to corner your boss in a non-HR-violation manner and ask her to help you focus on the most important).
In Summary.
Segment or die.
It is as simple as that.
The next time you start to do true analysis of your data I hope you have your minimum six segments in hand (two for each category). If you do you'll find that web analytics, this world full of web metrics and what not, suddenly becomes a lot more interesting (and you no longer feel like jumping out of your office window in frustration!).
Love, money and glory await you.
Not to mention how proud I'll be of you when I see your analysis. ; )
Ok now your turn.
Are you a segmentation God? What are some of your favorite segments? Have you used this three category framework in the past to find segments? Do you think they'll work in real life? In the context of segments what do you think is missing from this blog post? What did I overlook / not stress enough?
What's your excuse for not leveraging segmentation? (Best answer to this question win's a copy of Web Analytics 2.0!)
Please share your thoughts / wisdom / critique / guidance.
Thanks.
PS:
Couple other related posts you might find interesting:
- Excellent Analytics Tip#2: Segment Absolutely Everything
- Google Analytics Releases Advanced Segmentation: Now Be A Ninja!
- Excellent Analytics Tip#4: Make Your Analysis/Reports "Connectable"
- "Dear Avinash": Be Awesome At Comparing KPI Trends Over Time
- 10 Fundamental Web Analytics Truths: Embrace 'Em & Win Big
Direct Traffic Definition.
THE TKG TEAM
SEO WEB DEVELOPMENT GLOSSARY
direct Traffic
Web definitions:
- The number of visitors who directly accessed your site. Direct visits can be the result of bookmarks, browser home page, or manually typing in your domain URL. In other words, these visitors did not click on a search engine result, PPC ad, or link to access your site.http://www.tkg.com/seo-web-development-glossary
- SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY: BECAUSE CHECKING 50 TIMES A DAY FACEBOOK ISN'T STRATEGY.
Produce Actionable Insights: Mate Custom Reports With Adv Segments!
Occam's Razor
by Avinash Kaushik
99.9996253% of Web Analytics reports produced are utterly useless.
Partly because of a lack of any tie to business strategy (ensure you have a Digital Marketing & Measurement Model!), partly because they are out of the box standard reports that web analytics vendors create for “average” people (and we both know that you are not average!), and partly because all they do is present data in the aggregate (a punishable criminal offence if there ever was one!).
As a cure to this malaise, I’ve encouraged y’all to switch to using only custom reports (bring just relevant metrics and dimensions into one place, and throw away 90% of web analytics data that does not apply to you). Here’s a blog post: 3 Awesome, Downloadable, Custom Web Analytics Reports
Read the post and go from “OMG there are so many reports and I don’t know what to do with them” to “OMG I can’t believe just five reports give me 90% of what I need!”
My second prescription was to (repeatedly!) pimp the value of advanced segmentation. I can’t even think of two other things that are quite as life altering as segmentation for an Analyst and/or a Digital Marketer. You go from looking at amorphous globs of goop to a crystal clear understanding of people, their sources, onsite behavior and business outcomes. Here’s my most recent blog post (with downloadable segments): 3 Advanced Web Analytics Visitor Segments: Non-Flirts, Social, Long Tail
Read the post and go from “Arrrhhhh this web analytics is so haaaard” to “Awww… being data driven is so much fun!”
Despite the obvious and incredible advantages, precious few in our dear community have their web analytics existence centered on custom reports and segments. Here’s the hashtag: #heartbreaking
If that is due to the lack of a relevant example to enchant you with its native sexiness then let’s fix that problem. Here it is…
Enchanted?
No?
Okay here is a higher resolution version: Page Efficiency Analysis with Long Tail Advanced Segments
Now?
Maybe not yet. Okay let me break down the components.
Why this Custom Report?
We produce a ton of content on our site. Which content is most engaging? Which subject matter experts should we hire more of? What type of content (videos, demos, pictures, reviews etc.) do visitors value more? Which content delivers business or non-profit value?
These are very important questions to answer, and with content reports fragmented in tools like Google Analytics and, worse, metrics spread out across reports (or outright hidden), it is hard to answer those questions easily. That’s where my Website Content Efficiency Analysis custom report comes in. It hopes to bring all the key metrics into one place (no more hunting and pecking!) and help you analyze site content optimally. Log into Google Analytics and download the report here: Website Content Efficiency Analysis Report. The report you'll download is a V2 version from what you see in this post. It is more improved with a new technical analysis tab!
[If the report opens in a profile other than the one you want the report in, just scroll to the bottom and in the Profiles section you'll see Additional Profiles, click on the drop down, make your choice, hit Save.]
Why this Advanced Segment?
One of the key ways in which we get relevant traffic to our websites is to have them properly indexed by Google / Bing / Baidu / Yandex. Search Engine Optimization is key. But not just SEO or keywords or our brand name. It drives me bananas how much we still talk about words. Few people search with a word or two. People type phrases into search engines – some of them write entire stories – and those phrases and stories account for an enormous amount of traffic to your site.
[rant] It is so horrible that SEOs still get asked: “Can I rank #1 for word x?” Good lord! Wake up! [/rant]
So two relevant questions come up: How are we doing for the head (few, brand) words? How are we doing for the super important long tail search phrases?
Log into Google Analytics and download these two segments: 1-2 Word Search Query Visitors, 3 or More Word Search Query Visitors.
[If the segments open in the old version of Google Analytics simply open the new version in a new browser tab and copy the segment into the new version.]
We are not doing all this analysis because it makes us happy. It is mandated by the business reality described above. Always, always, always be a slave to business strategy/needs. Let that drive analysis. Don’t puke data out of Omniture/WebTrends and go looking for business problems to solve. Please.
Why Apply these Segments to this Report?
With the above two in hand you are now ready to answer the killer question: How are different pieces of site content doing in terms of SEO in driving visitors via head words and tail phrases, and is it delivering business value?
OMG! OMG! OMG!
Yes! Think of all the possibilities. The ability to focus people in your company on the right content creation. The opportunity to balance efforts between head and tail phrases. The chance to understand what is actually driving business value (you know: the thing that pays your salary!).
This is why as little children we told our moms we wanted to grow up and become Web Analysts. :)
Let’s break down various components of this enchanting bit of analysis. . .
So that is what we do first, and here is that simple, yet absolutely critical, piece of data. . .
First you will notice that I was right!
Back up a little bit. What we are looking for is whether this analysis is important to do. My proxy for that is how much website traffic are we talking about? Often we end up obsessing about a keyword or campaign or xyz without realizing we are talking about 0.05% of the traffic. Sub optimal.
To the being right part… and this is where the Google Analytics UI is simply brilliant…
In a flash and a bang I can see that my first head segment (one or two words typed) accounts for 13% of the site traffic (yowza!) and the long tail segment (three words or more typed) accounts for an awesome 24% of the site traffic (zoowee mama!).
We’ve established that the analysis we are doing is worth doing, that the long tail is worth focusing on, and any insights we can find will have a material impact.
Life Lesson: In life, before you get too deep into any analysis, use a barometer to establish the work is worth doing. How much desirable traffic or desirable outcomes does your report represent? Be explicit about it and your boss will pay attention to your reports / analysis.
Why wait for the vendor? Pull all the data you need (and honestly only you know what you need) into one place. Don’t be satisfied with a report that just shows Visits and Bounces or Time on Site and Load Time or Goal Completion or (worse) %Exits or …. one of the many data distractions so liberally available.
Here is how I define end-to-end… Metrics on your report should give you clear understanding of your performance in these three areas: Acquisition, Behavior, and Outcomes.
So often we tend to obsess about acquisition (impressions and clicks and visits and abc), and sometimes we care about outcomes (revenue and conversions and xyz). It is rare that we care about behavior. You need all three.
In this report my acquisition metrics are Entrances and Unique Visitors – how many people came, how many entered on this page, and with a glance at both I get an idea of how many might have come multiple times.
My behavior metrics are Bounces, Pageviews, Avg. Time on Page – how many people choose to leave right away (“I came, I puked, I left”), how popular the page was for all visits, and how long do people stay on the page (if they stay on the site).
Here’s how that part of the report looks. . .
Already you can start to see wonderful patterns in the data, and since you are not looking at the data in aggregate you can start to see how the two different groups behave.
Once more marvel at the approximately 2x more traffic you are getting from your long search queries people type into Google. Because you have behavior here as well you can start to notice the differences between behavior of the two groups (a lot more page views for the smaller head visitors, but significantly less time on site!). You can start to draw conclusions about the value of the tail.
While you are already doing better analysis because you are looking at Acquisition and Behavior together, this picture is of course incomplete. We are missing outcomes.
Should we be even more crazy about the tail folks since they spend so much more time, and there are so many of them? Perhaps.
Why not look at the bottom-line.
Our outcome metrics here are Per Visit Goal value (how much value each unique visitor adds to us each time they visit) and Total Goal Completions (for when you have multiple goals –and everyone should have macro and micro conversions!). Here’s the rest of the picture. . .
For the sake of clarity I am showing just the behavior and outcomes here; the report has all three in one place.
Delightful, is it not?
While the tail traffic does very well, 14,400 Unique Visitors delivering 3.057 Goal completions, the Per Visit Goal Value is significantly lower than the head traffic, 88 cents compared to 197 cents for the head traffic. So you can double your traffic, but the site is monetizing this traffic for a lot less than the head traffic.
So is the traffic any less valuable? Should you still invest in SEO for the long tail? What is the difference in the types of Goal Conversions between these two groups? What content is driving each set of behaviors? This and all other questions you’ll answer in the next steps. For now the job was to simply get an initial burst of solid starting points from the end-to-end view of the key metrics.
Life Lesson: Friends don’t let friends have reports that are missing one of these three elements in the metrics being presented: Acquisition, Behavior, Outcomes. Choose the metric(s) that is most optimal for you in each bucket, but if your reports don’t have all three buckets. . . rethink why you even have them.
In this step we’ll analyze the dimension we care about – website content (pages) – and answer the questions above. Which content acquires more head and tail traffic? Which content drives more conversions and business value? Which content does this and which one does that and which one drives deeper engagement and which one drives more bounces and is it only for the head or the tail phrases and which one. . . so many lovely things you can dive into easily.
If you are using Google Analytics for analysis of an ecommerce website you can easily add Keyword as an option for the drill down. I've created that version of the report for you, click here to download it into your Google Analytics account: Content Efficiency & Keyword Drilldown Ecommerce Report. You also have the ability to filter to phrases and keywords that contain a word(s) that you are most interested in analyzing first. Finally, you can also create your custom report such that it drills down into the keywords used to get to that page (head or tail).
Any of the above methods will allow you to dive deeper and look at the actual keywords and key phrases easily. Now you can start to understand things to love in your SEO efforts and drink to the sad situations you’ll surely find.
And there is more. Rubber meets the road in this step. It is raw analysis that you are going to be doing here. Have a notepad next to you and jot down both the obvious insights that will drive immediate response, and write a love letter to your SEO and blow their brains about how many things you find easily in your data.
Life Lesson: Analysis is hard. Smart people do a lot of it.
Rule #5 is going to ensure that something is actually going to be done as a result of your blood, sweat and tears. Never give a long laundry list of “thing to do.” Ever.
Rather, convert the jumble of actions into a numbered list with the first item being the highest priority, then the second highest priority, and so on and so forth.
You are the person with most access to data and, thanks to rule #4, the person who analyzed the heck out of it. So now use that to create the numbered list.
How do you identify item number one for your list? This is where real Analysis Ninjas distinguish themselves, and leave the Reporting Squirrels in the dust. Compute the impact of each of your recommendations. If you paid $a to SEO for long tail phrase zxy it will add value $q. Use performance of existing words / visitors. Look at past performance. Look at competitive data. Make guesstimates (in the worst case scenario). But compute impact.
[Bonus]
For one specific and incredible way to compute impact please see item #8 in this post: Barriers To An Effective Web Measurement Strategy (+ Solutions!) The methodology outlined, illustrated below,…
…is exceedingly effective at showing the value of the action you are recommending, and the cost of the delay in implementation of the changes! This will allow you to make a very very effective prioritized list of actions.
[/Bonus]
Business leaders simply have a much, much easier time internalizing a numbered list (less thinking for them) and approving actions (more fame for you).
Life Lesson: Ninjas never submit long globs of text as observations or random actions. If you can’t prioritize, you’ve missed the most important step that creates data driven businesses.
You can see how deeply passionate I am about custom reports and the ability to truly find magnificently impactful things by applying advanced segments to them. I hope that the above example will make you pass all your current reports through the filter of Acquisition, Behavior and Outcomes. I hope you’ll never again look at any report without segments applied to them.
Good luck!
As always it is your turn now.
What is your favorite combination of a custom report and advanced segment? Do all your reports cover acquisition, behavior and outcomes? Why not? Got best practices to share for metrics that fall into each of the three categories? Do you have a segment you want to report on but your analytics tool does not allow it? How is your business doing when it comes to head performance and long tail performance?
Please share your tips, feedback and ideas via comments.
Thanks.
by Avinash Kaushik
Produce Actionable Insights: Mate Custom Reports With Adv Segments!
99.9996253% of Web Analytics reports produced are utterly useless. Partly because of a lack of any tie to business strategy (ensure you have a Digital Marketing & Measurement Model!), partly because they are out of the box standard reports that web analytics vendors create for “average” people (and we both know that you are not average!), and partly because all they do is present data in the aggregate (a punishable criminal offence if there ever was one!).
As a cure to this malaise, I’ve encouraged y’all to switch to using only custom reports (bring just relevant metrics and dimensions into one place, and throw away 90% of web analytics data that does not apply to you). Here’s a blog post: 3 Awesome, Downloadable, Custom Web Analytics Reports
Read the post and go from “OMG there are so many reports and I don’t know what to do with them” to “OMG I can’t believe just five reports give me 90% of what I need!”
My second prescription was to (repeatedly!) pimp the value of advanced segmentation. I can’t even think of two other things that are quite as life altering as segmentation for an Analyst and/or a Digital Marketer. You go from looking at amorphous globs of goop to a crystal clear understanding of people, their sources, onsite behavior and business outcomes. Here’s my most recent blog post (with downloadable segments): 3 Advanced Web Analytics Visitor Segments: Non-Flirts, Social, Long Tail
Read the post and go from “Arrrhhhh this web analytics is so haaaard” to “Awww… being data driven is so much fun!”
Despite the obvious and incredible advantages, precious few in our dear community have their web analytics existence centered on custom reports and segments. Here’s the hashtag: #heartbreaking
If that is due to the lack of a relevant example to enchant you with its native sexiness then let’s fix that problem. Here it is…
Enchanted?
No?
Okay here is a higher resolution version: Page Efficiency Analysis with Long Tail Advanced Segments
Now?
Maybe not yet. Okay let me break down the components.
Enchanting Analysis: Rule 1: Business Context.
Surprised that I am not jumping into telling you about metrics and dimensions and segments and all the other things that bring Analysts goose bumps? Remember all data is secondary. Your primary quest is to understand the business context, which in turn will dictate procurement of data.Why this Custom Report?
We produce a ton of content on our site. Which content is most engaging? Which subject matter experts should we hire more of? What type of content (videos, demos, pictures, reviews etc.) do visitors value more? Which content delivers business or non-profit value?
These are very important questions to answer, and with content reports fragmented in tools like Google Analytics and, worse, metrics spread out across reports (or outright hidden), it is hard to answer those questions easily. That’s where my Website Content Efficiency Analysis custom report comes in. It hopes to bring all the key metrics into one place (no more hunting and pecking!) and help you analyze site content optimally. Log into Google Analytics and download the report here: Website Content Efficiency Analysis Report. The report you'll download is a V2 version from what you see in this post. It is more improved with a new technical analysis tab!
[If the report opens in a profile other than the one you want the report in, just scroll to the bottom and in the Profiles section you'll see Additional Profiles, click on the drop down, make your choice, hit Save.]
Why this Advanced Segment?
One of the key ways in which we get relevant traffic to our websites is to have them properly indexed by Google / Bing / Baidu / Yandex. Search Engine Optimization is key. But not just SEO or keywords or our brand name. It drives me bananas how much we still talk about words. Few people search with a word or two. People type phrases into search engines – some of them write entire stories – and those phrases and stories account for an enormous amount of traffic to your site.
[rant] It is so horrible that SEOs still get asked: “Can I rank #1 for word x?” Good lord! Wake up! [/rant]
So two relevant questions come up: How are we doing for the head (few, brand) words? How are we doing for the super important long tail search phrases?
Log into Google Analytics and download these two segments: 1-2 Word Search Query Visitors, 3 or More Word Search Query Visitors.
[If the segments open in the old version of Google Analytics simply open the new version in a new browser tab and copy the segment into the new version.]
We are not doing all this analysis because it makes us happy. It is mandated by the business reality described above. Always, always, always be a slave to business strategy/needs. Let that drive analysis. Don’t puke data out of Omniture/WebTrends and go looking for business problems to solve. Please.
Why Apply these Segments to this Report?
With the above two in hand you are now ready to answer the killer question: How are different pieces of site content doing in terms of SEO in driving visitors via head words and tail phrases, and is it delivering business value?
OMG! OMG! OMG!
Yes! Think of all the possibilities. The ability to focus people in your company on the right content creation. The opportunity to balance efforts between head and tail phrases. The chance to understand what is actually driving business value (you know: the thing that pays your salary!).
This is why as little children we told our moms we wanted to grow up and become Web Analysts. :)
Let’s break down various components of this enchanting bit of analysis. . .
Enchanting Analysis: Rule 2: Establish Macro Importance.
It is possible that I was completely wrong about doing this analysis. Before you waste precious hours of your life (and even more precious hours of your management team / client) always look at a 10,000 meter level view to see if there is any there there.So that is what we do first, and here is that simple, yet absolutely critical, piece of data. . .
First you will notice that I was right!
Back up a little bit. What we are looking for is whether this analysis is important to do. My proxy for that is how much website traffic are we talking about? Often we end up obsessing about a keyword or campaign or xyz without realizing we are talking about 0.05% of the traffic. Sub optimal.
To the being right part… and this is where the Google Analytics UI is simply brilliant…
In a flash and a bang I can see that my first head segment (one or two words typed) accounts for 13% of the site traffic (yowza!) and the long tail segment (three words or more typed) accounts for an awesome 24% of the site traffic (zoowee mama!).
We’ve established that the analysis we are doing is worth doing, that the long tail is worth focusing on, and any insights we can find will have a material impact.
Life Lesson: In life, before you get too deep into any analysis, use a barometer to establish the work is worth doing. How much desirable traffic or desirable outcomes does your report represent? Be explicit about it and your boss will pay attention to your reports / analysis.
Enchanting Analysis: Rule 3: End-to-End view, or Death.
Very early in your analysis you want to establish a view of the dataset that gives you the end-to-end view of performance. The lack of this view is why I am so critical of standard web analytics reports. You can tickle GA, you can twitch Site Catalyst, or you can rub WebTrends just the right way and find the data. But they all conspire to work against you by not giving you want you want.Why wait for the vendor? Pull all the data you need (and honestly only you know what you need) into one place. Don’t be satisfied with a report that just shows Visits and Bounces or Time on Site and Load Time or Goal Completion or (worse) %Exits or …. one of the many data distractions so liberally available.
Here is how I define end-to-end… Metrics on your report should give you clear understanding of your performance in these three areas: Acquisition, Behavior, and Outcomes.
So often we tend to obsess about acquisition (impressions and clicks and visits and abc), and sometimes we care about outcomes (revenue and conversions and xyz). It is rare that we care about behavior. You need all three.
In this report my acquisition metrics are Entrances and Unique Visitors – how many people came, how many entered on this page, and with a glance at both I get an idea of how many might have come multiple times.
My behavior metrics are Bounces, Pageviews, Avg. Time on Page – how many people choose to leave right away (“I came, I puked, I left”), how popular the page was for all visits, and how long do people stay on the page (if they stay on the site).
Here’s how that part of the report looks. . .
Already you can start to see wonderful patterns in the data, and since you are not looking at the data in aggregate you can start to see how the two different groups behave.
Once more marvel at the approximately 2x more traffic you are getting from your long search queries people type into Google. Because you have behavior here as well you can start to notice the differences between behavior of the two groups (a lot more page views for the smaller head visitors, but significantly less time on site!). You can start to draw conclusions about the value of the tail.
While you are already doing better analysis because you are looking at Acquisition and Behavior together, this picture is of course incomplete. We are missing outcomes.
Should we be even more crazy about the tail folks since they spend so much more time, and there are so many of them? Perhaps.
Why not look at the bottom-line.
Our outcome metrics here are Per Visit Goal value (how much value each unique visitor adds to us each time they visit) and Total Goal Completions (for when you have multiple goals –and everyone should have macro and micro conversions!). Here’s the rest of the picture. . .
For the sake of clarity I am showing just the behavior and outcomes here; the report has all three in one place.
Delightful, is it not?
While the tail traffic does very well, 14,400 Unique Visitors delivering 3.057 Goal completions, the Per Visit Goal Value is significantly lower than the head traffic, 88 cents compared to 197 cents for the head traffic. So you can double your traffic, but the site is monetizing this traffic for a lot less than the head traffic.
So is the traffic any less valuable? Should you still invest in SEO for the long tail? What is the difference in the types of Goal Conversions between these two groups? What content is driving each set of behaviors? This and all other questions you’ll answer in the next steps. For now the job was to simply get an initial burst of solid starting points from the end-to-end view of the key metrics.
Life Lesson: Friends don’t let friends have reports that are missing one of these three elements in the metrics being presented: Acquisition, Behavior, Outcomes. Choose the metric(s) that is most optimal for you in each bucket, but if your reports don’t have all three buckets. . . rethink why you even have them.
Enchanting Analysis: Rule 4: Look for Surprises, Love.
This is very important. When you analyze data your defacto mode should be to look beyond the top ten rows of data. You should look for things that surprise you. Far too often we look for things we are looking for and we move on. Totally sub optimal.In this step we’ll analyze the dimension we care about – website content (pages) – and answer the questions above. Which content acquires more head and tail traffic? Which content drives more conversions and business value? Which content does this and which one does that and which one drives deeper engagement and which one drives more bounces and is it only for the head or the tail phrases and which one. . . so many lovely things you can dive into easily.
If you are using Google Analytics for analysis of an ecommerce website you can easily add Keyword as an option for the drill down. I've created that version of the report for you, click here to download it into your Google Analytics account: Content Efficiency & Keyword Drilldown Ecommerce Report. You also have the ability to filter to phrases and keywords that contain a word(s) that you are most interested in analyzing first. Finally, you can also create your custom report such that it drills down into the keywords used to get to that page (head or tail).
Any of the above methods will allow you to dive deeper and look at the actual keywords and key phrases easily. Now you can start to understand things to love in your SEO efforts and drink to the sad situations you’ll surely find.
And there is more. Rubber meets the road in this step. It is raw analysis that you are going to be doing here. Have a notepad next to you and jot down both the obvious insights that will drive immediate response, and write a love letter to your SEO and blow their brains about how many things you find easily in your data.
Life Lesson: Analysis is hard. Smart people do a lot of it.
Enchanting Analysis: Rule 5: Create a List of Prioritized Actions.
When you apply relevant advanced segments to your custom reports you are going to find a lot of actions to take for your business leaders, frontline marketers, SEO contractors, etc.Rule #5 is going to ensure that something is actually going to be done as a result of your blood, sweat and tears. Never give a long laundry list of “thing to do.” Ever.
Rather, convert the jumble of actions into a numbered list with the first item being the highest priority, then the second highest priority, and so on and so forth.
You are the person with most access to data and, thanks to rule #4, the person who analyzed the heck out of it. So now use that to create the numbered list.
How do you identify item number one for your list? This is where real Analysis Ninjas distinguish themselves, and leave the Reporting Squirrels in the dust. Compute the impact of each of your recommendations. If you paid $a to SEO for long tail phrase zxy it will add value $q. Use performance of existing words / visitors. Look at past performance. Look at competitive data. Make guesstimates (in the worst case scenario). But compute impact.
[Bonus]
For one specific and incredible way to compute impact please see item #8 in this post: Barriers To An Effective Web Measurement Strategy (+ Solutions!) The methodology outlined, illustrated below,…
…is exceedingly effective at showing the value of the action you are recommending, and the cost of the delay in implementation of the changes! This will allow you to make a very very effective prioritized list of actions.
[/Bonus]
Business leaders simply have a much, much easier time internalizing a numbered list (less thinking for them) and approving actions (more fame for you).
Life Lesson: Ninjas never submit long globs of text as observations or random actions. If you can’t prioritize, you’ve missed the most important step that creates data driven businesses.
You can see how deeply passionate I am about custom reports and the ability to truly find magnificently impactful things by applying advanced segments to them. I hope that the above example will make you pass all your current reports through the filter of Acquisition, Behavior and Outcomes. I hope you’ll never again look at any report without segments applied to them.
Good luck!
As always it is your turn now.
What is your favorite combination of a custom report and advanced segment? Do all your reports cover acquisition, behavior and outcomes? Why not? Got best practices to share for metrics that fall into each of the three categories? Do you have a segment you want to report on but your analytics tool does not allow it? How is your business doing when it comes to head performance and long tail performance?
Please share your tips, feedback and ideas via comments.
Thanks.
The Difference Between Web Reporting And Web Analysis.
Occam's Razor
by Avinash Kaushik
Someone asked me this very simple question today. What's the difference between web reporting and web analysis?
My instinct was to use the wry observation uttered by US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in trying to define
po rn: "I know it when I see it."
That applies to what is analysis. I know it when I see it. : )
That, of course, would have been an unhelpful answer.
So here I what I actually said:
I always find pictures help me learn, so here are some helpful pictures for you. . .
This is web reporting:
And so is this, even if it looks cuter:
And while you might be tempted to believe that this is not web reporting, with all the data and the colors and even some segments, it is web reporting:
See the common themes in all the examples above?
The thankless job of web reporting, illustrated vividly above, is to punt the part of interpreting the data, understanding the context and identifying actions to the recipient of the data puke.
If that is your role, then the best you can do is make sure you have take the right screenshots out of Site Catalyst or Google Analytics, or charge an extra $15 an hour and dump the data into Excel and add a color to the table header.
So what about web analysis?
The job of web analysis mandates a good understanding of the business priorities, creation of the right custom reports, application of hyper-relevant advanced segments to that data and, finally and most importantly, presentation of your insights and recommended action using the locally spoken language.
See the difference? It's a different job, requires different work, and of course radically different skills.
Examples of web analysis? I thought you would never ask. . .
This is a good example of web analysis:
[And not only because it is my work! Learn more about it here: Action Dashboard.]
Notice the overwhelming existence of words. That's not always sufficient, but I humbly believe always necessary.
When you look to check if you are looking at analysis or reporting look for Insights, Actions, Impact on Company. All good signs of analysis.
Here's another example of really good web analysis:
[Click on the image above for a higher resolution version.]
Ignore how well or badly the business is doing. Focus on approach taken.
Here are some things that should jump out. . . . A deliberate focus on only the "movers and shakers" (not just the top ten!). Short table: just the key data. Most of the page is taken up with words that give insights and specific actions to take.
Another example that I particularly like, both for the style of presentation and how rare it is in our world of web analytics. . .
[Click on the image above for a higher resolution version.]
No table, no rows, no pies. And yet data holds center stage with clearly highlighted actions.
Normally, we all do the column on the left (it might look different, but we have it). Unfortunately we don't appreciate is the power of the middle column ("segmentation reveled"). That is super important because it gives the recipients exposure to the hard work that you have done and in a very quiet ways increases their confidence in your work. Guess the outcome of that? They take the actions you are recommending!!
Analysts constantly complain that no one follows any of their data-based recommendations. How do you expose your hard work? In a garish Las Vegas show girl fashion where all the "data plumes" are, unsexily in this case, hanging off the body? Or, in quite concise ways? Only one of those two work.
One more? Okay here you go. . .
[Click on the image above for a higher resolution version.]
Diana has loads of observations, supported by visuals (sometimes it really helps to show the search results or the emails or the Facebook ad) with highlights (actually lowlights) in red, and finally recommendations.
And note the tie to outcomes (another common theme in all examples above). In this case, the search improvements are tied to the increase in donations I can make because of sales of my book. 1.5 extra smiles per month! (All my proceeds from both my books go to charity.) A good way to get attention from the "executive" and get him or her to take action.
Do that. A lot. Be creative. Yes it is hard work. But then again glory is not cheap, is it?
Exceptions to the rule.
Not every output you get from your Analyst, or "Analyst" :), with loads of words on it, instead of numbers, will be analysis. Hence my assertion that "I know it when I see it." Words instead of data pukes is just a clue, read the words to discern if it actually is analysis or a repeation of what the table or graph already says!
In the same vein not every output that is chock full of numbers in five size font, with pies and tables stuffed in for good measure, is a representation of web reporting. It is hard to find the exceptions to this rule, but I have seen at least two in nine years.
Top 10 signs that you are looking at / doing web analysis.
Let's make sure this horse is really and truly dead by summarizing the lessons above and using a set of signs that might indicate that you are looking at web analysis. . .
In the list above, and in the examples in this post, you see my clear, and perhaps egregious bias for business analysis and business outcomes and business actions and working with many parts of the business and business context. But I've always believed that if you and I can't have an impact then why are we doing what we do?
I hope you've had some fun learning how to distinguish between web reporting and web analysis. It is a fact of life that we need both. The bigger the company, the more they want data pukes, sorry, reporting.
But if you have "Analyst" in your job title then you perhaps now have a stronger idea of what is expected of you to earn that title. If you have hired a "web analysis consultant" and are paying them big Rupees then you know what to expect from them. Don't settle for data pukes, push them harder. Apply the rules above. Send their "analysis" back. Ask for more. Raise your expectations!!
I hope now "you'll know it when you see it," and have more datagasms!
Okay, it's your turn now.
How would you answer the question about the difference between web reporting and web analysis? What signs do you look for when evaluating the work of your Analyst or Consultants?
Please share your thoughts via comments below.
Thanks.
PS: In case you are curious here's the current official definition of po rn, as outlined in Miller v. California:
by Avinash Kaushik
The Difference Between Web Reporting And Web Analysis
Someone asked me this very simple question today. What's the difference between web reporting and web analysis? My instinct was to use the wry observation uttered by US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in trying to define
po rn: "I know it when I see it."
That applies to what is analysis. I know it when I see it. : )
That, of course, would have been an unhelpful answer.
So here I what I actually said:
If you see a data puke then you know you are looking at the result of web reporting, even if it is called a dashboard.Would you agree? Got an alternative, please submit via comments.
If you see words in English outlining actions that need to be taken, and below the fold you see relevant supporting data, then you are looking at the result of web data analysis.
I always find pictures help me learn, so here are some helpful pictures for you. . .
This is web reporting:
And so is this, even if it looks cuter:
And while you might be tempted to believe that this is not web reporting, with all the data and the colors and even some segments, it is web reporting:
See the common themes in all the examples above?
The thankless job of web reporting, illustrated vividly above, is to punt the part of interpreting the data, understanding the context and identifying actions to the recipient of the data puke.
If that is your role, then the best you can do is make sure you have take the right screenshots out of Site Catalyst or Google Analytics, or charge an extra $15 an hour and dump the data into Excel and add a color to the table header.
So what about web analysis?
The job of web analysis mandates a good understanding of the business priorities, creation of the right custom reports, application of hyper-relevant advanced segments to that data and, finally and most importantly, presentation of your insights and recommended action using the locally spoken language.
See the difference? It's a different job, requires different work, and of course radically different skills.
Examples of web analysis? I thought you would never ask. . .
This is a good example of web analysis:
[And not only because it is my work! Learn more about it here: Action Dashboard.]
Notice the overwhelming existence of words. That's not always sufficient, but I humbly believe always necessary.
When you look to check if you are looking at analysis or reporting look for Insights, Actions, Impact on Company. All good signs of analysis.
Here's another example of really good web analysis:
[Click on the image above for a higher resolution version.]
Ignore how well or badly the business is doing. Focus on approach taken.
Here are some things that should jump out. . . . A deliberate focus on only the "movers and shakers" (not just the top ten!). Short table: just the key data. Most of the page is taken up with words that give insights and specific actions to take.
Another example that I particularly like, both for the style of presentation and how rare it is in our world of web analytics. . .
[Click on the image above for a higher resolution version.]
No table, no rows, no pies. And yet data holds center stage with clearly highlighted actions.
Normally, we all do the column on the left (it might look different, but we have it). Unfortunately we don't appreciate is the power of the middle column ("segmentation reveled"). That is super important because it gives the recipients exposure to the hard work that you have done and in a very quiet ways increases their confidence in your work. Guess the outcome of that? They take the actions you are recommending!!
Analysts constantly complain that no one follows any of their data-based recommendations. How do you expose your hard work? In a garish Las Vegas show girl fashion where all the "data plumes" are, unsexily in this case, hanging off the body? Or, in quite concise ways? Only one of those two work.
One more? Okay here you go. . .
[Click on the image above for a higher resolution version.]
Diana has loads of observations, supported by visuals (sometimes it really helps to show the search results or the emails or the Facebook ad) with highlights (actually lowlights) in red, and finally recommendations.
And note the tie to outcomes (another common theme in all examples above). In this case, the search improvements are tied to the increase in donations I can make because of sales of my book. 1.5 extra smiles per month! (All my proceeds from both my books go to charity.) A good way to get attention from the "executive" and get him or her to take action.
Do that. A lot. Be creative. Yes it is hard work. But then again glory is not cheap, is it?
Exceptions to the rule.
Not every output you get from your Analyst, or "Analyst" :), with loads of words on it, instead of numbers, will be analysis. Hence my assertion that "I know it when I see it." Words instead of data pukes is just a clue, read the words to discern if it actually is analysis or a repeation of what the table or graph already says!
In the same vein not every output that is chock full of numbers in five size font, with pies and tables stuffed in for good measure, is a representation of web reporting. It is hard to find the exceptions to this rule, but I have seen at least two in nine years.
Top 10 signs that you are looking at / doing web analysis.
Let's make sure this horse is really and truly dead by summarizing the lessons above and using a set of signs that might indicate that you are looking at web analysis. . .
- #1. The thing that you see instantly is not data, but rather actions for the business to take.
#2. When I see Economic Value I feel a bit more confident that I am looking at the result of analysis. Primarily because it is so darn hard to do. You have to understand business goals / outcomes (so harrrrrd!) and then work with Finance to identify economic value, and then you have to configure it in the tool and then apply advanced segments, and then figure out how things are doing. That is love. I mean that is analysis! Or at least all the work that goes into being able to do effective analysis.
#3. In the same vein, if you see references to the Web Analytics Measurement Model (or better still, see it in its entirety on one slide up front), then you know that the Ninja did some analysis.
#4. Any application of algorithmic intelligence, weighted sort, expected range for metric values (control limits), or anything that even remotely smells of ever so slightly advanced statistics is a good sign. Unknown unknowns are what it's all about!
Also mere existence of statistics is not sufficient. All other rules above and below still apply. :)
#5. If you see a Target mentioned in the report / presentation, then the Analyst did some business analysis at least. See the top right of the picture immediately above.
#6. Loads and loads and loads of context! Context is queen! Enough said.
#7. I have never seen web analysis without effective data/user segmentation. I think this statement is in both my books. . . "All data in aggregate is crap." Sorry.
#8. If there is even a hint of the impact of actions being recommended then I know that is analysis. It is hard to say: I am recommending that we shift this cluster of brand keywords to broad match. It is harder to say: I am recommending. . . and that should increase revenue by $180,000 and profit by $47,000. Look for that.
#9. If you see more than three metrics in a table you are presented with then you might not be looking at analysis.
#10. Multiplicity! If you see fabulous metrics like Share of Search (competitive intelligence) or Task Completion Rate (qualitative analysis) or Message Amplification (social media) then they are good signs that the Analyst is stepping outside Omniture / WebTrends. I would still recommend looking below the surface to ensure that they are not just data pukes, but the good thing is these are smarter metrics.
User Contributions:
#11. From Carson Smith: If someone looks at your analysis / report / presentation / dashboard and has to ask "and… as a result?", then it might be reporting. What happened should be obvious.
[I love applying the "Three Layers of the So What" test to any analysis I present or see. I ask "so what" three times. If at the end of it there is no clear action to be taken then I know it is just web reporting, not matter how great it looks or how much work went into it. Ask "as a result?" or "so what?" to your work!]
#12. From Chuck U: 1) If it can be automated, it's probably not analysis 2) If your data warehouse team says they can automate it for you, then it's definitely not analysis. [#awesome! -Avinash]
In the list above, and in the examples in this post, you see my clear, and perhaps egregious bias for business analysis and business outcomes and business actions and working with many parts of the business and business context. But I've always believed that if you and I can't have an impact then why are we doing what we do?
I hope you've had some fun learning how to distinguish between web reporting and web analysis. It is a fact of life that we need both. The bigger the company, the more they want data pukes, sorry, reporting.
But if you have "Analyst" in your job title then you perhaps now have a stronger idea of what is expected of you to earn that title. If you have hired a "web analysis consultant" and are paying them big Rupees then you know what to expect from them. Don't settle for data pukes, push them harder. Apply the rules above. Send their "analysis" back. Ask for more. Raise your expectations!!
I hope now "you'll know it when you see it," and have more datagasms!
Okay, it's your turn now.
How would you answer the question about the difference between web reporting and web analysis? What signs do you look for when evaluating the work of your Analyst or Consultants?
Please share your thoughts via comments below.
Thanks.
PS: In case you are curious here's the current official definition of po rn, as outlined in Miller v. California:
(a) whether the 'average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
(b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and
(c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Google Analytics Tips: 10 Data Analysis Strategies That Pay Off Big!
Occam's Razor
by Avinash Kaushik
In the coming year, based on current announcements,
Google Analytics is set to go through an almost unprecedented amount of
evolution. My postulation is that by this time next year the tool will
be almost unrecognizable. [My favorite is Visitor Analytics, and visitor
level segmentation that will be pervasive throughout the product. This
is insanely cool.]
But it turns out Google Analytics, just like SiteCatalyst, WebTrends, and other web analytics tools, already has plenty of pretty valuable deeply insightful stuff in it. Yet so few people have mastered what's already there. Sometimes I wonder if we should actually be all that excited about the insanely cool stuff if the sanely cool stuff remains unmastered.
As we hopefully look forward to an exciting year, let's take a moment to address the latter challenge. Allow me to help you with your resolution of mastering the sanely cool stuff!
One way to do it is for me to just tell you what my top ten Google Analytics reports are that you could familiarize yourself with. The problem is that you'll know where to go, but not what to look for when you get there.
Each selection by me of a top ten (standard!) report in Google Analytics below includes a small brain dump of quick insights, Google Analytics tips if you will, I seek when I'm looking at that report. The stories and examples will hopefully help you intelligently approach your own data in these reports and quickly find insights you can action / share with your management team.
[Sidebar for people who want to be BIG winners]
Before you log into Google Analytics it is really really helpful to get context about the company/client's business.
I realize that you are pressed for time and you might not want to do it. But in case you want to win big rather than just win, I encourage to read the six tips outlined in this post: The Biggest Mistake Web Analysts Make… And How To Avoid It!
I guarantee that if you invest this time, you'll find 5x better insights when you log into Google Analytics or Adobe SiteCatalyst. If you don't invest this upfront, fun, time you'll hurt my feelings but I'll understand, you don't want to win big. :)
[/Sidebar for people who want to be BIG winners]
Below are the top ten standard reports in Google Analytics that you should know well, especially if you are only a part-time user of Google Analytics.
If you are an Analyst, of any tool, check out the Bonus tips included to kick your efforts up a notch or two.
Everything here's simple. You don't have to be a particularly deep expert to find value in this training.
1. Sources Overview report.
Start with the pie. It helps you understand how reliant the company/client is on Search (too much is actually not good). What other sources are big for them? If you don't see other sources (campaigns – email, social, display) are not tagged. A very bad thing.
Like everything in life, you want a balanced portfolio (left).
Then go to Traffic Source > Sources > Campaigns to get a feel for how many display, social, email, other campaigns the company might be running. What's their performance? Very good context.
Search is always big for everyone. So you want to drill down into the Traffic Source > Sources > Search > Overview to understand the macro balance between Organic and Paid (this, by default, will only show AdWords though it can show Bing, Yandex etc).
It is hard to get overall search keyword performance in GA, so grab this quick custom report All Search Performance and apply the standard advanced segments to it (Non-paid Search Traffic, Paid Search Traffic). Tons and tons of insights here. Better organic keywords, performance for same words between organic and paid, goal value comparisons, so much more. Go crazy.
While you look at three reports, you quickly end up with a robust understanding of *all* the things the company is doing and a detailed understanding of paid and organic search performance.
Bonus: Download the All Traffic Source End to End report for best, in depth, analysis. [Make sure you are logged into GA, then click on the link, save the report to your account.]
2. Landing Pages report.
Zero companies will win without great landing pages. You stink there, bye, bye large amounts of money. Great landing pages equals more customers enticed to engage plus higher conversions plus higher (AdWords) quality score.
Start by looking at the top 20 landing pages. Content > Site Content > Landing Pages.
Identify ones with high bounce rates. What is wrong with them? Visit them. Missing calls to action broken links, not enough content, content unrelated to the ads, something else? Low hanging fruit. Fix it.
Learn to apply the top traffic segments (see #1 above) to this report. Find high bounce rates for one segment (Paid Search) and look at other segments (Display) where pages have low bounce rates. Learn from the winners, apply to the losers.
Bonus: Smart people look at the Page Value delivered by each landing page and not just bounce rates. Sadly it not easy to find. No worries, I've got your back. Download this custom report: Landing Pages Analysis .
For each page now you know how often it is a landing page
(Entrances/Pageviews), how much it stinks (Bounce Rate), how much money
it is making you (Page Value). Ignore your home page or any cart or
checkout pages that might show up. Look at all others.
Why do some pages only make 97 cents and others make you almost four dollars? Prioritize using a mix of bounce and page value, analyze details using referring keywords and referring urls (drilldowns are already built into above custom report!).
3. Goals Report.
Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions.
Got it? Macro + Micro Conversions!
The difference between companies that win and the companies that will lose is simply this: Economic Value.
So look at the standard goals report. Conversions > Goals > Overview. This report shows all the goals converting, in addition to the ecommerce order now conversions.
Are there at least six micro conversions identified? Yes? Good. Does
each goal have values identified? Yes? Magnificent. The company you are
analyzing is ready to rock the web!
If the answer to either question is no, at best the company will scratch out a living on the web. More likely their competitors are going to slap them around.
What are the high micro conversions you need to start focusing on (G6, G7, G2, G1 above)? Do you understand how elements of your paid, owned, earned inbound marketing efforts drive each of these? How do these goals tile to your macro conversion, G3? Does the CEO understand the complete value of digital ($233,810 above)?
Bonus: Ecommerce is sexy, so don't forget to look at that. Specifically focus on what products are being sold. Go to Conversions > Ecommerce > Product Performance. (For this to work the ecommerce tag has to be implemented right. If it is not you have bigger problems.)
What are the top selling products, what's the average quantity? How about when you apply segments for your top traffic sources? What is Search really good at selling? What about Social? What about Display? What about in Florida vs. New York? Understand, have a smarter CEO conversation.
4. Conversion Funnels Report.
Fastest. Way. To. Make. Money.
The conversion path is three or four pages. What's your abandonment rate? Why is it a criminal 65%? Is there a better way to make money than to take it from people who have started the checkout process and want to give you money?
This post is about standard GA reports, but the standard cart/checkout funnel visualization in GA is value deficient. So as your standard report use Paditrack. For the same number of button presses you'll get 25x more value than Google Analytics.
Where do most people drop off? How can you have a minimum number of
text fields? Is it possible to not have garish banner ads in the
checkout process? When do people enter coupons? Is the error checking
when the person submits the page or is it (awesomer) in-line when the
person moves from one field to the next?
Bonus: Apply top traffic sources segments to the above report. Or just apply the top paid search referring keyword to the funnel report…
Do you see differences in abandonment rates? Why? What is causing a
particular keyword, email campaign, display ad, offer, to convert higher
or lower? What lessons can be applied to all other visitors? Go fix!
5. MCF Assisted Conversions Report.
Multi-channel attribution was the flavor of the month for every month in 2012. It will be the same in 2013. And just as in 2012 magic pills will be scarce, FUD will be plentiful, and vendors will promise the moon. You, I guarantee it, will be just as confused. :)
But get to know the assisted conversions report. It is fairly straightforward.
If *all* your campaigns *always* include campaign tracking parameters, this report is really good at answering this critical question: Is channel x more likely to be at the end of the conversion process or drive traffic that might convert later via a different channel? It is extremely valuable to know the answer.
Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Assisted Conversions.
In the above case I was astonished that while our email was primarily
a direct response "here's a coupon to convert" marketing, it actually
drove more conversions via other channels (!).
Impact? 1. We were not giving email enough credit. 2. Were we sending emails to people we had seen recently on our site? 3. If email assists, can we understand its order in the conversion process and which channel it most assists? (Yes. Go to Top Conversion Paths reportand search for Email.)
Even if you never get into the mess of attribution modeling and all that other craziness, you are much smarter by just analyzing the data, and implications, from at this report.
Bonus: You will want to know what to do about attribution modeling craziness. :) Read answers to questions one, two and three here: Attribution Modeling, Org Culture, Deeper Analysis. After that if you can't resist the itch, go play with the, now free to everyone, Attribution Modeling Tool in GA. Read the three answers first, please.
6. Mobile Devices Report.
Mobile is all the rage. You can't walk into any about digital or not about digital at all meeting without a solid grasp of where the company is when it comes to mobile.
This is a standard report in GA, but I've pressed a few buttons to make it smarter. You'll find the report in Audience > Mobile > Devices. On top of the graph click on Select A Metric and choose Goal Conversion Rate. Now you know the Visits and the Conversions. Smart.
Then on top of the table click on the Pivot icon (see mouse below). Then from Pivot By choose Source.
First, you quickly learn what the main big mobile consumption
platforms are. Second, equally quickly, you know the main sources of
traffic via mobile are. [If you remember from our first report above,
direct was #3 in overall and social was #4, but on mobile direct is #1
and social is #3. Did you realize your acquisition was distinct on
mobile? Does your mobile marketing reflect that?]
As you look at the "scorecard" (just under the graph) you can look at the little numbers in gray and understand overall mobile performance compared to site performance. Very handy.
Bonus: Download a super awesome all-encompassing mobile custom report: Complete Mobile Performance Report. It has unique built in drill-downs, customized metrics that give you the ability to deeply analyze mobile data by devices, search behavior and content content consumption (click on each tab). You will never need another standard mobile report!
7. In-Page Analytics Report.
Traffic Sources > Content > In-Page Analytics.
There is no simpler way to understand how consumers are behaving on a company's website then to just look at their clicks. In-Page does that really well. Just look at the link, look at the corresponding number.
On the home page it is so easy now to see which product categories
people really care about (Calico Critters! Put them on sale! Buy all the
keywords! Run email campaigns! :). You can also easily see that zero
people have clicked on the ScooterX Skateboard (time to remove it), at
least some care about Mini-Motos but what people really care about is
the Marble Run (pimp away!).
I hear you. Clicks are ok but you only care about money. No worries. Change the metric on top of the page to Goal Values and bam! What you now see is the distribution of which link is making you how much money. Sweetness.
This report is your easiest way into Web Analytics.
Bonus: Open your top landing pages in this report and then apply the Advanced Segment (button on top of the report) for your big traffic sources to see how differently your visitors click. Then at least for your top most landing pages, consider creating a custom one for each of the main traffic source.
Bonus 2: GA now allows for enhanced link attribution in this report. That is very cool because if you have a link in the header, a link in the side bar and a link in the main body all pointing to the same product page, Analytics will show you exactly how many people click on each of those links. You can then eliminate the big promo in the side bar because you now have data which shows that zero people click on it (because it looks like a banner ad!).
8. Location Report.
People have weird conceptions of where their traffic comes from. Sure they can sprout the number of tweets or top search keywords, but rarely do they have a robust understanding of the geographical distribution of their audience.
Illuminate yourself by going to Audience > Demographics > Location. Then on top of the graph change the metric from Visits to Goal Conversion Rate.
The default view (Visits) will always underline your bias. For me it
is always USA #1 (hurray!). But USA is only 40% of my traffic. And when I
look at Conversion Rates there are a whole bunch of countries that are
way better than USA (#47!). There are 14 countries with Conversion Rates
2x of USA (OMG!).
That changes things, right? Changes campaign targeting, changes content development, changes social strategies, changes product mix, changes keywords for search engine optimization.
You can run this type of analysis at a State and a City level as well, the results are always eye opening / preconceived notions busting.
Bonus: Every GA report shows clicks you actually get, there is only one that shows you clicks you could possibly have gotten. Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimization > Geographical Summary.
It shows, by country, where you currently show up on Google properties (Impressions) and the number of clicks you get. It took me 110k impressions to get 10k clicks in the UK and 60k impressions to get 10k clicks in Germany. Time to dial up SEO awesomeness in the UK!
9. Site Search Terms Report.
Another hugely underutilized resource is the intent your visitors are actually expressing on your site by typing into your site search engine (best way to stink is not to have one).
Content > Site Search > Search Terms. Admire the default view for a second, but quickly switch to Goal Set 1 (or Ecommerce if you are one of the aiming to hit a low bar with no Goals defined). You'll get this view…
Do you know what are the top things people are looking for that they
can't find on first glance? Above. Do you know how many of those top
expressed wishes then lead to a zero (!) percent conversion rate? Above.
Do you know how much money you make off each search term/expressed
intent? Above.
Now would you not want all the top things people look for to have a $2.39 per search goal value rather than 0.12 or 0.63? Of course. You have work to do.
Bonus: This might be stretching it a bit but 100% of your internal site search terms should probably be on your SEO keyword list and likely a part of your Paid Search campaigns. If people are coming to your site and looking for stuff (and you have it) then there is no better signal to grow your keyword list.
In my case that is 20,217 keywords I can quickly add to my Bing/Baidu/Yandex search campaigns and start measuring performance. My additions will be geo targeted by which keywords on my site were searched for from each country!
10. E2E Paid Search Report.
I tried really hard to keep this to just standard reports, but I had to squeeze in one "standard" custom report. It comes from my recent post Google Analytics Custom Reports: Paid Search Campaigns Analysis .
The report shows the end to end view of your search campaign performance.
Any Analyst worth their salt will spent a lot of time trying to understand what is happening on the site in conjunction
with trying to understand what happening inside AdWords! This report
does that very effectively. Above it merges data from AdWords with your
site performance data (how cute is it that you can see cost per click and revenue per click right next to each other!).
Additionally it has pre-built drilldowns (below) that allow you to navigate this performance in context of your AdWords account structure.
Identify which campaigns are actually delivering value. Identify if
you can optimize your AdGroups to deliver higher performance
(impressions, clicks). Identify what your Match Type decisions are doing
to your performance (Broad, Phrase, Exact, what's up?).
There is a lot more you can do in terms of AdWords Analytics, most of your starting points sit in the above report. Hence it is my standard AdWords report, even if it is a custom report. Download: E2E Paid Search Report.
That's it. Ten standard reports that high insights in plain sight. And a bonus five custom reports to allow you to truly bring out your inner Analysis Ninja!
If you are able to master the standard set, you'll be above average when it comes to understanding site performance. Better still, you'll be able to identify a robust set of actions that will please the toughest CEO and over a period of time earn you a glory and a higher salary.
Now that's something worthwhile to shoot for in 2013!
As always, it is your turn now.
Are these standard reports a part of your current Analysis Ninja arsenal? Do you have a favorite standard report that is not listed above? If yes, what is amazing about it? If you use these reports already, are these the types of insights you seek? Are there other hidden insights gems that I might have overlooked above? Got a omg this is my secret weapon custom report you want to share with us?
Please share your insights, questions, favorite reports, and feedback via comments below.
Thanks, and good luck!
by Avinash Kaushik
Google Analytics Tips: 10 Data Analysis Strategies That Pay Off Big!
In the coming year, based on current announcements,
Google Analytics is set to go through an almost unprecedented amount of
evolution. My postulation is that by this time next year the tool will
be almost unrecognizable. [My favorite is Visitor Analytics, and visitor
level segmentation that will be pervasive throughout the product. This
is insanely cool.]But it turns out Google Analytics, just like SiteCatalyst, WebTrends, and other web analytics tools, already has plenty of pretty valuable deeply insightful stuff in it. Yet so few people have mastered what's already there. Sometimes I wonder if we should actually be all that excited about the insanely cool stuff if the sanely cool stuff remains unmastered.
As we hopefully look forward to an exciting year, let's take a moment to address the latter challenge. Allow me to help you with your resolution of mastering the sanely cool stuff!
One way to do it is for me to just tell you what my top ten Google Analytics reports are that you could familiarize yourself with. The problem is that you'll know where to go, but not what to look for when you get there.
Each selection by me of a top ten (standard!) report in Google Analytics below includes a small brain dump of quick insights, Google Analytics tips if you will, I seek when I'm looking at that report. The stories and examples will hopefully help you intelligently approach your own data in these reports and quickly find insights you can action / share with your management team.
[Sidebar for people who want to be BIG winners]
Before you log into Google Analytics it is really really helpful to get context about the company/client's business.
I realize that you are pressed for time and you might not want to do it. But in case you want to win big rather than just win, I encourage to read the six tips outlined in this post: The Biggest Mistake Web Analysts Make… And How To Avoid It!
I guarantee that if you invest this time, you'll find 5x better insights when you log into Google Analytics or Adobe SiteCatalyst. If you don't invest this upfront, fun, time you'll hurt my feelings but I'll understand, you don't want to win big. :)
[/Sidebar for people who want to be BIG winners]
Below are the top ten standard reports in Google Analytics that you should know well, especially if you are only a part-time user of Google Analytics.
If you are an Analyst, of any tool, check out the Bonus tips included to kick your efforts up a notch or two.
Everything here's simple. You don't have to be a particularly deep expert to find value in this training.
1. Sources Overview report.
Start with the pie. It helps you understand how reliant the company/client is on Search (too much is actually not good). What other sources are big for them? If you don't see other sources (campaigns – email, social, display) are not tagged. A very bad thing.
Then go to Traffic Source > Sources > Campaigns to get a feel for how many display, social, email, other campaigns the company might be running. What's their performance? Very good context.
Search is always big for everyone. So you want to drill down into the Traffic Source > Sources > Search > Overview to understand the macro balance between Organic and Paid (this, by default, will only show AdWords though it can show Bing, Yandex etc).
It is hard to get overall search keyword performance in GA, so grab this quick custom report All Search Performance and apply the standard advanced segments to it (Non-paid Search Traffic, Paid Search Traffic). Tons and tons of insights here. Better organic keywords, performance for same words between organic and paid, goal value comparisons, so much more. Go crazy.
While you look at three reports, you quickly end up with a robust understanding of *all* the things the company is doing and a detailed understanding of paid and organic search performance.
Bonus: Download the All Traffic Source End to End report for best, in depth, analysis. [Make sure you are logged into GA, then click on the link, save the report to your account.]
2. Landing Pages report.
Zero companies will win without great landing pages. You stink there, bye, bye large amounts of money. Great landing pages equals more customers enticed to engage plus higher conversions plus higher (AdWords) quality score.
Start by looking at the top 20 landing pages. Content > Site Content > Landing Pages.
Identify ones with high bounce rates. What is wrong with them? Visit them. Missing calls to action broken links, not enough content, content unrelated to the ads, something else? Low hanging fruit. Fix it.
Learn to apply the top traffic segments (see #1 above) to this report. Find high bounce rates for one segment (Paid Search) and look at other segments (Display) where pages have low bounce rates. Learn from the winners, apply to the losers.
Bonus: Smart people look at the Page Value delivered by each landing page and not just bounce rates. Sadly it not easy to find. No worries, I've got your back. Download this custom report: Landing Pages Analysis .
Why do some pages only make 97 cents and others make you almost four dollars? Prioritize using a mix of bounce and page value, analyze details using referring keywords and referring urls (drilldowns are already built into above custom report!).
3. Goals Report.
Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions. Macro + Micro Conversions.
Got it? Macro + Micro Conversions!
The difference between companies that win and the companies that will lose is simply this: Economic Value.
So look at the standard goals report. Conversions > Goals > Overview. This report shows all the goals converting, in addition to the ecommerce order now conversions.
If the answer to either question is no, at best the company will scratch out a living on the web. More likely their competitors are going to slap them around.
What are the high micro conversions you need to start focusing on (G6, G7, G2, G1 above)? Do you understand how elements of your paid, owned, earned inbound marketing efforts drive each of these? How do these goals tile to your macro conversion, G3? Does the CEO understand the complete value of digital ($233,810 above)?
Bonus: Ecommerce is sexy, so don't forget to look at that. Specifically focus on what products are being sold. Go to Conversions > Ecommerce > Product Performance. (For this to work the ecommerce tag has to be implemented right. If it is not you have bigger problems.)
What are the top selling products, what's the average quantity? How about when you apply segments for your top traffic sources? What is Search really good at selling? What about Social? What about Display? What about in Florida vs. New York? Understand, have a smarter CEO conversation.
4. Conversion Funnels Report.
Fastest. Way. To. Make. Money.
The conversion path is three or four pages. What's your abandonment rate? Why is it a criminal 65%? Is there a better way to make money than to take it from people who have started the checkout process and want to give you money?
This post is about standard GA reports, but the standard cart/checkout funnel visualization in GA is value deficient. So as your standard report use Paditrack. For the same number of button presses you'll get 25x more value than Google Analytics.
Bonus: Apply top traffic sources segments to the above report. Or just apply the top paid search referring keyword to the funnel report…
5. MCF Assisted Conversions Report.
Multi-channel attribution was the flavor of the month for every month in 2012. It will be the same in 2013. And just as in 2012 magic pills will be scarce, FUD will be plentiful, and vendors will promise the moon. You, I guarantee it, will be just as confused. :)
But get to know the assisted conversions report. It is fairly straightforward.
If *all* your campaigns *always* include campaign tracking parameters, this report is really good at answering this critical question: Is channel x more likely to be at the end of the conversion process or drive traffic that might convert later via a different channel? It is extremely valuable to know the answer.
Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Assisted Conversions.
Impact? 1. We were not giving email enough credit. 2. Were we sending emails to people we had seen recently on our site? 3. If email assists, can we understand its order in the conversion process and which channel it most assists? (Yes. Go to Top Conversion Paths reportand search for Email.)
Even if you never get into the mess of attribution modeling and all that other craziness, you are much smarter by just analyzing the data, and implications, from at this report.
Bonus: You will want to know what to do about attribution modeling craziness. :) Read answers to questions one, two and three here: Attribution Modeling, Org Culture, Deeper Analysis. After that if you can't resist the itch, go play with the, now free to everyone, Attribution Modeling Tool in GA. Read the three answers first, please.
6. Mobile Devices Report.
Mobile is all the rage. You can't walk into any about digital or not about digital at all meeting without a solid grasp of where the company is when it comes to mobile.
This is a standard report in GA, but I've pressed a few buttons to make it smarter. You'll find the report in Audience > Mobile > Devices. On top of the graph click on Select A Metric and choose Goal Conversion Rate. Now you know the Visits and the Conversions. Smart.
Then on top of the table click on the Pivot icon (see mouse below). Then from Pivot By choose Source.
As you look at the "scorecard" (just under the graph) you can look at the little numbers in gray and understand overall mobile performance compared to site performance. Very handy.
Bonus: Download a super awesome all-encompassing mobile custom report: Complete Mobile Performance Report. It has unique built in drill-downs, customized metrics that give you the ability to deeply analyze mobile data by devices, search behavior and content content consumption (click on each tab). You will never need another standard mobile report!
7. In-Page Analytics Report.
Traffic Sources > Content > In-Page Analytics.
There is no simpler way to understand how consumers are behaving on a company's website then to just look at their clicks. In-Page does that really well. Just look at the link, look at the corresponding number.
I hear you. Clicks are ok but you only care about money. No worries. Change the metric on top of the page to Goal Values and bam! What you now see is the distribution of which link is making you how much money. Sweetness.
This report is your easiest way into Web Analytics.
Bonus: Open your top landing pages in this report and then apply the Advanced Segment (button on top of the report) for your big traffic sources to see how differently your visitors click. Then at least for your top most landing pages, consider creating a custom one for each of the main traffic source.
Bonus 2: GA now allows for enhanced link attribution in this report. That is very cool because if you have a link in the header, a link in the side bar and a link in the main body all pointing to the same product page, Analytics will show you exactly how many people click on each of those links. You can then eliminate the big promo in the side bar because you now have data which shows that zero people click on it (because it looks like a banner ad!).
8. Location Report.
People have weird conceptions of where their traffic comes from. Sure they can sprout the number of tweets or top search keywords, but rarely do they have a robust understanding of the geographical distribution of their audience.
Illuminate yourself by going to Audience > Demographics > Location. Then on top of the graph change the metric from Visits to Goal Conversion Rate.
That changes things, right? Changes campaign targeting, changes content development, changes social strategies, changes product mix, changes keywords for search engine optimization.
You can run this type of analysis at a State and a City level as well, the results are always eye opening / preconceived notions busting.
Bonus: Every GA report shows clicks you actually get, there is only one that shows you clicks you could possibly have gotten. Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimization > Geographical Summary.
It shows, by country, where you currently show up on Google properties (Impressions) and the number of clicks you get. It took me 110k impressions to get 10k clicks in the UK and 60k impressions to get 10k clicks in Germany. Time to dial up SEO awesomeness in the UK!
9. Site Search Terms Report.
Another hugely underutilized resource is the intent your visitors are actually expressing on your site by typing into your site search engine (best way to stink is not to have one).
Content > Site Search > Search Terms. Admire the default view for a second, but quickly switch to Goal Set 1 (or Ecommerce if you are one of the aiming to hit a low bar with no Goals defined). You'll get this view…
Now would you not want all the top things people look for to have a $2.39 per search goal value rather than 0.12 or 0.63? Of course. You have work to do.
Bonus: This might be stretching it a bit but 100% of your internal site search terms should probably be on your SEO keyword list and likely a part of your Paid Search campaigns. If people are coming to your site and looking for stuff (and you have it) then there is no better signal to grow your keyword list.
In my case that is 20,217 keywords I can quickly add to my Bing/Baidu/Yandex search campaigns and start measuring performance. My additions will be geo targeted by which keywords on my site were searched for from each country!
10. E2E Paid Search Report.
I tried really hard to keep this to just standard reports, but I had to squeeze in one "standard" custom report. It comes from my recent post Google Analytics Custom Reports: Paid Search Campaigns Analysis .
The report shows the end to end view of your search campaign performance.
Additionally it has pre-built drilldowns (below) that allow you to navigate this performance in context of your AdWords account structure.
There is a lot more you can do in terms of AdWords Analytics, most of your starting points sit in the above report. Hence it is my standard AdWords report, even if it is a custom report. Download: E2E Paid Search Report.
That's it. Ten standard reports that high insights in plain sight. And a bonus five custom reports to allow you to truly bring out your inner Analysis Ninja!
If you are able to master the standard set, you'll be above average when it comes to understanding site performance. Better still, you'll be able to identify a robust set of actions that will please the toughest CEO and over a period of time earn you a glory and a higher salary.
Now that's something worthwhile to shoot for in 2013!
As always, it is your turn now.
Are these standard reports a part of your current Analysis Ninja arsenal? Do you have a favorite standard report that is not listed above? If yes, what is amazing about it? If you use these reports already, are these the types of insights you seek? Are there other hidden insights gems that I might have overlooked above? Got a omg this is my secret weapon custom report you want to share with us?
Please share your insights, questions, favorite reports, and feedback via comments below.
Thanks, and good luck!
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