Tracking Content Goals With Google AnalyticsPresented by: Keidra Chaney
What I’ll Cover
• Setting business objectives• Content goals• Tools in Google Analytics
About me
• Started as web content manager, knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP• Trained through books, courses
and experience.• Became a web analytics evangelist
(and nag) at my workplace.• Started consulting on analytics
and website optimization
Has this happened to you?
Hey, our client wants metrics on
the new microsite
Sure thing!
Hey, so…. What does
this spreadsheet
mean?
Well…We got 2,000 visits
Is that good or bad?
???
Top Down or Bottom Up Approach to measurement?• Top Down: Starting with defined set of goals and a selected
group of relevant metrics• Bottom Up: Starting without a defined set of goals
GO TOP DOWN!
Don’t jump in to Google Analytics without a measurement plan for your content! A
measurement plan provides context for data and makes using Google Analytics a LOT easier.
Step 1: Define the business objectives of your digital content
• They help align your digital content goals and your overall business goals
• Help leaders and content owners creators understand the value of content
Examples of digital content business objectives
• Increase brand awareness on social media • Improve customer service for customers• Enhance print communication materials
Continue with content goals• Web content goals demonstrate user action• Think of outcomes (downloads, comments, form
completion) not metrics (visits, pageviews, etc.)• DON’T JUMP THE GUN!
WEB/CONTENT ACTION GOAL
Home Page Sign up for newsletter
Collecting contact
information
Blog Reading an article
Increased readership
Video Video view Customer engagement
Content goals
Then think measurement!• What success metrics fit best with your content goals?
GOAL METRIC
Collecting contact
information# of newsletter
signups
Increased readership
Average time on site
Customer engagement # of video views
Is it the *right* success metric?
• Does it show results? Can you use it to show definitive ROI on your efforts? Does it show that it’s helping you sell widgets, create awareness? Increase registrations?• Does it give insight? Can you learn more about your
users, the effectiveness of your content/campaign by looking at it?
• Is it actionable? Can you look at it and take some kind of immediate action to make things better?
• Can you benchmark it? Can you look at data month or month/week or week and see trends?
Goal Tracking In Google Analytics
Over Here!
Goal Tracking In Google Analytics
Track multiple user actions and $ value
Goal Tracking In Google Analytics
Here!
Here!Click “goals”
Then “create a goal”
Goal Types in Google Analytics
• Destination goals (ex. thank you page for newsletter signup form)
• Duration goals (ex. average time on website)• Event goals (ex. video views)
Dunno how to set up events? Go here:http://gaconfig.com/google-analytics-
event-tracking/
Goal Types in Google Analytics
How do you track success? Trends!
Look at trends to benchmark your average traffic and use that as the standard to beat.
Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec2,700
2,800
2,900
3,000
3,100
3,200
3,300
3,400
3,500
Visits
Visits
If your unique visitor count increases 5% month
over month, that’s your benchmark
Annotations: Provide context to trends
Click this!
Goal Flow
Click this!
View visitor funnel patterns by multiple
dimensions – where do visitors drop off?
Segmentation
• Trends in aggregate may hide actual insights.
• Look at segmented traffic to compare traffic from different audiences.
• Segmentation allows you to give context to your data by focusing on a specific slice
of your audience or audience behavior.
Segmentation
Takeaways
• Identify business objectives• Identify content goals• Match appropriate metrics to goals• Set up tracking in Google Analytics• Benchmark and segment
Don’t jump in to Google Analytics without a measurement plan for your
content!
A measurement plan provides context for data and makes using Google
Analytics a LOT easier.
Tools and Resources
Google Analytics Education (Videos and more):goo.gl/mGpDG
Google Analytics Support:goo.gl/dKOkS
Google Analytics Blog:goo.gl/fQDWC
Google Analytics Reporting Tools (Excel Plugins and more):goo.gl/zzA66
Google Analytics URL Builder:goo.gl/MB6zX