Measuring Success with Google Analytics - which traffic sources are more likely to convert?

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Sponsor

www.CreativeTechnology.org


Provided venue FREE for last month and this month too. Until mid March, when they open W2 Woodwards.

http://www.CreativeTechnology.org

http://www.CreativeTechnology.org

Wireless internet

SSID: W2 StoryeumPass: 6046444349


Things you should know

• My name’s Eli. I’m your volunteer organizer

• Washrooms are over there!

• Sign-up at NetTuesday.ca for updates


What is Net Tuesday?

• Net Tuesday is an initiative of TechSoup

• Monthly meetups for nonprofits and their allies in technology, marketing and communications.


A global network of volunteers


85+ monthly meetups

Goal conversion with Google Analytics


Nerd times!


So, you think the topic is boring? OR....


TERRIFYING!

Let’s be data nerds



Our time is precious. Let’s not waste it by investing our time in the wrong strategies. Only have enough time to deal with two marketing/communications channels? This case study should help you figure our which channel brings you the most value.

The experiment


http://action.davidsuzuki.org/C-311


A standard petition.

Protesting the Senate’s veto-ing of Bill C-311 The Climate Change Accountability Act. The Act would have made government accountable for putting in place the solutions to reduce global warming emissions to safe levels – in line with targets that leading scientists say are necessary to avoid the devastating consequences of uncontrolled climate change.



Share-with-a-friend


The secret sauce to any petition is the share feature.It’s the core of list growth for many organizations.


Share on FB and Twitter, plus an email form.


And now we REALLY get into data nerdiness

Glaven!



WHAT WE’RE MEASURING: what % of visitors to the action alert landing page completed the form and sent an email to the Prime Minister.

NOTE: I didn’t track Twitter with a tracking URL, so I only see traffic generated by people using the website. Tweetdeck, Twitterific and other applications don’t show up. I also did not track the share-with-a-friend-by -email link.

Lots of data


But what does it mean? Sometimes we have to make educated guesses.And the data is NEVER 100% accurate. It’s mostly useful as a rough measurement and for comparing changes vs. real numbers. Ie.) When Google Analytics says you have 100,000 visitors it’s lying, but you can trust it if it sez your traffic has gone up or down 10%. Relative measures vs. hard numbers.

So we know our conversion rates on

Action.Davidsuzuki.org...


But what’s our conversion rate going back one more step to the source website or

email?


Source List/audience size # of links clicked % click thru TO form landing page

# of petitions signed via form

Form % conversion Notes

Facebook.com

Direct - inc. email shares and Twitter apps

Action alert email

Reddit.com

DavidSuzuk.org homepage

Defi Nature email

Climate blog (Morag)

Twitter

Science Matters email

110,000 plus shares

15,155 ? 6,365 42%No way to track which came via DSF facebook and which came via other shares

?? 12,401 ? 2,480 20%Most of this probably comes from the share with a friend link.

32,000 8,395 26% 5,070 60%Sent to ppl who had completed an action in the past

? 3,206 ? 762 24% A surprise!

18,084 1,966 10% 255 13% Views of homepage over two week period

5,000 501 10% 343 69%Launched several days after the English. Issue starting to cool. Not an advocacy-only list.

1,000 416 41% 172 41% Added link mid day on Nov 19. Top of page

?? 364 ?? 92 25%Most Twitter traffic was lost. Probably in "Direct"

14,000 292 2% 146 50% One of many links in email

Recipient click-thru rates and conversion rates


What can we learn from all this?

+ Email tends to have a higher conversion rate than web traffic. Use it! BUT, emails with several links don’t drive clicks (see Science Matters)

+ Facebook is now the largest driver of traffic to the advocacy pages, and may actually convert at a higher rate than our general email list.

+DSF homepage drove traffic, but converted very badly. General audience hard to target


Ouch!Let’s wash out brains off after all that hard work.

So, how do you track a campaign like this?


Two steps

1. Setup task-completed Goals

2. Tag your URLS


Goals


Go into your Google Analytics Settings and add a new goal.You need to have a separate URL for each step and can’t leave your domain.

Google Help: How to setup goals and funnels. http://goo.gl/bbWoz


Stay with me! We’re almost there!

Tagging your links

URL-builder: http://goo.gl/v4vQk


http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578

http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578

Action.DavidSuzuki.orgto

http://Action.DavidSuzuki.org/?utm_source=Science-Matters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=C311


The tagged URL is gibberish!But you don’t need to create these manually.





Google campaign URL builder


URL-builder: http://goo.gl/v4vQk


And you’re done!

Group buying and deals

Wednesday, December 8, 2010You’ve probably heard about Groupon, the daily deal site that offers discounts if a minimum number of purchase commitments are made. They’ve already got 18 million subscribers and are continuing to grow rapidly. But did you know that Groupon evolved out of the social-change focused online community The Point?

• How can nonprofits and social entrepreneurs make use of Groupon and Groupon-like sites? • What’s the best way to structure the deal? • Is it right for you and your organization?

The Panel

• Annalea Krebs, Founder and CEO of ethicalDeal

• Chris Mathieson, Executive Director of the Vancouver Police Museum

Wednesday, December 8, 2010Join panelists Annalea Krebs of ethicalDeal and Chris Mathieson of the Vancouver Police Museum as they share their experiences from both the business and client sides of the relationship.

ethicalDeal launched a daily deal with the David Suzuki Foundation this morning. (Tuesday, December 7)

Annalea Krebs is a passionate social entrepreneur whose vision and energy to build a brighter, more sustainable future inspires those around her. She believes that business can be a powerful force for change, and loves companies that are built to make the world better. For Annalea, ethicalDeal is an opportunity to introduce more people to sustainable businesses, products & services.

Chris Mathieson is the Executive Director of the Vancouver Police Museum, a self-funded charity that has seen incredible growth (from 3000 to 25,000 visitors a year) over the last five years, partly by being unafraid to take small risks in social media and other emerging technologies.

A few additional notes from Chris:

“- We’ve offered two Groupons since they launched in the Vancouver, one for museum admission and one for our “Sins of the City” walking tour. Both offers were very carefully crafted to benefit us while minimizing our risks, something some companies don’t seem to be doing. Both were significant successes for us, but only because we were thoughtful about what we were doing. (We hope…)”

30 second updates!


Next event

Tuesday, February 1

W2 Storyeum

TOPICShould your nonprofit be selling merchandise online?


socialmediaunplugged.ca


I’ll be presenting at Social Media Marketing Unplugged in January.Before & Up to Dec 20: $159

http://www.socialmediaunplugged.ca

http://www.socialmediaunplugged.ca

Self Improvement

Measuring Success with Google Analytics - which traffic sources are more likely to convert?