Getting To Know Google Analytics
Go to https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/
Click ‘Start measuring’
It will take you through a series of prompts to install Google Analytics, you will need a Gmail hosted email address. It is easy to install and gives you access to so much incredible data! You can drill down on information that is not included in your website dashboard reporting, and some of this data is crucial for measuring and improving website conversions.
Websites should convert between 1 and 5%, we say that 3% is acceptable. This means that for every 1000 users you send, you should aim for 30 sales. Work backwards from what that looks like from a revenue perspective and that should motivate you to run the test and see what is achievable for your website.
For our larger clients, they often get thousands of visitors just from organic sources (free traffic)! While we have a strong focus on social media, monitoring analytics helps you ensure traffic from all sources contributes to a healthy amount of website activity.
Clients should add Google Analytics to their phones so they can monitor these stats on a daily or weekly basis to increase the overall monthly numbers.
Measure the traffic source. There will be a few sources on the list, paid social, paid ads (AdWords), organic search, direct, email etc. By looking at the flow of traffic from each source you can make a hit list of ways to boost each of those sources. If a website has consistent conversions, then an increase in traffic will result in more sales. Over time, you will understand how to move the dial on each of these traffic sources, here are a few starting points:
- If you want to boost direct traffic, then put your link in your stories for 30 days and watch the stats.
- If you want to boost organic search, go through and rename your images and start adding more fresh blog content. Name your blogs after things and information people are searching for in relation to your product or service. Please keep in mind that organic search improvements tend to take a few weeks take effect with Google.
- If you want to boost organic social, start posting more content on your feed and giving people more reasons to head over to your website. Organic Social increases are most easily achieved through Facebook because it allows you to include a clickable link within the text whereas with Instagram users need to take a few extra steps.
- If you want to drive more traffic from emails, you can include more calls to action (and less long form text), and more buttons. Give people a reason to visit your website from the email. If you don't send marketing emails and you're wondering which platform will suit you, read our information about our top 3 recommended platforms here.
- LinkedIn is also a great source of traffic, particularly for business to business sales or for anyone interested in lead generation.
- TikTok, Reddit, and Google AdWords are all ways you can send more traffic to your website, although these three traffic sources are not or main jam (I won't bore you with the reasons here but always happy to have a conversation around why with anyone who is wondering!!)
Looking at the total traffic numbers can be exciting, especially when the numbers are green, but by diving into the sources, we can help you dial up the traffic and use the data to create your schedule of planned marketing activities.
Time on site: The other important information we look at is how long people are spending on the pages, and where people spend the most time. This gives us a list of pages to review and understand why some perform better than others and how to improve other pages accordingly. Again, taking a look at time on pages rather than just a general look at time on site will help you identify opportunities for improvement.
Measure the journey from your homepage or landing pages to your product page or lead form, then measure how many people add to cart, and how many end up checking out.
Divide the total sales (or leads) by:
- The number of total users
- The number of people who view the products (or lead form)
- The number of people who add to cart
- The number of people who check out (or complete lead form)
When you have a percentage for how this journey is performing you can identify the best place to send people to. For example, if you know you have a very low conversion from homepage to product page, but you know you have a high conversion from product page to add to cart, you can send more people from emails, posts and stories to your product page. If the rate of conversion remains consistent, this will mean more sales. You also have to consider your messaging and call to action in relation to the content that sends a user direct to your product page because you want to make sure they have a good understanding of your product, or more importantly your product benefits, before clicking the link.
If you measure this month on month, you will pick up trends that allow you to optimise your website and your messaging for improved sales.
This information is taken from our Revenue Rocket Pack where we explain step by step how to execute this Google Report and provide examples of the data you will be looking at so you can understand how to better determine the results.
Google Analytics is an incredible tool, my passion for marketing definitely started in the creative space but as I have learned to understand this tool more and more, it has helped me refine the messaging, and reduce the work needed to drive high quality, engaged traffic to our client websites (and our own).
If you would like some help to understand this better, get in touch with our team, or get yourself a copy of our Revenue Rocket Pack and take a look inside your highly valuable (but free) data!
