We can think of Google Analytics in media buying as the industry standard for tracking, analyzing, and reporting site data. Just as a runner measures their personal best times of each race, Google Analytics Reporting provides personal bests (and worsts) for your website. Each month (or week, even day, if you prefer), it is essential to use this tool to help you measure site traffic, SEO, engagement, return on ad spend, revenue, and social media channel activity. This information, in turn, will assist you in creating an action plan for page enhancement and ways to improve user experience.
This reporting tool allows you to identify the type of referral traffic you receive and where the traffic is being referred (By State, By City, etc.).
To get started, create a Google Analytics login and connect with the website you wish to monitor.
Once your page is loaded, turn on search tracking and set goals for the page.
Google Analytics Academy offers free tutorials and training courses so that you can make the most out of your Google Analytics account. Classes range from fundamentals and e-commerce analysis to search engine optimization.
Report dashboards are customizable and can automatically be sent to your inbox weekly or monthly.
Here are some of the (MANY!) Google Analytics Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you may find helpful include:
- Type of Sources – Generate this report to segment specific source traffic such as Search Engines, Direct, E-mail., etc.
- Conversion Rate – How many visitors converted into desired actions.
- Goals Conversion Rate – Specifies how many visitors reached one of the goals that you set up.
- New vs. Returning Visitor – Provides insight into the loyalty of your audience and how many returning visitors you have.
- Bounce Rate & Time on Site – Found in the Visitor section
- Transactions distributing per Country – Insight on the transaction distribution based on country/territory.
If you’re already running ads (Google AdWords, PPC, Social, DV360) on the web, Google Analytics allows you to tag campaigns and track conversion outcomes to see which ones perform best.
If you’re our client, you know our campaign reporting and analytics tracking are integral to our marketing optimization process. If you’re not our client, why not? Give us a call today!
NOTE: The free Google Analytics platform is a sampling of data and is not a complete representation of a website’s traffic. However, it provides directionality for teams to build solutions and campaigns; you can’t beat the price. It’s free!
A Guest Blog about Google Analytics in media buying from Huffington Post Writer Angela Schonberg. Thanks, Angela!
