Introduction
As an organization, you would definitely like to track and analyze your performance. However, the thought of doing it all manually can seem painfully tiring. Here’s where Google Analytics jumps in to help you.
Google, being the most popular and effective search engine makes itself suitable for online advertising and online marketing.
Keeping that fact in mind, it’s a no-brainer to choose Google for business advertising.
Let me guess what brought you here, you read our previous blog on How to Set-up your Own Google Ads Campaign for your business and decided to run your very own ad campaign on Google.
On second thoughts, that might not even be the case.
But I’m not going to discriminate between you all. Although, I would recommend some basic knowledge on Google Ads to intensify your ads on Google.
Here’s a fair warning, the content will get more and more technical as you scroll down. Google Analytics can seem complicated. But it’s easy once you get the hang of it. So let’s make sure all your attention is here for the next 15-20 minutes.
In this blog, you will be learning:-
- What is Google Analytics
- How to Set up Google Analytics
- A Few Terms to Remember While Setting up Analytics
- Google Analytics Report
Hop on, we have a long way to go.
What is Google Analytics?
Let me answer the key question that brought you here.
Google Analytics is both a free and paid platform that helps you track the performance of your website and app performance. It gives you clear-cut information on how your business is thriving amongst your audience.
I get it, you’re a little confused with the free and paid part.
Google Analytics (Free Version) is mostly used by small and mid-size businesses. The free version by itself comes with a bunch of features that will be satisfactory.
However, if your business is a large enterprise or organization, you can opt for the paid version which is called – Google Analytics 360. You get additional features such as Roll-up Reporting and your very own Campaign Manager.
The cost for this subscription can be over $100,000 per year. So consider using this only if you’re able to afford this sum.
To be honest, the free version works just fine.
I hope this answers your question and highlights the importance of Google Analytics.
It’s time to head to the next part now.
How to Set up Google Analytics?
These steps are brought to you directly from Google, so you can just begin with no doubts.
To start collecting basic data from a website:
- Create or sign in to your Analytics account:
-Go to google.com/analytics
-Do one of the following:
-To create an account, click ‘Measuring’.
-To sign in to your account, Click Sign in to Analytics.
- Set up a property in your Analytics account. A property represents your website or app and is the collection point in Analytics for the data from your site or app.
- Set up a reporting view on your property. Views let you create filtered perspectives of your data; for example, all data except your company’s internal IP addresses, or all data associated with a specific sales region.
- Follow the instructions to add the tracking code to your website so you can collect data in your Analytics property.
That’s pretty much it! Setting up Google Analytics takes only 4 steps. Before you ask, a Tracking code is a unique id that you will get which will help Google in identifying your website.
But it’s exactly at this point that things cease to be this simple. All the steps to be taken further are pretty complex and require deep understanding.
There’s no need to be intimidated now. I mean, come on. The sole reason I’m here is to make the complications a stroll in the park for you.
A Few Terms to Remember While Setting Up Analytics
Google Analytics Hierarchy
Google allows you to pick the nature of your business for more specific analytics and insights.
Let me compare this to a delicious chocolate chip cake. Are you picturing it?
Every cake has layers. Similarly, Google Analytics has layers too, and they are:-
- Organization – It represents a company, organization, or enterprise. I would recommend using this feature for big businesses.
- Accounts – This is the existing Google Account that belongs to you. Note that there can be multiple users from one account.
- Property – This is the website or app that belongs to your business. Google allows you to attach more than 40 properties to your analytics page.
- View- This feature helps you to restore your property. You need a minimum of two views. The information will be obtained only after you enter the necessary filters you’re willing to track.
Google Analytics Metrics and Dimensions
The purpose of Google Analytics Metrics and Dimensions is one that can come in very handy.
The feature allows you to track or customize data that varies from demographics to user data.
To make it more clear, the Dimensions feature will help you track the user’s Browser, Device, Location, and other such qualitative data. Picking this option will give you a clear picture of where your users are from and what is their net surfacing method.
Using this data, you can modify your website to get better rankings. It’s like having your answers printed on a huge A-3 sheet and displaying it in front of your desk during an important exam.
The metrics feature on the other hand will help you track Session Duration, Conversions, Bounce Rates, and Page Views.
Learn how metrics can track events on GA to get information with more precision.
In simple words, the Dimensions feature will track qualitative data while the Metrics feature will help you track quantitative data.
Told you it would get technical didn’t I?
Google Analytics Segment
The analytics segment is somewhat similar to Metrics and dimensions. However, it’s not entirely the same.
The Google Analytics Segment feature allows you to create segments in which you can sort out your users.
The options under this feature are:-
- Users – Customers who have made a purchase or clicked on a CTA(Call to Action) button on your website or app.
- Sessions – This is almost a synonym for Engagement or Impression. It categorizes people who have engaged with your ad campaign on Google.
- Hits – Selects people who have made a purchase above a set price limit.
You can also get more specific with this segmentation. You could pick users who have purchased a specific product or clicked on a specific web page on your website.
Yes, Google is full of magic.
You thought this would be the end, didn’t you? I’m sorry to break your bubble but we’re just getting started.
Goals on Google Analytics
Businesses of any kid will all have one similarity, they all have set out to achieve certain goals and milestones. GA makes the process of setting and achieving goals much easier.
You can use parameters like downloads, purchases to session time, and page visits as your goals.
Setting up Goals on GA can prove to be extremely rewarding.
Google Analytics Report
As the name suggests, the purpose of the Google Analytics Report is to give you a detailed script of how your website is functioning.
Some time ago, we read about Google Analytics Segment, didn’t we? You can add four of those segments to these reports for more specific data.
There are 5 different types of Google Analytics Report available, they are:-
- Real-Time
- Audience
- Acquisition
- Behavior
- Conversions
Google Analytics Real-Time Report
This can be considered one of the simplest reports to work with. You might think it’s not of much value since it’s not as complex as the other reports.
But that’s not the case here. The features of Real-Time Report on Google Analytics will actually be of good help.
You can check the number of visitors on your website and the specific web page they’re going through at the moment. You can figure out how they found out about your site and where they are from.
Lastly, you can also check the effectiveness of your recently created post or Advertisement on Google or on Google Display Network,
If you’re impressed by these features, I’m sure the other Reports on Google Analytics will blow your mind.
Google Analytics Audience Report
Well, I don’t want to seem condescending. I’m sure you understand what Google means by Audience Report. You’ll definitely know the meaning of “Audience”.
But do you realize what you’re not aware of? All of the features that the Audience Report presents itself with.
Apart from the regular ones like Age, Gender, Location, Device, Browser, and so on, Audience Report on Google Analytics offers features that dive deeper into understanding your Audience.
You can target and learn about your audience with precision now.
Let me explain a few features to you now.
Active Users
The Active Users feature segregates your Audience into different parts according to when they visited your website or app.
For example, you’ll know who and how many people visited yesterday, in the past week, and in the past month.
This feature will assist in finding out if people use your service rarely or often. You will see the same users often if they often visit your page. This means your business is going as desired.
If not, you can retarget those people and gain more engagement, so use it wisely.
Lifetime Value
As a business, you would have decided to Advertise on Google. As you all know, there is not just one way of advertising. You might have chosen YouTube and Display Network.
One of them might be fetching the results you want to see and the other might fail to live up to your expectations.
The Lifetime Value feature under Audience Feature tells you which form of advertising you picked is doing well.
This way, you can improve the underperforming one and maintain the good one.
Google Analytics Acquisition Report
As the name suggests, the Acquisition Report on Google Analytics gives you a report on how people came to your website or what brought them there.
Still vague? It’s nothing but the source of introduction to your website.
Google Analytics will have these on your display as the source:-
- Organic
- Referral
- Social
- Paid Search
- Display
Google Analytics Behavior Report
This feature will probably be the most helpful and informative one. It gives you a crystal clear report on many aspects of your website performance.
I’ll cover them over here for you.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Site Content
This feature gives you a thoroughly examined report on all content that’s on your website.
All Pages
This feature will show you the page that has the most views within a stipulated period of time. You will find out which page attracts the most customers or which page witnesses the most engagement.
Landing Page
The report will tell you where most of your users first interact with your website. Don’t get yourself confused with the Acquisition Report.
While the Acquisition Report only gives you the source, the Landing Page feature under Behavior Report will tell you which web page from your website appeared first to your viewers.
Exit Page
This feature tells you about the last web page used by users in your domain. This could be good and bad news for you.
If the most common Exit Page from your website is the one where users check out after purchase, it’s a sign that your website is doing great.
But, what if the exit page is somewhere else? Well, it means there’s room for improvement.
Site Speed
Even if your product or service is top-grade, people might leave your website if it takes time to load.
You must understand that your target audience on Google has limited time. Keeping this in mind, cater to their needs.
Understanding your site speed will improve the chances of sales.
Site Search
Having a search bar that’s denoted by a magnifying glass icon will be very efficient for your prospects or potential customers.
If they already are aware of your business and quickly want to navigate to a specific web page in your domain, this tool will be of good help.
The Site Search feature on Behavior Report will tell you the most searched webpage, keywords, and much more that will help you steer your boat in the right direction
Google Analytics Conversion Report
This is the final and very useful report offered by Google Analytics.
As a business, any business for that matter, your goal is to increase your conversions. But how do you actually know if you’re running successfully?
To track these objectives, Google Analytics has four main types of goals.
- Destination
- Event
- Duration
- Pages/Screens per session
Destination
This goal is considered to be achieved when a potential customer ends up on a specific page. This could be the checkout page in most cases.
Event
This goal is fulfilled when a user performs a specific action that you want. It could be sharing the post to their friends on social media or giving you a testimony or even a product review.
Duration
When your customers spend more time than a stipulated period, this goal is fulfilled.
Pages/Screens per Session
If the viewers view more than a specific number of pages, this goal is achieved.
Conclusion
That brings us to the end of this blog.
I hope you found all the information that you needed to take your business right where it deserves to be. To further enhance your performance on the internet, Google offers a plethora of tools like Google My Business, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console, and Google Keywords Planner.
We at DigitalVillage.in, offer a variety of services for your business, visit our website to know more. You might show up on our website’s analytics. Yes, that was a joke.
Have a good day!