Menu

Digital Analytics

See “Green” with Google Analytics

by Leave a Comment

Google Analytics (GA) is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales. GA can track visitors from all sources, including search engines, social networks, direct visits, and referring sites. GA offers an incredible amount of insight into your website’s visitor activity. In fact, many people who use GA don’t fully utilize all the functionality within it. Here are a few ways you can use GA to grow sales and increase return on investment (ROI).

Utilize Customer Segments

One way you can use GA to be more effective is to utilize customer segments. This will help you gain better insights on the different segments for better marketing while helping you save more money and increase your overall ROI. For example, maybe you want to see the percentage at which mobile vs. non-mobile visitors convert between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Or, maybe you want to see how organic search visitors compare to paid search visitors. It is easier to compare and contrast different groups when you can see them side-by-side.

Pay Attention to Your Mobile Users

iPhones and iPads and Droids….Oh my! As technology has continued to advance, the days of visitors strictly coming to a website via their desktop are long gone. More and more visitors today are coming from some sort of mobile device. Do you have a significant portion of visitors coming from a mobile device? If so, are they using smartphones or tablets? Do they convert as well as non-mobile users? These are just some of the questions you will be able to answer by utilizing GA. Something as simple as just adding a mobile theme can be helpful, but proactively and regularly addressing problem areas can incrementally improve conversion rates over time.

Set-Up Event Tracking

Event tracking allows you to see all kinds of interesting moments that do not end up at a thank you or confirmation page with its own URL.  For example, if you know that people who download a white paper are three times more likely to convert, you can adjust your promotions and more prominently feature your white papers on your site. Understanding what information prospects are seeking & clicking will significantly help you when it comes to optimizing the user experience.

Create and Use Custom Reports

By taking advantage of custom reporting you have the ability to create, save, and edit to get a specific view of your data. Jumping back and forth between several reports to see data that you might think would be visible within a single report can be frustrating and stressful. GA’s custom reporting can help you to alleviate some of that stress. Creating custom reports is quick and easy, and it will help you save time and money while making it easier to share with decision makers.

Determine the Source of Traffic

Determining from where and why people are coming to your site in the first place is invaluable information. Referrals may be one of the ways people are getting to your site. You could be surprised at the amount of traffic you are getting from a few websites. Search could be another way you are receiving traffic. If Search drives a significant portion of your data, keyword reports are an invaluable source of data. Campaigns are yet another way people could be arriving at your site. If you’ve been properly tagging your outbound emails, paid search efforts, etc., they will show up here. This will give you a quick place to compare all campaigns against each other. It is extremely important to identify the sources & mediums that are sending the most relevant traffic. In other words, know which prospects are converting the most.

Conclusion

GA can be an extremely useful tool when it comes to tracking your visitor activity and using the data gathered to help increase conversions. The ideas mentioned above are only a few of the ways you can benefit from utilizing GA to its full potential. There are many other ways that GA can help you to increase conversions and improve ROI.
To learn more about how GA can help you increase conversions and improve ROI, please comment below or call us at 610-743-5602.

Why Better Measurement Leads to New Memberships

by Leave a Comment

The financial services environment has always been competitive, but with today’s economic climate, prospects are more wary than ever. They are hesitant to spend and invest, and hunt for the best interest rates and terms for lines of credit. Traditional banks and credit unions are now engaging in marketing battles to win these prospects over. Credit unions in particular have seen a spike in visibility and interest as prospects grow more wary of big box, traditional banks.

Lack of Measurement = Missed Opportunities

Credit unions (big and small) are now candidates in the eyes of prospects. As such, they are pitted against the larger chain banks for accounts, investments, and lending. Since credit unions tend to lack the virtually-bottomless marketing budgets that the chains do, they have to ensure that they are getting the greatest return-on-investment for their offerings and tactics. Herein lies the problem: these institutions lack visibility into the effectiveness of dated and untested marketing methods. If any measurement is taking place, it is often in a vacuum with an extreme disconnect between traditional and digital methods. The disconnect between the two marketing realms leads to inaccurate attribution.

This is not to say that any of these traditional tactics are worthless – there were surely additional revenues brought in via those billboards and banner ads. Financial institutions have been running some of those traditional methods for years, so there’s often a level of efficiency that comes with that level of experience. However, as Peter Drucker (business guru and philosopher) would say, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Those banner ads and billboard campaigns might be as optimized as they could possibly be – but are they generating enough incremental business? Are they right for your institution?

Marketing to the Beat of the Analytics Drum

So we’ve established that there is a problem with using dated and untested methods to measure marketing (or a total lack thereof). How can we alleviate this? By developing a solid measurement strategy across the marketing board. This will enable your institution to market based on solid analytical insights, not just on what your competitor across the street is doing. How do you even know what they’re doing is right?

I will not lie: developing a good measurement strategy is not easy. It requires cooperation of everyone on your team; from marketing to IT. It will also cost time and resources, so buy-in from the decision-makers will need to be secured. It should be an easy sell, however. Ensure that they understand the impact of measurable results tied to ROI and how they can be used to increase memberships and improve marketing effectiveness.

Following the prospective member journey from start to finish (regardless of marketing channel!) leads to an unprecedented level of attribution and ROI analysis.

The insights gathered will not only allow for leaner, more efficient marketing tactics (i.e. less money spent with more targeted results), but they will also lead to improved member and customer relations. The user experience can be optimized through the entire process, from marketing and beyond.

Are you a credit union marketer with some marketing challenges? Leave a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter or Google+ and we’ll be happy to answer your questions!

5 Things you Need to Know about Google Universal Analytics

by Leave a Comment

Google Analytics has recently expanded its Universal Analytics into a public beta. In 2012, Google Analytics expanded their analytics offerings to include Google Analytics Premium and Mobile App Analytics to help analysts manage all their diverse data sources. With the increasing use of “Big Data,” attribution modeling, and predictive analytics, we need more efficient methods to collect and integrate the data. Below are the 5 ways that Google Universal Analytics will help you do just that:

Data in Sync

Universal Analytics provides you with an opportunity to sync online and offline data for better analysis. You can run correlation analyses to see whether there is a relationship between the data (online & offline) and sales growth. Note: Always remember that correlation doesn’t imply causation!

Customization

You can track more than just your website, which provides an opportunity to collect and send data from just about any digital device with JavaScript, SDKs for apps, or Measurement Protocols. This should lead to more customization at the client level as well as more streamlined data for data visualization solutions.

Custom Dimensions & Metrics

You can create your own dimensions and metrics specific to your industry for better insights. Adobe SiteCatalyst’s calculated metrics & report builder were the first features that came to mind when I read about this. I would assume that the custom metrics are based on existing metrics within Google Analytics. The question is whether or not it will deliver with the same simplicity as Adobe SiteCatalyst V15. We’ll let you know the results of our internal testing soon!

The Latest & Greatest Features

Get access to new features as soon as they’re released. As we all know, analytics isn’t going away, so new features, functionality, and integration possibilities will continue to evolve as the needs of businesses change. If you’re using GA, I would recommend testing the Universal Analytics functionality to weigh the risks vs. rewards as well as your long-term organizational goals. Make sure you communicate any possible changes to your data and reporting.

Integration!

You can implement Universal Analytics with Google Tag Manager, simplifying the process while still using custom metrics. It will be interesting to see what impact this change has on other solutions that are already associated with the “classic” version of Google Analytics, such as SEOmoz and HootSuite.

Are you as excited as we are for all the possibilities that Universal Analytics will bring? Let us know in the comments below!

VIDEO: Discover Marketing ROI using Google Analytics

by Leave a Comment

Marketing can be one of the most fun and exciting fields to work in, but sometimes there’s those times when a campaign doesn’t seem to yield any incremental business. A real buzz kill, to say the least. This might be an indication that the campaign was a wash, however there’s still a chance that it may have had more of a positive impact on your bottom line than you may have thought.

Our lead Web Analyst Brandon Wensing’s latest video demonstrates how you can improve the measurement of those marketing tactics to allow for better insights on ROI. Focusing on the multiple touch points that your customers have with your website can shine more light on campaigns and mediums that you may have written off before simply because they weren’t leading directly to purchases or conversions in the same session.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more updates and tips like this for improving your marketing effectiveness!

Post Smarter on Social: Leverage Social Reports in Google Analytics

by 1 Comment

It’s no surprise that more organizations than ever are allocating additional time and resources to establishing a solid presence in social media. Strategies are cooked up by marketing and brand managers. Page designs, cover photos, and icons are designed with care. Facebook and Twitter badges are placed on marketing pieces and business cards. As a member of a team of digital marketers and analysts, this is a glorious thing to behold. But (there’s always a ‘but’), how effective are these strategies? Is there room for improvements? Are these organizations really connecting with the right customer segments, or are they just shouting in a room full of the wrong people? These are just a few of many questions that Google Analytics Social reporting can help answer.

These reports can be found under Traffic Sources and range from Referral data to landing pages, Trackbacks, Conversions, and more.

These social reports can shine light on a wide array of facets of your social media presence, including referrals, social plugins (Likes, +1’s, etc.), social conversions (online purchases, submissions, or requests performed by social visitors), as well as the flow and paths of social media traffic into your website. Let’s take a look at three of these reports and features a little closer and see how they can be leveraged to bolster the effectiveness of your social media assets.

So, Where Are You From? – Network Referrals

One of the more fundamental reports available in the Google Analytics social section, the Network Referral report, is very similar to the main Traffic Sources report we’ve all come to know and love in the past. Much of this referral data was available within Google Analytics for some time, however in the past we had to perform some manual slicing and dicing to get a clear picture of social media traffic. This report does much of that manual labor for us, shining light onto what social media assets are actually referring visitors to your web properties. Since this is essentially a modified derivative of the original Traffic Sources report, you also have access to advanced filters and regex functionality.

See what social platforms are sending the most traffic to your site – and see how relevant they find your content!

What Google Analytics report would be complete without some drill-down functionality? There are some juicy insights beyond just the names of the social media websites that referred traffic. Clicking on the various network names drills down to reveal what URLs on your website were shared and how many visitors landed on each. This is where you can really turn insights into tactics: Leverage the information here to determine what social posts and links are being deemed relevant to your target audience. If they’re clicking on the links and getting to the site but aren’t spending enough time on the page to do much of anything, there’s a good chance that there’s a disconnect between the post’s message and the content on the shared page.

Thanks For Sharing! – Trackbacks

A crucial element in establishing a solid foundation on any social media platform is to secure advocates of your brand or product. One very powerful way of leveraging this is getting these advocates to talk about you! In today’s world this can take the form of social posts or even blogs. With the Trackback report in Google Analytics, you can see exactly where some of these kinds of social referrals are coming from. Just last month we found a very interesting tidbit for one of our financial services clients using the Trackback report. A prominent travel blogger recently posted a very in-depth evaluation and review of their global credit card that detailed his experiences using the card abroad. Not only was this critique extremely useful for optimizing their product; but it also expanded their brand and product visibility to a significant and extremely targeted audience. Overall, this is not a report to be ignored! Trackbacks may come and go depending on the size and volume of your website, but every now and then there might be a hidden gem worth taking a look at.

Thank You, Come Again! – Conversions

It’s great to know how many visitors reached your site from Facebook versus Twitter, what pages they landed on, or who’s talking about you; but how do you know that your social marketing is really effective? By using the Social Conversions report, of course!

Whether we like it or not, marketing always comes down to Return on Investment. Since social media is one of those weird areas where the emphasis is more on customer relations than sales, it can be a bit tricky to directly tie social media success back to ROI. So whether you’re leveraging social media for sales, customer relations, or both, you can gain much greater visibility into the end result using the Social Conversions report in Google Analytics. This report provides a look at whether or not your social traffic is performing the conversions you’ve set up in Google Analytics. If you’re leaning more towards using social media as a customer relations tool but still want to see if all of that hard work is leading to increased long-term sales, you can employ the use of the utm_nooverride parameter on your shared URLs to ensure that the first touch-point with social media gets credit for the conversion over the long-term.

Measure, Rinse, Repeat!

It should be noted that these are only a few of the measurement capabilities that Google Analytics has with regards to social media. Some of the other reports and features within the tool can easily be sliced and diced with filters and advanced segments to uncover even deeper insights into your social media marketing effectiveness. The biggest thing to keep in mind: any marketing method (social media, traditional, pay per click, etc.) can only be improved if you have a measurement strategy in place. In the case of social media, leveraging Google Analytics brings your insights full-circle and provides actionable insights to keep your customers happy and your marketing budget even happier.

Have questions on how you can use the social reporting capabilities of Google Analytics? Leave a comment and our web analytics team will answer!

Top 5 Financial Services Marketing Tips

by 1 Comment

We do a lot of work with banks and credit unions because of previous relationship within these markets. The financial services marketing landscape has really changed over the past decade and it’s about to get a mobile face lift and whole lot more in 2013. Below are my top five recommendations for bank & credit union marketers:

Go Mobile

Invest in mobile banking and measure the effectiveness of mobile to generate leads as well as increase sales. According to a report by Adology, Mobile banking is having the biggest impact on routine banking activities: 64% of mobile banking users in the U.S. say that the future ability to use their smartphones or tablets to check account balances would be highly valued. This move has the potential to increase liability and risk for financial services institutions, so make sure it delivers value to your customers.

Incorporate Measurement

Measure all of your marketing campaigns and implement tag management solutions. With all of the marketing tactics that financial services use as well as third party application processing, tag management will help to simplify tagging and limit data collection challenges. Tag management boils down to this–one tag on your site for numerous solutions, such as affiliates, third party application, media buys, etc.

Test, Test, Test!

Test your marketing tactics, PLEASE! The cost of many tests can be justified and can help improve your institution’s online sales process. If you’re not testing, you might as well dump a portion of you marketing budget into the trash and set it on fire.

Tag Management for Financial Services Marketing

The best place to test is within the conversion process. Invest the time, money, and resources into conversion optimization. It will require you to bring your partners (third party vendors) to the table for discussions. Tag management solutions can also streamline required vulnerability testing within the application process.

Predictive Modeling for Applications & Quotes

Now that measuring all of your marketing tactics is on the agenda, you should consider attribution and predictive modeling. Attribution modeling will help you give credit to marketing tactics that most impact the conversion process, and predictive modeling will help you to forecast future sales and revenue.

Have your own financial services marketing tips to add? Let us hear them in the comments below!