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Google Analytics API – Lesson 1: The Basics

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Google Analytics provides ample documentation discussing their various code libraries. However, for someone just starting out, this information can be overwhelming. Even a Google subject can yield millions of results. So to simplify things, let’s start at the very beginning.

What is an API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface and is used to describe how one piece of software interacts with others. APIs are generally used by programmers and developers to create applications that can interact with another company’s application or database. For the purpose of this blog, we will be taking a look at the Google Analytics API, its components, and potential uses.

What is the GA API?

The Google Analytics API (GA API) is a code library written in several computing languages that allows application developers to collect and receive information from the Google servers. At this time, a full data dump is unavailable, but developers can pick and choose specific metrics or dimensions to pull from Google and use for further data analysis. In GA terms, metrics are numeric values, while dimensions are strings.

Google’s intention for releasing the API is to give developers free roam to develop new and exciting applications. Since entire code libraries are provided, the possibilities are endless.

The Collection API

Google’s Collection API is used to collect data, generally specific metrics or dimensions. The default code for collecting data is written in JavaScript, and is provided to all Google Analytics users to place on their site. This piece of code links the Google account with the website, and, after verification, will start collecting data. In addition to the standard piece of code, the code can also be customized to collect specific pieces of data.

After the data is collected from the website, Google passes it through a series of functions to produce the data that is in the dashboard section of the account. It also produces a series of graphics in relation to key performance indicators.

The Reporting APIs

There are two different kinds of reporting APIs. The first of the two is the Core Reporting API. Its main purpose is to be used to produce general reports. In addition, this would be how to access most of Google’s stored data about the website in question. Applications can be written in a multitude of languages, and there are more languages and resources being added by developers all the time.

The second API is the Multi-Channel Funnels Reporting API. This API is for specific Multi-Channel Funnel data, rather than the open nature of its counterpart. It can be used to create custom reports based on this data. As with the Core Reporting API, there are many languages available for coding.

How Can I Use This?

There are no set rules when it comes to the possibilities for using the APIs, but there are some general uses that many follow. In the hands of a good team of developers, any number of apps can be created to take and manipulate Google’s data to fit business needs.

Currently, one of the most popular uses of the API is data warehousing. Data warehousing is a practice generally used by large companies to store huge amounts of data, often on a remote server. If Google Analytics is used, the data from Google can be added to a data warehouse via the API, depending on the language chosen.

Many developers also use Google’s code to collect and store specific metrics for analysis. Though Google provides a lot of information about site visitors, most data analysts are looking for key performance indicators, or a combination of specific metrics. Coding to use these specific metrics instead of using the default dashboard allows the analyst to have an in-depth look at specific pieces of data, in addition to the big picture.

Have you or your company used the GA API for a specific application? Tell us in the comments, and stay tuned for the next part of the series!

See “Green” with Google Analytics

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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.

5 Things you Need to Know about Google Universal Analytics

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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

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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

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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!

10 Business System Integrations for Better Marketing

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Everyone wants something for less, but as a business owner, you’re consistently trying to increase sales and improve profit margins. So, the question is: What are the most effective ways of achieving these goals? In my opinion, the integration of business systems or solutions is one of the most under-utilized elements toward achieving these goals. By integrating online business solutions, it allows your business and team to do less manual work while improving efficiencies and overall turnaround time.

Below is my list of top 10 online business solutions that should be integrated to put your business on the path to better sales turnaround time, identifying insights, and improving profit margins:

Web Analytics

Your web analytics solution needs to be implemented onto the entire website accurately. Many times I’ve noticed that prospects or clients have launched websites that do not incorporate tracking into their application, sales, or lead generation processes. In most cases, you should be okay with tracking into these areas as long as you’re not collecting personally-identifiable information. By tracking these areas, you’ll be able to identify opportunities to improve the process as well as your conversion rate (completion).

Search (SEO, PPC, & Onsite)

Search can be used to improve your conversion rate. A few of the easier elements to integrate are SEO, PPC, and Onsite search. An example would be to enable AdWords, Google Analytics, and Google Site Search; however, there are other solutions that have these capabilities as well (Adobe CQ, Search&Promote, and Search Center+). By integrating these solutions, it will give you insights into what keywords or search queries are most critical to the conversion process and cut costs on ineffective keywords.

CRM Solutions (Salesforce.com)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions are important for all business types, but not every business integrates their CRM with other solutions. This can lead to inefficiencies as well as negatively impact response times and reduce sales volume. Through CRM solution integration, your business can more easily connect account records, automatically import prospects or leads, and segment prospects into different groups. An example would be the integration of Salesforce.com with email marketing solutions.

Billing & Invoicing Solutions (QuickBooks)

You can manage customer and client accounts without juggling separate databases. By integrating with your billing and invoicing services, you can automatically add new customers to your email marketing audience or estimates with CRM solutions. Going this route significantly limits the possibilities for errors.

Email Marketing Solutions

Email Marketing Solutions’ integration capabilities continue to grow through APIs and login authentications. With some email marketing solutions, you have the ability to integrate web analytics, search, CRMs, billing solutions, and a lot more. This also gives you the ability to implement automatic responses and send notifications directly to your sales team.

Publishing Solutions (Drupal, WordPress, etc)

Many CMS’s (Content Management Systems) allow you to leverage plug-ins that make it easy to add signup forms to your website. If you’re already gathering new subscribers with an online form, there are opportunities to connect it to your email audience in order to easily gather new audience members with the tools you’re already using.

Shopping Carts

By integrating shopping carts with your website or email marketing solution, you can grow your audience right from your shopping cart. With eCommerce plug-ins or applications, your online customers can subscribe to your mailings with a single click during the checkout process. You can also sort your audience using information from their purchase history to send them the most impactful messages.

Events Management

With event management integration, you can better communicate with your event attendees. Connect email marketing solutions to your event management account to gather email subscribers from your events. This integration makes it easier to automatically add new attendees to your email audience and sort your audience by attendee information.

Testing Solution (T&T)

Every business should be testing things like content, landing page variations, email subject lines, etc. With testing solutions, you can evaluate the effectiveness of content, landing pages, ad copy, and more. This integration can be completed between your Content Management System and the testing solutions. It makes it easier to get the right message and design in front of the right customers or prospects.

Project Management

My team uses a project management solution to help organize projects, but I would recommend that marketing professionals as well as business owners consider integrating a project management solution into their processes. No more sending documents, waiting for status updates, or looking for meeting information. Many project management solutions are now cloud-based with applications to integrate with Outlook, QuickBooks, and more. Helping your team to stay on track, stay on budget, invoice accurately, and deliver on your brand promise.

Let me start by saying that this list is not all-inclusive, but it is a start. The truth of the matter is that clients, customers, and prospects demand more from your business. They demand solutions to their problems or ideas for improvements. Your business can deliver more with less if you effectively use online marketing solutions and integrate them to work together. So what’s that mean to your business? It could mean more satisfied customers, better prospecting, improved processes, cohesion among online business solutions, internal solutions, and better information that will increase your likelihood for increased sales and high profit margins. Once upon a time, a business owner or marketing professional would need an army to effectively manage all of these tasks but with applications, plug-ins, and CMS solutions, you can get away with one or two really good people to manage it all.

Have your own integration success story? Let us know in the comments section below!