Google Analytics provides businesses with a powerful platform to analyze performance data. The platform can be overwhelming to marketers who are just starting off – so I’ve complied a list of the top 5 tools and reports that you should be using to help better understand your consumers.
1.) Google Campaign URL Builder
Before you get started attempting to navigate the Google Analytics dashboard, you need to understand the basics of creating and managing campaigns.
Campaigns are how you track your traffic, and act as the bridge to understanding your consumer. Creating campaigns using the Google Campaign URL Builder is the most important step in understanding the Google Analytics platform.
Read more on how to get started on making a campaign here
2.) Audience Overview
The very first report you should become familiar with when starting off on Google Analytics is the Audience Overview report.
This report gives a few important insights, and can be customized to show more or less information. A few important insights the report includes are:
- Users
- New Users
- Sessions
- Page Views
- Bounce Rate
This report gives a general overview on how much traffic you are getting, as well as the overall performance of the site. Keeping track of this data on a weekly basis can help define areas of improvement – so be sure to keep it handy.
3.) Source/Medium
This report is where you’ll see where your users are coming from.
After becoming familiar with building campaigns in the Google Campaign URL Builder, find your way to this report. Here is where you’ll get a breakdown of the amount of users, transactions, and revenue earned from each traffic source.
Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium
So far we’ve covered three high level reports that will help you gain a basic understanding of google analytics. A lot of marketers are totally fine with only using these to help make decisions – and that’s totally okay.
BUT – if you want to dive deeper, these next two reports are necessary to boost traffic and revenue.
4.) Campaigns
Creating custom campaigns in the Google Campaign URL Builder will give you access to data that won’t show up in the default traffic reports. Here’s what the URL builder looks like:
Let’s say I decide to send out a promotional email to my customers on my email list. I want to promote a specific product, let’s just say it’s an iPhone case that comes in multiple colors and designs.
First, I would put the URL of the landing page I want to promote in the Website URL box.
Next, for Campaign Source, I would put something like “PhoneCase”
For Campaign Medium, I would put “email” or “newsletter”
The Campaign Name section is where you’ll put the name of the campaign that will show up in Google Analytics. Personally, I have found it best practice to put the Date, followed by headline or title of the deal that you are running.
You’ll notice Campaign Term and Campaign Content, These aren’t entirely necessary, and since we’re just covering the basics, we’ll just skip those for now.
Last, copy the URL that is built for you, and include it in your email. When customers click on the link, their information is added to the Campaigns section under Acquisition.
From our example, I could now view how many people clicked on the link, iPhone cases sold, what colors/designs sold the best, and so much more.
5.) Site Search
This is where you can view what customers are searching for when they come to your site. Keep track of this, and leverage this information to promote products that customers are searching for.
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