Keep Up

If you’re not using analytics yet or, at least, not getting some sort of regular report on how well your business is performing online then you could be totally missing out. At the very least you could just be missing new opportunities to grow, at worst you could be wasting your money on online activities that aren’t working.

Dipping Your Toes into Google Analytics

OK, we agree, when you first start using this platform it does seem like a complete minefield but it’s actually not that bad once you get more familiar with it.  Start by monitoring and recording some basic, high level data on monthly basis and then delve into it more from there.

Here’s our quick steps to get you started:

• Set your timeframe (in the top right) as one full month compared to the same period prior
• Click on Audience Overview – Are New Visitors more important to your business or Returning Visitors?
  • Scroll down the page and click on Country and then click on New Zealand to see where your visitors are based – are these visitors located where you expect your target audience to be?  Do you need to do more work at attracting visitors from the right locations?
• After the Overview then click on Demographics Overview in the left-hand menu – turn this on if it’s not already enabled.
  • Does your target audience match the same age group and gender as is visiting your page?  Does this also match your followers on social media?
  • If there is a gap then you need to explore what might be causing the mismatch and work to change your content and promotions to attract the right target audience.
• Next click on Acquisition Overview in the left-hand menu – ideally you want your audience to come from channels you can control/manage ie. Organic Search is out of your control.
  • How well are your social channels performing?
  • What about your paid channels?  Make sure the Bounce rate here is less than 40% otherwise you really are wasting your money!
• Next click on Behavior Overview in the left-hand menu – this is where you can assess the content of your website based on visitor numbers to pages, bounce rates, etc.
  • Are there pages you need to improve on because they are not being seen?
  • Are there pages that are showing good visitors eg. A blog post, that will give you ideas for creating an event or more content/services/products ideas for your customers?
  • Maybe a popular page would be worth promoting as a website traffic link if it is already getting good visibility organically.

Delving Deeper with Segmentation and Secondary Dimensions

Once you get more comfortable with clicking around Google Analytics and discovering data movements month-to-month then you may want to drill down a little deeper.  Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool and platform for drilling into layers and layers of data that could make even the most intellectual mind boggle!

We especially love the option to explore the website engagement of your ‘Converters’ when connected with a Shopify website.  Simply select ‘Add Segment’ in the top of the visible page and ‘Converters’ to then explore the page data in this more drilled down format too.

In table information, you will see an option at the top of the table offering a ‘Secondary Dimension’ which allows you to view the same data at a whole other level such as by country or city, by acquisition source and so much more. We really love using this field for looking at our visitors from a particular location (city) and also visitors from Facebook, as this gives us a much more specific point of view than the general visitor traffic data will show.

Have a try at mixing other layers and options on pages to see what data is available to you and what is worthwhile monitoring and recording on a monthly basis.

Want the Data but Not the Work?

Contact us if you would like to receive a monthly report giving a clear analysis on what is working and what is underperforming with your website and social platforms.