Have you ever wondered what '
Required Step' means when you are setting up a goal in Google Analytics?
Personally, I think it is the most confusing configuration option within Google Analytics, so now I am going to attempt a simple explanation.
Turning on 'Required Step' means that in order for a conversion to be reported a visitor MUST view that page (or step) before they view the conversion page.
Looking at a simple example...
Let's say you have a website where one objective is to get visitors to signup for an email newsletter. You have a dedicated page with the email newsletter signup form that you link to from other pages on your site. Plus you also have a news page that has the signup form on the right.
Both forms (on the dedicated signup page and the news page) go to the same conversion page after a visitor has signed up to receive your email newsletter.
You have setup a goal within Google Analytics to report and measure conversions (people signing up for your newsletter). This reports on conversions no matter how someone signs up (including the dedicated form page and the news section).
You then decide that you want to focus on driving people through to the dedicated signup page, so if you create a new goal where you enter the URL of the dedicated signup page and click 'Required Step'.
You will then be able to look at the funnel report to see the funnel ONLY for visitors who convert after viewing the dedicated signup page.
Setting 'Required Step' ONLY Affects Funnel Visualization Report
Firstly, selecting 'Required Step' on the goal settings page only modifies what you see in the funnel visualization report.
So if you were to create the goal in the above scenario and selected 'Required Step' you would still see a total number of conversions for visitors. This would include those who did and didn't convert through the dedicated signup page. If you just want to see those who did view the dedicated signup page you would need to view the funnel visualization report.
Example funnel report (with 1st step required):
Then for the same goal you will still see total conversions:
Getting Technical...
If you are still with me – great work! Now for some technical things about 'Required Step' and goals, so if you are not technical don't worry if it doesn't make sense straight away.
If you have multiple steps on the goal settings page and you have selected 'Required Step' it simply means that
a visitor must view that page at some point before viewing the conversion page. (Just like all goals the order of the steps is not critical to how Google Analytics reports.)
Also, like all other goals a visitor can only convert once within a single visit (or session) to your website. So if they view the 'Required Step' page, come back to you site in a week and view the 2nd step and the conversion page they will have converted, but not be displayed in the funnel visualization report (due to the required step and the fact they did not view the required step page within that visit to your site).
Done!
Fingers crossed, I just explained what I consider to be the most confusing setting option within Google Analytics.
Labels: Goals and Funnels, Google Analytics, Google Analytics Tips
Setting up
ecommerce tracking is essential if you are selling online (if you don't sell online check out
Monetizing Non-Ecommerce Sites). But not all ecommerce systems integrate with Google Analytics. And if you are selling online
chances are you accept PayPal® as a method of payment. So how do track visitors who have purchased via PayPal?
First step,
create a thank you page for successful PayPal transactions and set that URL within PayPal so visitors are returned to your site.
The problem is that when the visitor returns to your site after payment has been received (or cancelled) PayPal gets the credit for the conversion and not the original way the visitor found your site.
Steps For Tracking PayPal With Google Analytics:
1.
Log into PayPal.
2. Under the 'My Account' tab
click on the 'Profile' link.
3.
Click on 'Website Payment Preferences' (under 'Selling Preferences' in the right column).
4. Turn 'Auto Return'
on and enter the URL of your PayPal thank you page.
Then add
?utm_nooverride=1 to the end of your URL (highlighted in blue below), this will
ensure that transactions (i.e. conversions) are credited to the original traffic source, rather than PayPal.
For example, if a visitor came from a Google search for 'gardening book' the conversion will be credited to Google, organic, gardening book (and not PayPal, referral).
At this point if you simply want to track the conversions using goals you can setup a new goal for the thank you page within Google Analytics. However, if you want to also get Google Analytics ecommerce tracking up and running you will need to get a little more technical.
PayPal's payment data transfer allows you to receive transaction details once a visitor is back on your site (visit the
PayPal technical overview article for details).
Getting Advanced With Ecommerce Tracking:
6. Turn 'Payment Data Transfer'
on.
Please note that once you turn on 'Payment Data Transfer' it will be applied to all Auto Return payments unless otherwise specified within the button or link for that Website Payment.
7. You will now either have to
create your 'Buy Now' buttons or modify your existing buttons.
If you are creating new 'Buy Now' buttons leave the return URL blank (or if you specify a different URL ensure it has
?utm_nooverride=1 at the end).
If you already have buttons on your site you will need to look for the following code:
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
And add the following before the
</form> element (with your correct thank you page URL):
<input name="return" type="hidden" value="http://www.site.com/paypal-thanks.php?utm_nooverride=1" />
8. Finally you will need to
modify your thank you page to grab the PayPal data being transfered using either the POST of GET methods (you will have to talk to your web developer or IT person if you are not familiar with the coding of your site).
Basically, you will need the Google Analytics ecommerce tracking code to automatically (or dynamically) grab the correct values and place them in the code. You will be able to get total price, tax, shipping, transaction id, item name, quantity, etc.
Example Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking Code:
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-1");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
pageTracker._addTrans(
"6NB836968U296223E", // Order ID
"", // Affiliation
"20.00", // Total
"2.00", // Tax
"0.0", // Shipping
"", // City
"", // State
"" // Country
);
pageTracker._addItem(
"6NB836968U296223E", // Order ID
"ProductId123", // SKU
"Green T-shirt", // Product Name
"T-Shirts", // Category
"20.0", // Price
"1" // Quantity
);
pageTracker._trackTrans();
} catch(err) {}
</script>
For Google AdWords conversion tracking you simply need to grab the total value and pass that into the conversion script as the value.
Example Google AdWords Conversion Tracking Code:
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var google_conversion_id = 12345678;
var google_conversion_language = "en";
var google_conversion_format = "2";
var google_conversion_color = "ffffff";
var google_conversion_label = "U10bCNfstvhghO6gM";
var google_conversion_value = 0;
if (20) {
google_conversion_value = 20;
}
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js">
</script>
<noscript>
<div style="display:inline;">
<img height="1" width="1" style="border-style:none;" alt="" src="http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/12345678/?value=20&label=U10bCNfstvhghO6gM&guid=ON&script=0"/>
</div>
</noscript>
Read about Google Analytics ecommerce tracking
Read about Google AdWords conversion tracking
Finally, we strongly recommend that you test everything out using the
PayPal Sandbox.
If you have any questions please feel free to
contact us directly and if you are located in Australia check out our
Google Seminars for Success for the best Google Analytics training available!
Thanks to
ROI Revolution for inspiring this post who originally discussed Google Analytics and PayPal back in 2007.
Labels: Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Analytics Tips
Goals are great and it is amazing how many people don't have them setup! Goals allow you to track visitors who convert on your site, so they can
provide you with really quick insights with only a few minutes of setup time.
And if you already have goals setup within Google Analytics, then I would encourage you to take a few minutes to
double check you have everything setup correctly. Also, checkout the
new engagement goals that are available.
Uses For Google Analytics Goals And Funnels:
- Ecommerce transactions
- Email newsletter subscriptions
- Contact form leads
- Whitepaper and PDF downloads
- Views of critical pages
Getting Started:
To start out I would suggest setting up a traditional goal, which is simply based on the view of a key page on your site, a thank you page is best.
Start by navigating and completing the steps you expect people to take to get to the thank you page. As you go record the URLs of the pages you visit, all the way to the thank you page.
Here is an email newsletter subscription example;
1. http://www.site.com
/index.html
2. http://www.site.com
/news/
3. http://www.site.com
/news/subscribe.html
4. http://www.site.com
/news/thank-you.html
In this example I have gone from the homepage, to the news section, to the subscription form to the thank you page.
I would suggest that you just use the subscription form and the thank you page as the goal steps in this case, because people might come from other sections or pages on your site to the subscription form and so the first two steps are considered optional.
Setting Up Your Goal:
1.
Click 'Edit' for the profile you are setting up a goal for on the Google Analytics account overview page.
2.
Click 'Add Goal' next to a goal set.
3. Give the goal a
suitable name (e.g. Newsletter Subscription).
4. Ensure 'Active Goal' is set to 'On'.
5.
Set 'Goal Type' as 'URL Destination'.
6.
By default match type is set to 'Head Match', leaving this default setting works in most cases.
- Head Match: matches part of the URL (e.g. entering /page.html will match for /page.html?id=18 and /page.html?id=204)
- Exact Match: matches the exact URL (check the top content report to ensure the URL is being tracked by Google Analytics)
- Regular Expression Match: matches the URL based on regular expressions.
7. Enter the
final conversion page as the
goal URL. This is generally the
thank you or
receipt page. You generally want to set a goal URL that is not accessible unless a visitor has completed your desired process.
8.
Optional: If your goal has a particular value you can set the dollar value for the 'goal value' input. (If you have an ecommerce site, you should setup ecommerce reporting and not set a goal value.)
9.
Enter the URLs of the steps required to complete the process and give each step a suitable name. (Click 'Add Goal Funnel Step' and repeat for all the steps you have defined as critical to completing the goal.)
10.
Click 'Save Changes'.
Labels: Goals and Funnels, Google Analytics
Question:
How can I group pages together for reporting within Google Analytics?
In this post we will look at how we can use; Advanced Table Filters, Profile Filters and Multiple Custom Variables to group pages together for reporting within Google Analytics.
We are going to use an online toy shop as an example for this post. Let's say the website has toys in the following categories:
- Bicycles
- Dolls
- Games
- Learning
Basic: Content Drilldown
If the site already has a logical folder structure then there are very simple ways to group content.
Firstly, browse your website and look at the URLs for the individual pages you want to group.
If you see URLs such as the following:
- www.toys.com/bicycles/
- www.toys.com/bicycles/bmx-bikes
- www.toys.com/bicycles/product.php?id=3012
Where all the pages you want to group have a common element in the URL (in the example above you can see
/bicycles/ is in all the URLs we want to group), then you can navigate to
Content > Content Drilldown to see all the pages rolled-up into /bicycles/.
If you have pages that don't have a common element in the URL then you will have to be a little more advanced!
Intermediate: Advanced Table Filters and Profile Filters
If you see URLs such as the following:
- www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=3829 for a boys bicycle
- www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=1258 for a teens bicycle
- www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=7248 for a doll
- www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=3457 for a preschool board game
- www.toys.com/product/index.php?id=1263 for a brain game
And you only want to group the boys bicycles and teens bicycles, then you have two options.
Firstly, you can navigate to
Content > Top Content within Google Analytics and then apply an Advanced Table Filter that only matches those two pages.
Click 'Advanced Filter' and enter 3029
|1258 (this will match 3029
OR 1258 within the report using
| which is the pipe symbol):
Once you click 'Apply Filter' the Top Content report will only include data for the two bicycle pages. You will have to add the ID numbers for any other pages you want to include in the report (e.g. 3029
|1258
|9620
|3892 etc.)
Once you have done this you you can consider setting up a filtered profile that will only report on the pages you have identified. Create a new profile and apply a filter like the following:
The above is an include filter with the following as the filter pattern:
^/product/index\.php\?id\=(3829|1258) this will match /product/indexphp?id=3829
AND /product/indexphp?id=1258.
Advanced: Multiple Custom Variables
Advanced Table Filters and Profile Filters are fantastic
but if you change your site you also have to update your filters which could be a pain. You might also have a
LOT of pages, and filters might be restrictive and take a lot of time to setup. If you fall into this area then
Multiple Custom Variables are going to be the best solution.
Multiple Custom Variables are going to be more involved to setup because they need to be placed within your site's code but with the help of yourweb developer or IT support it shouldn't be too hard to get it setup correctly.
Once you have defined which pages should be grouped (e.g. all the bicycle pages) then you will need to dynamically create Multiple Custom Variables within the code of your pages.
So for all the bicycle pages you will need the following to be within your tracking code:
pageTracker._setCustomVar(
1, // Multiple Custom Variable is set to slot 1
"Product Section", // Overarching name (or category)
"Bicycles", // This value of the custom variable
3 // Sets the scope to pageview-level
);
Then for your games pages you might need:
pageTracker._setCustomVar(
1, // Multiple Custom Variable is set to slot 1
"Product Section", // Overarching name (or category)
"Games", // This value of the custom variable
3 // Sets the scope to pageview-level
);
And so on for each section you want to track. Once your pages are dynamically tracking into the Multiple Custom Variables, you will be able to access the Custom Variables report within Google Analytics.
Labels: Google Analytics, Google Analytics Tips
Until the release of Annotations within Google Analytics you were probably referring to a calendar or spreadsheet to find out what caused certain spikes in traffic. Annotations solves this by allowing Google Analytics users to add notes to dates within Google Analytics reports.
Creating Annotations Within Google Analytics
1. Click the annotation toggle link below the graph within your Google Analytics profile.
2. Select the date for the annotation and click '+ create new annotation'.
3. Enter your note (up to 160 characters), select if you would like the note to be shared or private and click 'save'.
A
shared annotation will be visible to all users who have access to the particular Google Analytics profile. A
private annotation will only be visible to you.
Top 5 Events To Track Using Annotations:
- Email newsletters and email marketing campaigns
- Offline advertising launches (e.g. print, radio, TV)
- Marketing events or milestones (e.g. product launches)
- Website changes (e.g. interface design or promotional banner)
- Key calendar events (e.g. public holidays, Valentine's day)
Labels: Google Analytics, Google Analytics Tips, new Google Analytics features
Omniture recently presented a webinar and published a white paper titled "How Much is 'Free' Costing You?" where they engaged research company Forrester and an Omniture client to discredit free web analytics tools.
What did you just call Google Analytics?
John Lovett of Forrester tries to convince us that free tools are like free puppies. Two things come to mind, the first being that I don't think anybody would ever assume that a puppy is entirely free (much like a free webinar from Omniture would give us something more than a sales pitch).
Here is how John describes free web analytics tools:
"Thinking about free tools you also have to consider how much work they are. What's going to go into taking that free puppy home? Did you think about the fact that you are going to have to take it home for walks?"
Google Analytics is like a free puppy? You have got to be kidding me!
John almost completely skips the most critical piece of information in his presentation – that you need to dedicate resources to analysis in order to turn web analytics data into actions.
Now we are talking, if we invest resources and dollars into getting Google Analytics set up correctly or we invest (considerably more) in Omniture and we don't get any value or return from that investment, then yes, we fail.
Google Analytics vs. Omniture SiteCatalyst
Tony Bradshaw and Tim Munsell of DaveRamsey.com follow on from John's presentation and they take direct aim at Google Analytics.
They refer to the features (left column below) that in their opinion Google Analytics does not provide. I have taken the liberty of filling in the blanks (right column below):
Omniture SiteCatalyst
| Google Analytics
|
Highly customizable reports
| Google Analytics has over 90 standard reports, plus Custom Reports and Advanced Segments
|
Visitor paths
| Site Overlay, Navigation Summary and Entrance Paths reports
|
Robust dashboards
| Customizable dashboard
|
Sharing of custom reports
| Sharing of custom reports and advanced segments and apply these to multiple profiles and account
|
Upload offline data
| No data upload, but you can create your own mashups with data from the Google Analytics Data Export API
|
Access to support
| Google support articles, Google support forum, Google Analytics Authorized Consultants
|
40 custom event metrics
| Track up to 500 events per visitor session
|
80 custom event variables
| Define custom event variables (with categories, actions, labels and values)
|
'Large' number of custom variables
| Track up to 50,000 custom variables (with up to 5 with any given request)
|
Custom variable attribution
| Only last click attribution by default, but can be customized with scripting and use of Multiple Custom Variables
|
Custom variable persistance
| Set scope to pageview, session or visitor
|
Create custom metrics inside the tool
| No mashup of metrics by default, but can be acheived with the Google Analytics API
|
Site sectioning and hirarcy
| Content Drilldown reports, create hirarcy with account and profile structure and use Multiple Custom Variables for advanced requirements
|
Change funnels on the fly
| Funnels do not apply to historical data, but historical conversions can be viewed with Advanced Segments and Content Reports
|
Funnels for pages, groups of pages, variables and events
| Funnels for pages, groups of pages and engagement metrics
|
Unlimited dashboards
| Only one dashboard, but many 3rd party dashboard solutions available
|
Export 50,000 rows of data to Excel
| Export 50,000 rows of data with slight modification to report URL
|
(Multiple Custom Variables, engagement base goals and report sharing became available shortly after Omniture's webinar.)
Tony and Tim also take aim at the support available to Google Analytics users. They suggest that the consulting and professional services offered around Google Analytics are lacking and questionable at best. As one of over 100 Google Analytics Authorized Consultants around the world we provide enterprise level services and training specifically for Google Analytics addressing individual and shared client needs.
I won't go through all the available support options available because Feras Alhlou of e-nore (a US based Google Analytics Authorized Consultant) has already highlighted them in
his post about Omniture's webinar. But in summary there are support articles, forums, professional services (from Google Analytics Authorized Consultants like us), Google Analytics Training (Google sponsored Seminars for Success) and many other related support and training offerings available.
Consider Your Web Analytics Investment
Tony and Tim also included the following graph to highlight the Return On Investment (ROI) they received from implementing Omniture SiteCatalyst. I have highlighted the inclusion of the cost of web analytics staff as a percent of the investment. Without somebody driving action from a web analytics tool you are never going to see ROI.
I have created the following graph to propose a question. What if they had invested the cost of Omniture SiteCatalyst 100% towards real people to drive action?
Really what you should be asking yourself; is how much is 'not acting on my data' costing me? And maybe you should think about allocating that budget you have saved by not buying Omniture's SiteCatalyst to engage leading consultants and hiring dedicated staff.
Apparently Google Analytics is a free puppy. But what does that make Omniture's SiteCatalyst if we are spending $50,000 or more on it a year?
A really freaking expensive dog!
A big thank you to Cameron for provoking this post!Labels: Google Analytics
Powerful. Flexible. Intelligent.
Google has officially announced the release of new Google Analytics features which strongly position the product as an enterprise-level web analytics platform. Much anticipated additions to the tool include the ability to
define up to 20 goals per profile (previously limited to 4),
Intelligence reports that provide automated and custom alerts to changes in metrics and dimensions, and the ability to track visitors into Multiple Custom Variables (previously known as Custom Segments).
New Google Analytics features include:
- Intelligence Reports
- Automatic and Custom Alerts
- Expanded Goals
- Site Engagement Goals
- Advanced Table Filtering
- Expanded Mobile Reporting
- Share Advanced Segments
- Share Custom Reports
- Multiple Custom Variables
Google Analytics Gets Smart With Intelligence Reports
The new Intelligence reports allow you to see if significant changes are occurring within your Google Analytics data. For example;
you received more visitors than expected,
your bounce rate is increasing or you have experienced a
spike in revenue from new visitors to your site. The Automatic Alerts within Google Analytics Intelligence provide you with this level of detail automatically and it is provided for historical data (back to mid 2008) in your profiles.
Automatic Alerts also let you know when things aren't going well:
Taking Intelligence reports to the next level with Custom Alerts allows you to define your own alert triggers and receive an email alert. For example you can create a
Custom Alert to notify you (within Google Analytics and via email) when your
Google AdWords campaign traffic meets a revenue target or when your
organic (or free) keyword term from your SEO efforts has resulted in a certain number of visitors to your site.
Now Google Analytics really is smart!
Want More Goals In Google Analytics?
Google Analytics: Now With 20 Goals Per Profile
One feature that we have all wanted for a while now is the ability to set more than 4 goals per profile.
Each Google Analytics profile can now be setup with 20 goals. These are also conveniently arranged in 4 groups containing 5 goals each.
Site Engagement Goals In Google Analytics
Evaluating the effectiveness of content based sites just got easier with site engagement goals in Google Analytics. Standard goals are great for reporting on particular actions you want your visitors to take (buying online, filling out a contact form or registering for your email newsletter) but
what if your primary objective is providing quality content and an engaging experience for your visitors? Site engagement goals are your answer, now you can set a goal conversion for time on site or pages per visit allowing you to access the power of goal reports within Google Analytics.
If you are a SMB (Small to Medium Business), non-profit, government or any organization with a content or branding focused site you should definitely begin using site engagement goals.
Filtering Within Google Analytics Reports
Google Analytics Table Filtering allows you to
filter the data presented within particular table reports. This allows you to quickly refine the data to your particular parameters, for example removing particular dimensions (like pages) based on metrics (like time on page) that are skewing your analysis.
Exploring the example further, you could take your Top Content report and then use Table Filtering to only include pages where visitors spend more than 0 seconds and less than 30 seconds.
This gives you direct access to under performing pages based on time on page. Then you can drill-down further by applying advanced segments (All Visitors, Search Traffic, Direct Traffic and Referral Traffic) to the report to establish if Traffic Sources relate to the under performance of the pages.
Expanded Mobile Reporting In Google Analytics
Google Analytics now allows for improved tracking of mobile devices, so you can now
track interactions within your iPhone and Android apps to measure usage and engagement.
A new tracking code for mobile sites built using PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX will also become available, allowing you to
track all web-enabled mobile devices (not just mobile devices that run JavaScript).
Share Your Advanced Segments And Custom Reports
Advanced Segments and Custom Reports are powerful tools to drill deeper into your data. Now you can
quickly share your Advanced Segments and Custom Reports with your colleagues making it easier to collaborate on the analysis of your site.
Multiple Custom Variables
This advanced feature opens up more opportunities for custom tracking using Google Analytics. Our team will be updating our custom Google Website Optimizer tracking solution to make use of Multiple Custom Variables, as well as looking at how we can make use it to attribute first and last click to conversions.
Previously Custom Variables (also known as custom segments or _setVar) allowed you to assign a visitor with one User Defined value, now with Multiple Custom Variables you will be able to set each visitor with numbers User Defined values.
Labels: Google Analytics, Google Analytics Tips, new Google Analytics features
