Analytics 1 What are they? What are they for? Why are there so many?

Analytics, metrics... As the names imply, these are measurement tools. Like all good tools, they are limited in scope. If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. What do they measure?

Defining the units of analysis I Start with concepts ▫ General and broad; examples include ‘awareness’ and ‘status’ This is, generally speaking, what is being measured In our case: effectiveness, traffic, engagement, etcetera.

Defining the units of analysis II From concepts, derive Operational Definitions ▫ Where concepts are general and broad, operational definitions are as specific as possible.

Operationalize this! Exercises: ▫ 1. What is a web site ‘visit’? ▫ 2. What are unique visitors? ▫ 3. What are ‘total visitors? Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. ▫ Albert Einstein

Analytics everywhere

Google Analytics At the end of the day, this is a sales tool Google analytics is a business enabling technology that is tied to a particular set of structures ▫ AdSense keyword campaigns ▫ Landing pages ▫ A funnel procedure ▫ A conversion system ▫ JavaScript include to track the user

The pieces: Adsense ad Think expansively; a Directing Structure, not just a text ad (although those are important too). The DS should be crafted around particular keywords. Different keywords direct a user to different landing pages with calls to action crafted around those keywords.

The pieces: Landing pages These have unique URLs and lead to a particular set of procedures / pages. Landing page optimization is about converting a clicker/browser into a buyer. Language and actions and design are optimized to an ideal procedure that is begun by the directing structure.

The pieces: The conversion funnel The set of pages that are used for customer conversion. The set of pages that are constantly tracked and tweaked to improve performance or ROI.

The pieces: JavaScript include JavaScript include tracks site movement <script src= type="text/javascript"> _ uacct = "UA "; urchinTracker();

Specific differences for the Nsites We are interested in full CMS optimization. This includes workflow operations and data granularity We are interested in data throw-off from our operations What replaces the conversion funnel? ▫ Lead generation ▫ Highschool targeting from a DS

Google Tutorial google.com/analytics