W EB A NALYTICS : W HERE VISITORS COME FROM, WHAT THEY DO, AND WHERE THEY GO ? W HAT CAN WE LEARN FROM IT ? Chuck DelCamp Product Manager, StudyAboad.com

Why are we doing this? Enable providers analyze effectiveness of campaigns Help provide ideas and methods to increase conversions from referral traffic

Web Analytics Starts with more questions than answers Our goal is to understand our users – So that we can make better decisions Partners Our own sites

Google Analytics Easy to set up Free Assume that you already have GA tracking on your site Maximize value with simple steps

Information overload Visits Exits Returning/New Time on site Bounces Events Goals Source Keyword Pageviews

Great, what do we do with all this info? Where did they come from?Where did they go?

So…What can we learn? What sources perform best? What do users look for on our site? Can they find what they are looking for? How can we improve our sites?

Where did they Come from: Traffic Sources Direct   Campaigns Search (organic)   Referral

How do you know…guess? A User clicks on your ad/listing. A click is recorded in our system. The user visits your site; decides if they want to stay, tracking code begins to load Tracking code loads, visit recorded in Google analytics. Cookie saved on user’s computer

They’re on your site, great-now what? User visits landing page, reads about program, navigates to other pages User begins to fill out form User is directed to a thank you page after completing form. Yoursite.edu/thanks.html

But how do we figure that out? GoogleAnalytics

Traffic Sources: Explained Source – Where they came from Medium – Direct – Organic (Search) – Referral Campaign – Set by URL string Tracking Cookies – _utmz – 6 months

Campaigns-More Detail No Code Required Customized link to your site – Source – Medium – Campaign &utm_medium=listing&utm_campaign=Paris These Parameters will over ride Source/Medium

Campaigns

What do we know about these visitors? Location Time on site Pageviews Returning/new Source Time of day

So what do they do once they are on my site? Bounce Time on site Pageviews Exits New/Returning Secondary Metrics Lagging Indicators

What do they do next? Nothing (bounce) Go to another page (time on site, pageviews/visit) Fill out a form (goal) Other activities (events) Exit (????)

Bounce Rate Single page visits Visit quality

Going Deeper: Multiple page visits Time on site Pageviews/visit Returning Measures of quality

Yeah, but what did they actually DO? Goals Set up in GA admin Based on user completing action Not all actions can be tracked Events Require coding/ access to site html Track any (in)action on site

Goals Set up in GA Admin URL Destination – Thank-you page Visit Duration Pages per visit Automatically track – Future events

Events Add _trackEvent code to any action on page using javascript Click, Link, Hover, Play Video, Download – Category – Action – Label (optional)

Putting it all together Custom Reports – Static report format – Retroactive – Can be ed on a schedule Segments – Carry over to all GA reports – Retroactive

Scheduling reports

Custom Segments

Tips Make sure your tracking code is on every page including all landing pages. Use a campaign ID to track your visits from StudyAbroad.com. Check your page load time. Avoid redirects. Create great content.

Heatmapping: Know even more

What can we do with all this? Make things better! User point of view – What do they want? – What are they looking for? – What do you want them to do?

You had me at “Hello” Engaging headline Page layout – Images Clear call to action Optimization

Which one won? 55 seconds longer on site 1 pageview/visit increase 9.1% more searches 7.5% increase in inquiry submission

Engaging Headline Call to action Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? n=599,630

What do users want? Easy – Short forms – What am I supposed to do? – Help me find the information – Don’t waste my time – What’s in it for me?

n=87,151

Making it easy Removed unused fields 9.9% increase in advances to step two 1.8% increase in overall submissions

Your Turn Questions Live Optimization

Reference

Reference Campaigns – wer= wer= Event Tracking – ajs/eventTrackerGuide ajs/eventTrackerGuide Goals – wer= wer= API Field Reference – ore/dimsmets ore/dimsmets A/B Testing –

Reports and dashboards Referrer/Campaign performance – Dashboard –

Thanks for attending We will a link to this presentation and a complementary guide to analytics