Analysis phase with Google Analytics
One reason why online marketing is so great is that you can analyse and test everything. Every action / measure can be presented with facts and evaluated. If a campaign does not achieve the desired effect, you can quickly see this using analysis tools and also adjust it immediately. With offline campaigns, such as billboard advertising, there is no chance to adjust or change anything. Most of the time, those responsible for offline campaigns work with empirical values and assumptions.
In online marketing, you can start a display campaign and two days later, adjust the ad media and play out new ones for each other.
Google Analytics
Probably the best-known and most popular SEO analysis tool is and remains Google Analytics. The simple and easy-to-understand, yet highly professional presentation offers you the right analysis for different data sets in order to act optimally in online business. And the best thing about it all is that it’s free. You don’t have to spend several hundred francs per month to analyse your data.
Start with Google Analytics
In order to be able to use all the functions of Google Analytics, you must first implement a tracking pixel on your page, which is the only way to ensure that all the data is collected by the system. To do this, you start by creating a login at https://analytics.google.com/. You will learn step by step how to get the desired data.
After you have installed the tracking code, you must note your analysis measures and the use of Google Analytics on your page in the imprint or under data protection. This is required by law, i.e. it is binding. You can find many different text suggestions on the internet on how to formulate this notice. Most of them are already copyable texts.
Dashboard
After you have made all the basic settings, such as tracking code and profile settings, you quickly get to the dashboard, where all possible analyses are suggested. At the beginning, it can take up to 48 hours until the first figures are recorded and listed.
The dashboard shows you the most important figures and information at a glance. You can create your own dashboard template and decide for yourself which data is relevant to you and which is not. To do this, click on the category “Dashboard” – “+ New Dashboard”. You can then decide whether you want to edit the starter dashboard or start with a blank page. The decision is yours.
I mainly use my dashboard to get a regular overview of what’s going on. This way I don’t have to tediously click into every single analysis, but see everything at a glance.
Analysis functions
As already mentioned, Google Analytics offers a variety of analysis functions that can support you in your online campaigns. I would be happy to briefly explain the individual analysis options to you so that you already have an overview of which data you can find in which function.
Dashboard:
As already mentioned, the dashboard shows all relevant and predefined data at a glance. This gives you an overview as soon as you log in.
Links:
In the analysis function “Links” you can have all reports listed and thus also work with filter functions and extended segments.
Radar events:
The radar events show unusual movements of the visitor flow on the page. This tells you which numbers are behaving conspicuously. Basically, it is worthwhile to take a look here and see which data are struggling with large fluctuations.
Real-time:
The real-time analysis is a very interesting function, because you can see live who is moving on your page and how. Of course, you don’t find out who exactly is moving on your page, but where they are from and which content page they are on.
You also find out from which sources and via which medium visitors come to your site. You can thus experience live how certain measures and actions affect the website.
Target group:
The target group analysis divides your visitors into different target group characteristics so that you know exactly who your target group is and what characteristics they carry.
In the overview you will find a rough summary of all the characteristics that correspond to the target group in the predefined period. In this way, you can see at a glance how your target group is composed.
The demographic characteristics show in which age segment and which gender the majority of your target group moves. This data is basically analysed based on the visitor profile (Google Ads Preferences) of the customers. You can also check your Google Ads Preference profile to see if it matches you. These profiles are derived from your activities on Google websites and partner sites such as YouTube.
The interest and affinity categories show which topic affinities the target group has. Whether shopper, TV, fashion and much more, the visitor has a certain affinity depending on their behaviour, which is evident here.
Geographically, you can see from the analysis which countries/regions the target group comes from and which languages they speak.
Behaviour shows visitor loyalty (new or returning) and the frequency of visits and interactions. A blog usually has a higher visitor loyalty than a shop. With clever measures, an online shop can also continuously increase the number of returning visitors.
With technology analysis, you can quickly see which browsers and operating systems visitors use to land on the website. Here, too, you can see fundamental differences in behaviour. You also receive information about the internet providers of the customers.
The mobile analysis informs you about the use of the different devices that visitors use to visit your website. Basically, it is also very interesting to see how visitors are divided between mobile, desktop and tablet devices. Some of my partners have noticed an increase in mobile visitors, which led them to place more mobile ads and thus direct customers to the shop on the go. The individual device models (example – mobile: Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, Samsung SM-G900F Galaxy S5 or other) are also listed here.
From the user flow, you can see in a graphic how the visitors move around the website. You find out from which page they switch to which page. How large the proportion of exits is and which pages are visited.
Acquisition:
In my opinion, one of the most important points is the acquisition analysis. Here you find out how visitors get to your website and which measures have led to this. You see all the important key points from the beginning in the overview and can work your way forward to the individual points.
Click on “All hits” and then on “Channels” to show the breakdown of visitor flows into the individual channels. Here you can find out whether visitors reach your pages via social media channels, direct access, organic search results or other links. The individual lists of websites that link to your page can be found under “Source/Medium” or “Links”.
You can also display and analyse the individual Ads campaigns in the Google Analytics account with the link to the Ads account.
Search engine optimisation measures can also be analysed in Analytics. You will receive a list of the search queries that were able to successfully acquire customers organically and which target pages are affected by this.
In order to be able to analyse a campaign correctly, you must first provide your advertising media with the appropriate tracking. For this purpose, Google offers a campaign tracking, in which you can enter your parameters accordingly, so that you can then track your campaign easily and conveniently in the Analytics account.
Behaviour:
You can easily see the overall behaviour of the visitors in the behaviour analysis. You can see which website content was visited for how long and how often and where the exit pages are. These key figures can be analysed in more detail in order to recognise why customers drop out on the respective page.
Technical indicators such as website speed can also be analysed and observed here. This serves you for the knowledge of SEO measures, as the loading speed is an important SEO factor.
Conversions:
For many online marketers, conversion is one of the most important analyses from Google Analytics. Here, it’s all about the sales figures and the respective products that were successfully sold. In the e-commerce sub-category, the conversions are displayed clearly and simply. With this analysis, you can quickly see which sales have been generated.
Tests (A/B or multivariable tests):
If you really want to be successful online, you have to test what is well received by customers and what is not. In online marketing, you have the advantage that there are many useful and helpful tools for such tests, which show with clear facts which tests are well received and thus also achieve the desired results and where there is still potential for optimisation. Such tests are also called A/B or multivariable tests and can be carried out easily and free of charge with Google Analytics.
For such a test, open the category “Behaviour” in the Analytics account and click on “Tests”. Here you will see a list of the tests you have already performed. If there is no entry yet, you can create a new test here. To do this, click on “Create test”.
You quickly get to a page where you can specify the properties of the test that will be checked. You start with the name and enter a measurement value, which is defined as the test target. You can also specify the percentage of traffic (visitors) to be tested. In the advanced options, you can define the minimum duration of the test or a threshold value for the reliability of a result.
In the second step, you can configure the test content by specifying your two website variants.
After you have configured the test, you can retrieve the code manually or send it directly to the webmaster. You must insert the code in the “Head” tag on the original page as well as in variant 1. As soon as you have done this, you can check the test codes. The test campaign is now ready.
You can now regularly monitor the test reports and take your measures.