Posted by One of the best ways to evaluate your marketing success is by tracking your analytics. Campaign metrics may include traffic, engagement, reach, and conversion. However, it’s hard to find an all-in-one tool that will provide you with accurate data and insight. What’s the best tool? Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a powerful software that helps marketers track their website traffic and analyze in-depth details about their site visitors. It helps businesses understand their audience, campaign behaviour, and it provides data to improve success strategy. While people may know that Google Analytics is data-driven, there’s so much more that it can offer.
Here are the 12 best features of Google Analytics (that you may or may not know) and how you can maximize them for your marketing success.
1. Tracking Real-Time Traffic Data
Tracking real-time data helps businesses improve their campaign performance and strategies.
When you’re logged in to your Google Analytics account, you can see site visitors come and go in real-time. You can monitor what page they’re currently viewing, their actions on your website, and when do they leave. By seeing real-time traffic data, it’s easy to determine when your visitors are most active and how long they stay on your page.
To see real-time data, you simply need to log in to Google Analytics and navigate your view. Open Reports and then click Real-Time. Now, you can monitor all activities on your site.
2. Data Import
Google Analytics may be widely used for tracking website traffic, but it has a Data Import feature that lets you combine data from other sources. Whether you want to track your analytics on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or other social media platforms, Google Analytics got you covered. This function improves not just your website performance but your overall online marketing efforts.
To access Data Import, go to the Admin section then click Property. You may have multiple properties or accounts on Google Analytics, including your website, blog, mobile application, or social media pages. In the Property column, you’ll see a Data Import option. Click on it and select an existing data set to view different traffic data from your properties.
3. Analyzing Site Visitors
Knowing your visitors’ demographics, interests, and behaviours will help you get better online visibility.
Understanding your audience is one of the surefire ways to improve your website optimization and achieve your marketing goals. With Google Analytics, you can find your visitors’ geographic locations and identify the devices they use in viewing your page. You’ll also know their interests, behaviours, and the things they’re searching for on your site.
For the location, you can see both the countries and cities of your visitors. Just go to the Audience section under Demographics and start tracking user location. Meanwhile, the Behavior Flow section allows you to track the path that your website visitors take — what brought them to your page, what contents are they viewing, and in which part did they leave. All these details will give you an insight into the kind of visitors you attract and whether you still need to make your webpage more interesting.
4. Mobile Site Creation
More people are using mobile phones than laptops or computers; hence, your website should be mobile-friendly.
Not all websites have mobile versions, which may affect accessibility. Developers usually provide desktop and mobile versions of a website, but some businesses disregard the mobile feature due to additional costs. If you’re confused about whether to create a mobile site, you may look at your Google Analytics statistics.
Under the Visitors menu, you’ll find a Mobile option. Click on that and see which specific device people are using when they visit your site. If the mobile device percentage is higher, you clearly need to create a mobile version of your website. Otherwise, people will always leave your page because it’s not user-friendly and accessible.
5. Page Ranking
The higher your page ranks on search engines, the more it’s important and relevant for audiences.
Do you find it hard to determine which of your pages are most visited or least interesting? Worry not; Google Analytics will provide you the answers. The tool can rank your pages by popularity, showing your top and worst-performing content.
Through this data, you can better optimize your low-performing pages or see what heightened your visitors’ interests. Maybe blog posts with images are more attractive for your audience and informational content falls flat — or vice versa. Just study the data and work on improving your website content always.
To determine your pages’ ranking and performance, follow this step: Content menu > Site Content > Pages.
6. Online Campaigns Statistics
As previously mentioned, you can track your website, social media campaigns, and other online marketing efforts on Google Analytics. The Advanced Segments area allows you to keep track of all your campaigns and see which ones gained higher traffic, engagement, and conversions.
To use this option, go to Advanced Segments and select the New Custom Segment. Enter the site URL that you want to track and then click Apply to view the statistics. Repeat the process for your other campaigns and don’t forget to label each domain. By tracking your online campaign’s behaviours, you’ll know whether your marketing efforts are giving you good ROI or just burning your budget for nothing.
7. Tracking Website Clicks
Many factors affect your website clicks, including a strong CTA button and relevant links.
Clicks are one of the most important website metrics. The more clicks you have, the more your visitors are interested in your page and are likely to purchase — except when they click the Exit or Unsubscribe button. Google Analytics can track every click that your website receives.
The tool gives you an in-depth analysis of your most active buttons or links and the ones that aren’t working. If some of your links aren’t getting clicks, you need to re-evaluate them or totally replace them with a new link. Again, constant optimization is the key.
Like page ranking, you can monitor your clicks on the Content section. After going to this section, simply click In-Page Analytics to view the click percentage of your links and buttons.
8. Multiple Goals and Their Conversion Rates
Yes, you can create multiple goals on Google Analytics and track the conversion rates individually. You may add goals, such as email marketing, Contact Us form, eCommerce campaign, social media advertising, and CTA buttons. Once you’ve set up your goals, you can start tracking their conversions and monitor their effectiveness.
You can navigate the Goals tab under the Admin section. Once you’re on it, you may select custom goals or create your own. Don’t forget to choose a goal type and track your conversion rates accordingly.
9. Monitoring Abandonment
Tracking abandonment will help brands recapture lost revenue and increase customer purchases.
Did your website visitors go as far as your purchase page but didn’t click the Buy Now button? Or did they click your Contact Us page but didn’t fill-up the form? Google Analytics will help you track your cart and form abandonment. To do this, you simply need to create an eCommerce campaign goal that can be navigated on the Goals tab under the Admin section.
In some cases, visitors will leave your shipping page or payment page. Maybe offering free shipping, special discounts, or changing your payment method can increase your purchase rate. On the other hand, make sure your contact form is simple and doesn’t require sensitive details. Focus on the basic information and be open to any type of inquiries, concerns, or requests.
10. Checking Your Website’s Loading Capacity
Apart from content and usability, your website’s loading capacity is a great factor in driving more visitors. Fortunately, Google Analytics allows you to see how quickly or slowly your page loads. It also informs you whenever your site’s having errors or bugs.
To see your website’s loading capacity, simply open Reports, select Behavior, and then click Site Speed.
11. Traffic Data Optimization
As discussed above, traffic is the primary metric that Google Analytics provides. To better optimize your data, the tool will show you the channels where your traffic is coming from — whether on search engines, paid ads, or social media. You can then segment your traffic, create your own channel groups, and focus on the ones that give you more visitors for better results.
To view traffic source, just go to Acquisition in Google Analytics, select All Traffic, then click Source/Medium. Meanwhile, you can segment your traffic by accessing your reports and clicking New Segment. You may add up to 4 segments per report. If you want to create channel groups, you can do it in the Channel settings under the Admin section. Simply click Channel Grouping then select +New Channel Grouping. Enter a channel name and description and you’re good to go.
12. Evaluating Campaigns and eCommerce Performance
Marketing campaigns can either be long-term or quick, one-day campaigns. Nevertheless, Google Analytics will provide real-time data on your campaign’s behaviour and its click-through rate. Just add a tracking code to your website campaign’s URL so you can track results from time to time.
On the other hand, tracking your eCommerce performance may require more work and manual set-up. But once you already have a tracking system in place, you can now easily monitor your page’s sales activity, time of purchase, number of returns and refunds, and your best-selling products. To see eCommerce-specific reports, just open Reports, select Conversions, and then click Ecommerce.
Final Thoughts
Success is never an easy feat. But with the right tools and strategies, you can achieve optimal results from your marketing efforts.
Analytics is important in growing your business. It helps you monitor your campaigns, establish patterns, and set effective strategies to achieve your goals. Sure, you may have great content and SEO skills, but without data analysis, your online marketing efforts will never evolve.
Good thing that we have a powerful digital marketing tool like Google Analytics. If you’re still starting and don’t know how to maximize it, start with these 12 useful features. Once you’ve given yourself solid navigation, you can now explore the tool and make the most out of your campaigns. Your marketing efforts can surely reach great heights when you aid them with Google Analytics.
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