Start With a Question and then Use Data to Answer that Question
Alcohol & Analytics – Episode 3
Freelance Coach, Sagan Morrow, and I have met up once again to chat Google Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, and Dark Social in our third episode of Alcohol & Analytics, which was recorded on February 20, 2017. Here are the first three questions from our webinar which focuses on what Google Analytics is, why bother with it, and where to start.
Q1: What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a piece of software that allows you to track any visitors and movement throughout your website (and mobile apps, Shopify, etc.). Google’s policy does not allow for personal information and therefore, as a Digital Marketer, we cannot see who you are.
Q2: Why bother with Google Analytics?
Google Analytics can teach you a lot about website, such as what pages or content your visitors are interested in as well as what’s important to your business. Smaller businesses don’t have large marketing budgets (if at all) therefore Google Analytics allows you find areas of opportunity to make adjustments to your website or content.
Q3: What Should I be Doing in Google Analytics?
Google Analytics contains a lot of data, so its best not to become overwhelmed with everything. Instead, it’s best to start by asking yourself a question and manipulating the data in a way that helps answer that question. One of the sections that I tend to start with is Default Channel Grouping, which can be found under Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels.
The Default Channel Grouping will group the various channels where your traffic is coming from. By clicking on one of these groups (e.g. Social), you can see all of the channels that are related to that group (e.g. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.). In addition, if you have your Events and Goals set up, you can see how many of these sessions convert in relation to the channel.
Lots More to Come
This webinar lasted an hour and a half and there’s a lot of information to cover. If you’re interested in learning more or want to stay in the loop for our next article, be sure to sign up to our newsletter below. If you have a question about Google Analytics, leave it in the comments!