This document provides guidance on using analytics without feeling overwhelmed. It outlines 5 principles for finding valuable analytics insights: 1) Avoid vanity metrics that don't impact business, 2) Focus on customers, 3) Track whether customers return, 4) Track your customer funnel, and 5) Establish your own benchmarks for comparison over time. It also provides 4 tactics for using Google Analytics, including setting up goals and funnels to track customer actions and conversions. Customer analytics is recommended for a more complete view of customers rather than anonymous traffic data alone.

1. HOW TO START USING ANALYTICS WITHOUT FEELING
OVERWHELMED
Lars Lofgren
Marketing Analyst - June 2012 info@kissmetrics.com - Confidential - Do not distribute

2. @larslofgren #KISSwebinar

3. We’ll cover...
1 What’s the point of analytics?
2 A treasure map for dealing with data
3 4 Google Analytics tactics you can use right
now

4. How do you know what works?
In business, we build as fast as we
can. New projects, new products, and
new customers.

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6. Build

7. Measure

8. Learn

9. If you want to win, focus on speed
The more times you go through the
cycle, the better your business will be.

10. Analytics is critical for measuring and learning
Analytics makes the Measure and
Learn steps MUCH faster.

11. TIME FOR THE
Treasure Map

12. Guiding Principle #1
AVOID VANITY
Metrics

13. These are vanity metrics

14. No connection to your business
Vanity metrics make us feel good
when they improve but they don’t
help us grow our business.

15. Web analytics is vanity metrics
In Google Analytics, vanity metrics are
everywhere.

16. Vanity metrics are a distraction

17. Difficult to take action
If pageviews go up, what should you
do?

18. Be careful with web analytics
Improving traffic doesn’t necessarily
improve your business.

19. Google Analytics Tactic #1
1 Pageviews
2 Time on site
3 Pages/visit
4 Visits
5 Bounce rate

20. Guiding Principle #2
FOCUS ON
Customers

21. How do we focus on our customers?
Using customer analytics is the
easiest way.

22. What if I don’t have customer analytics?
Even when using web analytics,
always focus on your customers.

23. How can we tell what’s working?

24. This tells us where our customers come from

25. Google Analytics Tactic #2
How to Setup Google Analytics Goals:
blog.kissmetrics.com/critical-goal-types

26. Google Analytics Tactic #3

27. Always ask yourself this question:
I see all this data on my traffic. But
where are my customers?

28. Guiding Principle #3
DO CUSTOMERS COME
Back?

29. Who gets credit?
Google Analytics gives credit to the
most recent traffic source.

30. Conversions get split up

31. Only possible when tracking real people
We need to track where customers
first come from and the total revenue
we receive from them.

32. This data include returning customers

33. Stop guessing
Always know how well your marketing
is doing.

34. Guiding Principle #4
TRACK YOUR
Funnel

35. Define your funnel
What steps does someone take to
become your customer?

36. Funnels track two metrics at each step
1 The number of people at each step
2 The percentage of people that move to
the next step (conversion rate)

37. Google Analytics Tactic #4

38. How to setup Google Analytics Funnels
blog.kissmetrics.com/critical-goal-types

39. Most businesses don’t have a single path

40. A customer analytics funnel

41. Focus on your business
Instead of forcing your business to
match a Google Analytics funnel, use
customer analytics funnels to match
your business.

42. Guiding Principle #5
START WITH YOUR
Benchmarks

43. Your metrics will be different
Every business is unique, establish
your own benchmarks.

44. Compare yourself to yourself

45. 5 Guiding Principles to Find Treasure
1 Avoid vanity metrics
2 Focus on customers
3 Find out if customers come back
4 Track your funnel
5 Establish benchmarks

46. 4 Google Analytics Tactics
1 Avoid vanity metrics
2 Setup Google Analytics goals
3 Use those magic buttons for goal data
4 Build a funnel
blog.kissmetrics.com/critical-goal-types

47. WHAT’S THE
Next Step?

48. Get customer analytics
When you collect data on your
customers, this is even easier.

49. Get reports on real people

50. Every point of engagement for a customer
“IT’S NOT JUST ANONYMOUS NUMBER...THESE ARE PEOPLE AND I CAN ACT ON THAT.”

51. Why is customer analytics so great?
1 Add accountability to your marketing
2 No vanity metrics
3 Build funnels to match your business
4 Know what your customers are using

52. Who offers customer analytics?

53. Other options?
Pay an engineer $100,000+ in salary
to build it for you.

54. Q&A Time!
Lars Lofgren
llofgren@kissmetrics.com
@larslofgren