A walkthrough of the reports that are useful to publishers.

1. Google Analytics for Publishers
Monique Sherrett
monique@boxcarmarketing.com
604-732-6467

2. What Is Google Analytics?
A free tool that lets you measure sales and conversions on your website, as well as
provides insights into how visitors arrived on your site and what they do on the site.
Think about data tracking in terms of ABCs
• Acquistion: How do people find our site? Where do they come from? Who are our
best supporters?
• Behaviour
• Content: What parts of the site is performing well, which page are most popular?
• Social: How visitors interact with sharing features on your site or engage with your
content across social networks like Twitter and Facebook
• Mobile: How do mobile visitors to the site perform in comparison to desktop visitors
• Conversions: How many visitors complete a desired goal like download a
brochure, sign up for a newsletter, register for an appointment, or take some revenue-
generating action like make a purchase.

3. Google Analytics Is …
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-11907108-5']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' :
'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>

4. Why Is Google Analytics So Complicated?
Monique Sherrett
Online Marketing Consultant
1995: Graphics Editor, Treeline
1996: Built 1st Publisher Website
1999: Raincoast Books
2007: Raincoast Online Marketing
Manager
2008: Founded Boxcar Marketing
2010: SFU Adjunct Professor

5. ABC Metrics Are Actionable
Revenue
Acquisition
Acquisition: Where do
Visitors come from?
Activation
Behaviour: What do
they do on the siteRetention
Referral
Conversion: What actions lead
to or influence revenue?

6. Let’s Look at Google Analytics

8. Default Timeframe Is 1 Month

9. Annotations
Expand

11. Audience > Demographics >
Location

12. Each Report Has a Drilldown

13. Each Report Has a Drilldown

18. All Traffic Sources

19. Referral Sources: Sites That Link to Your Site

20. Social Engagement

22. Content > Overview
/news
/blog
/programs
/contact

23. Content Drilldown > Page Navigation
Summary
/about
/brochure
/tuition
/schools
/contact
/how-to-register
/about-bc
/tuition
/student-stories
/contact

24. Goals

25. How to Set Up Goals: Step 1
www.domain.com

26. How to Set Up Goals: Step 2

27. Goals vs. Events
Goals
There is a distinct path or visitor flow
through a series of tasks. For example:
1. Visit the Webinar page
2. Click on Register for the Event
3. On the Register page, complete the
form.
4. Go to the Thank You page.
Events
There is NO distinct path, no change of
URLs, but there is a task or action taken.
Click on a Submit button and a pop-up
“Thank You” message appears.
< OR >
Click on link or button that takes the
visitor to another website.

28. Ask your programmer or IT person to implement the Event Tracking Code.
This post explains how:
http://www.boxcarmarketing.com/blog/item/how-to-set-up-event-tracking-in-google-analytics/
<a href=“http://www.twitter.com”>
< BECOMES >
<a href=“http://www.twitter.com” onClick=“_gaq.push([„_trackEvent‟, „Follow‟, „Twitter‟])”>
How to Set Up Events: Step 1

29. Events

30. Events

31. Ecommerce

32. General Metrics
Website traffic (traffic coming to the site)
Number of incoming links (sites sending traffic, referral traffic)
Social media engagement: Twitter, Video, Facebook, Blog
Actionable Metrics
Are they aware of us? (Traffic Sources > Referral, Search, Ads, Social)
If they are researching, how do they become familiar with us? (Content Paths)
As they form an opinion, how can we know if we’re under consideration?
(Non-revenue Goals and Events > Product Page to Download Excerpt, Enter
Contest, Exit via Social Media Follow Us link )
Once intent is formed, what action do they take?
(Bounce, Events, Ecommerce, other Conversions, Number of
Purchases, Bundles, Upselling)
Do your analytics reports drive action?

33. Month over Month: Top Reporting Metrics
Revenue
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referral
What behaviour do they
engage in?
If outreach, what sites are most
valuable?
How many conversions?
If time on marketing
activities, which perform best?
How do we acquire visitors?
If paid traffic, is it working?
Total Visits, month over month, %
Visit Sources, location
Visits by Social Media Channel
Pages/Visit
Bounce rate
Average time on site
% repeat visits
Non-revenue activities:
i.e., Visit product pages
Sign up for newsletter
Enter a contest
Exit via social media links
Goal Funnel > Visits with conversion
Lead Generation Conversion Rate
Number of purchases
Conversions by Channel

34. Tracking Dashboard

35. Create a Google Analytics Dashboard

36. Things Are Changing
Google’s Universal Analytics is a new code snippet that provides access in
Analytics to a new set of features that was previously only available in the
development environment, in particular the ability to set custom dimensions
and metrics and multi-platform tracking (track more than just websites).
New Code
• Implement it on all pages concurrently with your existing GA but use a new
account (new UA-number)
New Features
• Customize organic search sources
• Session and campaign timeout
• Referral exclusions
• Search term exclusions
• Mobile App Analytics
• Custom dimensions & metrics
Multi-Platform Tracking
• Currently in Public Beta (online/offline tracking)
Universal Analytics

37. Analyze your data on a quarterly basis
• Set Goals, Events and Ecommerce
• Know Your ABCs
• Check reports daily or weekly. Actually take time to analyze each quarter
Pay attention to the right data
Traffic Sources + Conversions: Custom report to see volume of referral
traffic by source but also conversions. Focus more effort in the right places.
Segment Audience: Conversion vs. Non. Organic vs. paid. Member vs. Non.
Know how different groups perform and what leads to a conversion.
Top Content: Pages? Themes? Custom alerts when traffic to key pages
drops or spikes
Visits: Publish content or launch promotions on high traffic days to capture
the most attention.
Next Steps

38. See Resources for Publishers
http://www.boxcarmarketing.com/google-analytics-resources-for-
publishers
Monique Sherrett
monique@boxcarmarketing.com
604-732-6467