WHAT IS GOOGLE ANALYTICS?

Google Analytics connects to your website. It has become our right-hand (along with Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console and Google Data Studio). Long-story short, even if you don’t use all the other free Google tools, use this one.  What can you do with GA? Well it is not a driver of traffic (that would be Google Ads).  GA gives you the insights on your traffic.

CONVERSION TRACKING

• Set up conversion tracking. Here are some of the things you can track:
  • Form fills
  • Phone calls
  • PDF downloads
  • Video “plays”
• Monitor sources of your best traffic. Many companies have set up Google Analytics, but are not using it to its full potential. At OpGo, we are able to help you set up the metrics that you want to see and we can create automated reports for your team.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS FEATURES

• Here is a brief overview of the sections within Google Analytics:
  • Customization – Here is where you have the ability to set up custom dashboards, reports and alerts. 
  • Realtime – 
  • Acquisition
  • Behavior
  • Conversions
  • Attribution
  • Discover
  • Admin
• Other favorite features? We have quite a few, but they are a little more advanced. If you dig GA, then you’ll want to explore these features.
  • Segments – These are subsets of your data. If you want to see metrics related JUST to “new” users vs “returning” — you can easily see that in Google segments. You can also set up your own segments. Think of them as “filters”. Another segment to consider is filtering on only those who have “watched a video” or were based in a specific geographic area.
  • Content Groupings – Let’s say you have several web pages related to one division of your company and you want to see the traffic metrics collectively with that division. In the behavior section of GA, you can 
  • Custom Alerts – The alerts are tied to your reports and can be set to be daily, weekly or monthly. The alerts can trigger an email notification or get a notification via mobile (US option only). For example, if site traffic increases by “x” percent, you can set up an alert.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS INSIGHTS

There are many insights one can learn by using GA. Here are a few examples:

• Do the traffic segments align with your business goals? If certain lines of business should be bringing traffic to your site, you’ll easily be able to tell.
• There are “flow reports” that show you a diagram of the path visitors take when they come into the site and where they go.
• See the amount of pages visited and time spent.
• See which devices bring in the most traffic.
• Filter the “paid” vs “organic traffic to see which channel brings conversions. 
• You can assign a lead value to each conversion and that will add more meaning to the reports.