Optimize Your Analytics to Measure Success

June 2013

Speakers: Ashley Stuart, Craig Galyon, Adam Ware

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General Agenda

• Overview of Session & SwellPath• Part I: Filters & Custom Reports with Adam• Part II: SEO & Social Analytics with Ashley• Part III: Analytics for Paid Media with Craig

Overview of SwellPath

Adam Ware

SwellPath CEO

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Overview

• Pay-per-click Advertising• Organic Search Optimization• Digital Analytics & Optimization

SwellPath is a data-driven web analytics consulting, and search marketing agency based in Portland, Oregon. We offer unmatched expertise in the following services:

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Logistics & History

• Founded in 2009

• Headquartered in the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon

• Staffed with a team of talented specialists, founded by industry veterans

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Proven Track Record

Part I: Filters & Custom Reports for Non-Branded Search

Adam Ware

SwellPath CEO

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Non-Branded Traffic Report Workshop

• What we’ll learn:> How to determine and meet analytics needs> Branded vs. Non-branded SEO traffic> Using Regular Expression in GA> Using Report Filters> Creating Custom Reports

• Tee-up > Ashley (advanced segments), and > Craig (custom dashboards)

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Meeting Analytics Needs: The Thought Process• Analytics needs to measure the goals and objectives of the business• What are our goals?

> Example: to work with more clients.

• How does that happen?> Example: more people become aware of us and our services, via our online

and offline efforts.

• Need to break it down by channel and activity.> Example: we’d garner more global organic search visits to our site, from people

who had not heard about us.

• How would we measure that?> They would be searching with phrases and keywords that didn’t include

“swellpath” or the names of anyone who works at SwellPath.

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KPIs & Key Metrics

• We have a KPI:> Non-branded organic search visits

• We may also have key metrics; what happens before, during, and after the visit?

Awareness Engagement Conversion

• Impressions • Clickthroughs/Visits

• Pages/visit• Time on site

• Newsletter signups

• Services pages• Case studies

pages

• Contact us form• Phone calls

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Using Filters in GA

• Problem: How do we isolate non-branded organic search visits?

• Solution: With regular expression and filters!

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Regular Expression

• A regular expression matches a pattern to a string. It is a “language” that allows for more complex searches in GA.

• Cheatsheet: http://www.swellpath.com/2012/08/8-simple-yet-powerful-regex-concepts-for-google-analytics/

• Example: > Regex: (s.*path)|(.*adam.*)> Matches: swellpath, swelpath, swel path, swell path, SwellPath,

swlpath, swellpth, swell pth, adam, adamware, adam ware, Adam Ware, portland adam where

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Using Filters

• Filters enable you to isolate dimensions (rows) in a report, or filter based on metric values

• Combining regular expression and filters is POWERFUL

• Activity: Navigate to Traffic Sources > Search > Organic

• We’re going to filter out some branded traffic from your report!

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Activity I: Advanced Report Filtering

• Navigate to Traffic Sources > Search > Organic• Select desired date range• Click on “advanced”• Select “Exclude”• Select “Keyword” from “Dimensions”• Select “Matching Regular Expression”• Enter regex• Apply!

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Creating Shortcuts & Custom Reports

• Shortcuts enable you to quickly link to a report that has filtering in place.

• Custom reports allow you to customize the dimensions and metrics in a report, along with custom filtering.

• So, for example, you can customize a report to show the various stages a prospect may move through…

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Activity II: Creating a Report Shortcut• Click the Customization tab in the orange top bar in Google Analytics• Click the “+ New Custom Report” button• Properly title your report• Create and name your tabs• Select what type of report you would like• Add the appropriate metrics• Add the appropriate dimensions; use secondary dimensions if you

would like to be able to drill down• Add the filter we created in Activity I• Select which profiles you’d like this report to appear in

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Finished Product Should Look Similar to This

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Part II: Analytics for SEO & Social Media

Ashley Stuart

SEO & Social Media Analyst

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Introduction: Ashley Stuart

>Search & Social Media Analyst at SwellPath>Background in Media Planning/Buying>Native Portlander>Pinner, Tweeter, G+ Advocate, & Vine-obsessed

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@FancyPants10

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Agenda

I. Analytics for SEOI. Modern SEO

II. SEO KPIs

III. GA for SEO

II. Analytics for Social MediaI. GA for Social

II. Creating an Advanced Segment

III. Site Specific Tools

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Analytics for SEO

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Modern SEO: Beyond Rankings and Backlinks

• Local Search • Social • People-Centric Keywords (v.s. Robot-Centric) • Content • Rich Snippets and Semantic Markup• Web Authority

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KPIs for SEO

>Traffic Themes • Branded (swellpath|swell ?path|swellpath.com)• Non-Branded (SEO consulting, PCC management)

• Segment Themes (SEO, Analytics, PPC)

> Landing Page Metrics• Bounce Rate• Specific Keywords Driving Traffic

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Let’s Explore: Google Analytics for SEO

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Let’s Explore: Queries Queries:

> Discover the top searches bringing users to your site

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Let’s Explore: Landing PagesLanding Pages

> Shows URLs that generate the most impressions in Google web searches> Identify landing pages that have good CTRs but a poor average position

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Let’s Explore: Landing Page & Keywords ConversionGo To: Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic• Set Primary Dimension as ‘Landing Page’ & Secondary Dimension as ‘Keyword’

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The Elephant in the Room

(not provided)

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The Wrath of (not provided)

Percent of organic traffic…

30% of all organic traffic

Q1 ‘12 Q2 ‘12 Q3 ‘12 Q4 ‘12

May 2013

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Google

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http://www.notprovidedcount.com/

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Accounting for (not provided): The Formula

Estimate = Raw + ((Raw / known) x (not provided))

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Activity: Accounting for (not provided)

Example: non-branded traffic

1. Find your total (not provided) keywords> (not provided): 30,000 visits

2. Find your total organic traffic> Organic: 60,000 visits

3. Find your raw visits (e.g. non-branded) > Non-branded: 8,000 visits

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Accounting for (not provided): The Math

1. Find # of Known Keywords: Total organic – not provided > 60,000 – 30,000 = 30,000

2. Take non-branded / Known Keywords

> 8,000 / 30,000 = 0.27

3. Multiply your percentage (0.27) by your not provided

> 0.27 x 30,000 = 8,100

4. Add that to your raw visits (non-branded in this example)

> 8,100 + 8,000 = 16,100

16,100 is our non-branded traffic accounting for not provided

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Accounting for (not provided): The Easy Way

http://www.mikearnesen.com/seo-tools/not-provided/

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Analytics for Social Media

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Let’s Explore: Google Analytics for Social

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Let’s Explore: Social Conversions

Measure the success of your social campaigns by aligning them with specific landing page or transactional goals to identify which networks impact the bottom-line.

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Let’s Explore: Social Plugins

Measure your on-site engagement with “plugins” tab> Discover what pages are driving the most social shares> What social sites your content is being shared on

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Activity: Creating an Advanced Segment for Social• Consider the social sites you care to track

> What sites do you have an active brand presence?> What sites are bringing significant traffic to your site?> Use the ‘Social Overview’ tab to gain additional insight

• Beyond the “Big Three”> Reddit> StumbleUpon> Instagram> Quora> SlideShare> Pinterest

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Activity: Creating an Advanced Segment for Social

• Once you determine the social sites that are most valuable to your brand, create a Advanced Segment to track these visits.

• Remember the qualifiers for the following: > Twitter: t.co> Google Plus: plus.google.com > Facebook: Facebook.com, fb.me, m.facebook.com

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Activity: Creating a Social Media Roll-Up

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Test Your Segment & SaveRegEx Example: m.facebook.com|facebook.com|fb.me|instagram.com|t.co|pinterest.com|quora.com|

plus.google.com

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Site Specific Tools

Facebook Insights Page Level

• Daily People Talking About This• Daily New Likes• Daily Total Reach (Organic + Paid)• Daily Reach of Page Posts• Daily Total Impressions of Your Posts• Tab: Daily Like Sources for Tracking

Mobile Use• Tab: Daily Talking About this By…• Tab: Daily People Who Interacted…

Post Level• Lifetime Post Reach• Lifetime Post Impressions• Lifetime Talking About This (post)• Tab: Lifetime Talking About this

(comments and Likes the post received)

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Site Specific Tools

Facebook Conversion TrackingTrack the behavior of your Facebook audience.

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Twitter Analytics for All!

• Favs, Retweets, and Replies• Sort by Best (top 15%), Good (top 75%)• Discover what type of messages/content gain the

most engagement

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Site Specific Tools

Twitter Counter:

Compare your follower growth with your competitors over time.Attribute follower spikes to specific posts or campaigns.

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Site Specific Tools

FollowerWonk• Find optimal times to Tweet• Demographic & Geographic data• Social Authority• Tweet Recencies• Tweeted Content• Commonly Tweeted Topics

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Site Specific Tools

Pinterest AnalyticsPinterest Audience Insight = Better Content Decisions

> Must have Pinterest Business Page> Adaptation of Pinterest's New Look> A Verified Website (denoted by a checkmark next to your URL on your profile page)

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Other Social Measurement Tools: Social Mention

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Other Social Measurement Tools: Simply Measured

Tons of free data at the cost of a tweet or follow

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Part III: Analytics for Paid Media

Craig Galyon

Sr. PPC & Media Specialist

Who Am I?

Craig Galyon – Sr. Media Specialist

What Do I Do?• PPC• Display

• Retargeting• RTB – Behavioral• Direct Publisher Placements

• Paid Social Media• Facebook• LinkedIn• Twitter

Hour III: Analytics for Paid Media

What we will discuss

4 useful tools in Google Analytics to make your advertising go further and your day easier:

1. Attribution – why it matters

2. Position Analysis – how to maximize ROI

3. Mobile – how to bid with enhanced campaigns

4. Dashboards – workshop

Hour III: Analytics for Paid Media

What we will NOT discuss

Transitions. You’ll understand shortly.

Attribution – What Is It?

Attribution is the assignment of an event to a source.

Attribution is used to evaluate ALL interactions which contributed to an event.

An example…

Attribution – See It In Action

Imagine the following path to conversion…

Goal Completion!Who gets the credit?

If you are only using last-click (default for Google Analytics)…

Attribution – For PPC Campaigns

The same applies to Campaigns within a PPC Account

Goal Completion!Is your Branded campaign your top performing campaign?

How about Remarketing?

Why bid on Non-Branded?

Attribution – Richie Rich Don’t Give A Shit

If you’re this kid, you have too much money to care where it gets spent.

For the rest of us, we need to know how to best allocate our ad dollars.

Attribution - Where does the $$ go?

In this example, we might make the decision to cut the Display budget in favor of more Email marketing.

Would that person even be a subscriber if they weren’t introduced to the brand through a display ad?

0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%

Attribution – Solving Problems Since 2009We know the problem, what’s the solution?

Where do I spend? How much?

As with everything, it depends…

Attribution Models

Bell Curve

A hybrid of the Last Interaction and First Interaction models.

Instead of giving all the credit to either the first or last interaction, you can split the credit between them. One common scenario is to assign 40% credit each to the first interaction and last interaction, and assign 20% credit to the interactions in the middle.

Time Decay

Most heavily credits the touch points that occurred nearest to the time of conversion.

Linear

Gives equal credit to each channel interaction on the way to conversion..

First Interaction

Attributes 100% of the conversion value to the first channel with which the customer interacted.

Last Interaction

Attributes 100% of the conversion value to the last channel with which the customer interacted before buying or converting. Google Analytics uses this model by default when attributing conversion value in non-Multi-Channel Funnel reports.

Attribution – Top Conversion Paths

Export to Excel

Attribution - The Good

Attribution – The Bad

Attribution - Text to Columns

use this equation in excel to do the same thing

=COUNTIF(H2:XFD2,"PaidSearch")/COUNTA(H2:XFD2)

Attribution – Linear Formula

Linear Value = (PPC)

PPC InteractionsTotal Interactions( ) X Conversion Value

or

Attribution – Real Values

Soon you’ll get charts like this…

If That Seems Like Too Much Work…

There’s a Google for that

Google Analytics Attribution Modeling Tool

Google Analytics Attribution Modeling ToolGoogle Analytics Attribution Modeling tool is not available to everyone. You can get access by putting your name on this list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEJrTVNSN2RBUm03MUVHLWRwcE1jT1E6MA#gid=0

Transition Slide

Mobile – How to bid with Enhanced CampaignsOverview:• February 2013 – Google announced upgrade to “Enhanced Campaigns”• Will automatically begin transitioning campaigns on July 22nd, 2013• Average CPC in Mobile is 16% lower than Desktop• New settings:

• Desktop and Tablets considered the same• Mobile targeting activated for all campaigns

• Bid Adjustment set as a percentage modifier of standard bid• Campaigns not manually updated prior to July 22 will have percentage set

automatically by Google based on “similar advertisers”• Bid Adjustment ranges from -100% to +300%

Mobile – Defining Mobile

Google Analytics:Mobile = Mobile Phones + TabletsNon-Mobile = Desktop

Google AdWords:Mobile = Mobile Phones Non-Mobile = Desktop + Tablets

Mobile – Determining Value of Mobile

Create A Mobile Custom Segment!

YAY!

Mobile – Custom Segment – Mobile (No Tablet)

+Create New Segment

Advanced > Conditions

Include:Mobile (Including Tablet) > exactly matches > Yes

Exclude:Tablet > exactly matches > No

Save

Mobile (including tablet) – Tablet = Mobile Only

Mobile – Desktop/Tablet/Mobile

Let’s take it a step further…

Mobile – Custom Segment – Desktop + Tablet

+Create New Segment

Advanced > Conditions

Include:Mobile (Including Tablet) > exactly matches > No

OR

Tablet > exactly matches > Yes

Save

Non Mobile + Tablet = AdWords Non-Mobile

Mobile – Value of Mobile Defined by AdWords

SitewideMobile visit value low

30%

PPCMobile visit value

high104%

Mobile – How to determine Bid Adjustment

Mobile Bid Adjustment =

Per Visit Value (Mobile)Per Visit Value (Desktop/Tablet)

To exclude Mobile entirely: -100%

Congratulations! Go celebrate…

Maximize ROI by Position

Which position is the best?

2

PLA

3

4

1

5

Spoiler Alert!

Maximize ROI by Position

Naturally we assume it’s better to be 1st than 2nd

Not necessarily the most efficient…

What are your goals? • Increase volume• Maximize ROI• Reduce CPA

Cost to increase position

What does it cost to move from position 4 to position 1?

Average Pos. Avg. CPC % Increase

4 $1.21

3 $1.66 37%

2 $2.38 43%

1 $3.64 53%

Considerations:• Start with a 10/10 QS keyword

• Change in QS did not affect test• Competition

• Competitive term with advertisers in 1-10 positions

• Search Volume• Enough search volume to

perform test in 1 week, without competition adjusting bids too much

Let’s see what Google Analytics has to say

Position 3• Highest Per Visit Value• Lower CPC than

position 1 & 2

Cost to increase position

Average Pos. Avg. CPC % Increase Value Per Visit ROI

4 $1.21 $2.72 224%

3 $1.66 37% $4.33 260%

2 $2.38 43% $1.72 72%

1 $3.64 53% $1.51 41%

Incorporating what we learned from Google Analytics Position 3 Wins!

More Transitioning…

Dashboards – Report Less. Be Happier.