Telling a story with Google Analytics data - MnSearch Summit 2015

By Jeff SauerFounder of Jeffalytics

Tell a CompellingStory with Google

Analytics Data

http://www.ppccourse.nethttp://www.analyticscourse.net

Hi I’m Jeff and I live in San Francisco


I literally drove here on my motorcycle


Motorcycling and Blouses

Not a good idea


Confession Time


That was actually Prince, not me

Prince gifs found at: http://giphy.com/

Stories


My story was untrue

But it got your attention


Most of the stories we tell as marketers are true

But they are boring as shit


Let’s see another story


Who has sent/received a report like this?


That was written by a computer


There is a free tool that does this

Visit Quill Engage at https://quillengage.narrativescience.com/


Can you tell the difference?


New York Times had a quiz in March

Take the Quiz at New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1HVgnCx


I guessed 50% correct

http://www.ppccourse.nethttp://www.analyticscourse.net That’s Terminator level shit


We have already lost this battle

Time is not on our side


Don’t let the computers take your jorgbhs!


Can a computer replace your work?

Then we need to do more!


Time to borrow storytelling skills from Prince Shakespeare


5 Stories we Can Tell with Google Analytics Data

Change


Google Releases 70+ Updates Per Year


How do we keep up?



Test your knowledge

Periodic Table is available at http://www.jeffalytics.com

Good Vs. EvilImage found at: http://prince.org/Image found at: http://www.rogerebert.com/


Benchmarking the Competition

Bm


Story: Earned Media Rockstars


Story: Email LaggardsIs email performing poorly or just

not being tracked?


Story: Falling behind with paid mediaWe are not spending anything on

advertising. Should we be?


Story: We are big in Japan


Story: We missed the mark on mobile


How to Benchmark?

It’s super easy


These reports require just one setting

This is done at an account level


Benchmarks are set by industry vertical


You can choose location and website size


Supplement your story with

additional data


SEMRush Competitive Dashboard

SEM Rush Competitive Intelligence Tool: http://www.semrush.com/


Another View from SpyFu

SpyFu Competitive Intelligence Tool: http://www.spyfu.com/


SimilarWeb for Traffic Comparisons

SimilarWeb Competitive Intelligence Tool: http://www.similarweb.com/


Moat for Display Intelligence

MOAT Display Intelligence Tool: http://www.moat.com/


Now project your marketing budget


Low Watermark (What we are currently doing)

Provide several, well researched options

Medium Watermark(What our competitors are doing)

High Watermark(Our market potential)


Develop a low-medium-high watermark

Tweet or email [email protected] to get a preview of this spreadsheet


Project revenues for each budget



Put together a profit model to share


$-

$5,000,000

$10,000,000

$15,000,000

$20,000,000

$25,000,000

Profit Potential

Profit Potential of Marketing Initiatives

Low Watermark (current budget) Medium Watermark (competitors budget)

High Watermark (10x Moonshot Plan)


Story: Give us a bigger budget, and we will

generate $21 Million in profit!

Coming of AgeImage found at: http://prince.org/


Demographics Reports

Dg


Demographic reports will bring in data


This data is for about 50% of users

~50% of visitors will report demographics


Affinity and In-Market Segment reports


In Market Segments are a Goldmine!

You can directly target these people with

display ads and remarketing.


Demographic Segmentation Opportunity

Segment by Age or Gender


Review users by In-Market Segment


How to Get Demographics?

One setting and some code


Enable demographics reports setting

Enabling Demographics Reports is Subject to Google Privacy Requirements: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2700409


This requires one line of code (Universal)


Even easier in Google Tag Manager

Check this box for Demographics


More on Insights from Demographics

Demographics Insights from Jeffalytics -http://bit.ly/demosegments


Our content marketing efforts are improving

More coming of age stories you can tell

We have grown our presence year over year, because…

New advertising opportunities to test and learn

Darkness v.s. Light


Organic Search and (not provided) keywords

(Np)


10 alternatives to (not provided)

Article located at: https://moz.com/blog/proving-seo-value-in-google-analytics


Custom Channel Grouping

Cg


Default channels are too broad


Define New Channels, Tell Better Stories


Story: Brand vs. Non-Brand


Story: Non-Brand Organic Search rules

Non-Brand Organic

Search by content

topic


Story: We still don’t know a lot!

We have no idea!


Story: We are earning it

Earned the old

fashioned way


Story: Paid media drives our sales

Paid drives sales


Story: We have 45% unaccountable traffic

We have no idea!


How to Get Custom Channels?

Define your own settings


Tell Google Analytics your channels


Customize each channel: Non-brand

Non Brand Traffic is traffic not to your home or about pages?


Customize each channel: referrals


Mobile + Organic

More custom channel ideas

Mobile + Paid Media

Social Ads vs. PPC Webmail + Email

Guest Posts vs Earned Links Earned Social vs. Paid Social


Content Grouping

Co


Analyze content performance by theme


Group content by year of publication


How does word count affect organic?


How to Get Content Groupings

Rules, Extraction or Code


Some groupings require code


The art of content grouping by waterfall


Git my WordPress content grouping code

Get this code at: http://bit.ly/GTM_Content


More on Content Groupings

More Content Analysis Goodness: https://moz.com/blog/content-analysis-google-analytics

Appearance and realityImage found at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/


Story: Look at all of this great traffic!


Let’s tell EVERYONE!


Sorry, but that’s about as real as ice cream land

Image found at: http://stuffpoint.com/


Or a world where Prince is a sex symbol

Image courtesy of Giphy.com


We have a data quality issue

Dq


Actually, it’s a referrer spam issue

Rs


We first noticed this in late 2014

Article here: http://www.jeffalytics.com/8-steps-eliminating-bad-data-google-analytics/


These referrals are not real. They are CRAP!


From One Person in Russia

http://www.ppccourse.nethttp://www.analyticscourse.net Image via: http://mccluresmagazine.com/

And we all know…


No response from Google for 6 months


Nudged a little harder in April

Article here: http://www.jeffalytics.com/google-analytics-data-quality-issue/


“This is the most challenging data quality issue that I have seen in the 10 years I have

used the product.

I worry that if a permanent and swift solution is not found for this issue, it will cause long term damage to the credibility

of the product.”

- Jeffalytics, April 2015


Google Responded (sort of)


Simo Ahava Developed a removal Tool that is Pretty Good (but not perfect)

Simo’s Spam Filter Removal Tool: http://www.simoahava.com/spamfilter/


Google Provided an update to the update


But people are a lot less patient now


We are losing trust in Google Analytics


And we keep on seeing shit like this


And Pageview Spam


And Event spam… and more


Is this what it sounds like?

Image via Prince.org


This has become a massive issue, with only one solution…

We need a fresh start


Key Actions


Tell a story from your data (Don’t let computers win)

Key Actions to Take Today!

Develop a low-middle-high budget projection

Use demographics to inform marketing segments

Set up content and channel groupings for better insight

Install filters to block some referral spam

Demand a Google Analytics data annulment


Thank You!

Jeff SauerGoogle Analytics Consultant San Francisco, CAEmail: [email protected]: bit.ly/jeffalytics

Analyticscourse.net