Measuring
digital strategy
results
Learn digital strategy in five steps
Step four - measurement
Individual channel platforms, such as Facebook and Google ads, have their own reporting and analytics to measure campaign performance. But to measure the overall success of digital strategies, you can use measurement tools which are specific to your own website.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free platform for measuring activity on a website such as number of visitors, most popular pages, time spent on page, success of digital campaigns etc.
Google Analytics uses Java script tracking code on each page of the website to track user behaviour. Once someone visits a website, cookies are placed in their browser so GA will remember them the next time they visit the website – this is how we differentiate between new and returning users.
When setting up Google Analytics, an account will be structured as below:
Organisation (i.e. your brand)
– Account
– Property (has unique tracking ID – e.g. UA-18978)
– View (can be filtered) (can be broken down to locations – e.g. states)
To create a Google Analytics account, you simply need a Google account (i.e. a Gmail address) and website.
Tip
Ensure you use the same Gmail address you used to sign up for Google Ads, Google Tag Manager or other Google products as this makes integrating products much easier.
When setting up Analytics, you will go through a step-by-step process (e.g. naming your Analytics property, selecting your industry etc) and then use a tracking code (implemented via Google Tag Manager) to link GA to your website.
Video
To check Analytics is working correctly, you can check the Real Time report to see how many people are currently on the website.
When looking through certain reports, the term [not set] may appear. This means certain information is not available due to Analytics being unable to determine certain metrics. For example, someone’s location may not be able to be determined so the locations report will show [not set] for that user.
Key insights you can gain from using Google Analytics.
Currently active users:
The Real Time and Home reports show how many people are currently viewing content on the website. Data is available within a few seconds of a user being on the site and you can view data from the last 30 minutes. The active pages reporting shows which pages live users are currently viewing.
This report is useful if you have recently sent an eDM to view how many people immediately visit the site.
Audience overview:
This report provides insight into the overall performance of the website and the experience people have on the site.
A session is a single visit to the website in which a user may view multiple pages. If a user is inactive on the website (i.e. using another tab in their browser) for 30 minutes, the session will expire. If the user returns after 30 minutes, Analytics will begin another session.
The average session duration metric shows how long users are spending on the site. When measuring session duration, the last page viewed by a user is not counted by Analytics (meaning the actual session duration may be slightly longer).
A bounce occurs when a user visits only one page on the site (for example, visiting the home page from Google search results) and then immediately leaves.
A high bounce rate may indicate there is a misalignment between what a user was hoping for and what the website delivered. However, a high bounce rate can sometimes mean a user found the exact answer they were looking for and then had no reason to explore any further. This can be the case when people visit sites to read a single article or content piece.
You can create segments which will only show details on users who match, say, age, gender, language, affinity category, in-market segment, locations etc.
Interest and affinity categories:
Similar to Google Ads, Analytics will provide insight into which categories website visitors fall into.
Affinity audiences contain people who have demonstrated a broad interest in a particular topic (based on their browsing history and search behaviour).
In-market audiences contain people who are actively searching for products/services and are looking to buy.
By using the Advertising Feature within Analytics, you can use Google’s third-party advertising cookies to measure user interests based on browsing behaviour. This helps in creating remarketing lists for future campaigns. To use the Advertising Feature navigate to ‘Admin’, then ‘Tracking Info’ and select ‘Data Collection’.
Within the audiences section of Analytics, you can build your own custom audiences to see how they are currently performing on the website. This can help determine the suitability of using the audience within a future cold or remarketing campaign.
Behaviour report:
You can use the behaviour report to find the most popular pages on the website along with insights relating to the paths people take when on the site.
The Content Drilldown report shows, for example, which pages people visit after they have viewed a certain page. The Site Search reports allow us to see the particular terms people are using as they search the website.
The unique page view metric counts a page once even if a user visits it multiple times (e.g. from the homepage to a product page then back to the homepage).
Acquisition report:
The acquisition report provides insight into how people found your website.
Data is presented as source and medium as well as other acquisition dimensions (such as a campaign name from Google Ads). Source explains where a user first saw a message (such as on Google). Medium reveals how a user became aware of the website (a source of Google could then list CPC – a Google ad – as the medium).
Direct traffic includes people who didn’t search for the website on Google or clicked on an ad. These users typed the website URL directly into their browser (or arrived from a bookmark or a link in a standard Outlook email).
The acquisition report provides good insight into how relevant traffic is from each source by assessing how long they stay on the site, bounce rate, pages viewed etc. Highly relevant traffic which is interested in the content of the website will have longer session durations, lower bounce rates than poorer quality traffic.
Tip
The acquisition report can help determine which channel provides the best audience for your brand.
When viewing the referral report, you can see exactly which external websites provided visitors to your website.
When setting up online campaigns (e.g. on Facebook ads), you can use UTM tags.
These tags are the individual query parameters used to create a campaign specific URL. UTM tags include utm_name, utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content.
These tags help give greater insight into exactly how users arrived on a campaign specific landing page on the website (i.e. did they arrive from a specific campaign/ad on Google or Facebook).
Device Category report:
This report shows the devices (e.g. desktop, mobile and tablet) people use to access the website.
This can be a helpful report when setting up Google Ads campaigns as it can provide insights into setting bid adjustments based on mobile or desktop users. For example, if mobile users are much more likely to visit the website, we can direct Google to only show ads to users on mobile.
Tracking conversions with Google Analytics:
Conversions refer to actions people take on the website such as purchasing a product, filling in a form to receive a call back from a salesperson, downloading a PDF etc.
Any action which is considered valuable to a business can be considered a conversion (business KPI’s can be translated into Goals within Google Analytics.). Tracking conversions is usually managed by setting up Goals which track how many people perform a certain action.
Conversion tracking can be the most important part of Google Analytics. Goals can be set up based on the below (plus more):
- Pages per session
- Destination (e.g. landing on a thank-you page)
- Event (e.g. submitting a form, downloading a PDF, watching a video etc)
- Duration (staying for more than 2 minutes on the website)
Video
Goals based on users visiting a certain page, such as a checkout page, can be set up to include other pages within the funnel (such as viewing a cost of shipping page). If a user views at least one page involved in making a conversion but doesn’t actually convert this will be considered by Analytics to be goal abandonment.
These users make up data within the goal abandonment metric and can provide insight into areas which have turned people off (e.g. shipping cost, product features page, too many fields in an online form etc). You can also set up a funnel to view where people may drop off (e.g. Cart > Billing info > Shipping info > Confirm).
When setting up a single goal, such as ‘enquiry forms submitted’, the conversion event can occur across any page where such a form is available. The Goal Completion Location dimension report reveals the particular page where a conversion occurred. This is especially useful if you’re including multiple pages for a single conversion goal.
You can also attribute a dollar value to a goal each time a conversion occurs. For example, when a user submits an enquiry form, that lead may be worth $40 to your business. The actual order value of a shopping cart order can also be added to goal completions. Lifetime value metrics (such as lifetime revenue per user and lifetime revenue) will show the total value based on users, instead of sessions.
Which ad resulted in a conversion?
Attribution is a method of deciding which medium (such as clicking on a Google ad) resulted in a conversion.
Popular attribution models include first interaction (credit is given to the first ad a user clicked) and last interaction (credit is given to the last ad).
On average, it takes a user seven interactions with a brand before completing an action (such as filling in a form or purchasing). It’s unlikely they will only click on a single ad and convert. This is why attribution modelling and assisted conversion data is important.
Multi-channel funnels (under ‘Conversions’) show which channels (e.g. organic, paid, email etc) provided the most conversions.
You can also view assisted conversions which show all channels involved in making a conversion. For example, a user may have clicked on a Google Search Ad, left the website, then returned by clicking on a Google Display Ad and submitting their details for a call back. The search ad would receive part of the credit for achieving the conversion.
The ‘Model Comparison Tool’ attributes conversions to the last interaction and helps to determine the channels which are most effective at completing conversions.
Creating a Google Analytics dashboard:
Whilst Google Analytics provides a large amount of information, the data can become overwhelming and tedious to sort through.
Dashboards provide a central place to view large amounts of specific data. Dashboards can be created from scratch, or you can use existing templates created from both Google and community users.
When creating a dashboard from scratch, you decide which metric you would like to view and use a widget to pull data from Analytics to create a snapshot report.
Imagine you wanted to create a dashboard which was provided insight similar to below:
View the tabs below to see the information required to set up each widget.
Once you have set up a dashboard with the above metrics, you can use the date function to compare performance across multiple time periods (such as performance this week compared to last week).
If you would prefer to use an existing template to create a dashboard, you can find popular Google Analytics templates below:
Resource
You can also go one step further than Google Analytics dashboards and use Google Data Studio to help visually display information and insights.
Google Data Studio
Whilst Google Analytics provides figures and insights relating to website visitors, Google Data Studio helps to visualise and present the data.
This data visualisation platform can be used not only with Google Analytics but also with Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Social Media, eDM’s and a range of other platforms which provide data.
You can also connect your own data source (e.g. a sales file spreadsheet or customer records) and use Data Studio to help visualise the information.
Resource
Key Google Analytics reports available using Data Studio include acquisition, audiences and behaviour dashboard reports. These dashboards are accessible at the top of the page within the dashboards report of Google Analytics.
Data Studio Analytics reports
How does Data Studio work?
Data Studio can automatically connect to certain platforms to pull data directly (such as Analytics or Facebook Ads) or data can be manually entered into a Google Sheets document and connected. This connection set up is known as using a Connector. There are hundreds of Connectors from both Google and private websites/businesses which can be used to connect data sources to Data Studio dashboards.
Once the data is connected, visual dashboards can be created which include interactive charts, graphics, tables and more. If a data source (such as a Google Sheet) is updated with new data, the dashboard will automatically update to include the latest additions.
Similar to Analytics, Data Studio dashboards offer a date range selection feature which can show how data changes over time (e.g. increases in website visitors, changes in CPC costs, number of products sold etc).
Two types of data will be available within a data source – dimensions and metrics.
- Dimensions refer to measurement categories such as dates, names, descriptions etc (similar to headings columns in Excel) rather than specific numbers.
- Metrics refer to measurements such as numbers, percentages, dollar amounts etc and are derived from dimensions.
A metric is always based on a number, whilst a dimension is made up of a category or word. Within Data Studio, dimensions are highlighted in green and metrics in blue.
If you make changes within the dashboard data source, these changes will only affect the visual display of data. The original underlying data set (e.g. a Google Sheet) will remain unchanged.
If you make any changes directly to a connected data source, you will need to click the ‘refresh fields’ button within Data Studio to ensure the new data is passed through.
If you decide to make a major change to a data source, such as changing the name of a column heading, you will need to update the relevant fields within Data Studio.
For example, if Data Studio is using data from Column A and this column name is changed, DS will still search for the original Column A name and will show an error when no such column can be found. If the name in the data source is changed to Column 1, then the Column A name selection within the dashboard needs to be updated to Column 1.
Data studio can also present data which is not present in the underlying data source. This is achieved through the ‘calculated fields’ feature and can be used to create sums, averages, percentages etc to better simplify and present data.
Creating a Data Studio dashboard:
When creating dashboards and reports, you can start from scratch or use templates created by Google, community members or private businesses (e.g. templates for purchase). To create a report from scratch, you first need to connect a data source. As an example, we’ll be using a simple Google Sheets document:
Different tabs on the same spreadsheet can be used as individual sources.
Next, specify the headings for the data source and click ‘connect’.
Then, define the dimensions and metrics for the data source, followed by clicking ‘add to report’
You now have a blank canvas to begin designing a dashboard. A dashboard can have multiple pages which helps include more elements into the one report.
When you first add a new table/graph, Data Studio will use any data from the data source. You will need to define which columns and rows should be used (in the right hand menu – dimensions and metrics).
The below video provides an excellent tutorial on building a comprehensive dashboard once a data source is connected.
Video
A variety of elements are available to help visualise data but some are better suited than others at displaying certain data types:
- Bar charts (best for category comparisons)
- Line chart (used to track trends over time and can be done with multiple lines/variables)
- Scorecard (shows a single important metric such as total website visitors and can be measured against different date ranges)
- Pie chart (compare the individual components of a whole)
- Geo Map (show location specific data such as sales from certain countries)
- Scatter chart (identify correlations over time)
- Bullet chart (measures horizontally and can show how close you are to a goal/KPI)
A scorecard can be an essential element to use in many reports as it provides a quick reference. When setting up a scorecard, set ‘Count’ under the metric type. Under ‘Conversion date range’, you can choose ‘previous period’. This will show a small positive/negative number next to the scorecard figure comparing performance over two time periods.
Save time by using existing templates:
If you don’t want to create reports from scratch, you can choose from hundreds of existing templates. These templates provide already created graphs, charts, layouts etc and simply use your data source to populate the necessary data.
Once you choose a template, you will be prompted to select a data source. If a template is not directly linked to Data Studio (e.g. a Google product), Connector plug-ins are available to share data between Data Studio and another platform (e.g. Facebook).
Templates are available directly through Google, community members and private/business websites. Some are free whilst others require purchase. You can find templates for Analytics, Facebook ads, Google ads and other data sources which you’d like to visualise and simplify.
Simply search Google for a template relating to your desired channel/data (e.g. Data Studio template for Facebook ads).
Supermetrics provide a range of excellent Data Studio templates and dashboards to use across a range of channels.
There are also templates available to compare performance between advertising channels.
Resource
When you find a suitable template, click ‘Use template’. You will then see a popup showing the original data source and then a selection box to choose the new data source (dropdown menu).
If you have already connected a data source (e.g. Google Ads, Analytics etc), it will show in the data source dropdown. If no source is connected, you can choose ‘connect new data source’ to be directed to the main data sources/Connectors page.
When choosing a connection service/source (e.g. Facebook), you will choose the relevant account, account settings etc then click ‘Connect’. This will then show the settings for the data source screen (e.g. headings, metrics etc), you may not need to change anything here as it’s usually an automatic set up, then click ‘Add to report’. You can then click ‘Copy report’ to have a customised version of the dashboard/report.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a platform which allows you to use tools and reports to help improve the performance of your website and provide extra insight into online user behaviour.
Within Google Search Console, you can view the below insights:
- Overview (view traffic/clicks coming to the website and how often you are showing in search results, impressions, based on certain user queries and keywords).
- Performance (impressions, clicks, average CTR and average position – shows what keywords the website is actually ranking for). You can use this report as a benchmark when trying to improve SEO keyword rankings.
- Coverage (any issues with indexing certain webpages)
- URL Inspection (check the page is on Google, coverage/has been indexed, including last crawl date, and the page is mobile friendly)
- Index (coverage – i.e. any coverage issues, 404’s etc, site maps, removals – can temporarily remove URL’s from Google)
- Experience (page experience, core web vitals, mobile usability)
- Security (breaches – i.e. hacking) and manual actions (e.g. trying to scam your way to the top of Google search results – i.e. questionable backlinks)
- Legacy tools and reports (international targeting – different languages used on same website, messages, URL parameters and web tools)
The two most common reports include the overview and performance reports.
You can use Search Console to view how many times your brand name was searched on Google by using the ‘query contains’ filter within the performance report. This provides insight into how many additional people may be searching for your brand during marketing campaigns (both online and offline).
You can also exclude your brand name from Google searches to discover how many times your website appeared for queries which did not specifically include your business name.
Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager provides the means to actually measure user behaviour and conversion events on a website (such as installing the Google Analytics tracking code for example).
Whilst Analytics can provide insight into how many people visited a website, Tag Manager goes beyond and can record user interactions once they are on the site. These may include recording how many users clicked on a button (e.g. a Social icon, an add-to-cart button etc), viewing a PDF, playing a video, submitting a form, interacting with live chat etc.
How does Google Tag Manager work?
Websites contain snippets of code called tags which collect information to better understand user behaviour on a website.
These tags can be used to measure conversions, create remarketing lists, send data to tracking platforms (such as Google Analytics etc).
Having too many tags on a website can slow down the performance (i.e. negatively impacting on SEO) and possibly lead to incorrect tag implementation.
Google Tag Manager simplifies tag deployment by acting as a central location for setting up tags such as Analytics, Google Ads and other external party tags. It also helps to control everything in one place.
Before GTM, each time a new tag was to be added to a website, it would need to be manually installed on every page (often by a web developer). Now, you can simply add a tag once to GTM (yourself) and it will deploy across the entire site.
GTM is made up of a container which then holds multiple tags, triggers and variables.
The container is the website you’re adding the tracking code to. A tag includes the javascript tracking code which has been provided by a platform to help measure user interactions on the website (e.g. Analytics, Facebook, Google Ads etc – and can also be used for remarketing).
A trigger tells GTM how and when to fire the tracking code for a particular tag (e.g. on all pages, certain pages etc). Variables are additional details GTM requires to help specify when a tag and trigger should work. Variables carry additional data such as product names, locations, dates etc.
GTM has built-in/template variables and custom user-defined variables so sometimes you simply need to enter the tracking ID from a platform and GTM will set everything up automatically.
Triggers fire tags in response to user behaviour or events on the website, such as completing a purchase or visiting a certain page.
Triggers are made up of:
- Variables (including built-in variables, such as page paths, and user defined variables, such as purchases)
- Operators (this defines the relationship between the trigger and the end value and can include options such as ‘contains’, ‘doesn’t contain’, ‘equals’ etc).
An example tag trigger could be activated when a user visits a specific URL (the variable) which is equal to (the operator) a destination checkout page.
When you add new tags or update older tags, you are able to create ‘versions’. These versions help identify which new changes were added. If the new updated tag doesn’t work correctly, you can revert to the previous version.
Tag Manager can be simple or can become very complex. To better understand how Tag Manager works, watch how to install Google Analytics on a website via GTM. This video helps to show the relationship between tags, triggers and variables.
Video
Setting up tracking via Google Tag Manager:
When setting up GTM, you firstly want to decide what data and user actions you want to measure and track on the website. These fall into two categories: static and dynamic values.
These values could include website user behaviour such as time spent on site, average value of an online order, number of clicks a button (such as Learn More) has received, sales an online ad has made etc.
Once you understand which metrics you would like to track, you can set up the relevant tracking platforms which will provide this data.
For example, time spent on site would be provided through Google Analytics. Online ad sales (or conversions) data would be provided through Google and Facebook Ads conversion tracking.
Google Analytics 4 (the next version after Universal Analytics) not only tracks page views but also tracks scroll depth, outbound link clicks, video plays, file downloads and site search. The new Analytics reduces the reliance on GTM for certain measurement requirements.
Once tags are deployed across the website, you can view if they are correctly set up and active by entering ‘preview mode’.
Preview mode within GTM will allow you to view the main website with a bottom preview panel showing which tags are active on that page (it will also show which tags aren’t firing on that particular page). Simply click ‘preview’ in GTM and refresh the relevant page on the website.
Google Tag Assistant is a chrome browser extension which will show which tags are implemented and working on a website/webpage. GTA will show if the tags are working correctly, have some issues or have errors.
Below is an excellent, clear video on learning how to set up and use Google Tag Manager.
Video
Tracking goals and conversions with Tag Manager:
Once Google Analytics has been installed on your website, you can use GTM to set up an Analytics Goal. Goals are events which are considered valuable to your business such as a user filling in a ‘contact us’ form, adding a product to the cart, downloading a PDF price list etc.
Whilst Goals can be created directly in Analytics (e.g. based on a destination page, such as a thank-you page after filling out a form), sometimes they have custom requirements and need assistance from GTM to know when a conversion has occurred.
Video
Saving time (and headaches) with templates:
Whilst tags can be set up manually in Google Tag Manager, similar to Data Studio, there are community-based templates which can be used.
Caution
GTM involves adding scripts and codes to your website so only add templates from trusted sources.
As mentioned in the goal setup video, two popular templates include a Facebook event tracking template and a Google Analytics tracking pack. The GA pack is available from Bounteous and lets you easily set up custom goals and event tracking all from a template. You simply need to enter your own tracking ID’s (found in Analytics admin) and then set up the relevant triggers to assign to each tag.
Resource
This concludes step four of learning digital strategy (measurement). In step five (improving strategy performance), we’ll cover how to leverage other channels to improve the overall performance of your digital strategy. Learn how to use Conversion Rate Optimisation to increase the number of sales, signups and conversions on your website.
Learn digital marketing in five steps
