SHARE THIS E-BOOK ... Google Analytics metrics that focus on ... THE METRICS /// UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH
MEET THE METRICS:
ELEVATING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH GOOGLE ANALYTICS
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 AVERAGE SESSION DURATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6 BOUNCE RATE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9 YOUR EXCLUSIVE INVITATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 PERCENTAGE OF SEARCH REFINEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-13 AVERAGE PATH LENGTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-15 GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 OUR DATA SERVICES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 GO UNIVERISAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 THE PREMIUM CHOICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
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Introduction
There’s a saying: You can’t manage what you don’t measure.
These days, data is quicker and easier than ever to collect and store. Analysing it on the other hand, can sometimes feel like a daunting task. Google Analytics (GA) is an amazing resource to begin analysing your business data, but we don’t just want you to make the most of it, we want you to love it as much as we do! In this series, we will introduce you to four Google Analytics metrics that focus on measuring and analysing how your customers engage with your website so you can better understand how to enhance their user experience.
You will discover what it means when a user “bounces” or if it’s really worth worrying about a low average session duration. Then we’ll dive into how your customers use your site search, and finally, how long it takes them to make a transaction. Our passionate data team have collaborated on this eBook, using their expert knowledge of Google Analytics and their extensive experience drawing insights from it to provide you with a valuable companion to your GA account.
A Bounce can o ccur f rom Matt Formanyou r siCEO FOUNDER AND GLOBAL te wh en So open up another window, log into your a
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Lucky for us, measuring things is the easy part.
Google Analytics account, and get ready to unlock the power of your customer engagement data. SHARE THIS E-BOOK
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MEET THE METRICS /// UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH DATA ANALYTICS /// AVERAGE SESSION DURATION
AVERAGE SESSION DURATION
It is by no accident that Average Session Duration is the first metric of this series. Without it, the rest of them wouldn’t be much good to you. So many metrics and reports within Google Analytics (GA) rely on a solid understanding of sessions and how they are calculated, and as this eBook is focused solely on customer engagement, we may as well start at the very beginning with a session.
WHAT IS IT? Average Session Duration (previously called ‘Average Visit Duration’)
is the average amount of time users spend in a session on your website. IT IS A CAPITAL MISTAKE TO THEORIZE BEFORE ONE HAS DATA. INSENSIBLY ONE BEGINS TO TWIST FACTS TO SUIT THEORIES, INSTEAD OF THEORIES TO SUIT FACTS. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE 4
HOW IS IT CALCULATED? Average Session Duration is calculated by taking the total duration of all sessions (in seconds) and dividing that number by the number of sessions. To calculate the duration of a single session, GA relies on engagement hits. A hit is essentially any interaction (event) that takes place on the page. So to determine how long an individual session occurred for, GA takes the time of the last engagement hit on the last page and subtracts it from the first hit on the first page. Be aware that problems can arise when hits are not recorded. If a customer exits the page without making an interaction or hit then the session is calculated as follows:
Time of the first hit on the last page minus the first hit on the first page
This means if you have a visitor who stayed on the last page for ten minutes absorbing content, so long as they exited without making a hit, all of that time is not included in the measurement.
! Despite the fact that the calculation you see for average session duration may not fully disclose the entire time a visitor was on your site, this doesn’t mean it’s not doing its job. Its job is to look at a page or a group of pages over time to see if the user experience has changed.
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MEET THE METRICS /// UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH DATA ANALYTICS /// AVERAGE SESSION DURATION
BEST PRACTICES You should have two main objectives when it comes to this metric.
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The first is not to be so concerned with the length of the average session duration, but rather the quality of the session itself. Shorter sessions can still carry meaningful data, so focus on making each of your web pages engaging and valuable (with the most important information and contact info always at the top) so that even if a session is short, a visitor can still find what they need.
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Introduction to GTM “Why I Love GTM”
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The second objective is of course ensuring accurate reporting of this metric. This requires being a little innovative in how you track things. The best way to avoid under-reporting is with Google Tag Manager (GTM). GTM lends you the ability to actually track scrolling on the page so you can gain insight into how much of your page people are engaging with and how long they spend absorbing content, even if they do exit the page without a hit.
Implementing GTM “How to Prepare Your Site for Google Tag Manager”
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Average Session Duration “Visitors May be More Engaged Than Analytics is Indicating”
BOUNCE RATE Just as Average Session Duration is an important metric for gauging site engagement, so too is Bounce Rate. This metric is often misunderstood and it is therefore very important to be aware of why this occurs so you can paint the truest picture of site engagement.
WHAT IS BOUNCE RATE? Contrary to popular belief, bounce rate is not always, or even mostly, the result of someone exiting your site prematurely because they land on it by accident or don’t immediately find what they need.
According to the Google Analytics definition, Bounce Rate is “the percentage of single-page sessions.” (i.e. sessions in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page.)
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MEET THE METRICS /// UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH DATA ANALYTICS /// BOUNCE RATE
CALCULATING BOUNCE RATE
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Keeping this in mind, a bounce rate that is around 75% or lower is pretty good. Even if you see a very high bounce rate of say 88%, rather than immediately thinking the worst, it’s always worth exploring how those people bounced so you can focus on improving their user experience.
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Just like Average Session Duration, just because someone exits your page without an interaction, it doesn’t mean they didn’t find anything of value on your site.
BEST PRACTICES
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Always make sure you really understand the goals of your website before assuming that your bounce rate is good or bad. For example, if your goal is for people to see your contact number at the top of the page and call you straight away, then a high bounce rate may not be a bad thing if you’re getting a lot of calls from that page.
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Also familiarise yourself with your traffic sources in GA and focus on the referrers who are generating the most quality traffic for your site.
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And as with all metrics, trend your bounce rate over time to look for changes.
How to Improvie Bounce Rate ”Meet Bounce Rate”
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You’ve met the metrics, now discover how to use them to generate revenue and make better marketing decisions at our
Free Google Analytics Webinar YOU WILL LEARN: 1. Practical examples of how popular brands are using these metrics to optimise their business
2. How a leading global brand used one of these metrics to unlock a previously hidden business stream which is now their 2nd highest converting online campaign 3. The #1 secret to unlocking intelligence in your customer engagement data 4. The top five things you can do today to see immediate improvement in your customer engagement
See you on November 27 I’d like to join the webinar
PERCENTAGE OF SEARCH REFINEMENTS Now that you have a pretty good idea of how Average Session Duration and Bounce Rate work to improve user experience, you’re probably eager to learn more about enhancing the customer journey.
WHAT IS IT? Percentage of Search Refinements is the percentage of searches that result in an additional search beyond the initial term. For example, if someone comes to your site and searches for “cardigans” and they do not find what they’re looking for, they might search again for “jumpers” and a third time for “sweaters.” This metric is the best starting point to examine your site search usage. It tells you how useful your site search and site structure are to your users and indicates how well your customers are able to find what they want without searching, or how many times they need to search for something before they give up and exit.
So far we’ve been focusing on why a customer might exit your page without an interaction, resulting in bounce rate or contributing to the overall session duration. But now it’s time to discuss what happens when they actually do interact with your page, and more specifically, what they’re searching for.
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MEET THE METRICS /// UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH DATA ANALYTICS /// PERCENTAGE SEACH REFINEMENTS
CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF SEARCH REFINEMENTS This metric requires a small amount of configuration to capture the search terms being used by people on your website.
Perform a site search on your website. Once you hit enter, look at the URL of your search results page to see if you can see the search term used within the URL
Find the search parameter. This will be the term between the question mark of your URL and the search term you used. It might be search=,q=, s= or something completely different. There should always be an “=” despite what comes before it. For example, we searched on the term “analytics” on the Traffika website, and as the screenshot below shows, ours is s=.
In your analytics admin section, click on “view settings” in the righthand view column. Scroll down to “query parameter” and enter the search parameter discovered in step 2, minus the “=”
Rinse and repeat. Some sites have multiple search fields. If you’re one of them, you can add up to five parameters.
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BEST PRACTICES
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Ensure your website’s site search is set up correctly. GA relies on the search term being appended to the end of the URL and carried over to the next page, so if the term isn’t appended, GA can’t comprehend it!
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Can you spot business opportunities by certain postcodes or areas that your clients are looking for? For example, if you have multiple searches for a particular postcode or product, this can help you identify your next potential store location or a product you should offer.
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Are you getting 404 errors? Make sure 404 error pages have options for customers to keep looking rather than just giving them a dead end and forcing them to end their journey. Try, “We’re sorry we couldn’t match your term. Here are our product categories for you to refine”.
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Help with Search Refinements “Percentage of Search Refinements”
IF THE STATISTICS ARE BORING YOU’VE GOT THE WRONG NUMBERS. EDWARD TUFTE
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MEET THE METRICS /// UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH DATA ANALYTICS /// AVERAGE PATH LENGTH
AVERAGE PATH LENGTH As we move from analysing metrics that measure how long customers are on our site, like Average Session Duration, to metrics that give us more granulated insight into the customer journey like percentage of search refinements, it’s important to start looking at the whole picture, which of course includes your customer’s ultimate transaction.
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WHAT IS IT? Average Path Length is the average time, in terms of days and interactions, it takes for a user to finally make a transaction, or to convert on a goal.
Path length is essential in understanding your customer’s journey to purchase. Oftentimes, the last channel clicked on prior to making a transaction gets all the credit for that conversion, and all the other channels along the way are forgotten. The reality is, a consumer is often more engaged with your brand during the interactions that take place along the way than they are with that final step, by which time their decision to purchase has already been made. So understanding how many interactions it takes for a user to convert can help you optimise your marketing campaign around those interactions.
HOW DOES IT WORK? In your multi-channel funnel reports (within conversion reports), you can see the Path Length report which takes all of the conversions that happen within your selected date range and groups them by the number of interactions it took that user to convert. It then shows it to you in a percentage so you can use the report to work out what the average path to purchase length is for your customers.
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TAKE NOTHING ON ITS LOOKS; TAKE EVERYTHING ON EVIDENCE. THERE’S NO BETTER RULE.
Watching the trend line of your average path length can show: How quickly your customer is gaining trust and confidence in your brand If marketing activities are helping speed up this process Your ability to make more sales with the same amount of resources (time and money)
CHARLES DICKENS, GREAT EXPECTATIONS SHARE THIS E-BOOK
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MEET THE METRICS /// UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT WITH DATA ANALYTICS /// AVERAGE PATH LENGTH
BEST PRACTICES
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Export your path length report into excel to use the figures further and garner more insight.
Ensure that you use a long date range when establishing a baseline, but be aware of seasonality and spikes from large campaigns. Try finding a period with an even temperament.
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Try adding different data segments like paid or organic to see the impact.
Apply the calculation after any major campaigns to assess their impact.
GLOSSARY Goal: A measure of something you want to track in Google Analytics that you define as success. Google Analytics: Free service offering a simple way to track metrics on your website with the addition of a small snippet of code placed on all pages of your website. Hit: Any interaction (event) that takes place on a page. Metrics: Individual elements of a dimension that can be measured as a sum or ratio, simply put, they measure data. Session: The time a visitor spends on a website. Traffic Sources: Where your traffic is coming from. GA includes information on which sites your visitors are coming to your website from, and what keywords they are using to get to your website. Visitor: The person who goes to a website.
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Average Path Length “Average Path Length”
Visits: The amount of times your website is accessed.
MAKE SENSE OF THE DATA THAT UNDERPINS YOUR DIGITAL BUSINESS AND OPTIMISE YOUR ONLINE PERFORMANCE Your digital world is full of data. Some visible, some not. Much of it is meaningless and little of it is immediately useful or ready to make a real difference in your business.
That’s where we come in. Traffika’s Google Certified Analytics Specialists are a rare breed of data warriors. We make sense of your web and social media data, configuring Google Analytics in the right way to deliver performance measures directly relevant to your business. OUR DATA SERVICES INCLUDE:
Web Analytics
Social Media Analytics
Configuring & Customising Google Analytics
Media & Multi-Channel Attribution Modelling
Custom Reporting and Dashboards
Google Analytics Training
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GOOGLE UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS
We’re just getting started. Just wait until you start working with Google Universal Analytics!
Universal Analytics is now the operating standard for Google Analytics, providing better features and more in-depth insight into your customer’s journey. What To Expect from Universal Analytics: See your customer’s full journey across multiple devices and sessions Discover which devices and behaviours generate value through Cross Device Measurement Eliminate time lag in data by controlling where and when your data is being processed
And for the ultimate data experience, discover how much greater your insights could be when using Google Universal Analytics and Google Tag Manager together. Google Tag Manager is a tool to listen, capture and push the events which occur when users interact with elements on your page like forms, buttons, videos and links.
Understand who is using your site with a breakdown of demographics and interest categories via Audience Reporting New remarketing features for list building and campaign management
To get started with Google Tag Manager and Universal Analytics, contact us today. 18
1300 853 597
The Premium Choice Traffika are a certified Google Analytics Premium Authorised Reseller, and are one of a select number of partners in Australia. We have a proven track record of successful implementation and work closely with the analytics team at Google so you can rest assured that you are in good hands 24/7. In addition to everything Google Premium has to offer, Traffika’s value added services include: Dedicated technical account manager with direct support Ongoing regular Webinar training Quarterly “lunch-n-learn” training conducted onsite over lunch to provide web analytics education and updates to your team
If you are ready to harness the full enterprise power of Google Analytics Premium and bring your digital data to life, get in touch with us today.
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Contact Us
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