Google AdWords: Learning Center

Learning Center

Lesson 8a: Google Analytics Basics

Objective: Learn about Google Analytics, the benefits of web analytics, and how to install the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC).

Google Analytics provides valuable, in-depth reports in an easy-to-use format for:

Web designers

Online marketers

Management teams

Anyone with a website

Google Analytics gives various layers of understanding about how, why, and for whom their site is (or isn't) performing.

Learning how users interact with your website and using that knowledge to make improvements is key to building an effective online business. Google Analytics helps answer difficult questions such as:

Why and at what points are visitors abandoning your shopping cart?

Is your website design driving people away?

Which marketing initiatives are the most effective for your site?

Where are your site visitors coming from?

What do people do while visiting your site?

What keywords do people use to find your site?

Google Analytics reports give you thorough, easy-to-understand visual reports that:

Track e-commerce metrics such as revenue, conversion rates and ROI
Define variables about users as segments and analyze the behavior of each segment
Help you understand how visitors navigate throughout your website

One example report is the Traffic Sources Overview report. For a selected date range, it shows:

An overview of the different kinds of traffic to your website
The percentage of Direct Traffic vs Search Engine Traffic
Top Traffic Sources
Top Keywords driving traffic

When you're ready to install Google Analytics, paste the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) anywhere in to your page's HTML code. Place the tracking code at the bottom of your page's code (directly before the closing </body> tag) to avoid any possible issues with your page loading at a slower rate. If you use certain advanced Analytics features or want to ensure the most accurate tracking, you can place the code between the opening <head> and closing </head> tags of each page in your site code.

We recommend you review the Setting Up Google Analytics topic later in this section. It covers the 10 basic steps for setting up your account.

Objective: Learn to install Google Analytics on any website, and decide when you need to use the help documentation.

If you have a simple website that is primarily HTML, getting Google Analytics running is easy. Simply install the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) in to the HTML of each page of your website, directly above the </body> tag.

The Google Analytics Tracking code is only a few lines long, and won’t interfere with the function of your website. Note that your code references your unique account number, so always use the code provided to you on the Tracking Status page of your account. You can access the code within the Analytics tab of your AdWords account by following this path: Analytics Settings > Settings Edit > Check Status. Place the code between the <body> and </body> tags, preferably directly before the </body> tag.

Proper set up of Google Analytics is important for receiving accurate and complete reporting from the start. If your website is built using more than simple HTML, we recommend you follow the steps outlined in the next section to quickly and correctly set up Google Analytics.

You should follow these installation steps if:

Your website contains Flash files or dynamic code
Your content is hosted on more than one domain
Your website contains pages with multiple frames
You plan on altering the tracking code in order to receive advanced reporting statistics
You want to track e-commerce

Follow the installation process described in the next section to ensure that Google Analytics is effectively set up for your site.

This lesson provides an overview of the process you will follow. We recommend reading through the steps before beginning the setup process. If you have additional questions about any of the steps, you can access the Help Documentation or read our detailed Google Analytics Installation Guide.

There are ten basic steps to implementation. Some of these steps are optional.

Step-by-step Installation

1) Create your Google Analytics account by using the wizard in the Analytics tab of your AdWords account.
Follow the installation process described in the Google Analytics Help Center Installation Guide to ensure that Google Analytics is effectively set up for your site.

2) Create profiles. Every website has one or more Google Analytics profiles. A profile contains all the reports available for a site, but might only report on a limited set of data or give access to a limited group of users. For example, you might create a profile for your marketing department that excludes internal web pages, and only shows reports for customer-facing web pages.

3) Edit the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) to customize your set-up (optional). Please visit our Help Center for more information if you would like to:

• Track multiple domains in a single profile
• Track multiple sub-domains in a single profile
• Track multiple domain aliases

There are also different requirements for tracking, database driven sites, frame-based content, Flash, and outbound links. Step 4 is critical for reporting: Until you add the GATC to your site, Google Analytics will not capture data and your reports will be blank.

4) Google Analytics only tracks pages that contain the Google Analytics tracking code. Copy and paste the code segment into the bottom of your content, immediately before the </body> tag of each page you are planning to track. If you use a common include or template, you can enter it there. You'll need to add this code to each page of your site, either manually, through the use of includes, or other methods.

5) For AdWords advertisers, Google Analytics can currently import cost data from AdWords campaigns. To link your AdWords and Analytics accounts, log in to your AdWords account and follow the steps provided under the Analytics tab.

6) Setting up Goals and Funnels is optional but highly recommended. Goals are pages that a visitor reaches by completing a conversion activity, like a purchase, sign-up, download or other important page view. A funnel is the path you expect visitors to take in order to reach a goal. You can use goals and funnels to determine where and why people drop out before completing a conversion.
In this step, you can:

• Differentiate goal and funnel steps if your URLs are dynamically generated, or if your site has only one URL.
• Create one funnel step that allows for diverse pathways to different pages.
• Track outbound links as a funnel step.
• Track downloads and other non-pageviews.

Users often discover problems with their funnels only after they begin to accumulate report data, so it’s important to spend some time reviewing the information included in the Help Center on this step. Understanding this data can help you significantly improve your conversion rate.

7) In this step, you attach information called Campaign Tracking Variables to the hyperlinks in your ad campaigns. This process is called 'tagging your links,' and it enables Google Analytics to generate reports based on the variables you set. For example, if you have two different banner ads linking to the same web page, you can add unique variables to each one, and track the performance of each ad separately. You do not have to do this for Google AdWords ads if you have auto-tagging enabled in your AdWords account. Other cost-per-click programs' campaign data can be tracked after completing this step, but not cost data.

8) Set up filters in the Filter Manager section of your account (Analytics Settings > Filter Manager). Filters allow you to include or exclude specific data from your reports.
For example, you can filter out web traffic from your employees. Our Help Center more thoroughly describes the most commonly used filters and the preconfigured filters in your account. You'll also find detailed steps on customizing and enabling your filters.

9) Add users from the Access Manager (Analytics Settings > Access Manager) section of your account. You can add any number of users to your account, and grant them read-only or administrative-level access for each profile.

10) If you run an e-commerce site, enable Ecommerce Reporting in your Google Analytics profile settings. Then, with some simple additions to your receipt page, Google Analytics can record transaction and product information. If your site has a third-party shopping cart with a different domain, review the Help Center instructions carefully to avoid common mistakes.

If you have questions about your setup, please visit our Help Center at: http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics.
If you would like professional help setting up your Google Analytics reporting, you can find a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant here: http://www.google.com/analytics/support_partner_provided.html.

Objective: Learn to navigate the Analytics tab of your AdWords account, or view information for your Analytics account by visiting Google.com/analytics.

The Analytics tab of your AdWords account contains all of your Analytics report data, and provides access to account settings. In the green bar below the tab, you'll see two hyperlinks: 'Analytics Settings' and 'View Reports.'

This lesson will describe the Analytics Settings page in detail. To learn about viewing reports, please see the Reports topics.

Website Profiles

To the right of the View Reports link is a drop down menu that allows you to select the profile for which you would like to view reports. A profile is generally one complete set of Google Analytics reports for one domain, such as www.google.com. Each profile contains a specific set of users, goals and filters. Goals and filters will be discussed later.

If you are an account administrator, you can set up multiple profiles to separately track several domains, subdomains (like adwords.google.com), and subdirectories (like www.google.com/analytics/). You can have up to 50 profiles in your account.

The remainder of this lesson will focus on the information accessible from the Analytics Settings page if you are an account administrator. From the Analytics Settings link you can manage your website profiles, control which data is included in reports, and control who can access your Analytics account.

Website Profiles Area

In the Website Profiles area of the Analytics Settings page, you can:

Add new profiles

View reports for each profile

Edit profile settings

Delete profiles

Check the installation status of the tracking code and conversion goals

The status indicates whether the profile is currently gathering data, and whether goals have been set up. Goals are discussed later in this lesson, and in the topic on Goals and Funnels. These options are available for each profile in your account.

If you have more than ten profiles, there are 'Prev' and 'Next' links that allow you to move through the list. A pull-down menu controls how many profiles are shown at a time. You can use the search box to limit the number of profiles you see, or to find a particular profile. For example, if you have several profiles for different web sites, but you only want to see the profiles for one particular web site, type the profile name, or a portion of it, in the Search box and click the 'plus' icon next to the Search field. Clicking the 'plus' icon will show all profile names that contain the searched word or phrase. Alternatively, clicking the 'minus' icon will exclude all profiles containing that word, and include all other profiles. This is useful if you have several profiles for one website, and want to see all or none of the profiles for that website.

Profile Settings

When you click 'Edit' in the 'Settings' column, you are taken to a Profile Settings page.
From here you can edit:

Main Website Profile Information
Conversion goals & funnels
Filters

Edit Main Website Profile Information

When you click 'Edit' link in the upper right of this area, you are taken to a page that allows you to change the profile information. The Profile Name is the unique name you created to identify your profile. The Website URL is the primary web address that the profile is tracking; for example, www.AdWordsExample.com.
The default page should be set to the default (or index) page of your site. For example, http://www.google.com/ and http://www.google.com/index.html both go to the same page, meaning that index.html is the default page. Without the default page information entered correctly, these would be reported as two different pages, and your report data would be flawed. On most sites, the default page is 'index.html', but might be 'default.htm,' 'index.htm' or something else.
If your Analytics account is linked to a Google AdWords account, your time zone will be automatically set to your AdWords preference and you will be able to view, but not edit, the time zone in your Profile Settings. This ensures accurate reporting on your AdWords campaigns.

A query parameter is a special character in a URL that differentiates the main URL from a specific query. For example, in this URL, www.google.com/search?q=analytics, the query parameter is the "q" and the query term is "analytics." If your site uses unique session IDs or other query parameters in your URLs that you are not interested in seeing in your reports, you can easily exclude these parameters by entering them into the Exclude URL Query Parameters field. Separate each parameter with a comma.

The next two options apply if you conduct commerce on your site. If you want to track transactions, check 'yes' here. Learn more about tracking e-commerce transactions.

Next, you can specify:

The type of currency you use
The number of decimal places in the currency (for example 1.00)
And whether to show the currency symbol before or after the amount

Check the 'Apply Cost Data' box if you want AdWords cost data to be automatically imported into your reports. Click Save Changes when you're done editing these settings.
This returns you to the Profile Settings page.

Edit Conversion Goals and Funnel

The next section of the Profile Settings page allows you to edit conversion goals and funnels. A conversion occurs when a visitor completes an activity that you have identified as a goal of your site. This could be a purchase, a newsletter signup, a download, or any important page view. A funnel is a series of pages through which a visitor must pass before reaching the conversion goal. In your Profile Settings, you can set up and edit Conversion Goals and Funnels by clicking 'Edit' next to the goal name.
For more information, please see the topic on Goals & Funnels.

Edit Filters

In the next profile settings section, 'Filters Applied to Profile,' you can edit the filters that are currently applied to the profile. Filters are a powerful tool that enables you to manipulate the data stored in your account so that the data displayed meaningfully depicts your reporting objectives. A commonly used filter type is an Exclude filter, used to exclude certain data from your reports. For example, filters can be used to exclude irrelevant pageviews coming from within your own company and not from your visitors, or report only on a specific subsection of your site. You can edit or remove existing filters. Please refer to the topic on Filters for more information.

Edit User Access

The last profile setting section, 'Users with Access to Profile,' allows you to manage your users. A user is a person who can log in to your Analytics account.
When you edit an existing user's settings, you can change their first or last name and their Access type, which can be either Account Administrator or View Reports Only.

Account Administrators can make any changes to any of your profiles.
When you click the 'Add Users' link you are given the choice of adding a new user, or adding existing users to the profile. If you add a new user, you can specify their access type as previously discussed.

When adding users to your Analytics profiles, it is important to understand that they cannot access your AdWords account using their login email. To view your Analytics reports or perform Analytics administration tasks in your account, they must login to the standalone Analytics product at http://www.google.com/analytics.
Your Analytics users will not be able to access your AdWords campaigns, but will have access to your Analytics reports.

Once you have added a new user, you can view their level of access in the Report Access column.

Access Manager
Returning to the Analytics Setting page, there are two other control areas: the Access Manager and the Filter Manager. In the Access Manager area, you can see your total number of users. Click on the Access Manager link for more information on each user's access levels.

Here you can see the list of User Email Addresses, and you can use the Search field to include or exclude certain users. For example, entering "gmail" in the Search field and clicking the 'minus' icon will exclude all users whose email address contains "gmail." You can also delete users by clicking on the 'Delete' link. Clicking on the 'Edit' link next to a User Email Address enables you to edit the user's name and access privileges, and add or remove profiles which the user can view.

Filter Manager
The final section on the Analytics Settings page is the Filter Manager area, which shows you the total number of filters available. From the Filter Manager link you can edit or delete filters. When you click the Add Filter link to create new filters you can define the filter name, the filter type, and choose which profiles to apply the filter to. Please see the topic on Filters for more information.

Objective: Learn to:

Define and use the Google Analytics campaign tracking variables

Interpret the data captured by the campaign tracking variables in your reports

To track different kinds of advertising you'll need to use campaign tracking variables. Campaign tracking variables are identifiers which you attach to the hyperlinks leading to your website. They enable you to uniquely identify all of your hyperlinks, and view reports on the activity on your website generated by those links.

For example, if you include links to your website in an email newsletter, you can attach variables at the end of each link. When a user clicks on a link, your reports will show you on which link he clicked, as well as which newsletter contained that link.

The example hyperlink below has the following campaign tracking variables attached in bold ( you'll learn how each of these variables is used in the next section):

Source = SE1
Medium = CPC
Term = tshirt
Content = ad_version_1
Campaign = Google_T-Shirts

http://www.example.com/?utm_source=SE1&utm_medium=CPC&utm_term=tshirt&utm_content=ad_version_1&utm_campaign=Google_T-Shirts

Including campaign variables in your hyperlinks is called tagging your links. Properly tagging your links will ensure that your reports include useful information about your marketing efforts.

Google Analytics makes it easy to track your AdWords referrals effortlessly using the auto-tagging feature. Auto-tagging is enabled by default when you link your AdWords and Analytics accounts. To turn auto-tagging on or off at any time, update the checkbox in your Account Preferences from your AdWords My Account tab. Using auto-tagging allows you to bypass the steps to tag the URLs of your AdWords advertisements.

You can tag your links with one or more of the following campaign variables. :

Name
Source
Medium
Content
Term

Name : With this variable you can track the different advertising campaigns or product promotions that your business creates. An example of this would be a sporting goods store tracking the effectiveness of their "Spring Ski Sale" advertising campaign. With AdWords auto-tagging, the Name variable is the name given to the originating AdWords Campaign.

Source : Visitors to your website must come from somewhere. That is, each referral to a website has an origin, or Source . Examples of sources are the Google search engine, an email newsletter, or a referring web site. There may be several Sources for each campaign. For example, the "Spring Ski Sale" is advertised in both an email newsletter and a banner ad. In this case, both "newsletter" and "banner ad" would be possible Sources. For AdWords auto-tagged accounts, the Source variable is "Google."

Medium : The Medium helps to qualify the source. Together, the Source and Medium provide specific information about the origin of a referral. For example, if the Source is "Google," the medium might be "CPC," indicating a sponsored link. Or, the Medium might be "organic," indicating a link in the unpaid search results. In the case of a "newsletter" Source, examples of Medium include "email" and "print." For AdWords auto-tagged accounts, the medium variable is "CPC."

Content : The Content variable indicates the version of an ad on which a visitor clicked. Labeling your content versions allows you to determine which one is most effective at attracting profitable leads. For example, if you had two versions of a banner ad, you could use the Content variable to identify which one is bringing more visits to your site. For AdWords auto-tagged accounts, the Content variable is the first line of the originating advertisement's ad text.

Term : The Term is a keyword or phrase that matches what a user types into a search engine. For example, a link in a cost-per-click (CPC) ad would be tagged with the Term that triggered the ad. In our example, the Term might be "spring weather skis." For AdWords auto-tagged accounts, the Term variable is the keyword that triggered the originating advertisement.

There are several reports that allow you to view traffic from tagged initiatives (links which you have tagged with campaign variables).

The All Traffic Sources report (in the Traffic Sources section) shows all the traffic that comes to your site including traffic from tagged links. By default, it sorts the traffic by Source and Medium together, but you can use the 'Show' pulldown menu to organize the traffic by Source or Medium. Your tagged sources and mediums will be included in this list.

To see your traffic sorted according to Content, use the Ad Versions report (in the Traffic Sources section). Your tagged Content variables will be listed in the table.

To see your tagged campaigns, look at the Campaigns report (in the Traffic Sources section). This report will typically list your AdWords campaigns, your tagged campaigns, and "(not set)" traffic that is not associated with any campaign.

To see how well your paid keywords for a particular search engine are performing, navigate to Search Engines and select the search engine that you are interested in. Next, select "paid" within the 'Show' menu. A report for the search engine will appear and the terms (keywords) with which you tagged your campaigns will be listed in the table.