Create an Analytics Report

Get Started! Sign Up For Google Analytics

Create Google Analytics Account
Sign-up

Go to Google.com/Analytics and create an account. Proceed to fill out your website’s information, this class we set up for Universal Analytics for website tracking.

Fill in your details
- Website name: generally the URL name, your client name, or project title.
- Add website URL, Industry and Reporting Time Zone fields.
- Data sharing options: this is a service to Google to improve their product offerings such as Benchmarking tools and Ad Planner using average website data tracked by Google Analytics. It is your choice whether you wish to share your traffic data. If you feel strange about sharing data for clients uncheck these boxes.
Once you’ve clicked through to get tracking ID you will be taken to a page with a unique tracking ID. This number denotes your Google account number (first 8 numbers) and the specific property associated with the account (numbers after the dash).

The JavaScript code contains your tracking information. In order to track pages on your website, this code must be copied and pasted onto every page you want to track.

Save both of these somewhere safe in a textedit document on your computer in case you accidentally alter the code.

Next we’ll implement the code on our site.
Implement Tracking Code on Your SIte
Login to your blog or website host (Blogger, Wordpress) and open the site's layout HTML template code.

Copy and paste your Google Analytics tracking code onto every page you want to track immediately before tag. Save your changes.

Check you’ve successfully implemented the code in Google Analytics, in the Admin section under “status” you will see a confirmation. If there was an error implementing tracking code on your site, see Google Analytics help.

Next we’ll set up ways to view your data.

Configure Google Analytics Data

Set-Up Views
Setting different views is very important. If you edit processed data sometimes it cannot be reprocessed. Having additional views gives you a place to experiment, without losing data for your report.

Setup three different views:
1. Main
2. Testing
3. Unfiltered
The main view is your report. This is the view that we will set up moving forward in the class. It contains only the useful traffic and metrics for your report.

The testing view lets you experiment with different filters as you move through the campaign without having to reconfigure your data into the main view.

The unfiltered view is all the raw data as captured by Google.

To get started, head to the View Setting tab in the Admin page.
Add Filters
Filters exclude inaccurate traffic. For example, you or your client will probably contribute quite a few hits to your site. You do not need to report this type of traffic.

To this we’ll set up filters. In the Admin section go to Filters on the left navigation.

See how to manage view filters on Google Analyltics here. As well as KISS Metric's quick and dirty explanation to filters for info on why and when to implemtn filters

Google Analytics Site Tour: What Everything Means

Take a site tour
Familiarize yourself with each of the short video lessons that cover the most common metrics used in Google Analytics. There are additional readings in the lecture recording descriptions if you wish to dig deeper in a specific area.

Use this chapter to become fluent in naviagating the Google Analytics platform.

If you have any questions or wish to learn more about a particular area, please post in the class discussion forum.

Determine What Success Looks Like

Create a Great Measurement Framework
This step is where most of your time will be spent. Here we set up a framework for what success looks like for measuring your site. This includes:
- Business purpose
- Campaign objectives
- Website goals
- Key Performance Indicators (choose only 1 that matters)
- Targets
- Segments
In order to do this you will need to chat with your client and any stakeholders on the project to determine points 1 and 2 - business purpose and campaign objectives. The rest you can do yourself.

See the additional resources for a measurement framework for Adspace Pioneers.
Set Great KPIs
A good success framework has only 1 key metric to track that leads directly to the campaign objective. Most of the stuff in Google Analytics will not be relevant to your report. If it’s not your key metric then it is not crucial to the report - treat it as just interesting stuff.

Your objectives will guide the metrics you wish to track and report on. This unit will go over the great KPIs for tracking common marketing goals.
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Conversion
- Loyalty
See here for 50 common digital marketing metrics.

Create a Campaign Dashboard

Set Up Google Analytics Dashboard
For this unit you will need to access your Google Analytics dashboard.

Each view in your Google Analytics account displays a default dashboard that is pre-populated with a few widgets. You can add new widgets to a dashboard by clicking Add to Dashboard at the top of any report, or by clicking +Add Widget from the dashboard menu. You can also customize and remove any widget on a dashboard, including the default widgets that automatically display in your account. Click the gear icon in the top corner of each widget to see these customization options.

Here is a dashboard I set up to track the key metrics for the class' example webite, Adspace Pioneers.

If you do not want to start from scratch there is a fantastic resource where you can copy premade dashboards contributed by experts and the community to use on your own account. At Google Analytics Dashboard Gallery.

Some useful ones for common campaign needs include:

Report The Results

Create an infographic
This answers the question of “how are we doing?”

This is a visual snapshot of what is happening around your key KPI you identified in unit 2. This will guide you to identifying insights and provides context of your campaign performance.

Include:
- Results of key metric
- Compared to target
- Ratio of performance
Identify The 3 Most Important Things
This answers the question of “what is happening”

Think of this as an executive summary of your report. This section is particularly useful for the colleagues of clients who will not look deep into the report. Three succinct headlines detailing insights from the report.
Stop, Start, Continue Doing...
This answers the question of "what are we going to do about it?"

These are the next steps you will take for optimization.

Additional Resources

Setting up analytics on Wordpress through Google Analytics plugin

Steps to take if Google Analytics reports that your tracking code is not installed on the admin page
Create a Measurement Framework

KPIs - metrics that help you track how you are going against your objectives (Avinash)

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/web-metrics-super-lame-super-awesome/

Digital Marketing Framework

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-and-measurement-model/

Metrics Lean Analytics Approach http://www.slideshare.net/Leananalytics/lean-analytics-microconf-20214765

Advanced: Webinar on analytics driven digital advertising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li17Y4XmxWc

Set Great KPIs

Awareness metrics to track

http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/blog/2010/03/10-key-awareness-metrics-to-track/
Here is the success framework for the class' site example, Adspace Pioneers. This lays out the sites business goal, objectives, main KPI, benchmark and segments.
About dashboards

Create, edit and delete dashboards

Download premade dashboards - Google Analytics Community Gallery
Don’t have a designer? No problems, Visual.ly or Parse.ly has a free tools that makes pretty charts for you https://create.visual.ly/graphic/google-analytics
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/15/parse-ly-releases-glimpse-a-convenient-analytics-dashboard-for-web-publishers/
Reporting template you an reuse and adjust accordingly for projects, clients and updates. PDF and editable keynote file are both attached.

Amber Horsburgh

Digital Strategist at Big Spaceship

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