Pulling Levers Blog

Over the years, many clients have expressed how they would appreciate a glance into the path visitors take through their websites. In almost every case, as soon as we introduced them to the Google Analytics path analysis tool, they said thanks, but no thanks. This was mostly due to the daunting feeling that overcame them as they realized it was a lot more data than they expected. They wanted a “visualization” of the data.

And as Google indicated, this is exactly why they created the new Flow Visualization tool. As Google describes the tool, it “allows you to analyze site insights graphically and instantly understand how visitors flow across pages on your site.” In addition, it can be used with advanced segments (unlike the goal funnelization report).

There are currently two types of flow visualization tools available in all Google Analytics accounts: Visitors Flow and Goal Flow.

Visitors Flow
The Visitors Flow report can be found under the Visitors section. Basically the visitors flow view allows website owners to graphically see the visitors flow through their site. This can be viewed by a particular traffic source and other main dimensions. With this report, not only can website owners see how visitors moved through the site, they can also see where visitors dropped off. Here is an example from Google:

The “nodes” seen in the visualization are clustered by the use of an intelligence algorithm. By hovering over these nodes, detailed information is displayed.

For those that want to go deeper into the data, by simply drilling down into a node by “exploring the traffic” you can see additional visitor flow information.

Goal Flow
Goal Flow is currently available for URL destination goals, but Google has indicated additional goal types will be added for goal flows in the future. The Goal Flow is available under the Goals section within Conversions.

Goal Flow, just as Visitor Flow, provides a graphical version of how visitors move through the goal steps and indicate where they drop off.

The goal flow is particularly helpful when there are multiple steps to the goal. With knowledge of where visitors are dropping off or reversing their steps, a focus of improving those particular pages can become a priority.

As we ring in the New Year at Lever Interactive, our online marketing teams have come together to share some of their favorite advancements of online marketing tools in 2011.

The online marketing world is constantly evolving (as you know) and 2011 was no different for new technologies, features and advancements in website management, PPC advertising and SEO.  Some of our teams have compiled their favorite new features to engines, technologies and online marketing management tools in 2011.

Google Analytics

Google’s free online analytics tool made numerous updates and additions in 2011, including the roll out of a paid package, Google Premium.  One 2011 update Lever’s team highlighted as especially useful was the real-time dashboard.

The Real-Time section displays top referrals, top keywords, top active pages and top locations all in real time.  For a more in-depth overview, check out Jen’s blog post from October.

“The top locations data is the reason why this made my list because it has been very helpful with one of my retail clients.  With the client’s continued international expansion, determining new countries to target is key to the success of our campaigns.  Also, our campaigns are very sale based and rely on critical time frames.  We can instantly see if during a sale the targeted countries are trending in traffic.” – Danyl H.

For more additions to Analytics in 2011 (including mobile and social reporting, multi-channel funnels and the new Google Analytics v5 roll-out) check out Jen Davis’ 2011 Google Analytics blog posts in our archives!

Google AdWords

For many Lever staff members, a large portion of their day is spent within Google AdWords managing PPC campaigns of all shapes and sizes. Any additions to the AdWords online or desktop tool that makes our job easier or campaigns run smoother, generates excitement in the office. One favorite in 2011 was the Google AdWords Dimensions tab.

“The dimensions tab provides an easy way to pull a variety of reports, including geographic, demographic, daily and hourly reports. It’s much quicker than having to run these reports separately in the old reporting interface.” – Jamie W.

What’s your favorite dimension to pivot your AdWords data by?  I most often use the Geographic and Hour of Day dimensions. For more info on dimensions, Jeremy Decker over at Search Engine Journal recently posted a thorough review of the dimension tab to increase conversion rate.

Some other AdWords 2011 additions receiving staff mentions- Social Extensions and Google Display Network targeting by interest categories (previously in beta).

Microsoft adCenter

In late 2011, Microsoft adCenter rolled out an upgraded look to their interface along with some new reporting features. It was a refreshing change that reduced some of the more cumbersome elements of the interface and brought it closer to the functionality you may be use to in Google AdWords. For more details on the upgrade, stop by Search Engine Watch and read John Rampton’s November article.

One of the fall updates to adCenter included a staff favorite - exact match negative keywords.

“It is important to have this level of detail when closely managing large client accounts. I was happy to see adCenter take this next step toward increasing functionality and campaign management options in their system. Hopefully it continues to expand in 2012.” – Brad B.

Google Webmaster Tools

Lever Interactive’s SEO team is good at adapting to changes with the continuous updates engines make to their algorithm, so 2011 was no different than years past. With Google’s decision to begin encrypting searches of users signed in through secure connections, various SEO reporting in Google Analytics became more limited.

One feature in the new Google Analytics interface to help overcome this limitation is through synching into Google Webmaster Tools. In the v5 version of Google Analytics, when you click through Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimization > Queries, you will see this.

Click “Set Up Webmaster Tools data sharing” and follow the steps. In a minute you’ll have your Google Webmaster data in your Google Analytics account and you can report on impressions by landing page, search queries, clicks, click through rate and even average position.

“It takes some getting used to, but it’s accurate data without guessing, and it’s a step forward toward deep keyword analysis after the push backwards. This makes it very easy to analyze and plan your search engine optimization because you can visualize organic behavior from query to conversion (or exit). This makes it a bit easier to plan content creation by page or category based on which queries are dropping visitors off on your various landing pages.” – Mike H.

 Website Design & Development

We’re wrapping up our list of favorite 2011 online marketing management advancements with our web design team! Although not a new idea, with the rapid expansion of mobile and tablet websites in 2011, the expanded capabilities and use of responsive website layouts is an exciting area of growth in the industry Lever’s design team looks forward to using in 2012. Responsive layouts, formally called fluid layouts, adjust design and images based on the size of your browser window, to provide improved and more customized experiences for the visitor.

“These elements were great in 2011 for mobile websites because the flexible layout will reposition the content as necessary and the flexible images will resize on the fly without reducing the quality. These features help mobile sites look consistent across many mobile devices.” – Jonathan S.

An example of a responsive layout is http://css-tricks.com – open the page and play around with the size of your browser to see the changes in the site.

***

What are your favorite additions to online marketing tools last year?

Stay tuned for our blog post tomorrow for our staff’s resolutions and wish lists for online marketing advancements in 2012!

Don’t have the new Google Analytics Real-Time (currently in beta), here are some quick videos to show you some of the streaming data.

Active Visitors on Site Counter (with high-level medium data bar)

Pageviews Per Minute (left), and Per Second (right)

Location Bubbles

I’ll admit the map reminds me a little of the movie Monsters, Inc. as the shift starts, someone yells out “O.K. people, eastern seaboard coming online! We got scarers coming out!”

Google announced that beginning August 11 there will be a change in how Google Analytics calculates a session. For clarification, a session is provided in Google Analytics visits. Visits, by definition in Google Analytics: A count of sessions that have been active on your site for the selected date range.

Prior to this change visitor sessions were considered ended by Google Analytics when one of the three things happened:

• 30 minutes of inactivity between pageviews for a visitor
• End of a day (midnight arrives for the time zone settings in the profile for that report)
• Close of the browser

If any of these three things happened, the next pageview of the visitor was considered the start of a new session.  The new calculation will still end the session on the first two bullets above but will also end when the visitors traffic source changes.  Traffic source information for Google Analytics is based on their cookie values: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content, utm_id, utm_campaign, and gclid (auto tagging from AdWords). Closing the browser does not automatically end the session. And as with the old calculation, if any of these items occur, the next pageview will start a new session for that visitor.

How Does This Affect My Data?

Data prior to August 11 will not be changed, only data after this data will change.  Google indicates that this change brings the definition of a session more in line with the definition of a visit. According to Google, with new sessions being started for new traffic source information essentially brings a more accurate attribution.  While this might be true for visit  information, conversions or ecommerce transactions were already being attributed to the new traffic source information. Which is why we have implemented a first click/last click analysis and utilize the multi-channel funnels aggressively.

With sessions not being automatically ended with the close of the browser for a short time, sessions can now model the user’s engagement with the website.  With this change, the number of visits can increase, but Google indicates most users should see a less than 1% change. Obviously the more unique your website and tracking, the more this can play into the data change.

 

Announced this week, Google AdWords has a quick way to view campaign, ad group or keyword performance by ad slot position, top vs. side. Reports have shown that ads shown above natural search results tend to receive more clicks than ads that show on the right-hand section.

I can certainly understand the rationale behind this, but it led me to more questions than answers. However, let’s first take a look at the report, as well as how to access it:

Accessing the report is easy. In a campaign, ad group or keyword view, select the “Segment” button and select “Top vs. Side.”

As mentioned, the report raised a couple of questions. As an example, I looked at a keyword that reported an average position of 1.8 on top, and 4.7 on the side. It made me wonder, when it appeared on the side, was that position 4.7 like the example below, where the first three ads are at the top and position four starts at the top of the side:

Or is it like this example, where there are no ads in the top area and ads only appear on the side:

There is a significant difference in placement between a position 4, with three other ads on top vs. position 4 when no ads exist at the top.

Another keyword I looked reported an average position of 2 in both the top and side slots. The ad received more clicks when in the top slot vs. the side, even though the ad on the side received more impressions. Again, I have the problem mentioned above, but I also have another issue. How do I get my ad in position 2 at the top? If there is one competitor in position 1 at the top, obviously outbidding them will get me to the top, but what if the one competitor in the top position is also shown on the side? What then? Again I can outbid the competitor, but that does not necessarily get my ad to show at the top of natural search results.

Overall, the report provides an interesting view, but I find it hard to act on it without more data that does not seem to be available.

Current reports by Gartner indicate that mobile devices will overtake desktop/laptops as the most used Internet access device worldwide by 2013. Many marketers still think they have plenty of time to optimize their site for mobile traffic. Many don’t believe users will trust mobile devices to make purchases or provide personal information. With our first review of the new mobile reporting in Google Analytics, these marketers are already behind in their mobile strategy.

The new mobile report can be found in the visitors report section:

There are two components to the report:

• Overview-provides an overview of mobile and non-mobile device visitors, with the standard site usage, goals and e-commerce information.


Google Analytics Mobile Overview Report

• Devices-provides detailed information by:
• Mobile device-Apple iPhone vs Motorola DroidX
• Device brand-Apple vs HTC
• Service provider-ATT vs Verizon
• Input selector-touchscreen vs clickwheel
• Operating system-Android vs Blackberry


Google Analytics Mobile Devices Report

In addition, the devices report has a Map Overlay report:

How We Are Using Mobile Information to Help Clients

This new mobile report nicely complements the Google AdWords device targeting:

Armed with the new Google Analytics mobile tracking, we can create AdWords campaigns targeted to particular operating systems or carriers. Knowing that Apple related products on AT&T convert better than Android products on Sprint, we can better allocate budget and effort to produce highly engaging campaigns.

In addition, we can assist our clients in optimizing landing pages for different devices. With the new report we can instantly identify devices that do not have good site engagement or convert well. Correcting any usability issues with landing pages for certain devices can dramatically increase engagement and conversions.

Lastly, many marketers do not have a grasp on how mobile users have been interacting with their site. Over the past couple of months I have heard several marketers (clients and non-clients) share with us that they do not believe their mobile visitors would ever interact with the site and wanted to wait in the shadows before implementing a mobile site or landing page, or a mobile marketing strategy.

Below shows the mobile report for a business that did not want to create a mobile site or landing page or market to mobile users:

By providing this business insight into their mobile visitors, their marketing team is working with Lever Interactive to better target and convert mobile users.

Google has been busy diving into the social media realm. There is some debate on whether they arrived at the party too late, or just muddying the waters, but regardless, they have at least made the move to integrate their +1 buttons, as well as other social metrics into Google Analytics.

If you are using the latest version of Google Analytics tracking code (the async version), and you have added the +1 buttons to your site, Google will enable the new Social Plugin Tracking for the +1 buttons in your account. The new “Social” report will appear in your Visitors section.

Think of the social action as you would an advanced segment. It allows you to see how visitors that clicked the +1 button interact with your site, and how that might different from other social actions (if configured) or other visitors or segments. Do +1 visitors spend more time on site? View more pages? Spend more money? Convert better?

There are three reports that make up Social reporting: Engagement, Action and Pages:

• Engagement – allows you to see how social action visitors interacted with your site
• Action - shows you the total number of social actions (if configured) used on the site in one report
• Pages - compare all the pages on your site in one report to determine the where the most social actions are taking place

In addition to the Google +1 button integration, other social media actions can be included if configured. With a simple modification to the Google Analytics code by employing the “_trackSocial” method, you can now include other social actions like Tweets, Facebook “Likes.” It is similar to event tracking code.

If you are a current client of Lever Interactive and would like to set up social tracking, please contact your Account Strategist today for assistance.

On occasion we need to review or download more than 500 rows of data from Google Analytics. In the old version of GA, you could select any view, and append “&limit=1000″ to the URL and use the export to CSV option to view 1,000 rows. Simply by changing the number on the end of that string would provide you with the number of rows you needed.

To achieve the same result in the new Google Analytics, navigate to your report and select the drop down to show 25 rows, and notice how the URL changes:

https://www.google.com/analytics/web/#report/conversions-ecommerce-transaction/axxxxxxxw2082610p2108288/%3F_.date00%3D20110501%26_.date01%3D20110630/

to

https://www.google.com/analytics/web/#report/conversions-ecommerce-transaction/axxxxxxxw2082610p2108288/%3F_.date00%3D20110501%26_.date01%3D20110630%26explorer-table.rowStart%3D0%26explorer-table.rowCount%3D25/

Simply change the last number before the dash, in the above example “25″ to the number of rows you want to see:

https://www.google.com/analytics/web/#report/conversions-ecommerce-transaction/a1196161w2082610p2108288/%3F_.date00%3D20110501%26_.date01%3D20110630%26explorer-table.rowStart%3D0%26explorer-table.rowCount%3D1000/

and now you will see 1,000 rows of data, as well as be able to export all of those rows in one export.

Here at Lever Interactive, we got our first peek into the new Multi-Channel Funnel report in Google Analytics this week. As an agency that has long been using Google Analytics and modification to the code to report extensively on first and last clicks, we were anxiously awaiting this new feature to compare it with our first/last click reporting. And, not surprising, our analysis has been in-line with the information the new report is providing.

As many of you know, Google Analytics attributes any type of conversion (goal or ecommerce) to the last click. With today’s savvy online customer, knowing what channel they used to first visit your site, regardless of conversion is just as important as knowing the last. With the new multi-channel funnel we get a glimpse at the bigger picture.

How to Access Multi-Channel Funnels
You need to view the new Google Analytics v5 which recently became available to everyone. Under the “My Conversions” header, you will see a new navigation item “Multi-Channel Funnels.” If you are lucky enough to be included in the pilot you will see data. If you are not, hang in there, your time is coming, hopefully soon.

The Overview
Finally, here is your moment to see what you have been missing:

Overall, in a 30 day timeframe, 35% of conversions have occurred with the customer visiting the site through one channel and converting through another. Need a better visualization? Build a Venn diagram like below by checking off channels to the left to see the overlap:

Assisted Conversions
Two great reports are housed in the Assisted Conversion section. Here you can look at “Assist Interaction Analysis” as well as “First Interaction Analysis.” This will provide you an idea of what channels bring more conversions as a first click vs last click. One reason we use first/last click analysis is for clients running affiliate programs. Time and time again, we see that one channel brings potential customers in, get them through the shopping funnel, but they leave to find a coupon, click on an affiliate link, and finish their purchase–giving the affiliate the credit for the sale. As you can see below, in a 30 day time-span, affiliate drove in on 27 conversions and $885.04 in revenue on first click compared to 152 conversions and $5,586.23 in revenue in last click. Affiliate has the lowest “First/Last Interaction Conversions” rate at 0.18. The closer to “0,” the more this channel was a factor in the last interaction, whereas as if it exceeds 1, the more it is a first interaction channel. Most likely this client is paying for this customer twice, once through another channel like paid search, and again through the affiliate program. In order to balance this, we offer the affiliates a lower percentage when the order comes through as a last click conversion, with a first click attributed to another source.

Since Lever Interactive has been conducting first/last click analysis, there were not any surprises in the report–which further confirmed our reporting process. We know that paid search is a high driver, much more than the last click credit gives the channel. And direct tends to be more a player in the last click. Shopping comparison engines (CSE) was almost an exact split–again a very expected number as some customers start with an overall search for a product through organic or paid, then hit the shopping comparison portals for price shopping vs some customers that start with the portals.

Top Conversions Paths
Another great report is the Top Conversion Paths. Here you can see the most popular combinations of channels used that lead to a conversion. In the view below we use the “Basic Channel Grouping Path” vs the medium used above, although medium is also available in this report. The view below is based on two or more sources. Again, no surprises here for us. In our first/last click analysis we were seeing similar trends with two or more mediums involved. Paid search and direct are the top players in multi-channel funnels. Some is obviously attributed to repeat buyers, others are most likely shopping for good deals.

Customize Your Channel Grouping
While the reports come with a “Basic Channel Grouping” you can create your own–very much like advanced segments. Google even allows you to copy the basic grouping so you can simply add your own customize group.

For more information on the other Multi-Channel Funnels reports, check out the official help page from Google and the videos below:

The new version of Google Analytics (v5), currently in beta, is an improvement overall, however, it does create some new hurdles to overcome. If you haven’t seen the new version, you can do so by clicking “New Version” in the upper right hand corner, next to your email address:

Here is my review of the new view into Google Analytics:

The Good
Dashboard–How did we live without this dashboard before? Yes, there was the clunky screen we called a dashboard before, but with the visits graph and the site usage that was a staple of the dashboard, I could never achieve the quick view I was desired. For instance, I monitor a client’s revenue from paid search throughout the day and the new dashboard is much cleaner, can take up less room and deliver all the information I need at a glance (revenue, transactions, revenue by source, top 10 revenue generating campaigns, revenue by hour and visits). In addition, you can have multiple dashboards. Below are screen shots of the old and new dashboard (campaign names have been changed):

Date Options–Finally, Google gets smart and adds the “Today” option into a pull down for select dates.

Stickiness–One feature I absolutely love is that I can jump between profiles with the same report and date I previously selected. If I select yesterday as my date and reviewing All Traffic Sources Ecommerce, and jump to another profile, I see the same view in that profile. No more re-selecting dates or navigating to the particular report I was just viewing.

Chart Updates Just a Click–Instead of fumbling with a drop down section and trying to find the metric you want to show up in the overall graph, now you just click on the metric in the explorer bar. I can easily see a graph of visits and then change to revenue with a click of a mouse. To jump from one graph to the next, just click on the metric above the graph, see image below:

There are plenty of other nice features to the Google Analytics Beta, too many to mention. Above were some of my favorites. However, with changes comes the loss of some functionality.

The Bad
AdWords Campaign Data–One thing that has always bothered me about Google Analytics and the AdWords reports is the lack of Cost data on the same screen as Revenue or Goal data. However, at least in the older Google Analytics, if you downloaded the data into Excel, you could see both Cost and Revenue/Goal data. That is no longer the case. This is a step backwards for the AdWords reporting within Analytics.

The Ugly
Managing Multiple Google Analytics–In the old Analytics, client websites were grouped under one header in the drop down or on the main account page. So from one drop down in the upper right I could select one out of the many clients I manage and be taken to their account home page and select a profile. Now, however, every profile for the client is listed in the drop down. In other words, if I’m managing 20 clients, each with 10 profiles, I must wade through a drop down of over 200 profiles to choose from, vs a drop down of 20 clients. Yes, the old way adds an extra step, but much easier to navigate. If you are only managing a couple of accounts, this may work, but not for hundreds. You can use the search box, which helps, but still may bring too many options when you have multiple accounts. In addition there are the plus signs to expand and collapse the information, however they don’t stick once you navigate away. Here is a screen shot from a colleague of their account home page:

Bottom Line
This latest version of Google Analytics is definitely a step in the right direction. I have been using the new version for a few months and have seen more and more functionality added to it on a weekly basis. Bugs are minimal at this point, and usually can be corrected with a refresh of the browser window. I highly recommend to start using the new version as soon as you can.