Data Monitoring & Insights
Don’t forget the quantitative!
“Most people use statistics the way a drunkard uses a lamp post, more for support than illumination”
Mark Twain
Google AnalyticsWorld’s most widely used analytics service - used on over 10 million websites
Default Reports
• Audience demographics and behaviour• Traffic Sources• Viewed Content
Advanced Features• Internal Site Search
• eCommerce
• Goals
• Filters and advanced segments
• Dashboards
• Custom Reports
• Tagged emails, outbound links, PDFs and non-trackable pages
Goals in Google Analytics
Types of goals include:
• Financial (eCommerce)
• Demo/quote requests
• Newsletter signups
• Contact forms
• …and many more
Google Analytics - Dashboards
Social Media Monitoring
Introduced last year - Give some information, but not enough!
Other Social Media Tools…
BrandwatchOne of the world’s leading tools for monitoring & analysing social media.
TopsyA more basic (free) tool - useful for quick checks of trends
CrowdboosterShows reach through retweets and impressions.
TwitonomyComprehensive stats on your Twitter account.
Facebook InsightsFacebook’s own, highly detailed, analytics.
Other Data Collection Methods
• Simple but effective
• Make it easy for people to feedback
• Can be in-depth surveys…
• …or simple questions on the
website
Competitor & Industry Data
Benchmarking data is hard to find but can be useful (e.g. Mailchimp):
Don’t view your data in isolation!
Google Trends
Used to see seasonality and trends over time.
We’ve got a lot of Data……and that’s great!
However, too much data can be overwhelming…
What to do with this Data• Work out what data is most important to you based on
objectives
• Analyse in detail rather than just looking at ‘headline’ figures
• Begin to consider the ‘why’ rather than the ‘what’
• Benchmark and track for improvements over time
• Identify problem areas - areas for concern are high bounce
rates, underperforming channels and negative mentions on
social media
Pinpoint what the Issues areIf users are dropping out during a process, find which step they are struggling with using funnels or a more detailed tool like ClickTale
Pinpoint what the Issues are
If the exact reason is unclear from the data alone, try a quick test yourself, ask your users directly or do some user testing.
Propose SolutionsOnce you have identified where the problem is, find a solution and test it
Get a Second Opinion
Larger changes may require a second, unbiased, opinion.
Tools like 5secondtest can help with this.
Get a Second Opinion
Testers click to show their preference, and we have a clear winner…
User Testing
A/B Testing
Different versions of a design are shown on the live website to real users
A/B Testing Results
In Summary…
• Use tools to get all the relevant data you need
• Ask the right questions of your data
• User testing, of some kind, is vital
• Use A/B tests to monitor improvements
• On-going process - Keep monitoring and
improving
• Always lots areas for improvements…
• …but focus on those which have the maximum
impact on the overall objectives of your
website
Thanks
@hayluke@noporkpies