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Google Analytics: How to KnowIf Your Marketing is WorkingBy Michael Stelzner

Published February 20, 2015

Do you use Google Analytics?

Want to know how data can help improve yourmarketing?

To learn how to measure what’s working with GoogleAnalytics, I interview Christopher Penn.

More About This ShowThe Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from SocialMedia Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discoverwhat works with social media marketing.

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In this episode I interview Christopher Penn, the VP of marketing technology at SHIFTCommunications (a PR firm). He co-founded PodCamp with Chris Brogan and is co-host of the Marketing Over Coffee podcast. His brand-new book is Marketing BlueBelt: From Data Zero to Marketing Hero.

Christopher will talk about how to use Google Analytics to improve your marketing.

You’ll discover how to set goals, and analyze and measure your data.

Listen as Chris Penn shares how Google Analytics can show if your marketing is w orking.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episodebelow.

Listen Nowhttp://traffic.libsyn.com/socialmediamarketing/SocialMediaMarketing-133-15-02-20.mp3Listen now: Play in new window | Download | Embed

You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Blackberry. How tosubscribe/review on iPhone.

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Google AnalyticsHow Christopher got into data and analytics

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Christopher came into the marketing space through working in technology. In 2003he joined a student loan company startup as the director of technology. In the startupworld, you do many different jobs. Christopher explains that in addition to being theCIO and CTO, he ended up doing a lot of the marketing, data collection and reportingto stakeholders. Over time, he realized he enjoyed the marketing more than runningthe technology.

Listen to the show to hear how Christopher used podcasting and social media to standout from larger companies.

The importance of analytics

Christopher believes there’s a perceptionthat doing analytics is difficult and requiresa math degree. However, he relatesanalytics to cooking. He says you don’tneed to be a professional chef to make adecent breakfast—you just need to followthe basic recipe. If you want to be aprofessional chef, that’s a different story.You should have a culinary degree andyears of experience.

Data and analytics are the same way,Christopher explains. If you want to be ableto intelligently report on what you’re doing,it’s relatively easy to get started. If youwant to get super-sophisticated, you’llprobably want a statistics backgrounddown the road.

In terms of what’s readily available,particularly for social media, there are fourlayers of measurement:

1. The media layer with social tools andanalytics about audience reach andengagement.

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Platforms like Tw itter offer analytics for your

social updates.2. The web layer, where after engagingon social media, someone interacts onyour website.3. The middle layer is marketing automation, which is tracking engagement at anindividual level.4. The bottom layer is your sales and CRM.

Christopher believes the first step toward strategy is measurement and data. Afteryou analyze the data, which is the art and science of telling what happened, then youneed to derive insights from it. Once you determine why certain things happened, thenyou can figure out what to do next.

Listen to the show to learn why and how to use benchmarking on Google Analytics.

Simple things marketers can do with Google Analytics

Marketers need to start by defining goals and goal values in their analytics. Thatchanges the application from “what happened” to “how it’s impacting your business.”

For example, choose a goal, like newsletter signups. Then determine what dollar valueyou put on a newsletter subscriber (what a subscriber spends on your website). Onceyou do that, you’ll start to see things like estimated revenue of traffic. This is the valueof traffic coming from social media and search to your site.

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Define goals and goal values w ithin your Google Analytics.

Before delving into specific features of the platform, Christopher recommends takingthe free courses offered by Google Analytics Academy. Do the four courses in thisorder:

1. Digital Analytics Fundamentals, which is a good course for understanding theplatform.2. Google Analytics Platform Principles explains how the platform works.3. Mobile App Analytics Fundamentals, which teaches how to specifically measuremobile devices.4. Ecommerce Analytics, which digs into ecommerce apps.

Listen to the show to discover why you should take the ecommerce course even if youdon’t have an ecommerce site.

How Christopher uses Google Analytics

An ecommerce company Christopherworked with had a great placement of a

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Use AdWords to extend a campaign that already

has good conversions show ing in Google

Analytics.

product in a BuzzFeed article. They wereable to go into the client’s GoogleAnalytics to see how much traffic camefrom the article, and track how manypurchases were made by people who readit. The company sold about $30,000 worthof low-end consumer product from that onearticle.

To get more mileage out of it, they then ran a paid media campaign using AdWords tokeep the article in circulation. The result was another $22,000 in revenue. They simplyused paid media to reinforce the earned media.

Christopher says because they set up goals and goal values, they found that the onearticle was attracting the right audience (one that was buying stuff). That’swhat determined the next step (paid media amplification).

Listen to the show to learn more about the value of third-party endorsements.

How to track conversions in Google Analytics

As long as you set up goals and goal values correctly, conversions get baked rightinto the application, Christopher says.

To determine what makes for a successful conversion, marketers and bloggers needto define the measures of success. For Christopher, mailing list signups are important,since that’s how he drives sales of products like books. Christopher also has a “bookme to speak” section on his website. “I know what my speaking fees are, I know thelikelihood I’m going to close a speaking engagement and I can work backwards andfigure out what every inquiry to my speaking form is worth,” he elaborates.

If you use an email service provider that doesn’t allow for Google Analytics integration,change it. Chris uses WhatCounts for his email marketing.

Another option for tracking conversions is using UTM (Urchin Tag Management)codes.

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Google’s UTM Builder makes it easy to create trackable URLs.

Create a tag that specifies the source, the medium and the link’s campaign. Forexample, the source is from your newsletter list, the medium is email and the campaignis the subject line or day you’re going to send it. That’s how to break out the traffic thatcomes to your properties.

For Christopher’s book, he uses a service on thebackend called Gumroad, which allows users toinput their Google Analytics account code on thatservice. If Christopher sends out an email that

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Marketing Blue Belt by Christopher S.

Penn.

sends readers to his website and then toGumroad to purchase the book, he can track thestream from that email open down to thepurchase and see how well his email converted.

Email is the original social network and the digitalglue that holds everything together. When youfirst sign up, every social network asks for yourname, mobile number and email address. Email isthe common currency of the web.

Listen to the show to hear Christopher’s thoughtson comparing and combining demographic datafrom Google Analytics and Facebook, and how toget more valuable Facebook data.

Google Analytics Add-ons

Google Analytics has its own dashboard tool built in. Users can schedule it to email aPDF of the dashboard to executives on a certain day every week.

The one app he finds compelling is called the Analytics Add-on for GoogleSpreadsheets. It allows you to bring live Google Analytics data into a spreadsheet. Tosee the analytics on more than one website at a time, use the app to build a unifieddashboard and have all of your reports in one spot.

Listen to the show to hear how Chris feels about the Google Analytics Add-on gallery.

Discovery of the WeekRemember when Facebook didn’t want companies to add calls to action in theirheader image? Now they’ve made it easy to do just that.

In the last month or so, Facebook rolled out a pretty cool feature that is beginning toappear on Facebook pages: the Facebook Call-to-Action button. To the right of yourpage’s avatar and in front of your header image, you can now turn on the Call-to-Action Button. These are the words you can add: “Book Now,” “Contact Us,” “UseApp,” “Play Game,” “Shop Now,” “Sign Up” or “Watch Video.”

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Check out the new Facebook Call-to-Action button.

As soon as this feature rolled out in late January, we immediately turned it on.Our background image is an ad for Social Media Marketing World, and we added theBook Now button right in front of it.

In just a few days, 56 people clicked on the Book Now button, and we got one saledirectly from it.

The Facebook Call-to-Action button is a subtle thing you can add to your page toencourage people to take action.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how the Facebook Call-to-Actionbutton works for you.

Other Show MentionsToday’s show is sponsored by Social Media MarketingWorld 2015.

We are super-excited about Social Media MarketingWorld 2015. It’s the world’s largest social mediamarketing conference. By attending, you’ll makeconnections with 100+ of the world’s top social media pros (plus 2,500 of your fellowmarketers) and you’ll discover amazing ideas that’ll transform your social mediamarketing.

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Hear testimonials from our 2014 conference speakers.

This is just a sample of industry experts talking about their experience at Social MediaMarketing World.

In the show, you’ll hear about our recently announced keynote speakers andsessions. I will give the opening keynote, “Social Media Marketing in 2015: What theNewest Research Reveals.” The closing keynote by Jay Baer will be “Why Speed Isthe New Difference Between Good and Great Social Media.” The first night keynote on“Creating a Customer Service Revolution” will be presented by John DiJulius. Finally,our second day morning keynote is called, “Is Content Killing Social Media?” MarkSchaefer will be moderating a panel of Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith and ChristopherPenn.

Social Media Marketing World has more than 100 other sessions, and 12simultaneous tracks. Since you can’t possibly be at all of the sessions at once, we’llinclude recordings for everyone who attends. There’s also a virtual ticket option forthose unable to make it to San Diego for Social Media Marketing World.

Visit here to check out the speakers, the agenda and grab your early bird discount.

Social Media Marketing World 2015 has a lot going for it with the great content,excellent presenters and valuable networking opportunities.

Take your social media marketing to the next level and join us in warm, sunny,

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Take your social media marketing to the next level and join us in warm, sunny,beautiful San Diego, California on March 25, 26 and 27, 2015. Hundreds of peoplehave already secured their tickets. Click here to check out all of the speakers and theagenda, watch our video and grab your tickets today.

Listen to the show!

http://traffic.libsyn.com/socialmediamarketing/SocialMediaMarketing-133-15-02-20.mp3.

Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:Connect with Chris on his website.Read his book, Marketing Blue Belt: From Data Zero to Marketing Hero.Check out PodCamp.Listen to the Marketing Over Coffee podcast.Explore Google Analytics.Take free courses from the Google Analytics Academy: Digital Analytics

Fundamentals, Google Analytics Platform Principles, Mobile App AnalyticsFundamentals and Ecommerce Analytics.

Explore WhatCounts and Gumroad.Create UTM codes.Learn more about Google Analytics dashboards and spreadsheet add-on.Email me directly at podcast@socialmediaexaminer.com with any questions or

comments.Check out the Facebook Call-to-Action button.Email emily@socialmediaexaminer.com if you are interested in being a sponsor.Learn more about Social Media Marketing World 2015.

Help Us Spread the Word!

Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. Simply click herenow to post a tweet.

If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast, please headover to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe . And if youlisten on Stitcher, please click here to rate and review this show.

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on Google Analytics? Please leaveyour comments below.

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Tags: christopher penn, f acebook call to action, google analy tics, michael stelzner, podcast, social media marketing podcast

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner is the f ounder and CEO of Soc ial Media Examiner ,

and hos t of the Soc ial Media Marketing podcas t. He also authored

of the books Launch and W ri ti ng W hi te Papers . Othe r pos ts by

Michael Stelzner »

5 Comments Social Media Examiner

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• Reply •

Christopher S. Penn • 2 days ago

Thanks for having me! △ ▽

• Reply •

Cheval John • a day ago

Good evening everyone, it was a great podcast and learning about the world of Google Analytics. One question ishow can you use the analytics if you want to convince a C-suite executive that the company should invest in socialmedia if they don't see the immediate return of the investment?

△ ▽

• Reply •

jasakelolawebsite • a day ago

thanks for sharing △ ▽

• Reply •

Vanrajsinh Bihola • a day ago

how to differenciate the actual goal value and event click goal value △ ▽

• Reply •

Brian Belfitt • a day ago

It's rare to find a guide like this on Google Analytics. I have been using it for years for my online business. I like theidea of tracking conversions. It always helps in knowing what is selling and what isn't.

Thanks for providing such valuable information. △ ▽

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