Google analytics is a powerful data gathering and marketing tool.  But what can you expect it to do for your small business?  Below are some of the keys to understanding and using analytics for small business owners.

(Note:  Analytics is far too vast to explain in detail here.  Google provides free tutorials through the Analytics Academy, and Lynda.com offers an excellent paid course).

Know Your Audience

One of the great achievements of any marketing campaign is the ability to think exactly as your target audience does.  But intuition and empathy only go so far.

Analytics shows you who your audience is and how they respond to your content.  Get data on visitors including:

• Age and gender
• Location
• Interests (based on affinity and marketing segments)
• Device used
• Time spent on your website and each page
• Navigation patterns
• Completion of events (like watching a video)
• New vs returning visitors
• Referral traffic
• Campaign-based traffic
• Activity in real-time
• Landing and exit page
• Conversions
• Navigation paths to your conversion goal

For example, we can look at this data and see that our traffic this year is 68.8% male, with over 50% being between the ages of 25-44:

Or I can look at who is on my website right now, with data on what device they are on, how they got there, and what page they’re viewing:

Each of these reports, in turn, breaks down into more granular or custom made reports.  In short, you can get a pretty clear picture of who came to your website, how they got there, and how they responded to your content.

You can know if they came on-site and immediately left.  If they visited your site many times via different traffic channels.  Compare any time periods.

Perhaps most importantly for a business, you can track if they took the action you wanted them to take – aka the conversion.  A form fill, a purchase, a download – whatever your conversion goal is, you must track it.

More of What Works

While all this data may seem complex, for website marketing the goal for its use is quite simple.

At Marketing 360®, we live by a basic creed:

Marketing is about doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t. 

That sums up what you’re trying to achieve with this analytics data.  It tells you how people behave on your website, so you can test different types of content, wording, layouts, and campaigns.  Over time, you learn what’s most effective.

When you identify a channel or content type that does well, you want to build off that knowledge and highlight it.  On the other hand, when you see content that visitors clearly don’t respond to, you want to modify or cut it.

Not a Crystal Ball

It’s easy to get caught-up in this powerful tool.  If you go through some of the tutorials, you’ll be amazed at how you can track and use the array of data.

But it’s worth noting that Google Analytics isn’t a magic wand that will guarantee your success.

First, remember that data – in general – is not a crystal ball.  It does a fantastic job of telling you the results of what you’re doing, but it cannot tell you what to do.

For example, I can look at this data, which shows a page has high bounce rate:

This shows me the either the traffic source or page is not working.  But why not?  What is the issue?

Maybe the copy is wordy and dry.  The navigation may be confusing.  Perhaps the call-to-action is weak.

The video could be too long.  Or graphics are dragging down page-load times.

Could be that the product isn’t interesting – the campaign is not reaching the right audience.

Analytics will indicate you have some of these problems, but you have to use your marketing instincts and experience to know what to do about them.  To do this, you have to get out of the algorithm and look at things like fear, shame, desire for gain and culture – the heart of what motivates people to act.

A lot of beginners think Google is going to figure out their marketing concept for them.  It won’t.  You have to test and be prepared to move through a process of trial and error to find your most effective content.  The process gets involved, which is why so many business owners hire agencies to help them out.

Overall, Analytics is detailed and accurate enough for you to feel confident in the picture it presents about your website traffic and visitor behavior.  Translate this data into what you understand about the people you want to influence, and your marketing efforts will surely benefit.