Digital marketers heavily rely on metrics and analytics in order to track the progress of their efforts, becoming indispensable to businesses interested in improving their web traffic and performance. Those who know how to leverage analytical tools and platforms become increasingly popular in the field.
By studying and understanding Google Analytics, you can help businesses enhance their online presence—providing valuable insights into their audience, source of traffic, visitor behaviour, and more. Google Analytics is a powerful tool with various features that can push your marketing efforts to the next level. Here are five tips that can expand your knowledge and skills in Google Analytics.
1. Ensuring that Your Google Analytics Account is Properly Configured
Although straightforward and basic, this step is arguably the most important. Having a well-configured Google Analytics account ensures that your data is accurate, preventing you from encountering problems in the future. Here, it’s best to focus on a limited set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to help you prioritize your business goals.
Google Analytics can be set up to track events, campaigns, and e-commerce data. It can also be used to provide key insights into your demographic and their interests as well your site’s speed. By studying Google Analytics in your digital marketing analytics training, you can learn how to enable key features to better understand your company’s overall site performance.
2. Taking Advantage of On-Site Search Data to Optimize Marketing Campaigns
Many websites have an internal search function, allowing visitors to find specific information more quickly. You can use Google Analytics to discover the most commonly searched keywords on your site, giving you better insight into what people want to see or learn more about.
This can be configured by visiting your site’s settings (in the Google Analytics Admin page) and navigating to the “Site Search Settings,” where you can enable “Site Search Tracking” after adding your query parameters. The data can be found under the Behaviour report section—providing you with information you can use to optimize your web content and marketing campaigns.
3. Focus on your KPIs by Creating Custom Dashboards and Reports
Custom dashboards can be very useful when tracking specific KPIs, giving you quick access to information linked directly to your business goals. The data provided on Google Analytics can be easily overwhelming or distracting. By using custom dashboards, you can make the most of your time reviewing what matters most to your business.
You can even explore the Google Analytics Solutions Gallery to get dashboard templates that focus on specific metrics tied to preset goals. Trying out different reports for different marketing strategies can be helpful, boosting your time efficiency and productivity.
4. Levelling Up Your Marketing with Custom Segments on Google Analytics
Through custom segments, you can review more nuanced reports based on specific metrics or dimensions that you establish. They can also be used to help you gain a deeper understanding of your visitors, allowing you to compare the data of different types of visitors and even determine your high-value customers.
You can classify visitors by targeting those who have converted or those who have landed on your page during a specific campaign, enabling you to track their behaviour on your site to improve your marketing efforts. Students taking digital analytics courses can leverage their knowledge in Google Analytics to help businesses better understand their customer’s behaviour and predict future trends in their industry.
5. Using Intelligence Events to Improve Monitoring after Your Digital Marketing Diploma
Reviewing your data analytics regularly can help you catch big changes in your site’s performance, like a sudden increase (or decrease) in traffic. However, it can be easy to overlook or miss some of these changes. For this reason, setting up Intelligence Events and custom alerts can prove to be very valuable.
By going into the Intelligence Events reporting section and navigating to the “Custom Alerts tab,” you can add specific conditions and parameters that, once activated, trigger notifications. You can use these alerts as a backup when monitoring your site’s performance.
Google Analytics has countless features that can be maximized to facilitate your work as a digital marketer. Learning digital analytics can give you a solid foundation and advance your career in the industry.
Are you interested in earning your digital marketing diploma?
Contact Cumberland College for more information!