Marketing isn’t just about producing beautifully thought-out and executed content, it’s also all about the stats and data that the content produces. So, what’s a must-have data tool for marketers – we think it’s Google Analytics, but knowing how to use Google Analytics in marketing can be a long learning process – but an essential one.
Here’s our guide on everything you need to know about how to use Google Analytics in marketing:
- What is Google Analytics?
- How to set up Google Analytics
- What are Google Analytics reports?
- What is Google Analytics?
1. What is Google Analytics?
First things first, we need to understand and answer the question: what is Google Analytics? Well – this Google service allows you to track a variety of information and data through various reports, whether that’s on web traffic, audience stats, conversion rates, and much more.
Another benefit to Google Analytics is – you guessed it – it’s compatible with other Google services, tools such as Google Ads and Google Search Console can be linked to your Google Analytics account to receive even more data, and the more data you have at your disposal, the better!
2. How to set up Google Analytics
Now that we know what Google Analytics is and what it can provide marketers, the next step is knowing how to set up your Google Analytics account.
You will need a Google account to register with Google Analytics, and once you have set up your FREE Google Analytics account you can now add different properties to track. Properties refer to your website (or app) that you want to track data from for your reports; you can set up these reports to give you stats on different factors depending on what you would like to track the progress of on your website.
Depending on what data you’re tracking, and which part of your organisation or business wants to track it, you may set up multiple properties or add multiple accounts. With multiple accounts, different departments of your business can track and assess the stats, projects, and campaigns that are relevant to them. Or through multiple properties everyone can see all the data being collected and make their own assessments.
Once you have completed filling in these details, you’ll need to add the verification code (much like with Google Search Console and Google Ads) into the of your website, which can be accessed through the backend of your website.
And that’s a basic setup for Google Analytics, the best way to learn is also through practice, so once you’ve added a few properties and accounts, and set up different reports, you’ll feel a lot more comfortable using the service in marketing.
3. What are Google Analytics reports?
So, now your Google Analytics account is all set up and bringing in that all-important data, you need to know how to read and understand the reports it’s generating from your website.
Now, we aren’t simply going to tell you how to read a typical graph! There’s a wide variety of factors that Google Analytics can report on in marketing, and this can be a bit overwhelming to begin with – so we’re going to break down these reports into their purpose and how to read them.
Real-time
Just as the name suggests, real-time reports show the current activity on your website in real-time. Exposure Ninja has suggested that this report is a good opportunity to test out if you’ve set up your Google Analytics account and reports correctly.
Reading the real-time graph is pretty straight-forward due to the simplicity of the type of stats it’s collating; it’ll tell you what pages your visitors were on and for how long, and you can even have access to more information such as where they’re viewing from. If you upload content and want to gauge over a longer period of time when you get the most visitors to your new content, you can merge a few real-time reports over the span of about thirty minutes.
Audience
Another easy one – audience reports showcase the various demographics your audience falls into. These results will help you tailor your content to target the right demographic of people visiting your website for optimal marketing results.
Variables such as age and gender are the main focuses in this report, Neil Patel recommends that depending on the age and gender of your visitors, but also the percentage margins of these factors, to customise your content to target them.
Acquisition
Now, acquisition reports are very useful to your website’s SEO as this report will highlight how your visitors are finding you, whether that’s through SEO and organic traffic, social media such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, and other channels such as ads and email campaigns.
By linking up all your different channels you’ll have several reports that score the effectiveness of each channel, in turn, you can improve or maintain these platforms. Stitch has suggested that organic traffic is the most important channel as this is what will boost your SEO the most and produce the best results.
Behaviour
No, this doesn’t check if your audience is behaving badly! The behaviour report looks at what actions your visitors are taking on your website, such as what pages they click on and how long they stay there.
These features resemble the real-time report, but unlike the real-time report, the behaviour report physically maps out the pathways your visitors take on your website, such as: Homepage > Products > Specific Item. This gives you the opportunity to place paid ads, answer questions, and in general optimise the most viewed pages on your website to drive more traffic for marketing purposes.
Conversions
Finally, conversion reports are one of the most important ones as they tell you if your audience is taking the actions that you want them to take on your website.
You’ll set up goals for the report to collect data on, such as do visitors reach the page you want them to, do they find your latest blog post, do they stay on your site long enough to find them; this is all collected for you to analyse and make any necessary improvements, which along with your other reports will help you implement the correct changes for your marketing goals.
Summary:
- Google Analytics provides marketers with website data
- Setting up a Google Analytics account takes time but is worth it
- Google Analytics has a variety of reports – all of which can be used to improve your website reach, web traffic, and audience conversion rate
And that was our basic guide on how to use Google Analytics in marketing; it’s important to know how to measure content performance and to know the value of data in marketing, and with the help of this Google service, along with others, you can start using more effective and engaging marketing content.
To find out how to create content that brings in those all-important stats read our guides on ‘How To Create Content’ and ‘How To Create Content That Converts’ on our blog.
Want to find out more about Millrace Marketing? Contact us about what we do on 02922 801280 or email Hello@MillraceMarketing.co.uk.
