The Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics for Busy Entrepreneurs
Save 100’s of Hours & $1000’s on Google Analytics Training in 2018
One of the pillars of the message I’m trying to spread is every marketing activity you do should be tied to your sales process.
A MAJOR part of being able to correlate your marketing actions to dollars is keeping track of your conversion rate.
We’ve covered conversion rate optimization at a more basic level before…
So today I thought we could dive into the most important tool in a marketer’s toolbox for conversion rate optimization: Google Analytics.
You’ll learn how to setup Google Analytics on your own website if you haven’t already, we’ll go over some basic Analytics tactics, you’ll learn how to use Google Analytics to track your sales funnels, and finally you’ll learn 2 ninja tricks for Google Analytics.
(Note: If you’re not very familiar with conversion rate optimization, you should read this guide to understand how optimizing your buyer’s journey can help you multiply your business’s revenue.)
Setting Up Google Analytics
If you don’t have it already, you can set up Google Analytics on your website in about 3 minutes.
I didn’t want to spend too much time on this part, but I did want to link out to some handy resources for anyone who’s totally new to setting up Google Analytics:
Where can you use Google Analytics?
You probably already think of Google Analytics as a tool for your website.
But you might be surprised to find out that Google Analytics could help give you insight about much more of your marketing initiatives than just your website.
What’s a UTM?
You might remember UTM codes from our Facebook advertising guide.
A UTM is basically a special “tag” you can put on URLs so you know where the person is being referred from.
It’s not a “new” link, UTMs are something you add on to existing links.
They look like crazy random ?’s and letters after a “normal looking” URL, like this:
Why would you want to use UTMs?
Think about something you’re trying to promote right now.
Maybe it’s a freebie offer, maybe you want to drive traffic to a page for an offer.
How would you promote that?
Maybe you would post about your offer on your personal Facebook profile, in some Facebook groups, AND run an ad campaign.
When you look at that traffic in your Google Analytics, that traffic is all going to be labeled “Facebook”.
How can you tell if posting on your own profile, in groups, or your ads are doing better than the others???
That’s exactly why you need UTM codes.
How to Actually Make UTMs
Just looking at the weird tags you might think it’s SUPER complicated to make UTMs, but it’s actually pretty simple!
Google has a tool to build these codes here.
To use it, first you’ll enter the link to the landing page or squeeze page that has your offer.
Then you’ll start filling out the parts of your UTM code.
In our example, for all 3 of the marketing activities (posting on your Facebook profile, posting in Facebook groups, and using Facebook ads) you’d mark the source as “Facebook”.
How will you differentiate the results of the 3 activities? That’s where the medium will come in. There you’d write profile, groups, or, fbads. (You can call these little tags whatever you want, as long as you can easily remember them and what they mean!)
Under campaign name you’ll want to write something that reminds you of what you’re promoting. Something like “freebie_checklist” or “title_of_the_book”.
Campaign term shows up as “keywords” in Google Analytics, so if you’re doing some kind of AdWords bidding that would be where you can list that information. You can also skip it, if like in this Facebook example it’s not relevant to you.
Finally, the content term you can use in lots of different ways.
If you were running an A/B test, you could differentiate between your two versions.
If you were tracking traffic from something like an email, where maybe there are a few different areas someone could click off to get to your website like a link in the footer at the bottom, a link in the body, a link from a logo then you could give this tag names like footer, body, logo.
IMPORTANT NOTE: UTM codes are case sensitive. If you have a UTM code “facebook” and “Facebook” — those are going to show up as 2 different listings, even if all of the characters are the same. You might want to make a spreadsheet or something where you can keep track of the UTM codes you’re already using to avoid double listings.
A Little UTM Ninja Hack
“Jamie, these are great…” I hear you thinking. “But aren’t they a little ugly?”
Something you can do to make these UTM code URLs easier to remember, and not as scary looking is to use them in combination with a URL shortener.
By using a tool like Bit.ly or Goo.gl you’ll be able to create a link that’s much less intimidating for readers to look at, but you’re still collecting that sweet, sweet data!
How Can I Use UTM Codes?
I want you to think outside the box!
Yes we all think of tracking actions ON our websites, but what about gathering data about what people do before our websites?
Use UTM Codes for all of your ads.
Are you placing advertising on Facebook, Reddit, in AdWords, or anywhere else online?
When you’re creating your ad campaign, be sure that you’re using a UTM code link when you’re creating the ad!
That way you’ll be able to tell the difference between traffic you’re getting organically and traffic you’re paying for.
Use UTM Codes in your email marketing.
We touched on this briefly in the content term section.
Sure you know that people are coming to your website from your emails, but do you know where they clicked to get to your site?
That’s insane valuable information if you can get it.
If I were you, I’d look at my standard email template I’m using for my marketing communications.
Where are all of the places someone could reach your site from?
You’ll fill out the website URL, source, medium and name the same and then write specifically where they clicked from in the content term. (Eg “logo” or “footer”.)
Then you can click “save” on your email template, and now the rest of your future emails will have these UTM tags without extra steps on your part!
Use UTM Codes anywhere you write a URL.
Have you ever written your URL onto something like your Facebook cover photo?
Think of our ninja trick from earlier…
Instead of just adding a URL to your graphics, why not use a special URL shortener like Pretty Links that lets you create short URLs with your own website domain? (This it totally free btw.)
First off, I recommend that you use your cover photo to promote the URL of your content optins instead of just your straight homepage.
Then your shortlink can be something like YOURSITE.com/freebook.
Or your business card!
Instead of just sticking your URL on there, why don’t you make a shortlink with a UTM code so you can tell how many people come to your website from your business card?
Use UTM Codes for influencer marketing.
Are you paying influencers to promote your products?
Why don’t you use a combination of Pretty Links and UTM codes to track the results of the money you’re spending on influencer marketing?
If you ever submit your articles to roundups, or if you ever reach out to others to try to get them to send your content to their own audience you could also use UTM URLs to separate out the results of your that particular marketing activity.
Want to learn more about getting a great ROI on your social media marketing? Check this out, it pairs perfectly with what you’ve just learned about UTM codes:
Google Analytics Basics
Now that you’ve explored how Google Analytics can help you track your Marketing ROI, it’s time to start using GA on your website.
Setting Up a Google Analytics Conversion Funnel
Every business has steps that people must take to become a customer.
They did something (which you’ll now know the specific details of thanks to your mastery of UTM codes) to get to your website.
Once they’re on your website, you should get clear on the #1 thing you ultimately want them to do.
Let’s use the example of a Bike Tour company.
What’s the most action that a customer could take on their site?
It might be to generate a lead for a bike tour.
For you, the most important action someone could take on your website might be to submit a quote request form. Or you might want people to buy your course.
You’ll want to get clear on what your goal is.
Adding Your Goals to Google Analytics
Think about the user’s experience in the browser as they’re “converting” your goal.
What happens immediately after they that lead form?
Do you redirect them to a thank you page?
What happens immediately after they make that purchase?
Do you direct them to a confirmation page?
You’re going to want to grab the URL of the page they see immediately after they’ve successfully completed your goal.
So you’re going to log into Google Analytics and select your website:
Then you’ll click Admin in the bottom of the left menu:
Select Goals:
Then you’ll click on the New Goal button and a template that best matches the conversion you’re trying to go for:
For our example of the bike shop we’d use the lead generation goal. If you sell courses or products directly on your site then you would want to use make a payment.
On the last step you’ll add the URL of your thank you page or checkout page as your goal:
Remember that in your URL www.yourwebsite.com/THANKYOU you’re going to add only “/thankyou”.
Creating a Funnel in Google Analytics
This part is pretty easy!
Now you’ll flip the switch next to Funnel “on” and add the links of the other pages that someone will probably before they convert.
Let’s go back to our Bike Tour example. The goal URL is /thank-you.php.
Some other pages people might visit before the confirmation page might be:
/catalog.php — Tour Catalog
/description.php — Tour Description
/inquiry.php — Lead Form (This is where people add their information, and your “goal” page is the confirmation page that comes directly after this step.)
You would start to fill out the “steps” of your funnel in Analytics like this:
I like the mark required as “Yes” because your funnel conversion data will be simpler to look at.
What this means is that if somebody goes straight to /inquiry.php then /thank-you.php, that won’t show up as part of this “funnel”.
I don’t mind that, because I like to keep my data as free from noise as possible.
If I’m paying money to direct traffic to a certain landing page, I probably want to see how the people who actually interacted with that initiative converted.
It would get in the way of me figuring out if this landing page is working out to be tracking people who follow other steps but not the first one.
Plus, you can catch people who don’t follow your funnel sequence in your Goal Flow reports or your general Analytics data.
So who does get counted in this funnel?
Matching visit: catalog.php > description.php > inquiry.php > thank-you.php
Matching visit: description.php > catalog.php > inquiry.php > thank-you.php
Matching visit: catalog.php > maps.php > description.php > inquiry.php > thank-you.php
So as you can see, it’s quite flexible. Most people will still be tracked when you have the “Required Step” option checked.
Google Analytics Ninja Tricks
You know how to set goals in Google Analytics, you know how to create funnels, now it’s time to get your Google Analytics Black Belt!
You’re going to learn how you can split test for free with Google Analytics, and a ninja secret that will let you track how profitable your customers are over time.
Split Testing FOR FREE With Google Analytics
If you don’t know what split testing is, or how to set business goals around split testing — check this out.
Note: You need to set up an “Objective” in Google Analytics (what we covered above) before you’ll be able to set up this split test.
So if you want to A/B test a very, very small change like 2 headline variants, you’re going to want to use these directions for A/B testing.
The main way I’ve found people talking about A/B testing are about Google Analytics content experiments. It works great, but to be honest with you the setup is much more difficult than the way I’m going to teach you to A/B test.
The way we’ll be split testing is best if you’re looking to test BIG changes.
If you’re looking to try a totally different layout, or like 2 HUGE full page copy overhauls this is a good option for you.
These kinds of split tests are very quick to set up, and you can do this even if you’re not very tech savvy.
It’s called a redirect split test.
First, you’re going to create a page (just like any old page on your Wordpress site) with the new design, layout, or messaging you want to test.
Important: Is the content very similar, or word-for-word on your variants? Google doesn’t like that, and you could be penalized in SEO. Luckily, there are a few simple Google-approved steps you can take to prevent SEO penalties. You can read about them here if you want, and we’ll go over them later in this article too!
First, you’ll click on the top left corner menu:
Then you’ll click on the 2 squares “Optimize” logo and Get Started:
After you check your settings, you’ll go to this screen and click “Create Experiment”:
Then you’ll fill in a name for your test, the URL of your “control” page (AKA the page you started with or “editor page”).
And you’ve set up your control!
Now, take the new page that you just made with your new layout or your new design and click “Create Variant”:
Then add the URL of the page with your fancy new layout and fill in the deets:
Now you’ll have to add an objective, and decide what % of users to show your B variant to:
Note: See that “additional conditions” tab? Review our lesson on UTM codes earlier, and just think about how many cool things you could test! That exact match requirement would be fun to play with there. If you drive a couple of thousand viewers to your site, why not play around with A/B testing something unique to people inbound from your Facebook ads? You’ll also want to remove that exact match requirement if you’re experimenting with UTMs so that you can be sure to capture all of your traffic…
If you’re like a freelancer, a small business owner, or you have a simple it’s safe to just go with 50% of traffic, all the time.
If your site is complicated like you have a lot of people logging in and out of it, or you’re an enterprise level company you’ll definitely want to consult with your CTO or web development department for some recommendations before going ahead. You might want to show it to a smaller % of traffic.
But that would be a special cases, for 99% of cases it’s fine to do 50% of traffic, all the time.
If you already have a lot of results on a page you’ve had for a long time, you could bump up the % of traffic. You’d get faster results showing the challenger B variant to 70% of your traffic rather than 50%.
That’s all you have to do for a simple test. If you’re a marketing nerd like me and you want to change the weights of the variables in the statistical analysis, or change the confidence level then you can find more information about advanced features here.
2 Simple SEO Protection Steps for A/B Testing
Note: Before you move forward with A/B tests on your site, you need to take just a few more Google-approved steps to protect your SEO rankings.
#1 — Don’t Let Google Index Your Test Page (Until You’re Ready to Make it Official)
If you have 2 very similar pages on your website, you could face SEO penalties if Google “adds” both of them to its search engine.
Or if you show page A to Google, but your viewers are directed out to variant B — Google sees that as you trying to “hide something” from them.
How you avoid that is by marking one of your pages “nofollow” until you’re ready to decide which version of your A/B test is the winner.
You’ll want to install the YOAST SEO plugin to make “nofollow”ing your page easy.
When you look at your B variant page in Wordpress, scroll all the way down until you see the YOAST SEO box:
Then click on the gear and change your options to look like this:
#2 — Set a Canonical Version of the Page
This sounds complicated, what’s a “canonical page”?
Think of this as the default page you really want Google to pay attention to.
So going back to that box in YOAST on your B variant page, you’ll put in the URL of the “default” page Google should pay attention to (your control, the page you started with):
(H2) Is this enough to prevent SEO penalties?
Yes, according to Google :)
Find Out if You’re Converting Better Than Last Year in Google Analytics
Are the customers you’re bringing onboard today buying from me more often than the customers I brought onboard last year?
How would you even try to answer that question?
Probably one of the coolest features of Google Analytics is the ability to analyze how well you’re doing historically.
Using a process called cohort analysis, you can finally answer questions like are customers from this month more profitable than customers from last month, or if your customers are paying you more per order (eg they’re more profitable) this year than they were 2 years ago.
A cohort is a group of customers sorted by time.
Cohort sounds like a complicated math thing, but you actually already know what cohorts are by this famous example:
You can tell a lot about people who had the same experience (being born, becoming your customer) in the same time range, right?
Well, you can look at 2 different groups of people who became customers of yours, or started using your product under 2 totally different circumstances.
That can tell you A LOT of really useful information for planning your sales strategy.
Or how you should position your product.
Or what kinds of customers are really the most valuable.
So How Can You do Free Cohort Analysis in Google Analytics?
You’ll find it under the audience tab:
Then you’ll come to the cohort report which looks like this:
So… What does all this information mean?
How can you use this information from cohort analysis?
Well, look.
All that data up there, it’s showing us how likely someone who came on May (9th, 10th, 11th…) is to return to our website. And which “group” of people (aka cohort) views the most pages on their returns.
So how would you use this data?
You’d look at it and think “What the heck was I doing on May 11th, and how can I do more of that?”
They have the most repeat visits, or the highest user retention.
You want more May 11ths.
They’re passionate about your message and you need to get them on your list!
Where are those May 11th people coming from?
That’s how you use this data.
Here’s a great reference if you want even more detail about each piece of the cohort report:
Putting it All Together
Okay, so I know this was A LOT of information to go through.
Bookmark this article right now. You’re not going to do this in a day.
Especially not if you’re starting from setting up your funnels.
I’d really love for you to start with installing Google Analytics on your site if you haven’t already.
Next, take the time to set up goals and funnels for your 1–3 most important fundamental business processes.
Drive some traffic to your site to see how it all works, identify which parts are underperforming.
Then take those ideas and test, test, test.
After you’ve gathered results for 1,000 or more viewers, you can move onto the cohort analysis.
Take a deep breath. You’ve got this :)
Thanks for reading! Did this guide help you? Please spread the word by hitting the 👏 button and share on Facebook, or Twitter if you find the article valuable :)
^ Add your email to this form if you want actionable business and marketing content emailed to you weekly :)
Are you a social media manager? We are sponsored by Falcon.io.
Falcon is the platform for every kind of social media marketer.
Falcon helps you manage all social channels and teams on one collaborative platform, create quality content with an easy-to-use editorial content calendar and social media calendar, and so much more.
