Google Analytics: A love Story (CXL Review)
So, here we are, week three, and I am questioning my life choices. I could sit here and tell you all about A/B testing and Surveys. However, I am not. I will not destroy these things by trying to give you a review of a process that I do not fully understand. Not that the CXL Institute class failed, it’s just a very long process and should only be shared by someone who knows what they are talking about. The last thing I want to do is put out bad info.
The class is excellent. I might have to watch it another 25 times to understand all the useful juicy details it offers so it can stick in my brain — how I passed the test, I’ll never know. It is NOT easy. Or, I can get in with a company that can afford the time to do these with their pages. I get it, I do not think my brain can make you get it, though, and I don’t want to waste our time here.
Basically, you should have more than 10,000 hits a week or a day to even begin trying to do them. A/B testing is when you test two campaigns, webpages, emails, etc., against one another in two different sessions of users to see which one converts the most revenue.
Surveys. I am not going over surveys because, well, once again, I just do not have the time or space to fulfill this duty. However, I am going to take some time and discuss Google Analytics. It isn’t because the other two are not important to discuss in this capacity; it is because, well, I understand Google Analytics profoundly and would love to share the basics with you since it is the huevos de research.
Analytics gives you a solid foundation of information to get started and to start researching so that you know what you need to establish in your testing. And I freaking love it. I took the time to dive in, watching some parts over so I could burn it into my brain. The other great thing about the way they teach it here is it is active. They have a page set up in their analytics to show in-depth info, and there is a live one that you can play with a bit on Google’s Demo page, which they screen share while the teacher is talking.
This allows you to play along while you learn. And the teacher, well, HELLO DJ Radio Star. He’s fun, and you can tell he enjoys teaching this course, making it that much more inviting.
Layered Information
Google Analytics is so deep. It is so fun, and it will really allow you to make or break conversion testing. The higher your access level, the more you can produce as well.
Let’s take a look at the basic layering of Google Analytics. There are three tiers :
- Account
- Property
- Views
Account
You can have multiple accounts in your account, one for each website if you please. If you chose to have more than one, each account could have 50 properties, and each property can have 25 views. Each account comes with a unique tracking ID that you will use to track how it works with the other sites you will add to your properties.
Whoever has access at the account level can do as they please and even delete users. Therefore, it is smart only to have people on there:
- That know what they are doing
- That you trust
- THAT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING
If you do not set the account up correctly, you may miss out on tons of data, and once the data is logged, no one can change it. This is to uphold the integrity of the data. This applies to each section.
When you set up your account, you always want to test and verify every action you make before letting it rip. No matter how confident you are because you can’t get back missed information. I know I just said that, But! He also says it in the class like every other sentence, it seems like, But if I know anything, as in life, complacency will ruin you. CHECK YO SELF.
Property
These are the second tier, underneath your Account. These are the other sites, as I mentioned, that work with the leading site to bring in revenue. For example, you want to see how an affiliate site is bringing in leads to that page, you will add it to the properties section, and you can see how it interacts based on that tracking ID.
Views
These are your filters. These are put under each property to really hone in on finding specific site data. These are specific metrics on maybe how a campaign is doing or how traffic is doing on a particular domain. It allows you to focus more in-depth on an issue by getting more detailed information on one location.
The Trifecta
Once you understand how to set up these layers, which you can learn, too, at the CXL Institute, the magic begins. You can do so much behind the scenes, and Google is doing a fantastic job of adding more in-depth research.
Some of the things you can look at in the Account set up are:
- Demographics
- Audience interests
- What they are buying
- How they got to each page and from which page they go there by
- You can see which site or page the most money is being sent from
- You can exclude pages that do not actually bring in revenue, like PayPal bounces
I almost feel like the view tools are endless. There are codes you can put in to help hyper-focus on some things for organizational purposes. Such as typing all the domains in lowercase, so they show up as one site instead of fracturing into two different locations — Google Analytics is case sensitive and therefore sees a mistype as another site when a user types it in search. Yep, you can see what people are searching for that led them to your site! So cool.
These are things the account manager should account for. (ha) These are things to know so that the data you are pulling isn’t confusing. Little tweaks here and there will make the layout of the data much easier to read.
Final Thought
I have learned a lot in these classes, and I am still learning. What is making the experience that much better? The interaction in the FB Group and being able to talk to Peep and the crew personally. I usually write better articles than this. However, I have a school deadline, a one-year-old, a full-time remote job, and just picked up an internship with a company to apply what I am learning; THANKS TO THE CXL CREW! I’m pooped but satisfied.
Basically, you are getting a team of mentors and people rooting you on throughout the whole process and beyond. The conversation is deep and productive in the FB room. You can get answers to questions from experts, and it helps so much. If you are even thinking about getting into the program, just do it already. It is worth every penny. And if ya ain’t got pennies to rub, just put some heart into it and sign up for the Scholarship. You may be a lucky draw, like me.
