Google Analytics — Getting to Know All About You… A CXL REVIEW

It took me quite some time to get through this section. I tried to slowly absorb as much as my tired brain could. I rewatched some parts briefly as I was going through and DEFINITELY made a kind of swipe files for the files at the end of each class. I don’t feel like I need them all, so I saved what I thought would be more useful within my expertise — Content Marketing and Copywriting.

Where I started taking notes for this article was at destination goals. I mentioned entering into the Google Analytic for beginners in the last CXL Review I posted. This is a continuation.

I am looking forward to the next sesh — Intermediate.

I am not the best note-taker, so this article may not extend the favor of examining Google Analytics in-depth. This is a basic outline of what we are learning in the class. The CXL Growth Marketing Scholarship Program is pretty intense and full of information. It would take part-time job hours to reflect everything you get in here. It is definitely worth a look.

Their marketing doesn’t do a great job of showing how much you get. I highly recommend it if you have decent self-discipline. Don’t fool yourself; it takes work and totally worth every minute.

“The object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

SYNONYMS. aim, objective, object, grail, holy grail, end, target, design, desire, desired result, intention, intent, plan, purpose, idea, point, object of the exercise. ambition, aspiration, wish, dream, hope.”

Destination Goal

Analytics tells a story, and every goal should be a chapter in that story or a detail within a chapter. Destination is the best layering for this metaphor. The teacher, Mercer, describes the ACE Goals and how they reflect this view best. This can be a bit confusing outside of the learning because they are not in chronological order:

• Awareness: Being aware of the customer journey.
• Completion: Complete the goal — revenue.

• Engagement: This is what is going on between the awareness and the completion. What steps are they taking to link the journey?

Engagement is an important section because it is the story. Awareness is your book cover and your title. Completion is the IBN on the back cover with your smiling face and “thanks for buying” note.

Why are these important? Because you need to get to know your customer so you can wrangle in more. It is always about getting to know the process that works best, making whatever you are selling more enticing and digestible — it is ever-changing. Furthermore, if you do not understand what is going on, how do you get to know your customer in a digital world?

Traditional marketing was the wild wild west. You didn’t have access to the data. You had to be quick to the raw and on point on the first go or lose revenue. Now, you are so full of data; you can squeeze out every single juicy detail from this finely tuned engine. vRROOm ( that is how you say conversion in car-jargon)

There are steps to build each goal and figure out how deep you want to go with each one. They are called destination goals because they are the final goal, the final destination. You’re building the road to REVENUE with your data.

Duration Goals

This is a goal you can set up to get the average time someone is on your site or how long they scroll. It can share anything that happens on your page that would be enhanced by knowing a time frame of engagement. However, in Analyti-land, time is a different entity. Time is measured by connection, not just waiting.

For example, if you set a time goal to check how long some-one is on the home page. You will not be able to see any duration if they do not lead to another page. So if someone lands and leaves, no tracking. But if they land and re-direct, that timestamp will show up on the next page time. So it will show the second page with a timestamp.

Now, figuring out an average takes a bit of time because you will need some data. Set up your goals and then start answering questions, then you can dig for the details.

There are a lot more details on how to set these up within the lesson. Go check out the CXL Institute. There is more than just Growth Marketing. If you aren’t up for the challenge, you aren’t looking to grow. This isn’t for you. If this sounds like you, Get. It. Done! You can drop a message and thank me later.

Pages Per Session Goal

This is a go-to goal for those wanting to see how their page funnel is going, how many steps the customer took — engagement. It is just like a physical store. What does the customer see when they walk in (home page)? What different isles do you have(pages or products)? What is the free sample section(Blog or content)? You get the point. . .

Google Analytics is your online “store’s” security camera. It gives you a clear view of how your customers are moving around within your website, and Page per session can get you involved in their movement.

As a side note: When checking Real-Time reports, destination, and pages per session goals do not show. Also, when you are comparing data, you are always checking the date at the top, so you’re comparing the same timelines and not getting dirty data.

Event Goals

These are particular goals. There is also a way to set them up to get you the best data available to you.

Events also come in two levels:

• Standard: This is all about results, such as Products sold, Order ID’s, Sales, Time of purchase
• Enhanced: This allows you to get the how; how did they get to the above.

Mercer explains that the QIA:

• Question
• Info
• Action

Figure out what you are asking, get the info, and make sure that you know the client’s action. Why does he need this info? Gathering information for the sake of it can help, but it shouldn’t be how you are getting your data. Have a purpose and create a story.

Mercer also explains it like this:

Your client wants to know if he should put aside more of the marketing budget to optimize the mobile experience. You should go through and create an events tracker to answer that Q. Based on results, you will know if this is logical. The action will be to get more leads that way if you see a trend in the mobile users that could effectively boost revenue.

If the numbers are low on the mobile leads, it is probably not good to throw money on it. However, if you see that the mobiles are getting many hits but fading out on a specific part of the journey, you can check the data there and optimize and do conversion testing to help you get them to the close.

As he continues to say, “Truth is in the trend; power is in the pattern.”

There will be more to come as we get more involved this week. Stay tuned.