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How To Track Elapsed Time (or Time to Complete) in Google Analytics Using TimeTracker [TUTORIAL]

June 2, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Tracking elapsed time in Google Analytics via Time TrackerOver the past few years, conversion optimization has become an incredibly important service that I provide for my clients. Sometimes in order to improve conversion, there are times that I need to analyze a multi-step process that occurs on one page. A good example of this would be an elaborate form that visitors need to fill out (without linking to additional pages). Or, I might be tracking a multi-step process that spans several pages, but want to know more about each specific step. If you run into situations like these, then it might not be sufficient to simply track how many people converted. You might want to analyze how long it’s taking for those visitors to complete a certain process (in order to identify obstacles along the way). This is when using tracking functionality like TimeTracker in Google Analytics can come in very handy.

What is TimeTracker in Google Analytics?
TimeTracker extends event tracking in Google Analytics and enables you to track elapsed time, or Time to Complete. I’ve found that many people aren’t familiar with TimeTracker, don’t use it much, or don’t know how to properly set it up. So, I’ve decided to write this tutorial to walk you step by step through the process of setting it up. Then I’ll quickly show you how you can check the event tracking reporting for TimeTracker in Google Analytics.

For our purposes, TimeTracker will enable us to trigger the start of a process (like clicking a button, entering text, or selecting a checkbox). We will start a timer at that point. Then it enables you to trigger the end of that process (again by some action taken by the user). At the end of the process, we will stop the timer, record the elapsed time, and then communicate with Google Analytics to track the result as an event (via Event Tracking).

Let’s get started. Open up your html editor of choice and get ready to use TimeTracker.

1. Define What You Are Going to Track
For this tutorial, I’m going to keep the process and form simple so you can clearly understand how to use TimeTracker. I’ll show you how to start the timer with the first click of a form element and then how to stop the timer and send the data to Google Analytics when users click the submit button. Again, this will be a basic setup so you can easily follow along. You will probably want to write some custom logic for your own projects, based on the specific process you are going to track.

2. Adding The Form Elements
We’ll start by adding a simple html form to your webpage. In your form, add a group of radio buttons to enable users to select their age. Since this is the first form element, we’ll start the timer via TimeTracker when someone clicks a radio button. After adding the radio buttons, you can add several additional form elements, based on what you need to track. I won’t cover how to add the additional form elements, since they don’t impact TimeTracker. Basically, they can be standard html form elements (text boxes, dropdowns, checkboxes, etc.) At the end of our form, we’ll add a submit button for users to complete the process. The submit button will first stop the timer and then send the data to Google Analytics via Event Tracking. We’ll complete this via a custom JavaScript function that we’ll write later in the tutorial. Don’t worry, it’s a simple JavaScript function. :)

Radio Buttons Will Start Our Timer:
Time Tracker Form Elements

First, add your form, the radio buttons, and your submit button: We will add the TimeTracker code later in the tutorial.

18-24
25-40


3. Download the JavaScript (or link to it from your code)
The TimeTracker JavaScript code can be found on the Google Code page for extending event tracking. You can either link to that code directly from your page or you can include the code in your own JavaScript file. I included the code in my own file by copying and pasting the JavaScript code into a new text file and saving it locally as “time-tracker.js”. Note, you will also need your typical Google Analytics snippet included in the page.

Click the TimeTracker() Title to Access the JavaScript Code:
Time Tracker Google Code

4. Add the JavaScript code to your webpage
In order to add the code to your webpage, simply include the following line of code in the head of your html document.

Note, make sure you enter the actual location of the JavaScript file on your server and that you reference the correct file name. Replace “yourdomain.com” with your own domain.

5. Create Your TimeTracker Object
You will need to create a TimeTracker object in your JavaScript code, which we will end up calling from our form elements in order to start and stop the timer. The code will also send the data to Google Analytics (via Event Tracking). Add the following code below the code you entered earlier (where you referenced the TimeTracker JavaScript file).



6. Customize the JavaScript (Histogram for Time Intervals)
There is an optional array you can specify when you create the TimeTrakcer object. It’s called setHistogramBuckets() and it enables you to set the time intervals that get passed to Google Analytics (when the event is sent and tracked via Google Analytics). For example, you can specify the time intervals (the buckets of time) that Google Analytics will drop users into (based on how long they spent completing the process you are tracking). If you leave this empty, TimeTrakcer has default time intervals (which might not fit well, given your specific form or process).

The default buckets will start at 100 milliseconds and go up to 5000 milliseconds. In case you are wondering, there are 1000 milliseconds in one second. I highly recommend setting the time intervals, based on the specific process you are tracking. For example, if you think the process could take up to three minutes, then you would set up intervals leading up to three minutes. Three minutes is 180 seconds, or 180,000 milliseconds. For our purposes, we’ll set six intervals starting at one second and that go up to 25 seconds. If it takes someone more than 25 seconds, you’ll see it recorded as 25000+ in your reporting (so they won’t be left out). Here is the code you should add right below the code you added above (where you created your TimeTracker object). Note, add this code within the script tags you already coded earlier.

Specify your own time intervals via the setHistogramBuckets() function:

timeTracker._setHistogramBuckets([1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 15000, 25000]);

The final block of code should look like this:

7. Add JavaScript to Start Your Timer
Now that you have your form elements in place and you’ve included the necessary JavaScript code, you’re ready to start your timer. In the first form element (the radio button), add a call to TimeTracker to start the timer.


Now here is the code for the JavaScript function called completeTracker(). Add this code to the head of your html document:

function completeTracker() {
timeTracker._recordEndTime();
timeTracker._track(pageTracker, undefined, 'Lead From Page X');
}

The code explained:
The first line simply stops recording the time. The second line sends the data to Google Analytics via event tracking. The first parameter is your pageTracker object, which is created via your standard Google Analytics code snippet. The second parameter is optional and will enable you to customize the category of the event in your reporting. Categories are essentially the top-level name of an event in your reporting. The third parameter is also optional and will enable you to customize the label that is reported in event tracking. I added a label called “Lead From Page X”, so you could identify where the event was triggered. You would obviously want to replace X with the actual page name that contained your form. You can read my post about Event Tracking in Google Analytics to learn more about the various parameters involved with tracking events.

9. Upload and Test
When you upload your files, make sure you include both the html file and the external JavaScript file. Also, make sure you are referencing the external JavaScript file correctly or your code will not work. For example, did you upload the JavaScript file to the same directory, a code-only directory, etc? Make any necessary changes in your html code if the JavaScript file isn’t placed in the same directory as the webpage containing your form. If you are all set, then click away. I recommend going through the form numerous times from separate browsers and separate systems. Remember, the first radio button triggers the timer and the submit button stops the timer and then passes the data to Google Analytics via event tracking.

10. Wait and Check Reporting
You will probably need to wait a few hours before you can view the reporting in Google Analytics. After which, you can access the Content tab and then click “Event Tracking”. If you click the Categories tab, you should see a TimeTracker category. If you click that category, you should see the various times listed. These are the time intervals that we set using setHistogramBuckets(). If you click each time interval, you will see the specific form or page that triggered the event. For our purposes, all the events were triggered via one form and page. However, that might not be the case if you have multiple forms running on your site.

TimeTracker Events in Google Analytics:
Time Tracker Reporting in Google Analytics

Congratulations! You have just successfully tracked elapsed time (or Time to Complete) in Google Analytics. My hope is that you’re thinking of many more ways to use this functionality in your own projects. I recommend brainstorming several ideas for using TimeTracker to see the potential impact on conversion. I would start small and then increase the complexity of each project as you get more comfortable. As you can see, it’s relatively easy to set up and can provide insight into how long it takes visitors to complete certain processes on your site.

By the way, it just took you 10:42 to complete this tutorial. Just kidding. :)

GG

Filed Under: ecommerce, google-analytics, web-analytics

The Strategy to Execution Gap™ (SEG) and Its Effect on SEO

May 24, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

The Strategy to Execution Gap (SEG)Over the past 15 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some incredible projects with some extremely talented people.  Whenever I was about to launch a new initiative, I found it was helpful to look at the various challenges and obstacles to success (in order to minimize them as much as possible).  When dealing with online marketing projects, there are several variables that can inhibit your progress, including technology, process, and people.  All three categories of obstacles can throw a wrench into effectively completing tasks, which can then lead to missed deadlines and a slower path to success.  That said, there are also times that a path has been cleared and you can execute very quickly.  And in online marketing, efficient execution is critical.  I’m a firm believer that you can build the best strategy in the world, but unless you can execute at a rapid pace (while maintaining high quality), you’re dead in the water.  The outstanding strategy you created won’t be worth the paper it’s written on.

The Strategy to Execution Gap™ (SEG) and SEO
About 4 years ago, I created a metric to demonstrate how delays and obstacles can impact online marketing initiatives.  The metric is called the Strategy to Execution Gap™, or SEG.  The SEG is a metric that can help you identify how effective your team is for a given initiative or set of initiatives.  If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you already know I am analytics nut.  I love using data to back what I recommend (and I’m a big believer that opinion gets you nowhere while data is hard to ignore).  This is part of the reason that the SEG can be so valuable.

The SEG provides a percentage, which can show you how effectively your team is executing projects.  The lower the number, the more efficient your team is.  The higher the number, and your team is not executing at an effective level. It can be used for any online marketing initiative, but I’ll focus on SEO for this post.  The Strategy to Execution Gap™ fits SEO very well, since there are typically a number of projects that need to be completed during an engagement (and each usually has a weighted priority).  I’ve written extensively about SEO technical audits and remediation plans in the past, and they help build an SEO roadmap, or the series of projects that need to be completed during the year.  For example, in SEO it’s extremely important that technical barriers are removed before you move into projects like content optimization.  A tangible example would be if you have a massive canonicalization problem or a serious domain strategy issue.  If you do, then you better tackle those projects first before you simply optimize content on the site.  If the search engines cannot effectively crawl and index your content, you can forget about content optimization…  Also, SEO takes time before you see success.  Typically, according to companies like Victorious, you need to build up SEO power over time before you see a big change in rankings and organic search traffic.  Even if you fix all of the technical problems on your site, you still need to tackle several additional projects like content optimization, linkbuilding, etc.  That’s why efficient execution is critically important.  A delay in completing projects can impact months of SEO performance.

Based on what I’ve explained above, the Strategy to Execution Gap™ is a perfect fit for SEO initiatives.  Presenting the metric before you get started and then giving periodic updates on a team’s SEG percentage can get key stakeholders involved and on-board with what you are trying to accomplish.  And, they might even help you out by removing obstacles from your SEO path.  More about that soon.

The Strategy to Execution Gap (SEG) Formula
When you map out a series of projects as part of your SEO roadmap, they become the foundation for your Strategy to Execution Gap™.  Based on those projects, and the priority you give each project, you can explain to your team how the SEG will be calculated (and what the score means to their success).  Below, I’ll first present the formula and then present an example so you can see how it works.

The Strategy to Execution Gap = (Sum of Weighted Projects – Sum of Weighted Projects Completed  / Sum of Weighted Projects) * 100

Some notes about the SEG formula:

  1. Each project should be weighted from 0-10 and will be based on your analysis of the current situation.
  2. You can use all of the projects that are part of your roadmap, or just a subset for a given time period.  i.e. You can do this quarterly, semi-annually, or for the entire year.
  3. The SEG will end up being a percentage.  The lower your percentage, the better the score (meaning the gap to execution is low).  A higher percentage means your team is not executing at a high level (or there is a larger gap between strategy and execution).

An example:
Let’s say you had the following projects to complete (the weighted priority score is next to each project).  I’ll keep the example simple, but keep in mind that might have several more projects to tackle as part of an actual SEO roadmap.

Domain Strategy 8
Fix Canonicalization Problems 8
Refine Internal Linking Structure 6
XML Sitemaps 5
Keyword Research 4
Content Optimization 4
Video SEO 3
Linkbuilding 7

Total Weighted Sum: 45

Let’s say you are a few months into the initiative and three items have been completed (domain strategy, internal linking structure, and keyword research).  At your next meeting, you want to give the team an update on how things are progressing.  The SEG for this project so far is 60%, meaning there is a relatively high strategy to execution gap (which is not great).  The formula looks like this: (45-18/45) * 100 = 60%

At this point, you could discuss the various obstacles to execution to see why your SEG isn’t better.  Depending on the size of your team and the number of departments involved, you might be surprised to hear some of the obstacles popping up.

To show you how the SEG can be impacted (especially by the weighting involved), let’s say your team completed two additional projects during this time period.  For example, maybe canonicalization and xml sitemaps were taken care of (both with relatively high weighted scores).  If that was the case, your SEG drops to 31% (almost in half) showing a lower strategy to execution gap (which is good).  I find the SEG is a great metric for quickly showing an efficiency percentage, while also sparking conversation about potential obstacles involved.

How to Close the Gap (Decreasing the SEG)
Let’s face it, execution in online marketing is  everything.  Decreasing your SEG can have a massive impact on the success of your initiative (which can have an impact on targeted traffic, conversion, and revenue).   So, how do you close the gap?  As explained earlier, there are a number of obstacles that can inhibit your SEO projects, including technology, developers, egos, other initiatives, designers, branding, executives, legal, PR, etc.  My recommendation is to meet with key stakeholders before your initiative begins.  Explain what you are trying to accomplish and its potential impact on the bottom line.  Take everyone through the SEG and tie percentages to success (and revenue).  If everyone understands the big picture, you might be able to clear more paths, which can lower your SEG, and increase your chance of success.  Whether this approach will be successful for you depends on a number of factors, including the details of the specific initiative, the people involved, and culture of the organization.  One thing I’ve learned over the past 15 years is that data and metrics always help make a case.  Opinions and finger pointing rarely work.  The SEG can be one more metric that can help your cause.

Your Next Steps with the Strategy to Execution Gap™ (SEG)
The good news is that you can get moving with the SEG right now.  Whether you’re just starting an initiative or if you’re in the middle of one now, start to think about the specific tasks involved.  Then weight each project and explain the SEG to your team.  After everyone on your team understands how the SEG works, then expand your communication to key stakeholders.  As projects are completed, you can start to include the Strategy to Execution Gap™ in your presentations and progress reports.  Make the SEG a quick visual that represents how effective your team is.  Remember, using data and not opinion might end up winning over more people.

And who knows, maybe after the SEG has been used a few times to track efficiency, others in your organization might adopt the metric for their own initiatives.  Wouldn’t it be great if you were the person that introduced and sparked the SEG metric throughout your organization?  Just make sure you reference this post after you’re famous.  :)

GG

Filed Under: SEM, SEO, web-analytics

A Baker’s Dozen: A Quick Update on Kati’s Kupcakes, The Winner of The Search a Small Business Holiday Giveaway [PODCAST]

April 25, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Kati's Kupcakes New CMS and Website DesignIf you’re a frequent reader of my blog, then you probably remember the Search a Small Business Holiday Giveaway I launched this past December.  The purpose of the contest was to give an ultra-small business in New Jersey a free online marketing audit, which would produce plan for enhancing the company’s digital strategies.

I launched the contest because it didn’t seem fair that many small businesses lack the resources or budgets to tackle online marketing the right way.  Many SMB’s move at light speed to keep their businesses running and simply don’t have time to keep up on the latest strategies and tactics.  I opened the contest to any small business in NJ with less than ten employees (what I categorized as an ultra-small business).

The winner of the contest was Kati Angelini and she owns Kati’s Kupcakes, a gourmet cupcake business in Moorestown, NJ.  Kati’s Kupcakes creates specialty cupcakes, cupcake towers, wedding cupcakes, etc.  When I first spoke to Kati after announcing the winner, I could tell right away that she was passionate about her business, and was eager to learn more about SEO, Local Search, SEM, Web Analytics, etc.  It also became apparent to me that Kati represented the classic case of someone that had serious skills and was extremely talented, but lacked the exposure she needed to rapidly grow her business.  So, after my initial conference call with her, I got started on analyzing her business, her site, her current marketing efforts, etc.

What I Found and How I Helped (And We’re Not Done Yet…)
During my audit, I began to analyze Kati’s website, her presence in Local Search, her rankings in Natural Search, her tracking capabilities, etc.  It didn’t take long to understand the path we needed to go down.  In a nutshell, the content management system (CMS) Kati was using to run her website was wreaking havoc on her efforts.  The website had a rudimentary design, it was riddled with technical problems, her content wasn’t optimized (at all), she had no presence in local search, and lacked the ability to quickly add new content or blog posts.  For a local small business, the combination I listed above was causing serious problems for gaining exposure, rankings, quality visitors, and customers.  When you boil it down, Kati needed to show up when people were searching for her services.  At the time, she simply wasn’t.

The Marketing Spot with Jay Ehret
When I launched the holiday giveaway, Jay Ehret from The Marketing Spot reached out to me to learn more about the contest.  In case you don’t know Jay, he focuses heavily on small business marketing and branding and he also runs a podcast called Power to the Small Business.  Jay learned about the contest via Twitter (since we have been following each other for some time now).  Jay recently invited me to be on his podcast to speak about the contest, the changes we implemented for Kati, and the results from our initial efforts.  Both Kati and I were on the call and we had a great conversation with Jay about the project.  The podcast launched today and you can listen to it now by visiting the blog post (listed below) or by downloading the podcast via iTunes.

Listen to the Podcast About Kati’s Kupcakes:
Local SEO Clinic: Improving Traffic, Improving Business

Kati’s Kupcakes: Highlights From Our Initial Efforts
Although we are only a few months in, there have been some great improvements marketing-wise.  Kati still has a long way to go, but our initial efforts are definitely paying off. Again, you can listen to the podcast to learn more (it’s 30 minutes long).  Here are some highlights from the project and I’m eager to keep helping Kati grow her business.  By the way, you can hear Kati’s view of the projects on the podcast (including how they have impacted her business.)

  • I performed a thorough SEO technical audit, which revealed a number of technical issues impacting her performance in Natural Search.  There were also a number of content optimization problems on the site (to say the least).  The deck was 30 slides long…
  • We moved Kati’s website from a problematic content management system (CMS) to WordPress, which helped fix a number of technical problems inhibiting her efforts (usability, SEO, blogging, domain strategy, etc.)
  • Kati’s indexation (the number of pages indexed by the search engines) has increased from 12 unoptimized pages to 136 pages.
  • I developed a local search strategy for Kati’s Kupcakes in order for the business to show up for local searches.  This included making a number of changes and additions across several websites and databases.
  • I started training Kati on best practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Kati is the person that would be creating new pages, new blog posts, etc. and needed to understand how to properly optimize those pages on her site.  This took the form of multiple one hour training sessions (and the training is on-going).
  • I explained the power of the long tail of SEO, as well as how to target it.  The long tail is incredibly powerful and businesses should avoid the long tail at their own peril. A bit dramatic?  Sure, but definitely true.  :)
  • Kati’s original website ranked for almost no target keywords.  Since March 1st, 622 keywords have led visitors to Kati’s website, 561 of those keywords were unbranded terms (not someone simply searching for Kati’s Kupcakes), and 128 of those keywords included a local qualifier.  For example, using a town, zipcode, or state along with target keywords.  Down the line, I believe that Kati’s website can rank for thousands of keywords, but 622 is a great start (and a huge improvement.)
  • We added Google Analytics for tracking site performance, which enables Kati to view granular reporting across traffic sources, campaigns, keywords, etc.  I am going to help Kati develop an analytics strategy, including identifying conversions and events to track, so she can quickly and efficiently identify which efforts are paying off for her business.


A Good Start, But There’s Still A Lot To Do:

Although we have made a lot of changes and Kati’s business is seeing a nice impact, we still have some things to do marketing-wise.  For example, there are several content optimization projects we need to perform on the site.  I also want to help Kati learn more about paid search and understand how it can supplement organic search.  I think Kati can have a stronger integration with Facebook and Twitter, and possibly start to use location-based services like FourSquare or Gowalla.  And I want to keep training Kati on SEO best practices so she feels comfortable with making changes that will help her organic search efforts.  In addition, I mentioned that I’ll be helping Kati develop an analytics strategy.  That’s probably our next major step.

So, if you are interested in hearing more about the contest and the projects we tackled, head over to the Marketing Spot and listen to the podcast.  Again, it’s about 30 minutes long, but contains some good nuggets of information for small businesses. Heck, put in on your iPod and listen to it during your next workout.  :)

GG

Filed Under: google-analytics, local-search, SEO, small-business, web-analytics, wordpress

Conversion Goals and Events in Google Analytics: What’s The Difference and When To Use Them

April 19, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Conversion Goals and Events in Google AnalyticsAs online marketing evolves, more and more companies are realizing the power of effectively tracking their marketing efforts via web analytics.  I’m finding myself doing a lot more analytics strategy work for clients and I absolutely love it (on multiple levels). I’ve worked with a wide range of web analytics packages since 1995 and it’s amazing to see how the industry and technologies have progressed.

Assisting companies with Web Analytics is a core service of mine and I believe it’s critically important for understanding how your marketing efforts are impacting (or not impacting) your business.  When I’m developing strategies for clients, I always begin by identifying various KPI’s for the site at hand.  Then I develop a plan for tracking those KPI’s via a number of conversion goals and events.  After I complete this process and present my plan, it’s not long before I hear the following question:

“What exactly are conversion goals and events and what’s the core difference between the two?”

It’s a great question, and I’ve received the question so often that I’ve decided to write this post to thoroughly cover the topic.  For this post, I’ll focus on Google Analytics, although the core concepts are similar across web analytics packages.  How you set up and track your conversions and events across packages is the main difference.  Let’s begin with conversion goals.

Defining Conversion Goals
Conversion goals are success events that occur on your website.  They represent key actions that users take on your site and they are typically represented by reaching a certain page. For example, a simple conversion to understand is successfully buying something on an e-commerce website.  The “Thank You” page would be your conversion goal (page-wise) and can be tracked in Google Analytics by using the URL destination.  Now, that specific conversion (a purchase) would be achieved after going through a multi-step process to reach the goal (a conversion funnel), and I’ll cover that topic in more depth later in the post.  Note, you can also set up conversion goals that are engagement-based (time on site and number of pages per session), but I’m going to focus on conversions that are triggered by reaching a page on your site.

The Difference Between Macro and Micro-Conversions

When mapping out conversions for your website, you can identify and track both macro and micro-conversions.  An example of a macro-conversion would be a purchase on your site or someone contacting you via a submit form.  These are the critical conversions for your specific business.  But not all conversions are as obvious (and important) as a purchase.  For example, you might consider downloading podcast a micro-conversion for your site.  You might also track RSS subscriptions and registering for an email newsletter as conversions.  You can even track reaching an important page on your website as a micro-conversion.  The exact conversion goals you decide to track will be dictated by your specific website and the goals of your business.  That’s why you should develop an analytics strategy BEFORE setting up your conversions and events.

Conversion Funnels

Earlier I mentioned the multi-step process for buying something on an e-commerce website.  The four required steps in that process can be tracked as a conversion funnel in Google Analytics.  For example, Shopping Cart, Shipping Information, Billing Information, and Thank You Page.  Using a conversion funnel enables you to analyze the process for reaching a certain goal.  For example, do people significantly drop off after step two for some reason?  Analyzing a conversion funnel can arm you with data to go and fix various problems that are present in the multi-step process.  And fixing those problems can end up impacting a lot of revenue for your business.

A Sample Conversion Funnel in Google Analytics:

Conversion Funnels in Google Analytics

Virtual Pageviews and Conversion
What if I told you that you can track a conversion goal on your site by using a page that doesn’t actually exist?  Well, using what’s called a “virtual pageview”, you can do just that.  And there are times that using a virtual pageview makes complete sense.  For example, let’s say you used a service like feedburner to manage your RSS subscriptions.  Since your feed actually resides on another site, your RSS button could trigger a virtual pageview that can be tracked in Google Analytics just like the page actually was present on your site (when in reality, it doesn’t even exist.)  Taking this one step further, you could use that virtual pageview as the URL destination for a conversion goal.  Then you can view reporting for how many people are clicking through to your feed.  You can use this approach to track any click off of your website as a conversion goal.  It’s handy, to say the least.

Conversions Are Unique Per Session

I receive a lot of questions from marketers that see a discrepancy between pageview count and conversions (comparing the content reporting for the page that actually triggers the conversion with the number of conversions being reported in Google Analytics).  For example, seeing a page that has 425 pageviews, but Google Analytics only shows 75 conversions.  Theoretically, those numbers should match, right?  Not so fast…  The reason for the discrepancy is that Google Analytics tracks conversions uniquely by session.  So if a person reaches Goal A during a visit, a conversion is triggered.  But, if that person goes back through the site and triggers the goal again, it’s not counted as a second conversion.  Therefore, if you need to see how many times an action is triggered, use events instead.

Number of Conversions Per Profile

Once clients get excited about the various tracking possibilities, I’m often asked how many conversion goals can be set up in Google Analytics.  There is a limit of 20 conversion goals per profile.  In case you’re wondering, that’s a good amount of conversion goals and most sites will fall short of requiring that number.  Again, it depends on your specific site and business.  That said, you can always create additional profiles and add more conversion goals if needed.  For example, you could have two profiles with 40 conversion goals set up.  I doubt you would need that many goals, but it is possible to set up, if needed.  Goals are broken down in Google Analytics by “goal sets”, which include up to five goals per set.

Goals Are Organized by Goal Sets in Google Analytics:

Conversion Goal Sets in Google Analytics

EVENT TRACKING

 

Defining Events (and Event Tracking)

Events also represent important actions on your website.  The core difference between events and conversion goals is that events are typically tied to website elements and not reaching certain pages (or URL destinations).  Event Tracking has become more important in recent years as web technologies have evolved and websites now rely on non-pageview events more often.  For example, tracking AJAX or Flash-based applications that don’t rely on refreshing the page.  Instead, they load data on-demand via form elements or links.  Event tracking enables you to tag specific actions on your site (such as links or buttons) and then view granular reporting for those actions.  Examples of events include clicking a link to download a pdf, clicking the play button in a video, tracking specific form elements like radio buttons, clicking a link on a webpage that dynamically loads additional information, etc.  Event tracking is extremely versatile and the strategies I develop often include a number of events to track (again, the actual events are based on the site at hand).

Categories, Actions, and Labels
One of the core benefits of event tracking in Google Analytics is the ability to categorize each event.  When you tag an event, you can add a Category, Action, and Label in the code (with Category and Action being required).  This enables you to logically categorize each event that’s triggered.  For example, a rewind button in a video of a keynote presentation might be categorized like:

Category: Videos
Actions: Rewind
Label: Keynote2010

This would enable you to quickly view reporting for all video events, then rewind click actions across videos, and then which videos triggered those actions.  A structure like this comes in very handy when you a lot of videos on your site and you want to view how many people are rewinding specific videos.

An Example of Event Tracking Reporting in Google Analytics:

Event Tracking in Google Analytics

Tracking Flash Applications Via The GAforFlash Component
If you are interested in learning how to track flash applications, check out my two part tutorial about using the GAforFlash component.  Adobe has worked with Google on creating a component that lets you seamlessly track flash events via ActionScript.  I think you’ll dig both the component and my tutorial.  :)

Number of Events Per Session
Don’t go crazy with event tracking.  Just because you can track many actions on your site doesn’t mean you should.  There is a limit on the number of events that can be tracked per session in Google Analytics, which is 500.  That should be plenty for most sites, but be aware of that number if you are triggering events programmatically.

Events Versus Unique Events

As mentioned above, conversions are unique per session and there are times that events make more sense (such as when you want to track how many times per session something is triggered).  When you are reviewing the event tracking reporting in Google Analytics, the metric Total Events will give you the raw number of events triggered.  For example, if someone clicked an important link 25 times in a session, then that would show up as 25 events triggered.  However, you will also see a metric titled Unique Events in your reporting.  This will show the unique sessions that triggered events.  In my example above, a person clicked a link 25 times (which is 25 events), but that will show up as 1 Unique Event.

Summary: The Power of Using Both Conversion Goals & Events

I hope this post demystified conversion goals and events in Google Analytics.  Both are important tools to have in your web analytics arsenal.  If you are just getting started, my recommendation is that you thoroughly map out an analytics strategy.  This will help you determine when conversion goals and events make sense.  Without a solid strategy in place, you run the risk of tracking dozens of actions that have relatively little impact on your business.  Definitely stay tuned if you’re eager to learn more about goals and events. I plan to write more about each topic in future posts.  If you have any questions, please post a comment below. You can also read my previous posts about Google Analytics by visiting my tag page.

GG

Filed Under: google-analytics, web-analytics

Mobile Visitor Trending and The Impact On Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Campaigns

March 29, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

The impact of mobile visitors on paid search ROI.

All you have to do is look around you right now to see the power (and promise) of mobile technology. Everyone is holding some form of mobile device, whether that’s a smartphone like an iphone or blackberry, or a feature phone (which is a marketing term for a standard cell phone with relatively basic functionality). And as mobile devices gain traction, more and more people are accessing the web via mobile browsers to research information, buy products, sign up for your services, contact local businesses, etc. It’s becoming hard to ignore that fact.

Based on what I explained above, here are two important questions to ask yourself:

1. Do you know how many mobile visitors are browsing your site?

2. Are those mobile visitors able to accomplish what they need to do on your site (and what you want them to do)?

Some Examples of Mobile Trending

Let’s take a quick look at mobile trending since January of 2009 for three sites that I control. Although the percentage of total site traffic still isn’t staggering, the trend is clearly on the rise (and especially over the past six months).

The Increase in Mobile Visits Since January 2009:Trending of mobile visitors since January 2009

Trending of mobile visitors since January 2009

Trending of mobile visitors since January 2009

Note: To view mobile trending, I used a regular expression in Google Analytics to include only screen resolutions under 320×480 (which is a smart method of filtering mobile visits documented by Craig Hordlow on iMediaConnecton). Although Google Analytics added mobile tracking in October of 2009, that doesn’t give us enough data (due to the timeframe). You can filter mobile visits a number of ways, but I like the screen resolution method when looking back in time.

How This Impacts Your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Efforts

If more people are visiting your website via mobile devices, and you are paying for some of that traffic, how does that impact your ROI? I’ve provided three points to consider below with regard to mobile visitors and paid search.

1. SEM Targeting (Along With Other Campaign Targeting)
There are times that search engine marketers do a great job mapping out campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads, but still the campaigns aren’t driving the ROI that they were expecting. For some of these campaigns, unintended mobile visitors could be dragging down your return. I recommend checking your campaign settings to see if you are targeting mobile devices and then checking the user experience for those visitors. You might find that those visitors have a horrible user experience when visiting your website (such as your site design breaking when it renders on mobile devices). For example, if you have a nifty JavaScript-based hero image that’s not rendering properly or a slick flash element that cannot be displayed (with no alternative content). Heck, your navigation might not even be showing up. From an analytics standpoint, you can typically identify a serious issue by checking the bounce rate for any given ad group in SEM. If you see a high bounce rate, then you would obviously want to dig deeper to learn more. For example, you might see a bounce rate of 85% or higher for certain ad groups. While checking your campaign settings, you might just find that mobile targeting is turned on, and more importantly, that your site isn’t ready for it. This is why I typically recommend setting up separate campaigns targeting mobile users versus mixing mobile and desktop targeting (but that’s for another blog post).

In case you are wondering what a broken site looks like in a mobile browser, I’ve provided screenshots of sites not rendering or working properly below:

Visitors Won’t Be Able To Get Very Far If They See This:

JavaScript inhibiting the proper display of a website on mobile browsers.

Unless You Are Selling Blank Boxes, This Won’t Suffice:

Tiffany's content not rendering on mobile browsers.

The Screenshot Below Might Look OK, But I Added Three Products To My Shopping Cart & The Site Wouldn’t Actually Add Them…

Mobile e-commerce not working on mobile browsers.

A Note About The Google Content Network & Mobile Applications
The Content Network can be a very powerful driver of traffic for your website, however, it also presents some challenges. For example, if you are targeting mobile devices across the content network, then your ads can show up on mobile applications too. Given the widespread use of some mobile apps (across iPhone and Android), you might end up with a lot of traffic via mobile visitors. If your site cannot handle those visitors, you’ll be throwing away a lot of money…

2. Obstacles to Conversion
Based on what I explained above about sites not rendering properly, you can imagine the impact on conversion. Actually, there won’t be any conversions from mobile visitors. :) But let’s say your site does render ok and mobile visitors are able to browse your website. That’s great, but can those visitors accomplish what they want to on your site (and what you need them to do in order to convert?) When I’m helping clients with analytics, I often talk about conversions and events, which are actions that are important to your company. These actions provide value and do not represent meaningless numbers. For example, revenue, downloads, requests for more information, contacting your sales department, subscribing to your RSS feed, etc.

So, if you are focusing on outcomes (conversions, events, etc.), then you probably want to make sure that mobile visitors can reach those outcomes. For example, if you run an ecommerce website, can visitors purchase from your site? If you focus on lead generation, can visitors contact you via the site, if you want people to download your ebook, can they submit the form that gets them to the download page? The quick way to understand how your site performs across mobile devices is to test it directly from those devices. You might find some interesting things as you traverse your site on a mobile device…

Excellent Examples of Providing Content Targeted for Mobile Visitors:

Amazon.com provides one of the best mobile shopping experiences on the web: You can read more about Amazon.com and Mobile e-Commerce in a previous blog post of mine.

Mobile e-Commerce and Amazon.com
Mashble Provides a Mobile-Optimized Version of the Site Content:

Mashable's mobile-optimized content..
Best Buy Also Provides a Streamlined Shopping Experience for Mobile Visitors:

Mobile e-Commerce on Best Buy's website.

3. Video and Rich Media for Mobile Visitors
Online video is booming and it can definitely be an important component to your content development strategy. However, be very careful if your content relies heavily on video (when it comes to mobile visitors). Most of the visitors from mobile will not be able to see that really cool video on your landing page, and worse, that video element could end up breaking your page as it renders. I’m not saying to exclude video from your campaigns. You should just understand your audience and the targeting capabilities available via SEM. Then you can plan accordingly. For example, you can create a landing page for mobile visitors, you could redirect all mobile visits to a mobile-ready section of your site, etc. The worst thing you could do is spend $10-$20K on a killer video only to have it inhibit the very thing you are looking to do…convert visitors.

Your Next Mobile Steps
Mobile is rapidly growing and you should expect more and more visitors from mobile devices as 2010 progresses. If you are running paid search campaigns, understand the targeting capabilities available and adjust accordingly. Work with your development team on testing and refining your landing pages and site content to ensure they are mobile-friendly. You never know, you might be able to implement some minor adjustments that can make a big difference conversion-wise.

Just look for that 95% bounce rate and then dig deeper. :)

GG

Filed Under: google-analytics, mobile, SEM, web-analytics

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