History of Google Analytics

Since 2012, Google has used a system called Universal Analytics or UA. This has been the backbone behind Google Analytics and offers a slew of benefits. UA lets site owners track specific users across multiple platforms and even devices by assigning them user IDs.

This creates really rich customer data, allows offline behavior monitoring, and in 2016, through the use of AI, even lets the real time monitoring of users. Although these are great benefits for site users, there are a lot of worries around the privacy of site users. Google has always prided itself as being a socially conscious group and here they seem to falter.

Luckily, in 2020, Google Analytics 4 (GA4)was introduced. This is a new backbone for Google Analytics and changes a few key things about how Google does web analytics. Including most notably for Google’s social image, in the privacy department.

G4A does in fact track more, and more detailed and dense data, although it makes it a lot harder for sites to give users information out to anyone who wants it. Google now even offers a consent mode that will further reduce the types of data that GA4 can track.

G4A is fully compliant with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the standard behind web analytic privacy that UA failed to meet, something that has served as a major concern over the past few years.

In Conclusion

This all represents a positive shift in how Google operated web analytics. By July 1st, 2023, UA will be completely phased out and replaced by GA4. This means that all current site owners need to make the transition in that time, something that takes some preparation and time. Still, regardless of the inconvenience to users, GA4 is the technological and social future of web analytics.

The post The Future of Google Analytics appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Maybe we could all use a gentle nudge to consider making more data-driven decisions instead of just going with our gut. Consider that only 24% of executives had created data-driven organizations. Perhaps even more shocking is that 73% of all data within an organization is never even analyzed.

Google Analytics can get you part of the way there, but there are some serious power tools found within Google Analytics 360. Advanced tools such as BigQuery Export, Data Driven Attribution and more are accessible as well as benefits of privacy, support and training. Also shorter delays in accessing new data, unlimited sessions and reports that combine data from several properties. 

If you are an organization that needs to make marketing and advertising decisions daily, desires more advanced analysis of hit-level data, or simply needs better integration with other Google products, Google Analytics 360 will not only be a helpful tool to begin using but a necessary one as well. Google Analytics 360 is the solution for anyone who wants to get the most out of their data, especially to those who are looking for a little help to get started.

Learn more about harnessing the power transforming into a data-driven organization through the visual deep dive below:

The post The Science of Analytics [Infographic] appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

In measuring social’s impact on consideration and conversion, Google Analytics defaults to last-touch attribution, which provides a very narrow view and gives minimal credit to the channel. However, we can create segments that measure the behavior of social media users and compare them to users who do not touch social in order to gain valuable insight as to how each marketing channel impacts our KPI. You can do this type of control group analysis for any group of users by creating Custom Segments.

Creating Custom Segments

We will initially add two custom segments to your Google Analytics account in order to obtain the data that we will be analyzing in our example. These segments will include a GA Default Social User segment and a NOT: Default Social User segment, which matches how Google Analytics tracks social. Default Social Media Users is a segment created on Google Analytics that captures website visitors that have interacted with your various social media channels. We use this segment to compare behavior to that of non-social media visitors, providing valuable insight. If you are tagging your links, you can leverage that information by adding additional custom segments that align to your tagging structure’s key objectives.

Adding ‘GA Default Social Users’ Segment

Step 1: Start with going to Acquisition – Social – Network Referrals. First, we want to see what your segment is pulling for social reporting. To do this, hover over your social channels and take note of each social source.

Step 2: Now we want to create our custom segment. Click add segment at the top of the page, then new segment, and enter the name as GA Default Social Users.

Step 3: Go to Advanced Conditions. First, change Sessions to Users in the first drop down menu. Note that this is extremely important to remember for each social channel that we add. Then select Source in the dropdown menu (under Acquisition). Select “contains” from the second and type your social source. Click preview and look at the list to see what comes up.

Step 4: Then add OR source “contains” the next source for the same social channel. If a source is on the list, you must add it. Test this and check to see that the numbers match. For example, you might need to add “exactly matches” Twitter so it doesn’t bring in other data (i.e. Twitterific, etc.). Test this and make sure this matches the numbers on our Twitter list.

Step 5: Repeat for each social referral source until the numbers for the All Sessions segment and the GA Default Social Users segments match exactly.

Step 6: Once all your social media referral sources have been added, click Save.

Adding ‘NOT: Default Social Users’ Segment

Step 1: Copy the segment you created above by clicking Add Segment, then finding the segment on the list and clicking actions to the right of the segment. Click copy. Label your segment and then change the ‘Include’ dropdown to ‘Exclude.’

Step 2: Click Save.

Analyzing Consideration

Now let’s talk about running some analysis. A Control Group Analysis is a type of deep-dive analysis where we isolate all customers who have touched our social channels to compare them against customers who have not on our key performance indicators. Comparisons allow us to show where social is best aligned for future investments and strategy development. The steps below outline how to measure how social is impacting consideration.

Step 1: Select the segments above that you want to view and compare. Click ‘Add Segment’ at the top of the page. In this example, we will select the GA Default Social Users segment and the NOT GA Default Social Users segment. Then, click Apply.

Step 2: Review all metrics that indicate Consideration including Pageviews, Sessions, and Users. Look for any noticeable differences, correlations, and discrepancies between the segments. For example, if there was a sharp increase in April among social media users and no increase for non-social media users, then we could make the conclusion that something on social media caused that increase as opposed to an outside confounding variable. Do this for all of your KPI.

Step 3: Check whether or not there were any sharp increases/decreases (outliers) in any of the categories that you noted in Step 2 that may have skewed the averages, making your findings less significant. If you see an outlier, compare that to the monthly average.

Step 4: After you review your KPI for major insights that stick out, look deeper into consideration. Look for trends and major increases/decreases. Check the months of your social campaigns to see if there was any impact in consideration. I recommend running a month-to-month analysis on a separate spreadsheet, tracking your KPI’s velocity and acceleration.

The formula for velocity is V= (M₀-M₁)/M₁ and measures the percent change from one month to the next. Acceleration, or deceleration, is the rate of change from one month to the next and is measured by the formula, A = (V_o-V₁)/abs(V₁).

Step 5: Review changes in site engagement by looking at average session duration, average page views per users, average sessions per user, % new sessions, and the bounce rate. Was there specific content that may have caused users to be more engaged on the site? How does that compare to those non-social media users who came through another marketing channel and likely are not viewing the same content? If you want to take a deeper look, check to see if there are any major differences in content being viewed by each segment.

Step 6: Adjust your digital strategy as necessary to optimize consideration.

Analyzing Conversions

In order to determine the effectiveness of your digital presence or advertising campaign, a strong understanding of goal conversions in Google Analytics is crucial. The primary objective in digital marketing is to lead users toward your conversion points.

Step 1: Ensure proper set up of Goals in Google Analytics. The way in which you set up and track your goal conversions and events is critical in providing your company with the most valuable data. Track and analyze your company’s performance using measures that are tailored to your primary goals and objectives. We should only define goal conversions when there is a clear customer behavior that reflects interest in your services or supports your site’s objectives. If goals are not already set-up, follow this link for Instructions on how to set up goals in Google Analytics: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1032415?hl=en

Step 2: Go to Conversions – then Goals.

Step 3: Compare the conversion rates, locations, and paths of your segments. What was the impact of advertising campaigns that you ran in driving conversions? Specifically, are there any differences between the segments in the types of conversions that are happening? This could give you more insight into your audiences. Consider the calls to action for campaigns and whether you saw any significant changes due to your strategy.

Step 4: Adjust your digital strategy as necessary to optimize conversions.

The post Google Analytics: How to Use Custom Segments to Up-Level Your Reporting appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Why are conversions important to track?

Tracking conversions on Google Analytics gives you deeper insight as to whether your website activity is actually impacting the performance of your company and achieving your desired objectives. You could be driving thousands of users toward your site, but is this translating to progression in the customer life cycle? Are you effectively leading users to make decisions that align with your company’s intentions? Goal conversions and events on Google Analytics allow us to look deeper into the customer journey to really understand where users may be experiencing hesitation and where we can further optimize. With Google Analytics, you have the ability to drill down to analyze where users convert, where people might fall off, and the source or campaign that led to a conversion.

What is the difference between goal conversions and events?

The main difference between the two types is that events are typically tied to website elements and do not actually require reaching a certain page, whereas with a goal conversion, there should be an exchange of information that results in a URL destination such as a ‘Thank You’ page or confirmation page. The only way a visitor can get to those pages is by going through the entire customer process, hence leading to a conversion. Examples of goal conversions include leads, trial signups, newsletter sign-ups, white paper downloads, product purchases, and ebook downloads.

With event tracking, we can see interactions and behaviors on the site such as link clicks, video plays/pauses, social media button clicks, widget usage, or downloads. This allows us to understand the user experience and see how people are using user-interface features inside of goals. Goals and segments can be created using event data. A major benefit is that there is the ability to categorize events.

What is a funnel?

A funnel allows you to track users through the conversion process. This is the defined process you expect users to complete prior to conversions. Each funnel has a start point and an end point. You can use events to track all the way through to conversion. This allows you to be able to identify where users are converting and where users may be falling off in the process. In setting up a funnel, you must specify which pages lead up to the conversion and identify where users enter and leave the site. This understanding is a critical piece in understanding and optimizing the customer journey.

How do we define a goal conversion?

In order to obtain trustworthy and honest data, we need to be careful about when we define goal conversions. We should only define goal conversions when there is a clear customer behavior that reflects interest in your services or supports your site’s objectives. That being said, since events do not always take place toward the end of the customer funnel, we want to make sure that we don’t consider them as goals.

There are two key differences in identifying goal conversions and events. Simply put, we either have information about the user or we don’t. If we don’t collect information about the user, then we cannot track it back to them to remarket to them later. Therefore, we would not want to consider this a conversion.

After identifying goal conversions, you should segment them as either hard or soft conversions in order to further understand the role they are playing in meeting objectives. A hard conversion would be considered a goal in which we collect information that shows intent for services or aligns with your primary objectives. On the other hand, soft conversions are secondary activities that do not show a strong intent for your services but that may lead up to the primary conversion. Distinguishing hard conversions and soft conversions should uniquely align with your brand’s individual objectives and goals.

In order to clearly define goals and events, we need to understand what the objectives are for the site. You must first identify your Key Performance Indicators before you can develop a plan for tracking those KPI with goal conversion and events. In order to determine which actions should be set up as goals, I recommend setting up a spreadsheet laying out the most important actions on your site. From there, you should add descriptive columns for what you are tracking, the site location where the action takes place, and whether it would be considered a hard or soft conversion. Google Analytics has a maximum of twenty slots that you can reserve for goals per view, and goals cannot be deleted once created, only edited or paused.

In order to achieve honest data, attaching dollar values to goals is unnecessary. We do not recommend adding goal values unless there is a clear revenue exchange because it is unlikely that this aligns with the real value. We like to report on honest and true data that accurately reflects performance. However, this is an individual preference and adding goal values could help in your analysis.

How do we analyze conversions?

Following a solid set-up of goals and events, you can now analyze your conversions. Although there are infinite ways you can analyze your data, my favorite analysis is to look at the behavior of different segments to determine where they may be converting at higher rates. For example, by creating an advanced segment on Google Analytics that tracks any user who has interacted with any social channel and a segment for those who do not interact with any social channel, I can look at trends and compare performance across various channels. You can further dive in to understand where these conversions are happening and the sources or campaigns that are driving these conversions. Funnels are also very useful in analyzing the customer process as you can see where users may be falling off, what is leading them towards the conversion, and ultimately, where we can work to optimize conversions.

The post Google Analytics: How to Define Goal Conversions appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Integrate Your Data

First things first, we need to have the right data to analyze. In order to optimize ROI, we have to truly understand the entire customer journey and make attributions to all campaigns, rather than solely giving credit to just last click and first click. If you can’t measure your social campaign ROI and effectiveness then how are you going to maximize it? We often see that companies and organizations overlook where their data is being pulled from and assume that it tells the whole story. These companies have no solid data infrastructure in place to pass the information that they need to measure through their systems. Therefore, a data flow analysis is recommended in order to determine gaps and integrate data.

Focus on Calls to Action

Engagement among social media does not always translate to conversions. It is very common to see high engagement among social media posts but less consideration due to a lack of calls to action. Ultimately, it is important to achieve a careful balance between driving your audience toward your site and engaging them on social. Ensure your conversion points are promoted within both social content and website resource content. Specifically, implement calls to actions primarily on the pages that have a solid conversion track record according to your analytics. While driving users towards your site, ensure that you retain their engagement through compelling content and calls to action. Additionally, monitor the quality of visitors coming from your various traffic sources.

Accurately Track Conversion Points

Accurate goal and event tracking should be a top priority. In order to do this, reviewing opportunities to generate conversions and constructing a plan for how goal and event tracking will be used is essential. Ensure that these are true conversions, accurately reflecting the objective of your company or organization. Are there any opportunities for goals that don’t exist yet, but that we would like to exist? By placing emphasis on structuring goals in Google Analytics that align with your company’s objectives, you can have a better understanding of the areas that are meeting these goals and the areas that need improvement. Opportunities for testing are virtually limitless when accurate tracking is set up.

After you have a solid conversion base set up, you can segment your audience to see what types of people, campaigns, and channels are translating the most to conversions. You can also look at gaps, such as specific goals in which social media followers tend to be converting at a higher or lower rate than all site visitors. This could be an opportunity to highlight these conversions while also driving them to the site locations that are driving the most conversions among the users. Additionally, look at how converters were acquired and how they performed as customers in comparison to other traffic sources. Further, it is always important to optimize for higher conversion rates from social traffic by testing content on your social channels to determine what is driving the most conversions.

Link Tracking

The use of a URL builder can increase the level of accuracy in tracking shared content. In doing this, you have the capability to implement testing across different spectrums in order to determine strategic insights. With link tracking, you have the ability to use hidden fields to pass the data. That means more segmentation and isolation in your testing capabilities.

We recommend running tests on different types of content shared on your various social channels to see what types of content and which social audience is driving higher engagement on your site. Isolate variables while running these tests in order to see what the driving force is. Use those insights to improve upon your existing social strategy. Invest more time and money on what is working and less on what is not working.

Analyze Correlations

We generally see that users who interact with social channels tend to be more engaged on the site, which indicates that users coming to the site that interact with social media tend to be among a higher quality audience that is more aligned with a company’s objective. Further, increases in site engagement among users, unsurprisingly, are primarily correlated with increases in the conversion rate. Engagement on site is determined by session duration, page views per user, returning visits, and bounce rate. When users are more engaged in the content they are viewing, they tend to be likelier to convert. However, it is recommended that you utilize testing by segmenting your audience and isolating variables to come up with a more targeted approach customized to your company or organization.

Target Your Audience

After determining which users are the highest performing, pursue these channels to achieve maximum efficacy. These variables present great opportunity to target your audience with advertising and campaigns and to drive social users more strategically towards site content. Tailor your findings to appropriately suit your unique audiences and optimize conversions. This will set you up for success in any campaign strategy.

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And on the flip side, there’s us. As an adult, I’m patient, well-versed in waiting, and solid in my understanding of delayed gratification. “I’ll wait”, “Go ahead”, “Take your time.” Yup, we live there. As adults. Yay, us.

But as a digital marketer…I’ll admit it, I’m a child. In fact, #creepyalert, there’s a good chance that I know you are reading this post right now. And even if I’m not creeping on real-time Google Analytics, it’s likely that I’m talking to myself right now: “Why haven’t my Twitter numbers increased?”, “Why hasn’t anyone left a comment?”, “Maybe I should share on Facebook again; it’s been a few minutes”, “Is the comments area broken?”, “I’ll just go ahead and tweet it, or maybe I’ll Buffer, but that’s not immediate enough, so maybe just a direct tweet”, “Perhaps I should leave the first comment myself,” and on and on and on. I’m a child. Me.

I hope, and expect, that you aren’t a child like me. But if you are, here are some lessons that we, as marketers (perhaps more accurately as content creators/publishers), need to learn.

Wait For It

Sure, the first 1, 12, 24 hours of content-sharing matters; 100%, it matters. But should it matter as much as it does? On the analytics side, we can show conversion rates, site visits, virality, etc. But where it really seems to matter is with our ego. We care about the numbers because we care about the numbers. It’s not often that we care about data (emotionally, I mean), but when our ego is factored in, we can’t help but to be personally invested in those specific numbers. Yes, it makes sense to care about how our personal content is performing; most of the time, we have invested much time, energy, and care in its creation before launching to the world. And we feel like proud parents once that content is birthed and well-received. But if our labor of love stagnates, doesn’t catch fire, or spreads slower that we would like, content marketers can quickly turn into pushy stage moms (no offense). And maybe that shouldn’t be the case. We’ve all seen articles get picked up, gain traction, and find their wings over 12 months after their initial posting. But we let our ego speak loudly, and our ego is all about now. We preach evergreen content, layered content, and resurrected content, but we tend to live (and tweet and share and promote) like Mission Impossible content (you know, “this message will self-destruct”). However, if your content doesn’t pop immediately, don’t waste your hours staring at graphs, talking to yourself, and pressing buttons. Let it go, and trust that your content will find its place in the digital world. Promote it, yes, but don’t let your ego drive the bus. It’s likely to drive you in the wrong direction.

Practice Karma

Being generous is one of the Be-attitudes in my last post, and it’s something that can never be overstated. Good will begets good will, and it’s really hard to spur people to action if you spend little to none of your time acting on other content provider’s behalf. One of the best ways to get attention is to give attention; to get help, give help; to reap, sow. If you are asking others to spend their time reading your content and, furthermore, to promote it, you need to buck up and do the same. (Sidenote: SME had a great post recently on how to structure content curation; you can find it here.) So put some time on your calendar to consume content, then start posting about it. You might just catch the eye of the very people you want to spread your own posts. In fact, I’m thinking a good exercise would be to set consume-and-share time aside immediately after my own post is published. Instead of watching analytics and social metrics like a crazy hawk, I think my time would be better spent helping others. So that is what I will do. #creepyalertover

Step Away From The Ego

I’m guessing that you have had that uplifting feeling of watching one of your campaigns take off. It’s a wonderful feeling and one that I hope we all get to experience many times over. I’m also guessing that you’ve had moments on the opposite side of the fence: no traffic, no traction, and a yucky, deflated feeling. Both are valid and valuable.

The unhealthy step is when we obsess over the now, the moment, the real-time and let our ego begin to drive decision-making. Step away from the reload button, and instead spend your time helping others. Consume and share the best content you can find, and be us and not them. Oh, and if sharing this article feels good to you, please do so; bonus good-will points for comments, especially those that make me think.

The post Content Production Has Awakened My Inner Child appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Google recently stopped passing keyword data from searches to analytics platforms. This change means that reports within Google Analytics, Hubspot, and any other kind of analytics program will not provide keyword analytics for all of their Google search traffic.

As a Google stock owner, it filled my head with dollar signs.

The decision to withhold keyword data struck me on many levels. As a marketing analyst, it was a blow to how I carry out daily activities. As a business owner, it diminished my ability to monitor my site. As a Google stock owner, it filled my head with dollar signs.

Allow me to diagnose some of these effects of withholding the keyword data and try to explain why businesses need to pay attention to this kind of move by Google. There’s a lot of love for the search giant, but like any relationship, things can turn sour real fast.

The Real Price of Free

Google has traditionally offered free services that are subsidized by the information they collect. GMail, one of Google’s first forays outside of web searches, was a free email platform that offered superior services to competitors without any charges to the user.  The only real cost was forfeiting a portion of your privacy by allowing robots to scan the email. This data was mined and helped Google make smarter decisions about advertising and search results.

Users of Google products find a hard time criticizing these kinds of practices because they’re a) getting a free product or service, and b) getting improvements to other Google products and services that they also use.

Not too much to complain about with this, but the issue with Google Analytics was a bit of a different story.

Why Business Owners Feel Betrayed

Withholding keyword data from Google Analytics is a bit different than eliminating a free service or feature of a free service.

With Google Analytics, Google’s initial proposition was very fair for both sides of the bargaining table — you provide me a competent analytics platform and I’ll provide you mounds of minable data about my business.

Google’s unending appetite for information was now being directly fed by business owners, and those same business owners were now better equipped by Google to grow their internet presence. This bargain also indirectly helped increase the value of the internet as a whole, which Google, as the gatekeeper, loved.

Now, after years of happily co-existing, Google is making a power play. It’s withholding key data and justifying it in the name of privacy. This really hurts businesses that were relying on that data, yet leaves Google nicely situated. It’s pretty clear who’s now getting the most out of the “free” transaction.

Admittedly, there are two sides to the privacy debate, and Google is correct that withholding the keyword data does help the general population in securing their privacy.  At the same time, two parties still have access to this data: Google and its paying advertisers (those using Google Adwords). Hmm… pretty interesting…

Gotta Make That Money

Now, I don’t want it to seem like I see nothing other than evil intent behind Google’s decision. The privacy aspect does carry weight, but the one that has me sold is the revenue bumps that some anticipate Google experiencing.

There’s a strong belief that withholding that information will decrease the value of natural search to some businesses. Without that keyword data, optimization becomes more difficult and gains begin to drop off. This could then turn the businesses towards AdWords as source of additional leads.

Digital marketing agencies that manage Adwords on behalf of clients have long been using Adwords keyword data to augment & enhance their organic search campaigns. Now, I can only see those Adwords revenues increasing as agencies suggest to clients to spend more in order to get more traffic, leads, and keyword data.

AdWords has always been Google’s biggest moneymaker.  Specifically, over 90% of their $50 Billion in 2012 revenue came from Adwords. They use ad revenues to subsidize the bulk of their [free] offerings and now they’re trying to herd even more marketing directors in that direction.

Is it wrong that they’re doing that? Maybe.

But the winds have been blowing in the direction for more secure searches and privacy so it could just be that this is the best opportunity they could have asked for and they seized it.

What Happens Next?

This was a major decision by Google and we’ll have to see how it plays out. If nothing else, it reminds us that nothing is free and we should be wary of relying on the search engine so much.

I can tell you my firm has long been suggesting the use of Adwords (and other paid media channels) for clients – and we’re certainly leaning more heavily on PPC in light of the lost keyword data.

Luckily, authorities in the SEO space agree that SEO is NOT dead. SEO is still plenty alive and it’s taking on a couple new faces: Google Authorship & Content Marketing.

And there are plenty of other data sources that business owners and online marketers can use to augment their organic search efforts.

Sadly, we’ll miss the glory days of being able to see every keyword that drove traffic to our sites.

Do you believe the lack of keyword data from Google searches will impact your business?
Comment below.

The post Is There a Dark Side of Google? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

• How many web searchers see your content in search results?
• Which keywords and content get a lot of eyeballs, but relatively few clicks?
• What topics could you add to your editorial calendar to exploit strong search interest?

Today, we’re going to continue our exploration of data-supported content decisions. Most digital marketers have added Google Analytics to their business websites and blogs. However, the complementary Google Webmaster Tools is often overlooked. It’s quite simple to set up, and once you do, you have access to a useful set of pre-click data on how your content is performing in organic search.

Webmaster Tools integrates with Google Analytics, so you won’t be adding another dashboard to check. Once you connect the accounts, the new data will show up under the Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimization report. Since digital marketers are always busy, if you’re manually checking your visibility in Google, this will save you time.

Setting Up Webmaster Tools

You’ll first have to sign up for Webmaster Tools at www.google.com/webmasters/tools/. Be sure to use a Google Account that has administrative access to your Google Analytics account. That will make it easier to connect them later.

Once you’re signed in, click the red “Add Site” button to verify that you control the site. Enter the URL of your business blog or website, and Google WMT will create a unique verification code for you.

This might be the point at which you’ll need a little developer help if you don’t have FTP access to the site, but it’s very little help. Download the HTML file (which is empty, it just needs to exist on your web server as proof that you control the site). Then you or a developer will need to upload the file to the root directory (the same folder as your home or index page) on your hosting server.

There are alternate means of verification, like adding the code as a meta tag to the header of your site, or having it look up your Google Analytics account, but I’ve never had good luck with these methods. Also, if your site is on WordPress and you change your theme, you might lose the verification code (and your data till you figure out that you’ve done it.) So if at all possible, stick with the recommended method. It’s recommended for a reason.

Once that’s done, return to Webmaster Tools and verify the site. Once it’s verified, you can connect it to your Analytics account.

Log in to the dashboard, click the Traffic Sources tab and then Search Engine Optimization > Queries. It will tell you that you need to enable Webmaster Tools. Click “Set up Webmaster Tools data sharing” and you should see your new WMT account as an option to connect at the bottom. Apply those changes, and you’re off to the races.

There’s a slight data lag with Webmaster Tools, so don’t be concerned if it takes a day or two for your new data to show up. Once it does, you can see how your content performs before a visitor clicks through to your site.

More Information > Better Content Decisions

You can quickly look at your site’s performance in terms of impressions, clicks, average position, and click through rate (CTR). The Queries report will tell you which keywords or topics are generating the most visibility and clicks. The Landing Page report look at the individual posts or pages on your site, and how they’re performing in search.

You can filter these reports on the fly using the search bar or the advanced filter tool, which is just above the list of top keywords (Query view) or content (Landing Page view). Filtering will let you drill down to see your average ranking, which is called “position” in this report, for specific content or keywords. A little digging around should show you topics and keywords that have strong search interest (lots of impressions).

You can create a running list of “opportunity rich” keywords and topics, and use that list to inform your editorial calendar. Additionally, you can investigate content that is getting high impressions, but low clicks or CTR. If the average position for that page or post is >10, it’s not showing up in the first page of search results.

These pages might be good candidates for spending a little extra time beefing up the SEO.  Small adjustments in the title, URL, or description might deliver more site visitors. (No, search engines don’t rank based on the description, but visitors do click based on it, and those clicks are what you’re after anyway.) Alternately, you might create new content on that topic, and link between the two posts, improving overall authority for your site on the subject.

Once you can take a peep behind the curtain at what is happening with your content when people are previewing it in search, you can make any adjustments you need to make sure you’re offering them what they want.

To a certain extent, content marketers will always be guessing at what their audience wants. But if data from Webmaster Tools can provide good clues, why not make it a more educated guess?

The post What Happens Before The Click appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Most marketers associate Google Analytics with periodic reporting of traffic. Those who are responsible for tracking revenue or media buys may look at conversions or traffic source performance. But the data in Google Analytics can help content strategists, community managers and others in a more editorial role, too.

Aside from looking at how many pageviews your last post got, content strategists can use Google Analytics’ data to guide content planning. However, since content strategists are usually grammar geeks instead of numbers nerds, we’re often too intimidated to give it a serious look. It’s actually not that hard to use Google Analytics to find great opportunities and ideas for your content strategy and editorial calendar.

Let’s look at how you can use the data from your back catalog of posts to plan a kickass editorial calendar for the future.

Join me in the Wayback Machine, Sherman.

Here’s our use case: You’re a new hire responsible for content strategy on a popular blog that has been churning out daily weekday content for five years. The blog is a lead generation tool for a business, so the categories align with your service set. Over the years, the content has had some hits and some misses. Now, you’re working on a content strategy for the next quarter.

You’ve decided to create an “onboarding” page to orient new visitors, giving them a feel for the site’s voice, perspective and “editorial beat.” You hope the links will also help bump up the SEO value of those posts for important keywords. The onboarding page will have links to the “Top Ten Can’t Miss Posts” for your website.

Since the blog has been around for a while, its purpose (and content) has evolved over the years. The original blogger didn’t start with a cohesive plan to build “cornerstone content”– or else the business model changed and the original cornerstone content may not be as relevant as it should be.

So how do you go through a backlog of five years of at least five posts a week to find the ten you need to set the tone for new visitors? (And for the rest of you grammar geeks, the math for that works out to 1,300 posts. Even if the use case was three posts a week for three years, that’s 468 posts. Way too many to read all of them individually.)

Sorting the Haystack into Smaller Haystacks

So as our intrepid hero(ine), you’ll log into analytics. If you don’t have analytics access — get it. Now. You need it. If you’ve looked at analytics at all, you’re used to just looking at the most recent month of data. For this exercise you’ll need to go to the Standard Reporting dashboard and change the date range. Set the beginning date as far back as you’ve got data, up to the current date.

Now, you’re going to move to the Content tab. Click the subsection called “Content Drilldown.” If your mission is to find the needles that are the top ten posts in a haystack of 1,300 you’re going to need to start sorting and filtering.  The Content Drilldown assumes your folders are categories. If you click the link for the Category folder, voila! You’ve gone from looking at the highest traffic posts to the highest traffic posts for that category.

Adjust the number of rows to something manageable, but probably larger than the default of 10 rows. You might make the break point the top 25 or 50 posts in terms of pageviews. You might decide the break the list at a particular number of pageviews, for example, anything that generated more than 100 or 500 or 1000, depending on the typical traffic to your site.

Download this report into a CSV file. Now you have an editable “short list” for the category.

And Then There Were Ten

Congratulations. You’ve gone from 1,300 potential choices to maybe a dozen or so for each category. Now, start culling the short list. Eliminate anything that’s not “evergreen” right off the bat. You can probably quickly get rid of several posts this way. Posts that focus on a hot news item of the day often get big short term boosts, but they aren’t likely the best representatives of your editorial focus. In fact, anything time-sensitive can go. Or anything that got an “unnatural” boost in traffic.

At this point, you’re scanning the headlines and getting a sense of what the topics of the posts are. Aside from pageviews, look at the Average Time on Page to see which posts kept the readers’ interest longest. Think like a book editor. If you were trying to turn the blog into a book, which posts headlines would be the most obvious chapters to include?

If any headline or URL piques your curiosity because you’re not sure what it’s about, pull it up and spot check it. Read through it quickly to see if it’s a hidden gem that might have gotten better traffic with a clearer or more compelling headline or stronger keywords in the URL. You might be able to refresh and optimize that post to get a second life out of it.

At this point, you’re now using your best analytical tool: your own brain. It may take a while of reading through the top contenders, but you’ll quickly get to a short list of 2-5 posts that represent the best evergreen content in that category. Then lather, rinse and repeat with the other categories.

You may want to weight certain categories by importance: for example, if you have one primary focus for the site, that category may have 5 of the top 10 posts, and the other categories will divvy up the remaining five.

Also, question the writers. What posts of theirs are they most proud of? Which ones got memorable feedback? Using analytics data doesn’t mean ignoring anecdotal information. It just gives you a manageable starting place for human analysis.

Back to the Future

At the end of this exercise, you’ll notice something interesting. You not only have a good overview of the most resonant posts from the past, you’ll have a much clearer and more specific sense of the site’s editorial focus, point-of-view and past coverage.You’ll have digested way more than you think about what kinds of posts work at driving readership, and which ones don’t.

Now you’re much better prepared to start planning content for the future. Our use case was a new hire, but often people who’ve been working with the same site for years get burned out. This exercise can help you get a little much-needed distance and perspective.

Aside from the winners, you’ll also have noticed the gaps.  The gaps are the key to your editorial calendar for the next period.

Certain categories or topics will have either been missed, or at least not had that “must-read, bookmark and revisit” contribution. Anytime you find yourself thinking “Wow, I would have expected to find a post on X,” write down those missing pieces. Look at the posts you rejected from your short list. What was wrong? Why was it a near miss instead of a hit?  Could you use the original idea as the basis for a stronger piece? Did you rule out a good, high traffic older post whose content is outdated? Could it be fixed with an update, refresh, or “2012 edition”?

You can use what you learned in this exercise to reinforce the foundation of the site’s content. That stronger foundation will give even more peripheral or experimental content a better chance of being seen.

Many marketers find Google Analytics intimidating, but it’s well worth digging into. Writers often resist the idea of letting numbers guide their words. I got into SEO originally because it was “copywriting with a scoreboard.” My competitive nature pushed me to learn analytics so I could see how well my writing performed against similar content. Once you start digging into the information, you’ll see the numbers start to tell a story. Understanding that story can help you create better content, seen by more people.

Who doesn’t like that?

The post Using Analytics to Plan Great Content appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

ROI is calculated as follows: (Gain from an investment – Cost of the investment) / Cost of the investment

The formula is simple enough. So why do ROI discussions always seem to have the potential to become acrimonious? Like a good political debate, how you approach the measurement of your content marketing and communication initiatives can depend on your perspective.

THE ROI SPECTRUM

Those on the left side of the spectrum believe that creating marketing content such as infographics and publishing it across social media channels helps their brand communicate and connect with audiences. Because “engagement” is always the right thing to do, measuring performance becomes less of a priority.

Those on the right side of the spectrum ardently believe that content marketing initiatives must be able to be measured and show a proven ROI, or they are not viable or beneficial to the organization.

A practical solution to the measuring of infographic value lies somewhere in between.

Costs are associated with the development, design, publishing, and promotion of your infographics. It may be unnecessary to measure the direct correlation between your infographic marketing efforts and revenue, but it is important to understand and measure the relationship between resource allocation and marketing performance. As a business person, you need to be able to justify the internal and external value of infographics as a communication tool.

Conversely, looking at infographics and other content marketing purely through a fiscal lens may be too narrow an approach. Not every marketing and communication initiative that adds value to an organization can be unequivocally connected to revenue. In reality, some hypocrisy is related to ROI expectations with new marketing tactics such as infographics and social media when compared to legacy programs. For example, how many organizations actually measure the ROI of an established marketing activity such as attending a trade show?

When it comes to measuring the value of infographics, maybe ROI is simply not the best end goal.

MEASURING VOI (VALUE OF INFOGRAPHICS)

Another way to study the value of information design as a marketing and communication tool is to take a more balanced approach that assesses both tangible and intangible benefits over the short and long term.

Be sure to set analytics objectives and have a benchmark for each metric so that you can gauge progress over time. For example, you can note, audit and record performance metrics as of a specific date, such as the first day of the next fiscal quarter. Then measure the same metrics in regular intervals moving forward – 30, 60, or 90 days – comparing them to the benchmark and subsequent historic figures. This process helps you measure progress related to awareness and engagement and also helps you assess what infographic content is most effective.

Tangible Metrics

Awareness

These basic metrics indicate the level of exposure your infographics are receiving across different digital channels:

• Inbound links – Use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to measure how many sites are linking back to your infographic content. Also, if you include an embed code, track how many people copy and paste the code and embed your infographic on their sites. In addition to measuring awareness, back links also provide insight into the types of people and websites that are publishing your infographics.
• Page views – Use Google Analytics to measure how many page views and unique views each infographic on your website or blog is generating.
• Searches – Use Google Analytics to see how many people are finding your infographics by using specific keywords. Understanding which topical or industry search words are working well can help you refine keyword optimization in future infographic titles. In addition, you will be able to assess the growth of an infographic’s popularity by how many times people search for its title.
• SEO ranking – Use RankChecker to measure the page rank of your infographics on major search engines such as Google and Bing.
• Subscribers – Use the analytics functionality native to each of the applications you are using – blog, Facebook, Twitter- to measure how many people subscribe to your content across digital channels. Examples of metrics include blog subscribers (RSS and email), email subscribers, and followers on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s important to recognize that these metrics reflect your potential audience reach. Not all your subscribers will necessarily see every infographic you will publish.

In addition to quantifiable metrics, a number of less-tangible benefits are associated with using infographics as an internal and external communication tool.

External

• Building relationships – The process of publishing and promoting your infographics presents opportunities to develop relationships with a wide variety of influential individuals, media, and organizations.
• Credibility – Publishing relevant and useful infographics that educate and offer insight positions you or your organization as a thought leader within your sector, building credibility with your audiences.
• Experience with your brand – Infographics and other content create micro-interactions with your audiences, helping facilitate positive experiences with your organization.

Internal

• Communication – Infographics can make it easier for your employees to communicate problems, ideas, concepts, and processes with each other, allowing more efficient dissemination of information and transfer of knowledge. Infographics, because of their accessible and viral nature, also have the potential to get spread to all corners of an organization, fuelling expanded internal debate and dialogue.
• Corporate pride – If an infographic becomes popular and gets shared across social media channels, it can become a point of pride for employees and the organization.
• Decision-making – Infographics speed up information consumption and understanding, resulting in incrementally quicker decisions.
• Learning – Infographics make complex information easier to understand, helping educate employees about important data and processes.

I would love to get your thoughts on measuring the value of infographic content. How important is it to measure VOI? What others ways would you measure the impact of infographics? The comments are yours.

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This is the final post in a 4-part series covering some of the themes included in The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect with Your Audiences – my new book now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Que and Indigo.

The post The ROI of Infographics appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

If only I could get one of those big names – Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Brian Clark, I’d even settle for Jason Falls – to trumpet the piece I’ll be en route to cashing checks and speaking in front of sold out conference center ballrooms.

If only I could get it to catch on. Maybe it’ll happen this time. I really hope it does.

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While we won’t readily admit to it – at least not out in the open on the internet – we often use hope as the primary driver of our content strategy.

“I hope people like this.”

“Hopefully, it’ll get picked up by the linkerati.”

“We haven’t considered our resources, our audience, or our end goals, but we hope this [fill in the blank with a whitepaper, video, blog post, etc.] will do the trick.”

It’s good to be optimistic, right? We should believe that anything could happen, shouldn’t we? Isn’t it better to see the glass as half full, not as half empty?

Maybe that’s what our kindergarten teachers and psychologists tell us, but optimism in the world of content marketing is the quickest path to surefire disappointment and oftentimes failure.

Allow me to steal a lesson from Jim Collin’s oft-referenced masterpiece “From Good to Great“.

James Stockdale – a veteran who survived almost 8 years in a P.O.W. camp was asked if the people who didn’t make it had anything in common, he said this:

“Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Though the circumstances are drastically different (read: running a content marketing program is absolutely nothing like surviving a P.O.W. camp) the lesson remains the same: if you’re not ready to “confront the brutal facts of your current reality” you’re not likely to be successful.

Those brutal facts are:

•  There are no overnight successes. Despite what viral videos appearing on the Today Show might lead you to believe (I’m looking at you, golden-voiced Ted Williams), a viral video doesn’t typically pave the way to sustainable success. It usually provides a temporary downpour of traffic and then a drought.

•  Sustainable success takes commitment. The output of a top 10 blog in the AdAge Power 150 is astounding: On average, they’ve produced 2.4 posts per day with an average word count of 1,278 every single day for the last 7 years.
• A lot of your stuff will be ignored. Not every hit is going to be a home run. In fact, you’ll probably strike out a lot. The key is to keep learning and improve your approach as you go.

We can be as optimistic as we want when it comes to our content strategy, but our hearts will usually end up broken, our sails will lose the wind, and we’ll constantly be refreshing our Google Analytics report hoping to see the visits adding up.

But when they don’t, we question ourselves, we question our ideas, and we question the entire idea of content marketing in the first place.

And sometimes we quit. After all, the optimists die first. The people that see it like it is, never get too high, never get too low, and always keep their nose to the grindstone are the ones that survive. And after enough of the grind, they thrive.

In other words, don’t end up like the bunny.

Have You Registered For Explore Minneapolis?

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The post The Optimists Die First: Why Hope is Not a Content Strategy appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The spaces are not assigned, so the early birds get the better spots in the middle floors where you’ll find the covered walkway into the building. You would think that the people who park near you are just like you, and you’d probably be right. There’s just one little detail: the people who come through the odd floors are entering from one street, and the even people come from another. So how would you ever know?

Arrival and Path

You have a blog, or even website for your company, and at first it seemed like a lot of fun keeping a tally of the number of visitors. After a while, you may have seen spikes in traffic or behavior — or maybe even that rare event where traffic didn’t necessarily spike but engagement (comments) did. If all you’re concerned about is the number of cars in the deck, you’re not going to get an accurate picture. So let’s try to characterize the people who park in the deck, and how that relates.

• Those who come in through Avenue A
• Those who come in through Avenue B

• Those who come in at 6
• Those who come in at 6:30
• Those who come in at 7
• Those who come in at 7:30
• Those who come in at 8

• Those who drive cars
• Those who drive trucks
• Those three guys who ride motorcycles

Not to mention those who carpool, or those who park elsewhere and walk into the building, or those who park in the executive deck …

Sorting and Learning

You could make some big mistakes in assuming things about your coworkers based on the small sample you see parking around you every day. Many small businesses make assumption errors, often because they don’t know how to start sorting their visitors. Here are some important metrics to look at:

• Traffic source
• Search engine? (if so, which terms?)
• Social network? (if so, which one?)
• Organic find, or part of your promotion?
• Time on site?
• Bounce? (Did they hit one page and fly away?)
• Return visitors?
• Home page or deep link?

Often, an exercise like this one can be made easier by examining something analogous

So I throw this challenge to you:

1) What other community areas get naturally “Balkanized” unintentionally?

2) What other “slices” of your customer base do you find useful, and how did you learn about that?

The post The Balkanization of The Parking Deck appeared first on Social Media Explorer.