driven by data
23Feb

Driven by Data: Collection

In 2016, a surprising 87% of marketers considered data the most underutilized asset of their marketing endeavors. Why is this? Well, it’s likely because of a lack of understanding. As we aim to maximize campaign results for our dealers in the year 2017, we feel that this is an important topic to review as we refocus and re-strategize. In this post we will be covering where to find data, in the next post we will talk about what to do with your findings!

A 2015 survey showed that “speed of adoption” has proven crucial to many companies’ success. What does this mean? The rate at which a company can adapt and adopt new practices and tools for their consumer has been determined as a salient indicator of whether or not the company will survive in our modern day world. We need to make sure we’re staying ahead of the curve concerning what consumers want from us- and data will reveal what direction we need to go and what tools to adopt.

mythfact1Data is useless if you don’t know what you’re looking at. Without context for the numbers, they are in fact just that, numbers. We want to give you, our dealers, context for the most important data figures you should be monitoring as you gauge your online success and what consumers may be looking for that you don’t currently offer. Let’s be clear, no matter the primary function of your website- e-commerce, blogging, or educating your consumers on what you offer- data can be wielded to your advantage. We know a common goal for all of our dealers is gaining leads, so let us show you how data can help you with this!


Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a hub that you can access for free, to engage with some of the most crucial stats concerning your website’s activity. Google can tell you the routes people take to get to your website, what content they view on your website, track your leads and give you goal lead numbers to aim at. It also can show you your competitors data, which can be extremely useful in staying ahead.

There are 4 components to how Google Analytics works: data collection, configuration, data processing, and reporting. Since Google Analytics can be overwhelming when you first start using it, we’ve created a handy keepsake for you to utilize when you’re ready to get started.

Google Analytics Terminology:defining-google-analytics2


  • Attribution
    : Assigning credit for sales and conversions to specific touch points in that conversion path. This data is quantified so you know what part of your website is actually earning you revenue.
  • Dimensions: How Google organizes your data, this is a descriptive attribute of your data. For example, browser type, landing page, or geographic location would all be dimensions of your data.
  • Metric: Quantitative measurement of your data, can either be a sum or ratio.
  • Pageview: In differentiating from total visitors, a single visitor can view many pages which is why Google tabulates how many pages are viewed as well as how many visitors your website attracts.
  • Segmentation: Helps you analyze a specific group of users to see their behavior patterns, such as segmenting by physical location to see what kind of interaction you are getting by region.
  • Session: Period of time a user is on your website, defaults to 30 minutes.
  • Source: Origin of website traffic, i.e. Google or Facebook.
  • Medium: Category of the source, i.e. search engines or social

There are also 4 core categories of reporting: audience, acquisition, behavior, conversion. All of these different types of reports have even more specific reports within them, showing you exactly who is coming to your website, how did they reach it, where they are physically located, and what their patterns of behavior are. You can also create customized reports using whatever dimensions and metrics you want! We recommend you stay focused on the behavior patterns of your customers and what touchpoints Google Analytics attributes to conversions, especially how often your landing pages or forms are generating leads.


Beyond this information, there is so much more we could share with you about Google Analytics. Because it’s such a visual tool it would be much more effective for one of our search specialists to walk you through these rather than spelling it all out, so let us know and we can connect you!

That all said, you should be gathering data from every possible source, not just Google Analytics. Though tools like this are highly beneficial in highlighting specific statistics, much can be gained from your own custom spreadsheets, tracking promotional results, social media reactions, customer service call logs, etc. to sharpen your business practices and increase your likeliness of gaining more business. Now that you know where to find data, in our next post we will be discussing the second piece of the data puzzle: analyzing it and putting it to practical use! Stay tuned!
Want some help navigating Google Analytics or other data reporting tools? Reach out to us at marketing@commercialwebservices.com!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Gallagher
COMMENT (2)
Driven by Data: Analyze | Commercial Web Services Blog / March 2, 2017

[…] important aspect to the reports you’ll be analyzing are sources, which we’ve defined previously as the origin of your website traffic. Your sources tell a story about your audience, since their […]

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Mayday! Your Visitors Need Somewhere to Land! | Commercial Web Services Blog / April 6, 2017

[…] points out that every landing page is a data asset, something we emphasized collecting in our Driven By Data series! By collecting this demographic information, you in turn understand your online customers and how […]

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