An

APPSUMO + MIXERGY
Production

Google
Analytics*
Getting The Most Out of A
Powerful Tool
with

Justin Cutroni
Director of Digital Intelligence, WebShare

* Transcript
 Google Analytics Transcript

GOOGLE ANALYTICS huge difference when you’re teaching.

Andrew Warner: Hey, Justin, I’d like to see
how a power user like you uses Google Ana- Justin Cutroni: And to me, this is really where
lytics, so that I get a sense of what I can do if everyone needs to be when they’re using
I were using Google Analytics well. Can you Google Analytics, or any analytics tool for
show me? that matter. They need the ability to see
what is impact for the bottom line of my busi-
Justin Cutroni: Sure. Absolutely. I just wanted ness based on my marketing activities be-
to bring your attention right here: we’re look- cause we’re spending a lot of time, money,
ing at a report on Google Analytics called and energy on these marketing activities. We
the “Campaigns Report” and this report need to understand are they paying off. And
is showing us all of our different marketing when I say paying off, I’m not really so wor-
activities that are driving traffic to the site. ried about traffic, I just want to know which
Here’s a list of all the campaigns and their ones are really impacting the bottom line. So,
names. And what’s really great about this re- this is the goal, to get everyone to a place
port is I’m looking at how much revenue my like this where they can look and understand
different marketing activities are generating. how their marketing activities are actually
impacting the bottom line of their business.
Andrew Warner: Are these the actual stats for
Google Store that you’re showing us? Andrew Warner: Okay. And as you look at
this report what are you seeing? You’re see-
Justin Cutroni: Yeah so this is actual data ing you’re number one source is what?
from Google Store. We use this in a lot of our
training materials and at a lot of talks that we Justin Cutroni: I see my number one cam-
give. paign right here--this marketing campaign-
-looks like it’s a display campaign for English
Andrew Warner: I see. And what’s your con- speakers, is driving about 7,000 visits to the
nection to Google Store? site, but it’s generating $60 in revenue. Not so
hot. Meanwhile I have this other campaign
Justin Cutroni: I have no personal connec- driving far less traffic but generating much
tion, other than that I’ve spent way too more revenue. So, to me, why am I spend-
much money on onesies for my children. But ing all of this money to generate $60, right?
Google is one of our biggest partners. We I’ve got to be able to fix this, or do it better.
are a a Google Analytics certified partner So this is something I want to fix, meanwhile
--- the company I work for --- so we’ve been this other campaign, while it’s not bringing as
teaching analytics for a long time and when much traffic, it’s generating a heck of a lot of
we told them, “Hey, we need something to revenue. I might want to promote this more.
use as a good example,” they opened up Spend more money here in order to gener-
the store for us. ate more revenue.

Andrew Warner: Interesting, that’s great. I Andrew Warner: I see. And you know what?
love looking at actual data. If I were just looking at the standard analyt-
ics report, I would think that the source that is
Justin Cutroni: Yeah, actual data makes a sending me 7,223 visitors is my better source

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and that’s what I would want to grow and me wrong. They definitely serve a purpose.
I think that the second source that is only You need to understand how much traffic
sending a little over a thousand visitors is not you’re getting. You need to understand if
doing so well. And I would probably back they’re engaged. But if I’m selling a product,
away and not realize that that’s the more or if I’m trying to get people to sign up for
profitable source for me. So you are going something, or submit a contact form, where
to help us set this up so that we understand is that metric? By default that metric is not
not just where our traffic is but also where there. There’s no metric that tells me if those
our most valuable traffic is and how we can activities are being completed. And so we
grow that and how we can fix the places need to move beyond these basic metrics
where we are not getting very valuable traf- and we need to think about: how do I align
fic. Is that right? the metrics and the data in Google Analyt-
ics with my business. So the first thing I really
Justin Cutroni: Absolutely. My friend Katie need to do is say, what am I trying to do with
Payne who was one of the founders of the my website. What is the goal I have with my
analytics industry had a great quote. She website? Is it to sell a product? Is it to get
said we need to stop tracking hits and by hits a lead? Is it to engage with my visitors and
she uses the acronym, “How Idiots Track Suc- have them spend a certain amount of time
cess.” We need to move beyond “hits.” or to look at a certain amount of content?
What is that bottom line business activity that
Andrew Warner: Hits, that’s how idiots track I want to track? And once I define that, I
success, okay. Alright. Well, I want to move can start using a feature in Google Analytics
beyond it, but first I’d like to understand called “Goals” in order to configure Google
what’s available to me. Can you help me Analytics to track those types of things.
understand what metrics I should be looking
at, what I should know about Google Analyt- Andrew Warner: Okay. Let’s take a look at
ics here, because when I come in here I see this. So once you’re here, what’s beyond
lots of different links and I’m not sure that I this? What’s the second most important
am as aware of what I should be aware of as page for us to look at?
you are. In fact, I know I’m not. So, help me
understand it. Justin Cutroni: Here’s where I think we get
into--the first thing you need to do is set up
Justin Cutroni: Yeah. Absolutely. I think we your goals, right? You need to set up your
are up to over 130 different reports in Google conversion tracking so that we can then go
Analytics. And that’s before you even cus- into the other reports and say, ah, here are
tomize any reports so it’s completely over- conversions based on where people come
whelming. And even when you log in for the from, here’s funnel abandonment, here’s
first time you see a screen like this: I’m show- ecommerce. So let’s jump into setting up
ing my dashboard here. And when you look a really simple goal in Google Analytics to
at this, instantly Google kind of pummels you show you guys how that works.
with these six metrics: Visits, Pageviews, Pag-
es/Visit, Bounce Rate, Average Time on Site, Andrew Warner: Okay. Let’s do that.
and Percent of New Visits to your website.
And those metrics are all useful--don’t get Justin Cutroni: So here I am at the basic

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Google Analytics log-in screen. I’m going there in the process? We’re just looking at
to login with my username and password. Googlestore.com; it’s not a store obviously
Okay, so when I log in I see a list of accounts I that you own, we’re just using it as an ex-
have access to. And if I just choose an ac- ample. The first step in the process is that the
count here. Here I am with my profile. And user comes to the homepage and has to
I click “edit” it’s gonna bing me into all of select, I think there was a drop-down menu.
the settings for my profile. And here we go.
These are the general settings for my website Justin Cutroni: Yes
and here are my goal settings down here.
And I can add a goal. Andrew Warner: The second step was to pick
what they wanted to buy.
Andrew Warner: Gotcha that’s how we get
into it. Justin Cutroni: Yes.

Justin Cutroni: Add a goal. And here we Andrew Warner: The third step--actually, am I
have our form. going through this right? What are the steps?
Let’s go back.
Justin Cutroni: So let’s use an example. I’m
going to use an example from a store for Justin Cutroni: Well my suggestion is we really
an ecommerce website. I think we’ve all just want to track what I would call the core
been exposed to ecommerce and from a checkout process. So once someone starts to
measurement perspective, it’s pretty straight- checkout..
forward, right? We’re going to talk about
measuring a conversion, a transaction. But Andrew Warner: Oh, I see. So I don’t need to
measuring a conversion, it can be anything. understand the steps, just the core checkout
It can be e-mail sign-up, it can be Contact process.
Us form, any type of form. So, if I’m on a
store--here I’m on the Google Store, I’m just Justin Cutroni: Exactly. So someone moving
going to really quickly add a product to from the shopping cart to billing, and then
a cart here. Okay. Let’s see. Apps. Great. shipping, and then credit card info, review
Google Apps t-shirt. That’s what I need. I and finally the thank you page. Because
need one of those. So if I add it to my cart. I that’s really the process that we’re forcing
want to track how many people, after they you to go through, you can browse and add
add something to their cart, actually go products differently, based on who you are
through this checkout process and ultimately and what your needs are for the site. But
convert, ultimately buy this product. Here’s no matter what you’re doing, we’re going
my shopping cart. I would click the “Check- to force you through that billing, shipping-
out” button for this store and then go through -that process. And that’s the one we want
a process to checkout. So let’s jump back to measure, along with, of course, the most
into Google Analytics and talk about how I important part: the end, the convergence,
actually track that. how many people finish that. I’m going to
go into Google Analytics here. And I’m in
Andrew Warner: Okay. And before you Google Analytics and I’m viewing the profile
do that actually. How many steps are for my store. And again, this is just an exam-

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ple; this isn’t really Google Analytics account a store, you can literally just go through the
for the store. Just to show you guys how to process yourself, go through all the steps and
do this. You can see I’ve got different tables look at the URLs that you’re getting. When
representing different information about my you get that final thank you page what
website. So I have my main website infor- you want to do is, you want to go after the
mation, and then I have this section called “.com,” the “.org,” or whatever you’re exten-
“Goals.” And Goals is how Google Analytics sion is and grab all this junk right here, okay?
tracks conversions. They give you what they And then you can give it a quick “copy” and
call four goals “sets”. And each set can have jump back into Google Analytics and I see
up to five goals, so there is a total of twenty my goal URL and I paste it right in. Now, obvi-
goals that you can track for your website. ously I wasn’t looking at the receipt page
The goal sets are really just a way to organize for our example, so I’m just going to change
things in the reports and I’ll show you that in a this real quick and I’m just going to say it was
second. So let’s add a quick goal for buying “thank-you.”
a product. Doesn’t matter which product,
this is just how many people buy a product Andrew Warner: So I don’t type in the HTTP
on the store. Here I have a really basic form. and the rest. I don’t need to do that. I just
And I might say my goal name is “Buy Prod- say, after the “.com,” what’s the rest of the
uct;” we give it something really descriptive, URL that people will see when they finish the
so I know in my reports what I see. And then checkout process.
I have to tell Google Analytics--I can skip
these “Activate Goal” and “Goal Position.” Justin Cutroni: Yes
Those are a little more advanced that the
beginner doesn’t really need to know about. Andrew Warner: After they’ve given me their
They’re not going to cause any problems. money and have finished every step along
So now I need to tell Google Analytics what the way.
type of goal this is. And this is where Google
Analytics gives you a little bit of flexibility be- Justin Cutroni: Absolutely. Yes. So grab that.
cause it knows everyone’s business is a little The other thing you can do when you paste
different. We’re tracking a store. A store sells your specific URL in there is you can strip off
products. That means people go through a a lot of the things like the query parameters,
process and then they get to a thank you so anything after the question mark you can
page. And that type of goal is called a “URL normally just delete all that and just have
Destination” goal, meaning you’ve reached that core URL.
a certain URL on a website. So if I click URL
Destination goal, you’ll see I have a second- Andrew Warner: Okay. Right. I know some-
ary form that popped up here with some times in my checkout process I have that
more details to give about the goal. And the question mark and the person’s email ad-
most important thing here is the goal URL. dress and maybe their name. Don’t need it.
Now the goal URL is what is the URL for the Just need the core of it.
thank you page or the receipt page. What
is the URL for that page that indicates that Justin Cutroni: Exactly.
the person has completed the process and
has finished the transaction. So if you have Andrew Warner: Okay.

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Justin Cutroni: So now, when I hit “Save So after we have our goals configured--ob-
Goal,” Google Analytics is going to create a viously we can see our goals here in Google
goal for me in my account. Analyticsand we can count things. I want
to point out that not all of our goals have to
Andrew Warner: Is there anything else we be transaction based. So you have a web-
need to do there on that page? site, Mixergy, and you interview folks and
you get people to come to your website
Justin Cutroni: Well for now, we’re going to and absorb content, so publishing. Myself, I
leave it at that. That’s setting up the goal. have a blog as well and I want people to go
We’re going to tweak it in a second when and read and spend time on the website,
we talk about tracking the funnel and get- That’s a completely valid business objec-
ting more detail about how people move tive and something we can measure with
through that. goals as well in GA. When we set up our first
goal for the Google Store, that was transac-
Andrew Warner: Okay. tion based, people had to get to a page to
complete the process. But I want to make
Justin Cutroni: So right now we’ve got our sure that you guys understand that you can
goal configured. Now if I jump back into also create goals based on time or content
Google Analytics, you’ll notice in my naviga- consumption. And again, this is completely
tion I have a whole section of reports, called relevant to a whole section of businesses
“Goals.” This section shows me a lot of ag- that are trying to drive engagement on the
gregate data, a lot of high level data. And website. So I might want to say that I want
again, we’re looking at an account that is to create a conversion every time someone
active and they have a lot of goals set up. spends more than five minutes on the web-
So let’s go walk through this. When I open up site. That would be called a “Time on Site
the goals section I get this overview report. Goal.” You can see here I started off getting
This is a high-level overview of all of my goals, to this form the same way, but rather than
and how many times they were completed. choosing a URL Destination goal, I choose a
Here’s a goal for completing order; it had Time on Site goal. Or if I’m really hung up on
801 conversions. For goal #3 that was set up Pages/Visit, I want a lot of people looking at
on this account, View Software Downloads, a lot of content per visit, I can create a goal
that had 6 conversions. So you can see that out of how much content people look at per
with Google Analytics, every time someone visit. So pages per visit greater than seven.
hits the thank you page or someone com- These are completely valid goals in Google
pletes the process and gets to that URL that Analytics, just like our transaction based
represents the end of the process, Google goals and they will be tracked the same
Analytics is going to count a goal for you. So way. When someone hits seven pages, a
I have a nice breakdown here of the differ- conversion will be counted and we’ll get all
ent goals I have set up and how often they sorts of nice, juicy reports.
happen. So this is big aggregate data. And
that’s what setting up the goals will do: it will Andrew Warner: I see. And so, what are
give you sort of this first step in the process of those reports. I imagine one of them is what
counting conversions on my website. traffic source is sending you users that help

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you hit your goal of pages per visit or time on at my conversion metrics. The great thing is
site--what else would I know based on this almost every single report in Google Analytic-
goal? shas this conversion tab. So I cannot only look
at things like Marketing Campaign and what
Justin Cutroni: Absolutely. So we have our sort of percentage of traffic is converting
general goal reports here, so we can see to- from each of them but I can do something
tal conversions for all of our goals and trend like look at geographic location. And look
those over time, as well as look at metrics like at which cities have the highest conversion
Conversion Rate. Conversion Rate normalizes rates, so let’s jump into that real quick.
it, so rather than looking at the total number Geographic data is in a report we call
of completions I can get what percentage the “Map Overlay Report;” it’s in the visitors
of my traffic is converting to help me under- section. So if I go to Map Overlay, I’m going
stand. You know, it’s never going to 100%, to get a nice visual of where all my traffic
but what percentage am I getting. The Total is coming from. And then look at the tabs,
Conversions, the Conversions Rate reports just like we talked about. Scroll down a little.
are both okay. As you mentioned, looking Here’s geographic by country. Let’s look
at conversions based on where people are at Goal Set 1. Now I can see a breakdown
coming from is probably one of the most of conversion rate based on country. And
popular things, because again, I’m spending again, the most important thing to be think-
time driving traffic to the website using these ing about here is not only the conversion rate
different type of marketing activities or rela- for the goals that you’ve created, but from a
tionships--how do I see that? Well I can go business strategy perspective, is this what you
into the Traffic Sources report of Google Ana- expected? If you’re only targeting the United
lyticsand I can look at the Campaigns Re- States, or if you’re only targeting the United
port. And the Campaigns Report is like a lot Kingdom, how does that align with what you
of the reports in GA. In this case it shows me are trying to do?
the marketing campaigns that we looked at Just to point out a couple of quick
a little bit ago, at the beginning of our talk. features of this report: I can drill down into
But if you notice at the top of this report I see the United States here and look at the region
Goal Set 1, Goal Set 2, Ecommerce; if I click level--we call it state. I can even get down
on one of these goal sets that’s going to to the city level. Switch over to Goal Set, now
show me the goals that I configured in GA. I see conversions by state. So again, every
Again, this is a little different from the one report in Google Analyticsis going to have
we looked at, when we were setting things these Goal Set tabs, so you will be able to
up, but here are my marketing campaigns, switch around and not just focus on visits,
here’s my conversion rates. So what percent- and pageviews, and things--but conversions,
age of traffic from my marketing campaign what are the outcomes that are happening
converted? .03%--that’s really pretty pa- on my website.
thetic. I wouldn’t really be happy with that.
Whereas this campaign was converting at a Andrew Warner: Okay. I noticed by the way
much higher rate: 1.7%. As I configure all of that there are columns for Completing Order,
these goals, I can use a report like the cam- for new Software Downloads, Contact Us--
paigns report, I can use this Goal Set tab did you set those columns up because you
at the top to then instantly switch and look wanted to keep track from each source how

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many people from each source were going back into Google Analyticsand get this all set
to the Contact page or downloading soft- up. Let’s make this goal a “Contact Us” form,
ware? so that will describe the form. It’s going to be
a URL Destination goal, because it describes
Justin Cutroni: Exactly. I can set up up to people going through a process and reach-
twenty goals in Google Analytics, so obvious- ing like a Thank You page. I’m just going to
ly things that directly impact the bottom line, make up a goal URL here, for the sake of ar-
like completing an order, is very important, gument: “/contact-thankyou.html.” So now
but I might want to measure a microaction, I will know how many people will actually
like: get to the software downloads page. Or submit that form.
even something as simple as submit a con-
tact form for customer support. So I can set Andrew Warner: Actually, if you don’t mind,
those up as goals as well. You have twenty so can you actually hit “Submit” on that con-
you’re probably going to have a nice mix of tact form, and grab the actual URL from it?
core conversions that are directly related to
the bottom line. And maybe a few ancillary, Justin Cutroni: Yes. Let’s do that. That’s a
maybe microconversions or helpers. great idea. So: Contact Us.

Andrew Warner: What other reports do we Andrew Warner: Once you hit “Submit,” that
need to look at and know? URL changes. There you go. And so now
you’re just going to grab the end of the URL.
Justin Cutroni: Well another great report So, this is what we’re trying to do for all of our
related to conversion is the Funnel Visualiza- goals, just grab the end of the URL and then
tion report. And this is measuring how people let’s put that actual end into GA.
move through a conversion process, like a
checkout process. So let’s talk about how to Justin Cutroni: Literally a Copy and Paste.
set that up, and then look at the report and Okay? So now, if we save this, I’ve got a goal
some of the data and what we can get out configured and that’s going to show up as
of it. a column in all of the reports that we looked
at. Now, the idea here is that I want to see
Andrew Warner: Okay. the funnel: how many people progressed.
If you notice below the Goal Details, I have
Justin Cutroni: So again, just a reminder: a options for a Goal Funnel. And the Goal Fun-
conversion process might be shopping cart nel is the steps people have to go through
checkout, or it might be something as simple in order to convert. And I like to tell people
as Contact Us. So let’s use a really simple ex- that really we like to look at the defined pro-
ample. I like contact forms because they’re cesses on our websites, the things that we’re
a great example. They’re really simple, so for forcing people through. Because we spend
the Google Store here it’s customer service. so much time, we spend marketing money
Here I have a real simple form, so I put in driving people to the site, we spend time
here my first name, and general question- and effort creating content to engage you,
-sorry, Google Store. So I want to see how and then we force you into this process. And
many people see this form, but do not actu- usually when you’re in this process, you’re
ally go through and convert. So let’s jump one or two clicks away from converting. So,

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if something falls apart there, we’ve wasted conversion, or the Thank You page as a goal
all that money. So this is really important to up here, so I don’t need to include it down
measure. If I want to create a funnel, I can here. So I have a really simple two-step pro-
tell it what are the steps in my funnel. And cess. Once I hit “Save Goal,” Google is go-
just like I created the goal, I’m literally tell- ing to create this for me. And we’re going to
ing it what are the URLs, or the steps in the look at a really fancy report, called the Fun-
process. So, I could actually go back here, if nel Visualization report. So I’m going to jump
I hit the “Back” button real quick. So, here’s back into Google Analytics, go back into my
that form. I’m going to grab this, just like I Goals section here, and the Funnel Visualiza-
grabbed the goal URL. There’s the contact tion report is going to give me a nice visual-
form. ization of the breakdown of how people are
moving through the process. Here it is at the
Andrew Warner: Actually, I think the first step bottom: Funnel Visualization. And, let’s see.
in the funnel might be the homepage. How Great. Now, we’ve got a lot of goals set up. I
do you add the homepage into it. have a little drop-down, to view the different
types of goals that I have configured here on
Justin Cutroni: That’s a great question. I could my account, so you can see there is a Con-
add the homepage in there, but that’s go- tact Us goal, a Software Downloads goal. If
ing to make the assumption that everyone it’s okay, let’s just focus on this one because I
goes to the homepage and then makes the think it’s a nice visualization.
decision to try to contact me. And that might What you’ll notice is that we have this
be the flow for some websites, but really the path, right down the middle of the screen.
contact form can be accessed from any- And the path represents all of the steps that
where on the site. Someone might access it we have configured in our funnel. In this case
from a product page, because they have it was a process where you view a category,
a question about a product or the check- and then you view a product, you view
out page because they’re in the checkout your shopping cart, you view your login, you
process and they have a question. So if your place your order, and ultimately you com-
homepage is really part of the flow, then ab- plete. Here’s your goal at the bottom. So
solutely. We could totally do that. But if it isn’t that’s the process that has been defined.
then I would really suggest just focusing on Everything here is people moving into steps
the core part of that process in order to mea- within that process. Everything on the right is
sure it. But that’s a great idea. Let’s include people moving out of that process, the steps
the homepage in here. of that process. And the great thing about
So I am going to grab the URL of the Google Analyticsis that red is bad, green is
homepage, literally copy and paste it in good. So I had 200,000+ move in and I had
here. And I’m just going to give it a name a lot move out. I only had 7,400 move on to
so on the report it will show up. We’ll call it step two. Once they hit step two, everyone
“Homepage.” And then I’m going to add moved on to step three, which was View
another step: this will be the form. So if I click Shopping Cart, but then I lost about 50%--
“Customer Service” here, here’s our form. 56%, so I can start to see where I am losing
I’m going to grab this URL as well. Go back people through this process. Now, from a
into GA. There’s my URL. There’s my form. business perspective, to me, this is gold. I’ve
And that’s all I need. I’m already tracking the gotten you all through the website, you’ve

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responded to my marketing, you’ve done nel from our shopping page, some of them
everything, but I’m losing you two or three came into the funnel from our privacy page,
clicks before I’m getting you’re money or some of them came to us from a page that
I’m getting your contact info, or whatever says, “/googlesearch.asp...” page. But this is
it might be. So this is really a great place to where they all came from and we ended up
start optimizing, or making changes. The hard with 265,838 people at the top of the funnel.
thing is that Google isn’t telling me that all
these 1,000 people left the Place Order page Justin Cutroni: Exactly. And in this case it’s
for any specific reason. It doesn’t have a big, 265,838 people that viewed a product cat-
shiny, red button that tells me your form is too egory.
long, or there’s a trust issue on that page. It’s
just telling you that you’re losing 1,000 out of Andrew Warner: Okay. Does that include
1,800. So, you can go tinker with that page; people who came to the homepage also?
you might want to go make a form shorter.
They might be getting a security warning on Justin Cutroni: For this configuration, no. This
that page; they might be getting thrown. But one starts at how many people moved be-
at least knowing that this is the spot where yond the homepage, got to a product cat-
you’re having the trouble is a lot of useful egory page. So they might have navigated
information because now I can start to play through the homepage--some of them did.
with that. And again, if I can only get a few We can see that here. Some of them went
more people through that, it’s going to di- through the homepage and landed on the
rectly impact my bottom line for conversions, category page. A lot of people, actually
whatever that conversion may be. If it was the majority, entered the site onto a product
the contact form, I’m going to get more con- category page. And if you think about mar-
tacts. keting, usually if you’re marketing products,
you’re selling products, you’re not going to
Andrew Warner: Can you go up to the top of drive a lot of people to the homepage per
this form? I want to make sure I understand se. You’re going to drive them to something
it and that everyone who is watching under- relevant. So if I’m sending out an email, or
stands it too. So, this is for a funnel for sales I’m doing some marketing around my com-
completion, right? We’re trying to measure puters that I’m selling, I’m going to send
how many people who end up at the top of them to the computers page, or a category
our funnel, who have any interest at all, or at page. So that’s why, in this instance, we see
all exposed to our product, will end up com- a lot of traffic entering the site onto the prod-
ing to the bottom of the funnel, where they uct category pages.
hand us our money and they complete their
order and they get what they pay for. True? Andrew Warner: Okay. So if, for example,
they’re selling t-shirts, they may have a link to
Justin Cutroni: True. t-shirts on somebody’s blog, on a Google re-
lated blog. A user clicks that t-shirt ad, or the
Andrew Warner: Okay. So the top part of buy t-shirt link, they end up in the sales funnel,
this funnel right here, on the left side shows directly in the t-shirt section and they are one
us where people who came into the funnel of the 265,838 people that started at the top
are from. Some people came into the fun- of the funnel. So that explains the left side of

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the top of the funnel. The right side of the top went into their shopping cart. So more than
of the funnel is what? These are people that likely you hit the “Add” button and it adds
moved on to where? the product to your cart. And most ecom-
merce stores, including the store we’re look-
Justin Cutroni: Right. Well, they can move ing at, will show you a summary of what’s in
on to a lot of different places. The way that your cart. If you’ve got any other products,
we have the funnel set up here is that you or whatever it may be, you’ll see a summary.
go into the product category deeper and So View Shopping Cart. We actually have
start to view specific individual products. The some people that came into this step from
people who did not do that are the people other spots because it may be that you were
who exited the website. So out of the 258,431 not on a product page when you entered
that did not go deeper, 138,553 left the web- your shopping cart. It may be that someone
site. To me that’s really depressing because went to a different section of the site that
I want people to go deeper. Some people was not product related and then went to
went to the homepage. It may be that that their cart. But a lot of people went into view-
product category was not for them and ing their cart. We got a few more and then
they’re using the homepage as a naviga- we lost a bunch. We lost a bunch and again,
tion element. It looks like some people did if you look on the right, you see that some of
searches on the website; they might have them exited the website and some of them
used the onsite search feature. So a majority went on to other pages, which might not
of the people that didn’t go any deeper into be bad. Some of them might have gone to
the website, they didn’t even look at a sec- a different product or different category to
ond page, they actually exited the website add different things in, so this doesn’t worry
all together, which is not what we want on me too much. It’s more after you view your
our websites. For sure. cart, are you moving further into the funnel
later on. So if you look below that, now this
Andrew Warner: So if I understand this funnel is getting more into the checkout process,
right, we’ve got Product Categories as the right? How many people are logging into
top, the entrance into this purchase process. their account.
The next step is to look at a specific product
and if I look at this data, out of 265,838 peo- Andrew Warner: Let me ask a question going
ple roughly 7,400 people said, yeah, I like the back a little bit, if you would scroll up to the
product enough to take a look at a specific top. A little further up actually, not all the way
product, not just the t-shirt category, but a to the top. I see that you have one process in
specific green t-shirt within that category. here that has 100%. Why is that? How do you
Only 3% did that. get 100% of the people to convert and move
on to the next step?
Justin Cutroni: Yes.
Justin Cutroni: Sometimes that is a pure re-
Andrew Warner: Okay. And what’s the next sult of the way your website works. It may be
step after that? that everyone that views a certain product
on a site, as soon as they hit a certain button
Justin Cutroni: In this funnel, the next step af- or take a certain action, they automatically
ter that is after they viewed a product, they go to the next step. It depends on the func-

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tionality. It may be that you can’t go any- your exact process. Last I checked you could
where else other than between step A and B. have funnels that went up to seven, eight,
Again, a lot of the funnel really depends on nine, up to ten steps. It is flexible enough for
your website and how it works. And looking some really complicated lead-generation
at it within the context of how does my web- websites. They have longer processes that
site operate. Everyone’s website is slightly require a lot of information about buying
different. And obviously when we were set- habits or demographic information or things
ting up the goals and when we were setting like that. So you can make the funnel as long
up funnels, we were plucking the URLs on our as you need it to be.
site. So when you’re in this report you really
want to make sure that you’re using it in the Andrew Warner: And here’s the money
context of: how does my website work? Is it question. Going back to the funnel, we see
possible for someone to leave the funnel in a this and we want to improve it to get more
certain way and go on to a different place? orders. Where do we start? Do we start by
That will help you really put a lot of under- improving the conversions on the bottom of
standing around the data that you are look- the funnel or should we start by improving
ing at. the conversions at the top or somewhere in
between? How do we get more people that
Andrew Warner: Okay, And when you come to the top of the funnel to end up at
showed us earlier how to create that funnel, the bottom of the funnel and either down-
do we have to set up every page within the load our video or give us their email address
process? Do we have to add that into the or maybe even, hopefully even, whip out
funnel creation process? their credit cards and buy from us? Where do
we start?
Justin Cutroni: Yes. So here we are back
into our Goal settings along with our Funnel. Justin Cutroni: I like to look at the bottom of
Again, let’s use ecommerce. If your ecom- the funnel: Place Order. I am one click away
merce is Billing, Shipping, Payment, Thank from getting dollars, but I am losing 60%. Of
You, you would have to change this to be this 1,883, sixty percent are bailing out. That’s
the billing step. You would have step two be one click. If I can get 80 of those users back
the shipping step. Step three would be your and an average order value of maybe $100,
payment, for example--just making some that might be $8,000. When you’re so close
stuff up here. And obviously the goal would to the end of the funnel, I’d really like to
be Thank You. So it’s really flexible because make things better here. So I would look at
everyone’s website is going to operate a little the bottom of your funnel and I would try to
differently. If you have a three-step process find the steps that are leaking a lot of peo-
and then a Thank You page, your Thank ple, that a lot of people are leaving from. Try
You page would be the goal and then the to go through your own process. What’s hap-
three steps would be the three steps in your pening there? Again, this doesn’t tell me a
process. Now it might be that your check- lot of the why. I can look at some things here
out process has five steps. It might be Billing, and try to understand if a lot of people are
Shipping, Payment, Review and then Thank going to the Returns page; they might have
You. You can add another step here, if you concerns about the return policy. Things like
need to, in order to expand the form to meet that. It doesn’t tell me exactly why, but at

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least it’s telling me: hey, there’s a problem Justin Cutroni: Absolutely. And this is some-
here. You should check out this step. Then thing we started to look at at the beginning
once I get my funnel, my process, tuned when we talked about different campaigns
in then I can focus on how do I drive more and we saw some revenue from the cam-
people into it. How can I maybe tweak the paigns. And to me, this is probably my fa-
layout of my site to have people add more vorite part of any analytics tool because
things to their cart. Make my buttons big and understanding traffic source really aligns with
green or something like that. marketing strategy and relationships I am try-
ing to foster to drive traffic to the site.
Andrew Warner: And I can think of lots of We have this whole section of Google
different ways to at least experiment and Analyticscalled “Traffic Sources” and this is
figure out what will improve that number. We all about where people are coming from.
have their e-mail address because they have We’re going to get into campaigns and how
logged in and I can email them and say, to track marketing campaigns, but before
hey, you dropped out of my process. What we do that I want to show you some of the
did I do to lose you, to lose your confidence? default ways Google will track where people
Or, as you said earlier, experiment with the come from. When we think about traffic
onsite, on-page information. Maybe even sources in Google Analytics, there are three
offer a guarantee on the page. Maybe offer default buckets and each one of those de-
some kind of security assurance and tweak it fault buckets has a report. The first report I will
and then come back here and see if we’ve show you is Direct Traffic and this is people
made an impact. coming directly to the website. They sit down
and they type in www.googlestore.com or
Justin Cutroni: Exactly. Experimentation is re- whatever your URL might be. So these are
ally the next step in web analytics. It’s criti- people coming directly to the website. From
cal. And without getting too into it, there are a business perspective, this means they usu-
plenty of free tools out there now to help aid ally have some sort of brand recognition. If
in experimentation. Things like Google Web- you are a major global corporation doing a
site Optimizer, Optimizely. Those are the ones lot of offline marketing initiatives--Super Bowl
that really then allow you to say, well, I’m commercials, billboards in New York City, and
not the expert, I’m going to let my customers things like that--you are driving brand. You
decide what is the best fix here. And show are helping people learn about you. That is
them an A version and a B version, or maybe going to drive a lot of recognition and in turn
A, B, and C--multiple versions. And let them could drive a lot of traffic. But this is people
choose by measuring conversions on my site coming directly to the website. Again, I can
through those tests. see trended over time my direct traffic to the
site. And again, I’ve got my goal tabs so I
Andrew Warner: Now I understand what’s can measure convergence, based on direct
happening on my site with the traffic that’s traffic. Now, direct traffic usually means brain
coming to my site. Can you help me under- recognition and that’s usually a result of what
stand where my traffic is coming from and am I doing to push my brand either online or
how it’s ending up on my site before it gets to offline. So that’s one of the default buckets.
the top of the funnel? The second default bucket in terms
of where are people coming from is called

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“Referring Sites.” These are just sites out there over to the Google Store. The Google Store
on the Internet that have a link back to your might want to reach out to YouTube and ask
site. So if I write on my blog, hey, I got inter- for more promotion, maybe give away free t-
viewed by Andrew on Mixergy; you should shirts to top video creators as a way of drum-
totally check out his site, and I put a link up ming up more business. YouTube is clearly a
there, I would appear as a referral website to good source. You want to do more business
your website. Here we have a list of domains with them.
that are driving traffic, in this case, back to
the Google Store. Now if I actually click on Justin Cutroni: Exactly. Yes. So that’s the sec-
one of these domains, I can actually drill ond bucket of traffic, referring websites. The
in and see what are the pages that have third bucket of traffic is what we call “Search
links back to my site. Here I can see on the Engines” and I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard
YouTube website there’s the About YouTube of search engines. We divide search engine
page has a link. And there are all these other into two groups when it comes to analyt-
pages. Obviously for your data you can go in ics. There’s organic search and there’s paid
and explore what are these pages on other search. You probably know the difference.
people’s sites and keep in mind: do I know Paid search is Google ad words, or Bing and
this person? Am I expecting a link from them? Yahoo have their own paid versions as well.
Or is this something that I just have no idea For organic and paid traffic we obviously
what it is? You can use this little icon here do things very differently to optimize those.
and if you click on that little icon it will open With paid traffic we’re bidding on keywords
the actual page up in a new window. So you and we’re spending money for clicks. As with
can see what that actual page is. Oh, look. organic traffic we’re building really great
On YouTube they have a link to merchandise content and we’re structuring it well so spi-
where you can buy their products. So that’s ders can index it, so we separate those two
why we were seeing YouTube as a referral buckets. So in the search engines report,
and specifically this page has a link. The in- I see a list of all the engines driving traffic.
sight here is, first of all, do I know this website Again, it’s the same report layout, so I get my
and was I expecting it? And if I don’t, maybe standard metrics like Traffic, and engage-
I should form a better relationship with them. ment metrics like Pages/Visit and Avg. Time
And if this is driving a lot of traffic--and even on Site. I can switch over to conversions and
more importantly, goals. Right? If I’m getting see which search engines are converting
a lot of goals. I can see how many conver- more than others. So how does this align with
sions I’m getting from all these sites. Maybe I my strategy? Am I getting a lot of orders from
should reach out to this person and say, hey, the search engines I’m focusing on or is there
your audience is great. Your driving a lot of a search engine there that I’m spending a lot
really good traffic to my website. Let’s work of time and money on and it’s just not con-
something out here. How can we work some- verting.
thing out in order to create more traffic back To take one step back here. I’m look-
to me? Because the audience is really con- ing at aggregate across all search engines.
verting the way that I want them to. Here, if you look at the top, I can look at
non-paid, or organic search; and I can look
Andrew Warner: I see. And in this case it at paid search here. So I can switch. Now
looks like YouTube is sending a lot of orders I’m just looking at paid search. If I’m spend-

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ing lots of money on Yahoo, I got one visit. back to your website. To track e-mail, and to
Not so good. If I’m spending lots of money on be honest, to track all marketing campaigns,
Google, I can see I’m getting lots of traffic; what we need to do is we need to modify
it’s converting at above .25%. I would want that link that is in the e-mail. That’s called
to see over time if it’s improving, or what’s link-tagging and almost every analytics tool
happening there. So a really easy way for on the planet uses this process. This is Google
me to look at paid versus non-paid search Analyticsway of doing that. So here is this URL
engine traffic. Those are the three default builder; it’s going to help me modify that link
buckets. And again, think about the context: that appears in my e-mail. If I am the Google
what am I doing from a business perspec- Store the first thing I need to put it in is the
tive? URL of where I want the person to land on my
Now I want to jump in and talk about website. So I’m just going to type that in and
campaigns, because marketing campaigns let’s say for the sake of argument that I want
are something different. Direct Traffic, Refer- to drive people to the homepage. Now I get
ring Websites, those are things that kind of to tell Google Analyticsa little bit more about
happen on a whim or you might not have a this link. Where is this link appearing? Is it in
lot of control over those, but with marketing an e-mail? If so, what kind of e-mail? What is
campaigns, this is how do I track a marketing this e-mail’s goal, or objective? And Google
activity that I am actively doing, whether it’s Analyticslet’s me define five pieces of infor-
e-mail, display ads, or something like that. mation, in this case, about the e-mail. The
To track campaigns in Google Analyt- first thing I can do is I can specify what is my
ics, there’s actually very little configuration campaign name. What type of campaign is
that you have to do. They’re are no set- this? Let’s say, for the sake of argument, this is
tings, like you have with goal settings. All of the spring sale. Spring is coming up; I am try-
the configuration actually happen within ing to liquidate some old winter hats or some-
the campaigns themselves. And we use this thing. So I am literally just going to type in the
process called “Link-tagging” in order to name of the marketing campaign I’m going
track our marketing activities. Now I’m go- to be running, so “Spring Sale.” And you can
ing to pull up something called to Google use whatever you want. My only suggestion
URL Builder. I am in the Google Analyticshelp here is to avoid white spaces and stick to
center. If you just do a quick search for URL alphanumeric characters. When I show you
builder, you’ll be able to find this form. The what happens, that data will be a little bit
URL Builder helps me modify the links that I cleaner to see.
use in my marketing activities. So let’s talk
about e-mail for a minute; I think a lot of peo- Andrew Warner: So avoid the spacebar
ple know about e-mail marketing. You usually when I am typing in there.
have a list of either customers or prospects
and you might send them an e-mail once a Justin Cutroni: Exactly. That’s my campaign.
week or once a month depending on what Now I can tell Google Analyticswhat type of
you are trying to accomplish on the business marketing campaign this is. And we call that
side of things. And when you send out that the “Medium” and the Medium describes
e-mail there is usually some type of call-to- how we are pushing the message out there.
action in that e-mail: click here to read more, What mechanism am I using. And we have
click here to view products. There is some link lots of different ways to communicate now.

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There’s e-mail, display ads, paid search, Twit- paign it’s a part of. And I’ve noticed they use
ter, Facebook--I don’t know. Whatever the a campaign term often, “entrepreneur,” so
social network d’jour is today. But we have that they know that they are targeting en-
lots of mechanisms to reach out to our audi- trepreneurs and that way they can measure
ence and that’s what we describe here. So what their success rate is with entrepreneurs
I’m literally going to type in “Email” because that are coming from Andrew’s site and so
then it can tell me how much traffic I am on.
getting from e-mail. And then I’m going to
describe what’s called the “Source.” The
source goes along with the medium and Justin Cutroni: Yes. Absolutely. That’s a great,
gives me a little more context; it tells me a real life example. What happens is when
little bit more about what type of e-mail. So someone clicks on this link in an e-mail, they
this might be--in this example I typed in “Cus- are going to land on your website. And it’s
tomerList.” I might be sending this e-mail to going to look just like the homepage, the
all of my existing customers. What I’ve done only difference is all of the parameters will
is I’ve given my campaign a name. I’ve told be at the end of the URL. So it looks some-
Google Analyticswhat’s the mechanism in thing like this. What happens on the backend
order to push this message out and then I’ve though is Google Analytics, when it runs on
given it a little more information and said this page, it’s actually going to pick up all of
that it’s my customer list. Now if I click this information and it’s going to pass it on to
“Generate URL,” Google magically spits out GA. Now, whatever I do during my visit: if I
a URL. It’s got my, if you can see here, it’s got buy a product, if I look at a certain page, if I
the URL of where I want the person to land, fill out a contact form, it’s going to get at-
but then you’ll notice it’s got all of this other tributed, literally, to this information that’s in
gobbly guck, right? From a technical jargon the URL. If you had to guess, Andrew, which
perspective we call these query parameters report in Google Analytics you would find
and you can see it kind of makes sense. It’s your campaign names, it’s probably pretty
got “medium” and it’s got “email,” so it’s easy, right? The Campaigns report. If I go
taken the values that I specified and it’s just right over to my campaign report, I’m go-
put them into the right format so Google ing to see a list of all of the campaigns that
Analyticscan grab this data. So what I do is I I created and put out there, whether it’s by
then take this URL, copy it, and I put it into my e-mail or display ads. Let’s look. We have a
e-mail. If there’s a big, green button and it’s table here--oh, look; it’s Spring Sale, which I
an html e-mail, this would be the link that’s just defined. Fall Sale. And here are a bunch
behind that big, green button. of other campaigns that are all appearing
here on the list. So, literally, obviously this is
Andrew Warner: I see. And I’ve seen this not a lot of data because this is an example
actually from my sponsors too. When they that I’m giving you, but you can see in the
buy advertising on my website they give me Spring Sale not only the traffic but also if you
a link that’s not directly to their homepage, go over here to my goal tabs, now I’m look-
it’s a link to the homepage with all that data ing at my conversions. Now were getting
after it. And that is because they want to to that place where we were at the begin-
understand that the traffic is coming from me ning of our conversation this morning, where
and they want to understand which cam- I’m seeing conversions based on marketing

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campaigns. Obviously, nothing from the one not a lot of data here and I’m sorry about
I just set up, with the Spring Sale, but here that, but you get the idea, right? I’m going to
you can see traffic and again, conversions be able to see conversion rates now based
from all of it. Verbatim, right? You’ll notice. on some really detailed information, so if I
It’s got the same capitalization; everything see a really good conversion rate coming
is the same. So literally what I typed into from my display ads on boston.com, awe-
Google’s form here, into the URL bullet, that’s some. I’m spending more money there. That
what’s going to be in my reports. So it’s highly audience is highly relevant; they’re recep-
relevant from what I am doing from a busi- tive to the message I put out there; they’re
ness perspective to what I am going to see. coming to the website and they’re buying.
What’s really cool is that I am looking at the The New York Times audience, if I have zero
campaign. That’s great. Here’s how it’s do- conversions, not so much. I may stop spend-
ing at a high level, but I described my e-mail ing my advertising dollars there and spend
marketing part of this campaign. Campaigns them at boston.com and move that money
can be pretty big: it might be some e-mail, it around.
might be some banner ads. If I drill down and
if I click on Spring Sale, let’s look at how we Andrew Warner: That’s great. And I can tell
can view the different pieces of information. not just boston.com, but boston.com display
Remember I defined within there a medium ads. Or if I care about banner ads versus text
of e-mail and a source of customers. How do link ads, I can tag those differently on the
I find out that information? URL Builder site and track that. And I don’t
I clicked on the name of the cam- only care about hits; I care about orders
paign and with this drop-down box I can say, and I can figure out where my best orders
within this campaign, show me the source are coming from, not just hits. I care about
or show me the medium. So let’s look at the contact. I care about software downloads or
medium within here. Now we had one visit e-mail registrations and I can drill in and not
from e-mail with this campaign and I had just see about hits but how many orders from
two visits from display ads. So what I had each specific source from big campaigns.
done is I had trafficked some display ads, I can see how that would be helpful right
but I had modified the URLs in the same away. And if this was a running campaign,
way. I had just gone through the same pro- which it’s not, you’re just doing an experi-
cess for the URLs I was using in the display ment with us and you’re letting us watch you
ads. I’m just looking at medium. I want more build it, but if this was an active campaign
though. I want to see more because display we would be able to see all that data in
is great but where was I running my display those columns to the right.
ads? Or e-mail is great but who am I send-
ing my e-mails to? Was it customers or was it Justin Cutroni: Absolutely. We’ve reached
prospects? I can use this second drop-down analytics nirvana.
box to show me the sources associated with
those mediums. This is called the secondary Andrew Warner: That is unreal. That is unreal.
dimension. So now I see--oh, look. There’s my Can you give us an example of something
display ad that was running at boston.com. you have discovered by drilling in this deeply
Oh, there’s my display ad that was running in your experience?
on The New York Times. And again, there’s

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Justin Cutroni: Absolutely. What we often ktimes.com, when they’re seeing those Red
find is that we’ll try to go and isolate which Sox ads, they might click on it, land on the
campaigns are not adding to the bottom site, and be like: why would I want to buy
line, which ones are not converting. So then Red Sox stuff? That might have a really high
we have to back up and we have to try bounce rate, so that’s telling me no conver-
to understand why isn’t it converting. And sions; there’s a problem with what we call
there’s this really great metric in almost ev- the “Scent,” the connection between the ad
ery analytics tool called “Bounce Rate.” I’m they’re seeing and what they’re experience
going to switch my tabs real quickly over to is on the landing page. I might want to tweak
the usage tab. And again, we’re still look- that. I might want to change my ads that are
ing at the same things: the medium and the running on The New York Times or, if I have
sources within my campaign. But now we the ability, I might want to tweak the landing
have more of what we call the “Site Usage page that they’re seeing.
Metric,” so site visits and the engagement.
And you’ll notice this column here on the Andrew Warner: I see. Okay. Let me ask you
far right called “Bounce Rate.” Bounce rate this: on my website, I also have a search bar
measures people who are coming from my where I get people to look for content on the
display ad at boston.com, landing on the site and I keep track of what they’re search-
website, and immediately leaving. They’re ing for and I’m trying to figure out how I can
not looking at anymore content. They land use that. I get all this data back and I’m not
on one page and they leave immediately yet sure what to do with it. What can I do
from that one page. Bounce rate has been with that?
called, by my friend Abinash, “The Sexiest
Metric Alive” and it’s an amazing diagnostic Justin Cutroni: That’s a great question. We
metric. Because think about it. if I’m driving call that “Site Search” in analytics. Let’s
traffic to my website, do I want it to leave jump over to look at a real example. On the
right when it lands on the site? Usually no. Google Store I might do a search for “hats,”
I want them to go deeper into the site. For and as you mentioned, this is really valuable
Mixergy, I’m sure you want people to move information because it’s going to tell you
in, look at more content, watch more videos. what people are interested and not only
On my blog, I want you to go deeper. If I’m what they’re interested in, but also how do
selling products, I want you to add to cart they think about it. Do they think of hats or
and do other actions, so if I find that a cam- do they think of baseball hats? Or do they
paign is not converting the next thing I’ll look think of winter hats? Do they think of pink
at is what’s the bounce rate? If it has a really kids’ hats? How are they thinking about hats?
high bounce rate, 60%, 70%, 80%, that tells So this data that we call site search data is
me that when they’re landing on the site, really, really useful. In analytics, let’s look at
they’re leaving immediately. So there is some a report about that. So in the Content sec-
kind of disconnect between the ad that I’m tion of Google Analyticswe have a whole site
showing them, perhaps it’s at boston.com, search section. Here you can see it at the
and what they’re seeing when they land on bottom and this is going to show me some
the website. Perhaps my ad here is all about really interesting data.
Red Sox equipment and Red Sox t-shirts. The The first thing I like to tell people is look
greatest team ever. The people at newyor- at the usage. What this report is going to

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show us is the people who site search ver- for faster. And they’re able to get through,
sus the people who do not site search. Do whether it’s the buying process or the knowl-
they convert at a higher or lower rate at my edge finding process, a lot faster. So I would
goals? Again, we’re tying this back to busi- recommend to everyone, go check out the
ness objectives. Let’s look at this report really usage for site search so you can see does
simply and show me Visits With Site Search that behavior have an impact on my bot-
versus Visits Without Site Search. And it’s just tom line. And if it does, strategically think
showing me the breakdown of visits. What I about this. People who search convert more.
really want to see is conversions. So I’m going I want more people to search. How do you
to switch over to my goal tab again. get more people to search on your website?
Well, it might be as simple as making this box
Andrew Warner: Actually, can you go back bigger, making this button a little easier to
to that site? I want to make sure I understand see. Maybe by making this button orange or
it. Those two rows, who generates that data? green, you might get people to see that they
Is that automatic? What does that mean can search much more quickly. From a high
actually? strategic level, if people convert more after
they search, great. Let’s get more people to
search. How can we change the website to
Justin Cutroni: Yes. I’m going to show you do that?
how to set this up in a second. But Visits With-
out Search, this is the percentage of visits to Andrew Warner: I see. So interesting actually,
my website where people do not use the on Google Store, people who search don’t
site search feature. And that’s about 80%, so end up buying. I would say ordinarily, if this
that means that 20% of the visits to my web- was any other website, it’s probably not a
site do use site search. We’re all trained to good search bar, or maybe the results aren’t
search now, having Google and Bing, you displayed clearly enough, but they seem
know? We all search. It’s good to know what clear. What do you think about it? What
percentage is using search, but again, con- would you do differently?
versions. I want to understand is the behavior
different. Is the outcome different in terms Justin Cutroni: I think it’s a usage. Well, I mean
of business impact? The behavior of those it’s getting a lot of usage. I think the fact
who search versus those who don’t search. that--I think the results probably could use a
I can see. I’m going to change this to a lot of tuning here, but again, a lot of this is
table view, instead of a pie chart, because the what. It’s very good at telling us people
a table view is going to look like what we are searching and they’re not converting
talked about before. This is showing me that but the “why” is the hardest one. But, like you
visits without search complete at a very low mentioned, it can be a result of the search
rate and pretty much people who do use results are just bad. They’re not so good. Or
site search almost never complete. I will tell there could be some configuration issue. The
you this is almost the exact opposite of what one thing about site search that I will point
I usually see from most of the data I look at. out is that it works for all different types of
What I usually see is that people who do use site search, so you don’t have to be using
site search on a website convert at a higher a Google type search on your website. You
rate because they find what they’re looking could have your own custom search engine

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built into your website. This is going to work. use the same words that people are think-
And, like I said, we’ll get into the configura- ing about when they are thinking about my
tion. There’s one more report I want to show products and services.
you guys before we jump into: how did I can then take this one step further
we get this data? But it’s what are people and start to use this information when I go
searching for. And this I think relates directly and build up my marketing campaigns. If
back to what you were talking about, An- I’m doing paid search I can use these ac-
drew. What are those keywords? What are tual keywords. I can go buy keywords for
people searching for? So this is the Search “Google Apps Bumper Stickers;” that’s a re-
Terms report and now I’m drawing on all ally specific keyword. I bet those twelve visits
those different keywords. really wanted Google Apps Bumper Stickers,
but if I’m not bidding on keywords, I could.
Andrew Warner: Yes. That’s what I would get. And I could start to engage people when
they start searching on the search engine
Justin Cutroni: And to me, this is a gold mine. before they even get to my site.
What I’m doing here is I’m looking for two
things. First, I’m looking through this list to Andrew Warner: You know what? This right
see if it kind of aligns with the objectives of here I think makes the whole program we
my site. Does it have the products that I’m put together valuable for me personally.
selling? Does it have the services that I’m Because I know if I ask my audience what
selling? If it has an item in here, maybe a they want to buy, some people will respond,
product that I’m not carrying, that’s a huge but not enough will. What you’re showing me
opportunity for me to add something in. is that if I could just put a big search bar on
So for Mixergy, if everyone is searching for top of that buy site, on top of the buy pages
Google Analytics and you’re like, oh crap, I even, they will type in what they want to buy.
don’t have any Google Analytics content, They will type in what they are looking for
you can add some content around that. So and tell me what I need to go out there and
we see here a lot of people really interested build or create for them and that’s much
in blogger type stuff and Android and then more powerful than a survey, because you
it really drops off. So you can see there’s lots get a person who is really looking to buy right
of stuff in here from people might be typ- now and is serious about it, not someone
ing in a skew number, a product category. who is just looking to give feedback. And
Again, how does this align with the products that tells me what they want to pay for.
and services that you have. Then once you
move beyond the whole am I covered? It’s Justin Cutroni: Yes. Absolutely. I couldn’t
more what are they thinking in terms of the agree more. This is to me, along with that
wording of it? Not just “Bumper Stickers” but campaign information we were talking
“Google Apps Bumper Stickers.” That can about, this is a gold mine. I’m going to try to
drive a lot of design decisions on your web- bring up a site here. This is a website, burton.
sites. And the navigation: should I have a big com, and they make snowboards. Look at
button for “Blogger” or “Google Blogger?” that search bar. Look at that search bar. It’s
Right? What’s the terminology they use to right there at the top. It’s got a really cute
think about things? That will help me tailor call to action: “Search and Destroy.” And
the navigation and the layout of the site to look at those little eyes; they follow my cursor

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around. So, talk about getting people to use ter in the URL that stores what was the search
that as navigation and the whole reason site term that the person typed in.
search exists is that companies like Google Let’s go back into GA. I still have my
and all the other search engines have re- goal form there. I’m going to go into the pro-
ally trained us to search, not to navigate so file settings and this will look familiar; we’ve
much anymore. So, absolutely. I think that seen this before. Here are the goal settings
this, along with the tracking of campaigns, we went over a little while, but this over here,
this is really valuable information. And I like to we skipped over this before but this is the
think of this information as both strategic and main website information. And you can see
tactical because it can drive the products here there is the item “Site Search.” I’m go-
and services that I should be providing, and ing to click “Exit” here on the top right and
how do I phrase or turn these things. we are going to configure the Site Search.
We have a whole section, “Site Search”
Andrew Warner: I can see. Obviously I work report and we’re going to do “Do Track Site
with AppSumo where people can get soft- Search.” And now Google is going to say,
ware at deep discounts. And Noah, the “Query Parameter.” What is the parameter
founder, keeps asking his audience what oth- that’s used to hold the search term? Well,
er apps do you want me to offer? Well, if he in the example we just looked at, Q=hats so
just had a search bar and let people search the parameter is Q. This is really complicated
for apps in his directory, he’d know these are so follow me: “Q.” I’m done. So now, what’s
the apps that they’re searching for. These are going to happen is every time Google Ana-
the categories that they’re searching for. I lyticsprocesses the data and it sees Q in the
can now go out and bring those apps to my URL, it’s going to say, oh, that’s a site search.
site. I can show those app makers here’s the It’s actually going to pull out that search term
data. People are looking for you software on and it’s going to create one of those nice
AppSumo.com. Let’s make a deal where you reports like we were just looking at.
can come to my site and sell to my audi-
ence. And I can see how that alone would Andrew Warner: I see.
be invaluable.
Justin Cutroni: I’m pulling out right here this
Justin Cutroni: Yes. Absolutely. So let me show radio button. This is more of an advanced
you how to set this up so you can actually setting, but I’m going to recommend to
take a look at the report. everybody that you choose “Yes, strip the
parameters out of the URL.” This is just going
Andrew Warner: Yes. Please. to clean up some of your data in the reports.
So I typed in Q; I hit “Yes;” I clicked “Save
Justin Cutroni: If I’m on the Google Store and Changes;” that’s it.
here we are back here. This is our search
results page for hats. I did a search for hats. Andrew Warner: I see.
I’m looking at the URL. And what I’m looking
for in the URL is the word that I searched for. I Justin Cutroni: Now we’ll start getting our
can see it right here. “Hats.” Again, we have nice, fancy reports.
a parameter, a query parameter: “q=hats.” I
want to remember that: Q. Q is the parame- Andrew Warner: That easy.

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and then New Views, the percentage of traf-

Justin Cutroni: That’s it. fic that is new to your website.
So we have these six metrics. And
Andrew Warner: That simple. Alright. Let me you’ll notice now that we have these two
ask you this. One of the things that’s interest- lines of data here. There’s a blue line that’s
ing to me about what we’ve done so far your site and there’s a grey line that’s a
is that I’m kind of comparing myself to the benchmark. You can actually compare your
Google Store and I’m asking myself is my site to all of these different types of catego-
search better or worse? Is my search more ries. The categories are dynamic. Google
competitive or worse? Am I converting or brings in new categories online as more and
not? Can I do that in the aggregate? Can I more websites opt in to the benchmarking
somehow compare myself to not the Google feature. There are millions and millions of
Store, which isn’t really a competitor of websites using Google Analyticsso I can get
mine, but to sites like mine and see how I do pretty detailed here. I might want to com-
against them? pare myself to Food & Drink if I’m a restau-
rant review blog. Or if I’m a shopping website
Justin Cutroni: Yes. And that’s a great ques- I might go in and I might say, what kind of
tion. That’s benchmarking. Benchmarking shopping can I compare myself to? Maybe
is one of the most important things is ana- to Apparel, so Fashion Designers and Col-
lytics because it provides another layer of lections. Once I select a category now I can
context. Obviously the first layer of context compare myself to the benchmarks. Now I’m
is what are our business objectives. If I have moving beyond how am I doing versus my
revenue objectives I can compare my web- internal expectations and now I can start to
site to those internal objectives. But how are say, how am I doing versus my industry aver-
my competitors doing? Google Analytics age?
actually has a built-in report that will let you This data looks a little funny from the
compare yourself to an industry benchmark. benchmark. I’m not sure why, but I can see
It’s in the Visitors section and this is an opt- I’m getting way more traffic than the bench-
in report. It’s named “Benchmarking,” so if I mark. My bounce rate’s higher so that might
click on Benchmarking here. If you don’t see not be such a good thing but I can compare
this same type of report it just means that you these basic metrics and say, if they’re get-
haven’t opted in and there will be instruc- ting more traffic I may need to amp up on
tions on the screen about how to opt in on my marketing activities. If my bounce rate is
this. The benchmark report--what Google is higher I might need to make sure my market-
doing is it is taking your data, once you opt ing activities are more closely aligned with
in, it’s anonymizing the data and it’s compar- my site content. If people are not spend-
ing it to everyone else who has also opted in. ing enough time on the website or viewing
And it’s going to show you six metrics: Visits, enough content my site might not be as
which is usually traffic; Bounce Rate, people engaging as my competitors. And the last
leaving as soon as they land on the website; one I like, the new traffic to the website. Are
Pageview, so how many pages are getting my competitors getting more new traffic
looked at; Avg. Time on Site, in general, how than me? That’s telling me are they exposing
do people spend on the site; Pages/Visit, themselves to a larger audience, a poten-
how much content do they look at per visit; tially bigger new audience, or pool of pros-

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pects, that I might need to get a piece of spend nearly as much time at the Google
the pie for. Store. They don’t look at nearly as much
content. And I am getting a lot of newer traf-
Andrew Warner: If I understand this right--I fic. So I am getting a lot of new traffic, but
want to make sure that I’m reading the data probably I’m not engaging with them really
right and that we’re all reading the data well and a lot of them are bouncing. If I’m
right. The Google Store that we’ve been meeting my internal goals in terms of rev-
looking at is getting 92.82% new users to the enue, that’s great. But there’s room for me
site. It’s the image on the very bottom right of to improve here. I can see that. My vertical,
the page. And the benchmark is getting 57% in general, is doing a lot better than I am. I
so the Google Store is getting many more might want to concentrate on tightening up
new customers to the site than the average my site a little bit to bring the bounce rate
store within its category, which is a good down and making sure I have enough en-
thing. gaging content or products to make sure my
audience is interested.
Justin Cutroni: Right. So comparing the
Google Store to the fashion and apparel Andrew Warner: Okay. I can see that. Is
category, it’s getting a lot more new traffic. there anything else we need to know about
It’s not necessarily new customers, it’s just benchmarking before we talk to you about
people who have never been to the website one other big category that I think is impor-
before. But that’s good because now I’m tant to discuss?
exposing myself to a bigger audience, right?
More potential sales. Justin Cutroni: Yes. Benchmarking. The only
other thing I’ll say is that this is a great start-
Andrew Warner: Alright. I can see how this ing point. You’ll get into other tools after this
could be helpful. For some reason it looks like where you can compare yourself to other
the Apparel category is a little screwed up specific websites. One of them that is on the
here so you might want to pick a different top of my mind is compete.com. I use that
category. one a lot. That’s a great one. This is a great
starter one so I definitely encourage you to
Justin Cutroni: I was thinking we could just go at least start using some of this data.
to straight-up Shopping. And we could com-
pare ourselves with Shopping. Andrew Warner: Okay. The final big category
that you and I talked about before the pro-
Andrew Warner: Okay. I see. You can pick gram started is custom reports. You said that
the broad category or drill in deeper. So let’s was important for our audience to under-
see what the straight-up Shopping looks like. stand. Why?

Justin Cutroni: So now I can see that I’m Justin Cutroni: I want you guys to start think-
getting a little better traffic in general. My ing about some of the more advanced fea-
bounce rate’s higher so that’s telling me that tures in GA. I can help you really customize
maybe the other websites that are in shop- the data and make it kind of fit into your work
ping websites--they’ve done a lot of work to flow a little better. I always kind of Google
keep their bounce rate down. People don’t Analyticsto another brand that I love, which

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is Apple. Apple products are elegant. My to my website or they describe the visitors. So
five-year-old can pick up an iPad and do a dimension of my website might be “coun-
more things than I can, but there’s underly- try” and it describes the country from which
ing complexity and features there that can a person is visiting. Or another dimension
really enable power usage. So I wanted to might be campaign and it might describes
show you a couple of features in Google the marketing campaign that someone was
Analyticsthat are a little more complex, that responding to.
will help you do a few more things that are Let’s make a report for you, Andrew.
beyond the basics. Let’s start with custom re- Andrew is a big, high-power, C-level and
ports. You’ll notice in the navigation bar here, really you’re concerned with campaign
below the standard nav there’s a Custom revenue. So I’m going to call this “Andrew’s
Reporting nav. This is a place where you can Revenue Report.” So we’re going to name
create your own custom reports in Google it “Andrew’s Revenue Report” and Andrew,
Analyticsso I’m going to click on “Manage you’re so high in the company that you’re
Custom Reports.” Google Analyticswill let only concerned with revenue. I’m going
every individual user create up to a hundred to just start typing in “Revenue” here and
custom reports. Andrew, you can create a Google is going to go through this list and
hundred. I can create a hundred. Joe can it’s going to show me the metrics that match
create a hundred. Everyone can create a what I’m typing.
hundred. And the great thing about custom
reports is it can show you exactly the data Andrew Warner: Oh, I see.
you want with no fluff.
I’m going to go in here and create a Justin Cutroni: I’m literally going to drag “Rev-
new custom report and we’re going to get enue” and put it as a column in my report.
this little drag and drop interface. I like to Now I have a column called “Revenue.”
divide the interface into two parts. Here, this Again, Andrew, you don’t have a lot of time
main part here, I like to call this the construc- to be bothered with things you just want to
tion zone. This is where I’m going to do all know which campaigns are generating rev-
my building, put things together. And you’ll enue, so I’m going to type in “Campaign.”
notice it actually looks like the outline of a lot “Campaign” is what we call a dimension; it
of the reports we looked at. There’s a trend stores all of the different campaigns that are
over time and I can kind of see the outline used to drive traffic. I’m going to drag that
of columns and then rows. So it’s kind of the one into a row. What I’m going to have now
same structure. This is where I’m going to is a report that will show me a list of my cam-
build my report. I call this side here on the left paigns and the revenue coming from those
of the screen, with metrics and dimensions, campaigns. So let’s hit “Preview Report” and
Home Depot. Or Lowe’s, if you like Lowe’s Google is going to build that report in real
better. This is where I’m going to get all of time. And it looks just like every other report
the materials to build my reports. And the we looked at, doesn’t it? It’s got a trend over
materials that I use are metrics, which are time. It’s got a tab; it’s called “New tab” so
the numbers that they use in Google Analyt- we don’t have our same tabs. But look--the
ics, so things like revenue, conversion rate, tables changed? I have a column called
bounce rate, or visits. And the rows are di- “Campaign” and I have another column
mensions. And the dimensions describe visits called “Revenue.” That’s it. Nothing else. I’ve

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cleaned this report up because, Andrew, E-mail with questions. Whatever it might be.
as a C-level, you might not need to know PDF format. And now I can choose a distri-
bounce rate or what is the pages per visit for bution frequency. I can have this report sent
my campaigns. You just want to know which to you daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. I
ones are working. know you’re a pretty hardcore microman-
So let’s look at this data. This is a list ager so I’ll get that daily report to you. Once
of the campaigns. These are the two cam- I hit “Schedule,” that’s it. That custom report
paigns. This “(not set)”--remember not every- that I just created for you is going to be deliv-
one comes from a campaign. Some people ered to you daily, in PDF format.
might come directly from the website. Some
people might be coming from a referring Andrew Warner: That would be huge. I would
website, so not everyone is coming from even send that to myself every day to make
a campaign. And Google wants to make sure that I wake up and pay attention to the
sure that you understand that when you are revenue and know who’s sending me the
looking at this report, that there is, sure, cam- most revenue and what’s changed.
paign revenue from the two campaigns I I’ve got a couple of questions about
have here, but there are other traffic sources what we’ve done so far. The first is can I de-
that are generating a lot of other revenue. cide the dates that they’re sent to me every
If I’m Andrew’s little reporting lackey, all of day or every week so that I don’t get the last
a sudden I’ve got my “Andrew’s Revenue month but maybe I get the last 24 hours or
Report” built. I can--actually if I just close this the last seven days?
preview I can create this report and it’s go-
ing to get added into that custom reports Justin Cutroni: That’s a great question. I’m
navigation and I’ll be done. There you can going to go back into the e-mail. I’ve clicked
see it: “Andrew’s Revenue Report.” here and I’m going to edit that automated
Now to take this one step further--and report. The one limitation here--so here’s your
again, you guys can play around; it’s a little Weekly Rev Report that I just created, if I just
more advanced. I’m personally kind of lazy. click on this. I’m back in the settings. We’re
If I have to send this to Andrew every day-- kind of limited in the distribution. You can get
if you’ll notice at the top, there’s an e-mail daily, which will send it to you each morn-
button. Click the “Email” button and now ing; you can get weekly, which will occur on
Google Analyticsis going to allow me to Mondays; monthlies, which are at the first of
automate the distribution of this report. So I the month; and quarterly, which is the first
can send it right now. I can just say, I want day of the quarter. Something that is cool
to send this to [email protected]. Give it a is let’s say you do choose daily, there is this
title: “Here’s your Rev Report.” “Look at how option here: Include date comparison. If you
awesome I am. Pay me more.” Okay. I can check this, Google will automatically com-
actually have this little subject, this little de- pare the daily data versus the previous day.
scription. I can have this sent to you in PDF So if you are getting this report on Tuesday it
format. Right here and now, just by typing in will compare it to Monday, to Sunday’s data,
that captia. Or I can schedule it. I can auto- so you will be able to see, day over day, how
mate the delivery. So again, I type in who’s it it’s changing. Same for weekly or monthly, so
going to. It doesn’t have to be me; it can be it will show you that nice delta. But you can’t
anyone. It can be your Weekly Rev Report. classify a specific date range.

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We’re going to give you links to everything.

Andrew Warner: Okay. That was the other
question I was going to ask. What about the Andrew Warner: Okay. So if they want to dig
way that you get dollars into the report? in deeper, if they want to figure out how to
How do you tell Google how much revenue add more ecommerce information into their
you’re earning? reports, they can look at the links that you’re
going to send them and they’ll have more
Justin Cutroni: Yes. There are two parts to information there.
that. If you are ecommerce, there is ecom-
merce tracking and that’s something that we Justin Cutroni: Absolutely.
didn’t really dive deeply into today. Ecom-
merce tracking is something that required Andrew Warner: This is huge. Let me ask you
programatic changes to your site. Google this. We’ve spent a lot of time with the audi-
can suck in all sorts of commerce data like ence. We’ve shown a lot of different reports.
product skews, product categories, aver- What’s the first step they should take as soon
age order value, but that’s an advanced as this program is over? What’s the first thing
topic where you have to do some program- you would like for them to look at?
ming on your site. However, I will say that for
other types of goals--I’ll go into my goal set- Justin Cutroni: Yes. If you get in there and
ting here really quickly--where they are not you’ve already got Google Analytics con-
transaction-based, like a contact form, you figured, I want to make sure that you have
can tell it what it’s worth. There’s a field here goals and conversions configured. I want to
for goal value. So every time a contact form make sure you’re tracking conversions. That
comes in I can tell Google Analyticsthat’s is step number one. And again, the question
worth $100 to me. That’s something you’d you need to be asking yourself is: what am I
really have to back out on your end so if trying to do with my website? That’s going to
you’re doing lead generation for your busi- drive how you configure those goals. So get
ness, you know the number of leads you’re those set up and then you’ll at least have
getting from the website. You know your some way of measuring. Is my website work-
close rate, your average value. Hopefully ing? Is it doing what I want it to do?
you know all those things. And you can back Once you’ve got that done, I want
out an average value per lead and you can you to get into the campaigns. I want you to
plug it in there. But for commerce, that’s the do the campaign tracking, that way you can
ecommerce tracking module, which is an understand how marketing activities are driv-
advanced topic. ing conversions to the website. So I’m spend-
ing X; am I getting conversions back from it?
Andrew Warner: Okay. Is there a place
where people can go a read up on that? Andrew Warner: Okay. That’s a great place
to start and leave it there because, of
Justin Cutroni: Yes. I’ve got a whole bunch of course, this is all on video and we will be able
links for everyone. That’s going to be in the to download it or watch it online. We can
notes for this video. It’s going to cover every- rewind to those sections and follow step by
thing from site search, to campaign tracking, step as you did it and do the same on their
to commerce, to conversions, and goals. websites.

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Google Analytics.
Justin Cutroni: Okay. Great.
Justin Cutroni: Thanks, Andrew. I had a lot of
Andrew Warner: Well, thanks for spending fun and good luck, everybody.
all this time with us and walking us through

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