Rabbbits Weeekly: Special Apologies Edition™
Or, the one in which I recap a recent presentation and talk about a new analytics trick I learned.
Last week, when I should have been compiling this here newsletter, I was furiously assembling a resources document to accompany a digital analytics presentation I recently gave to a group of local non-profits. Naturally, it took much longer than I planned on (a recurring problem of mine) and sending out a hastily compiled link dump late on a Friday night seemed counterproductive. So here we are.
I’ve been thinking about that doc a bit more (recency bias, I’m sure) and thought a pared down version may be useful here. Accompanied by the other activity that monopolized most of my (work) time last week: turning Google Analytics into a true reporting hub by importing paid social metrics.
Now that the groveling and excuse making is done, let’s get on with this Special Apologies Edition™ of Rabbbits Weeekly that is only multiple days late.
Stocking the (Digital Analytics) Toolkit
I’ve managed to trick some people into thinking I know what I’m talking about. To the point that I was asked to share my opinions about analytics and traffic generation with a group of executive directors and other non-profit leaders. The prez ended up focusing on a topic I’ve been thinking more and more about lately: marketing infrastructure. I’m sure I’ll write more about that later so for now I’ll get right into this synopsis.
It was a three-act talk:
Take advantage of the free tools available to you
Use them properly
Level up
Due to the tools we use at Blue Ion and some prior non-profit experience, the content was heavily Google-centric, but the approach should be fairly universal with the usual caveats around different terminology and workflows between platforms (because everyone has to be different).
Free.99
Google Analytics
This is “the brain” of your setup. How are people using your site, how are they getting there, what do they do while they’re there, where do they leave, etc. If you have a question about something related to your site and/or its related digital efforts, this is where you’ll find the answer (usually). When searching for the answer, don’t forget the cardinal rule: don’t use 1 metric when 2(+) will do.
Use Google Analytics 4, Universal Analytics will officially be put out to pasture next summer. (If you know me from Blue Ion: no worries, we’re on it.) It also gets all the shiny new toys.
If you are making the UA-GA4 transition, you should be able to leverage any event tracking you currently have. I’m still trying to decide if it’s better to just start fresh so that any old Universal Analytics code can be cleared off your site when the time comes though.
Set up goals and familiarize yourself with metrics around your audience, on-site behavior, user acquisition, and on-site events. These metrics can be investigated through the lens of questions like:
Where am I spending my time?
Where are users spending their time?
If these don’t align, what needs to change?
If they do align, how can we do them better? How can we provide more value?
Google Tag Manager (GTM)
While a useful tool for most sites, it is a necessity for Google Analytics 4. This is how Google wants GA4 tracking to be implemented. It also gives the resourceful non-coder some ability to manage their site tracking and tagging themselves.
If you’re adding this to an existing site / site with existing pixels in place, just make sure you don’t accidentally double tag things.
Google Data Studio
If Tag Manager is the input mechanism for GA4 from an infrastructure perspective, Data Studio is the output mechanism. Build yourself nice, visual dashboards for your KPIs and metrics you care about and track them here instead of needing to dive into analytics regularly. You can even have the report emailed to you to peruse from the comfort of your inbox (is that a comfortable place?).
Google Search Console (GSC)
This is where you can see how Google sees your site. Does it think your site is too slow? Does it think your site is garbage? The internet is mobile-first, but is your site? Does your site have a treasure map? Does it even know your site exists? What do people search to find your site?
It can get highly technical, but it can also be highly helpful.
Google My Business (GMB)
Google will put a billboard for your business in search results related to your brand name, this is how you make sure the info is correct. Do it. That is all.
Google Ad Grants
If you’re a qualifying non-profit, Google will give you $10k / month to spend on search ads. If you’re not, you have to pay your own way.
Put the Lime in the Coconut
Click the Bricks
None of these tools (or any others) will do any good if they are disconnected and siloed away from each other. You can’t paint a picture if each canvas only gets one color (I know, I know, Rothko (amongst others) has disproved this, I’m just trying to make a point, okay?).
Connect GMB to Google Ads (if you’re running any).
Connect these to Analytics and make sure all your other traffic is well-tagged with UTM parameters.
Connect Analytics to your site properly.
Connect your site to GSC.
Connect all of these (and more) to Data Studio.
Live long and prosper.
Tracking Urchins
UTM parameters are very helpful if you want to know what channels / content are driving traffic to your site, but only if they are setup correctly. I think of the 5 main parameters like this:
source = where is this link posted / traffic coming from
medium = how is the link being delivered (paid / cpc vs email vs organic, etc)
campaign = purpose of the link (i.e. capital_campiagn)
term = how are the recipients being selected / targeted (i.e. donor_list or local_residents)
content = what content is the link being delivered via (building_rendering or february_email, etc)
Cram them all together and add a ? before to paste to the end of your URL (if there is already a ? in it then use an & instead for the UTMs):
?utm_source=[channel]&utm_medium=[type]&utm_campaign=[goal]&utm_term=[targeting]&utm_content=[ad]
Next Level
I’m sure this is already mind-numbing enough so I’ll skip all the detailed stuff here and just recommend you check out all the automation available to you so you can spend more time doing your actual job versus babysitting robots.
All Your Data Belongs to G
Now for next level Next Level. As I mentioned way up there in the foggy mists of this post’s intro, I went deep into the cost import realm of Google Analytics. This was mainly due to the general pain in the ass that is connecting non-Google services to Data Studio. (did you know massive tech companies don’t like to share their toys with each other?) There are plenty of third-party options out there to accomplish this, but I’m not eager to spend hundreds of dollars per month to hook a Facebook ad account up to my dashboard.
Enter: Cost Data import.
This is not going to be a tutorial, if you want one, let me know.
Using this feature hinges on having UTM parameters set up. You can do it without if you just want a high-level look, but you’ll lose most of the ability to gain actionable insight.
The simplified version is this:
Setup the data import in Analytics, I recommend adding in clicks, cost, impressions, ad content, campaign, and keyword to the required date, source, and medium fields. Select “overwrite” for safety (this way if you make a mistake you can wallpaper over it with a new upload).
Take note of the ids for each of the fields you select as those will become the column headers in your csv for import
Export your data from the non-Google paid platform of your choice broken out by day so Google can map it to the calendar and do all the data crunching, etc. Make sure you export the data you told Google you’d be importing.
Get your data formatted for import. Create a new spreadsheet with a column for each of the parameters you set in Analytics with the id name as the column header. Copy-paste or otherwise import the data into the correct columns. Manually or formulaically enter the source and medium fields to match your Analytics.
Save, upload, wait, double check things worked, be amazed, analyze, make better decisions. Repeat.