Using Analytics To Find Conversion Opportunities
As I continue my series on Digital analytics, this article will focus on using analytics to find conversion opportunities.
Measuring analytics increases conversion opportunities across all your marketing channels (online and offline). Thus, helping with resource control and scalability. To achieve this, there is a need to determine the appropriate goals and filters that fit into your conversion goals - varying from lead generation to actual sales. These numbers are key to determine if your business is moving forward in the actual sense. While it is good to pay attention to your goals, what drives every thought is the ability to understand your audience; analytics also provides answers in that regard.
Another factor worthy of note when using analytics to find conversion opportunities is traffic quality evaluation. After setting goals and filters, conducting a thorough evaluation of your traffic quality is what separates a good decision from a poor one. Understanding the true implications of key metrics being targeted gives your business an edge when results are measured. Often, marketers are misled by some terms, for instance, having a high percentage of bounce rate could be due to absence of links on your homepage, It might be because you have your conversion goal placed at the bottom your page which could be due to another key metric you are measuring among other reasons. Simply put, asides the general thumb of rule about key metrics, it’s never a one shoe fits all.
In Google Analytics, it is also advantageous to use segments and secondary dimensions to measure traffic and decide where and how to scale resources. Spending your budget across all channels can be pivotal to the success of your business but segmenting data would mean spending less and achieving more. In this case, you need to be able to interpret potential errors in your data, before advancing to the stage of acting or presenting your facts, this means auditing your Google analytics to reduce errors from goals, events, filter to admin settings.
You can audit your general GA settings in these four simple steps:
1. See if your Google Products are linked
2. Check for self-referral exclusion
3. Review filters
4. Check eCommerce setup (if needed)
So, let’s get to the more details of using analytics for conversion opportunities
As said earlier, the quality of the traffic that is being measured in the GA tool is largely affected by the ability to tailor your goals and filters to conversion opportunities.
Navigate to the source/medium tab under the acquisition reports tab to know where the online traffic, could it be ‘Google/Organic’. This affords you the opportunity to know what traffic source is doing well and what needs to be improved. There is a need to pay attention to the sources and not just rely on the averages. Having specific data from your tool helps you scale resources spent on marketing. Also, you need to understand the importance of grouping channel and content on your GA tool, to further improve the quality of data. It is recommended to cut your losses and focus on the traffic source that converts more instead of spreading your resources evenly.
Metrics matter (but some don't), it is important to know metrics that matter to your business. Commonly, most analysts will say bounce rate is one of the key metrics to look out watch out for on your page; by the general rule of thumb, having a high bounce rate is not good for your marketing, however, if your homepage doesn't have many links for the visitors to get out but has a form for them to fill, you might have a high bounce rate but 10% conversion rate too, which looks good, it's contextual. The page value tells you the average value for a page that a user visits before landing on your goal page, it gives you a sense of which page contributes to your conversion goal. For eCommerce, knowing your page value can boost your sales by a landslide. Another factor that can help you understand conversion opportunities has to be the secondary dimension, with this feature you can be certain about the reason for a spike in traffic, by viewing a secondary data in a primary dimension. Applying secondary dimensions allows you to filter out your traffic sources easily and know your next line of action; it also helps you compare your segments and improve your conversion rate.
In the same vein, segmenting your data also ensures visibility on how users found certain pages, assess marketing campaigns and identify traffic source. Pointing you the most important aspects of your online marketing efforts when taking decisions.
To create a segment:
1. Open the View whose data you want to analyze.
2.Open Reports. You can start with any report.
3.Click + Add Segment...
4.Click + NEW SEGMENT..
5. Enter a name for the segment.
6. Use the options in the different categories to configure the filters you want for your segment.
How we do know which segments to use?
Segments vary depending on the data you need. You can create custom segments to know more about your traffic sources. You can compare and contrast the system report eg. Conversion vs bounce sessions, Compare mobile vs. Desktop and so on.
All in all, it is highly recommended to evaluate GA conversion funnels to identify opportunities for improvement. Conversion opportunities shouldn't be overlooked. You need to know how a user arrives at your site. Where the user lands. Structure of landing page. Each step along the sales funnel. Identifying shopping cart problems and so on. Using analytics is a good step in building a strong online presence for conversion, however, it is contextual, it is advisable to know what works best for your business. In some cases, marketers and business owners make the mistake of using the same analytics approach for related products due to similarities in Minimum viable product (MVP), it often causes waste of resources. The most effective approach in analysing data for conversion opportunities is to test and learn irrespective of the products and similarities, it is actually cost-effective, easy to report and ensures better scalability.
