Conversion Tracking

This semester, I created a site on Weebly to test conversion tracking. I figured that it would interesting and potentially insightful to share my experience.

The link to the site that I created can be found here: http://coryevans.weebly.com

As you can see from this screenshot, I created "Home", "About", "Contact", and "Thank You" pages on my Weebly site in order to generate clicks and potential forms of conversions: 

In addition, I linked my Weebly site with Google Analytics for conversion tracking purposes. The results can be viewed below:

As you can see, I was able to generate insightful information from simply creating a website off of Weebly, and then linking it to a Google Analytics account. For instance, I was able to determine that my website generated 340 sessions and 342 page views with absolutely no paid advertising, but instead organic posting. 

For specific conversions/goals, I created a "Thank You" page to see how many visitors submitted a form on my site. Although I did not have actual results, it was still a rewarding experience, as I was able to expand my overall knowledge on how to track conversions on Google Analytics:

After completing this exercise, it is clear to me that conversion tracking is a necessary skill to hone as a business professional. In other words, in order to determine if a company, website, product, or service is profitable or being advertised towards a proper target audience, it is essential to utilize conversion tracking through a service such as Google Analytics to measure ROI. 

CASA Marketing (Ecommerce Analytics)

Understanding how to analyze ecommerce analytics is a necessary tool for any social media marketer. By doing so, you will be able to track ROI and utilize conversion tracking to your advantage to decipher the best forms and channels of advertising related to your business. In order to use conversion tracking, it is a requirement to find an ecommerce platform that tracks such data. Unfortunately, there are very few, if any, ecommerce sites that are free. Therefore, in order to conduct real conversion tracking, specific resources will need to be used.

For the purposes of ecommerce anlaytics, Google Adwords and Shopify are two reputable tools to use for conversion tracking. Shopify is roughly $30 a month, whereas Google Adwords varies depending on how much you plan to advertise. Adwords can be a very rewarding resource, especially if you're interested in how much revenue is being made off of select advertisements. The beauty of Google Adwords is that it syncs with Google Analytics. Hence, all the valuable metrics available on Google Analytics will automatically analyze content from Adwords for your viewing pleasure. Experimenting with both of Google's aforementioned platforms will provide a sound understanding as to how to properly utilize conversion tracking for a business to measure ROI.

Even more, Shopify is also a superb tool to reference for live ecommerce tracking, particularly where products are concerned, Below I will list some of the many features and benefits available through Shopify, which I suggest you consider since Google is a major proponent of the company.

Shopify Features/Benefits:

• 14 day free trial (Determine if the site is worth your money)
• Ease of payments
• Payment plans
• Customization 
• Product Diversity (Physical, Digital)
• Conversion Tracking with Adwords
• Live ecommerce site

CASA Marketing (Reviewing Performance Of Campaigns)

Reviewing performance campaigns on Google Analytics and Facebook is arguably one of the most important components to monitor as you begin becoming familiar with digital marketing. Even more, understanding how to analyze information on Google Analytics or Facebook is critical as well. Before you decide to pay Facebook for advertising your content, it is essential to practice using the features available on the site. In addition, learning how to use Google Analytics to your advantage to measure ROI is an important skill to learn and refine.

I believe that the following terms/topic provide the best insight into how to review the performance of a campaign on Google Analytics or Facebook:

• Session: this term corresponds with a visit to a webpage.

• Bounce Rate: indicates the percentage of sessions with only one user interaction or page view. It is better to have a lower bounce rate than a higher one.

• Trending: monitoring how themes or concepts perform over a period of time.

• Traffic: the amount of people that are visiting a webpage. Look out for "bots", which could be responsible for generating spam traffic. Also, it is important to decide if the content you're posting is better suited for mobile or desktop, as this could affect the flow of traffic to your posts.

• Dashboard/Reports: tools that enable users to manually find items or pieces of information.

• Export: the ability to share content with friends or colleagues.

Speaking of Google Analytics, please view the screenshot pictured below for an inside look into the terms and topics that I have discussed above. In particular, notice how a high bounce rate can negatively impact a performance review. 

CASA Marketing (Getting Traffic For Analytics)

A key component of web analytics is learning how to generate traffic to a blog or website. Sharing a link on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn is one of the most basic forms of social media marketing. When posting on social media platforms, it is recommended to include visuals in order to enhance a viewer's experience. Also, if you plan on using a blog for analytic purposes, it is important to regularly post (once a week) in order to have enough data for Google Analytics to process.

Once you have content to post on social media, it is essential to promote it. Facebook enables users to promote posts by simply paying the company advertising fees. After a post is promoted on Facebook, each of your posts are being paid for to gain exposure. In addition, Facebook will list each promoted post as "sponsored" after it is paid for, which not only makes content appear more credible, but also increases the overall reach of your content to an intended audience. Hence, once a post on Facebook is promoted, it will appear across a variety of news feeds, as opposed to only those of friends or colleagues.

Another sound strategy to gain traffic for analytic purposes is to make an advertising campaign on Facebook. This will enable you to control who your posts are exposed to, especially where demographics and geographics are concerned. I have also learned from experience that adding an image to an ad campaign is a unique way to differentiate a brand from other competitors in a market. This will also assist you in selecting a target audience, as you will want to advertise towards a select number of segments that will be interested in your product or service. If a target audience is not clearly defined, the money you invest into an ad campaign on Facebook will be unsatisfactory since it will be exposed to individuals who may not be interested in what you have to offer. Once a target market is defined, it is imperative to decide what type of ad budget should be implemented. For example, creating a lifetime budget on Facebook will likely mean that you plan on continuously advertising at a nominal rate. However, if you wish to take an aggressive approach to advertising, you can switch to a "per day" payment in order to accommodate peak times to promote a product.

It should now be clear that Facebook is an excellent resource to utilize in order to generate traffic and analytics from. The ability to analyze data from a social media marketing campaign is a strong skill to possess, especially with how prevalent technology is in today's society due to the reliance that placed on social media platforms.

The following screenshot illustrates how simple it is to create an ad campaign on Facebook:

Blogalytics

In order to become familiar with Google Analytics, it is first important to understand blogalytics, or simply put- creating a blog. After creating and regularly blogging, using Google Analytics to monitor web traffic will not appear as intimidating as it looks. The first step in this process is create a Google Account or Gmail Address. Next, create an account on Blogger, which will enable you to begin writing blog posts on content that you're learning or are an expert on.

Once you complete these steps, you can then start a Google Analytics account to begin tracking data. This can be a rather rigorous process, but is worth the hassle in the end. The step that is most confusing for setting up a Google Analytics account is obtaining a tracking ID. In order to complete this step properly, be sure to read and follow the instructions provided by Google carefully. Once your account for Google Analytics is verified, it is then time to sync it with your blogger account. This will allow you to analyze who is viewing your blog posts, and offer insight into various marketing concepts, such as demographics and geographic related to your reading audience.

The only way to become fully comfortable with Google Analytics is to practice using it. I have done just that this week, as I am still grasping the basics of how to utilize the resource myself. One of key features available in Google Analytics is the ability to delve into data ranges for a post or blog. This will allow you to look for trends and determine if your website or blog is earning revenue or meeting goals. Overall, I highly recommend creating a Google Analytics and Blogger account, as they are both integral components of web analytics as a whole.

For a quick preview of Google Analytics, please view the screenshot below:

CASA Marketing (Overview of Google Analytics)

This week, I began to learn about the basics of Google Analytics. From a beginner's perspective, I have found that personal ROI, organizational ROI, and tools (free and corporate) are important concepts of web analytics to gain an understanding of. Although Google Analytics appears to be complex, it is clear that the tools associated with the topic are necessary to hone as a future marketer.

Personal ROI is important to consider for social media marketing, digital marketing, and business intelligence to measure the success of a marketing campaign. Likewise, organizational ROI is useful to determine if a business is operating under a profitable social media campaign, or if it is simply not earning a sufficient return on its investment. Social media marketing is often referred to as "social analytics", whereas business intelligence is known as "advanced analytics". Nonetheless, both are vital tools to implement in order to successfully measure ROI. Failure to measure ROI can result in a substantial loss of resources and time for a business. I have also learned that important tools, such as Adobe Analytics, Open Source Analytics, and Social Analytics, are important to research and practice using in order to gain a full understanding of web analytics. However, it is noteworthy to mention that the various tools available come in both free and paid forms. Therefore, it is logical to use free trials in order to see if a particular tool will be beneficial to purchase for regular use. Overall, I look forward to continuing to expand my knowledge around Google Analytics, in hopes to become certified by the end of the semester.