This week on the blog we will be taking a different approach and diving into the details of a real-world marketing challenge. Specifically, we’ll be looking at the case study for one of HubSpot’s popular marketing suites, Google Analytics.
So sit back, grab a coffee, and let’s get into the weeds of a real-world marketing challenge.
The Challenge
This past year, HubSpot worked with a Fortune 500 company whose business is focused on international travel and wellness. To improve its digital marketing performance, the company turned to HubSpot for help.
The challenge was to get a clearer picture of the marketing performance of its websites so the company could establish a data-driven marketing strategy. To do this, the company wanted to work with a marketing analytics tool that was easy to use, provided actionable insights, and aligned with their digital marketing strategy.
After reviewing a number of marketing tools, the team at HubSpot narrowed the choices to Google Analytics and Loomio.
Loomio was a close second, but after careful consideration, the team at HubSpot decided Google Analytics offered the best of both worlds — a robust marketing analytics tool and a highly accessible UI. Not only that, but Google Analytics also has a very large market share and is one of the most popular digital marketing analytics tools globally.
From the outset, the goal was to educate the team about the value of marketing analytics and the role it plays in digital marketing.
The Solution (With Google Analytics)
With the popularity of SEO and content marketing growing, digital marketing departments are under more pressure than ever to demonstrate the value of their work and the impact it has had on the business.
To help its customers better understand its value proposition, HubSpot created a Marketing Analytics Use Case that walks through the steps to set up a Google Analytics account and then import the data so it can be easily accessed and visually analyzed.
In addition to educating its customers about the value of marketing analytics, the company also wanted to ensure that Google Analytics was the right tool for the job. To that end, the team leveraged Google’s own documentation to help guide them through the setup process. Once setup, the team also looked at Google Analytics’ own documentation to determine how to integrate their report types and create dashboards that accurately represent its customer base.
Why Google Analytics
When it comes to analyzing website performance, there are a variety of tools available to webmasters and marketers, such as Google Analytics, Majestic, or GoDaddy Analytics.
The decision between using one tool or another largely comes down to which one you’re more comfortable with. For example, if you’re new to digital marketing, you might want to start out with Google Analytics since it’s the most widely used and accessible tool out there. But as you build expertise and become more familiar with the differences between each tool, you might want to consider picking up Majestic or GoDaddy’s analytics tools since they have a bit more robust features.
How to Get the Most Out of Google Analytics
One of the primary differences between Google Analytics and other similar tools is that it’s a standalone product offered by Google, while the other tools are offered as add-ons or as part of a larger marketing suite.
Whether you choose to integrate Google Analytics with your email marketing software, Google search console, or even your dedicated marketing website, you’ll get the most out of it if you take the time to learn how to use it effectively. For that reason, we’ve decided to devote an entire section of this week’s blog post to educating you on how to get the most out of Google Analytics.
To kick off our ‘how to get the most out of Google Analytics’ series, we’ll begin with an overview of how the tool works and then dive into the various metrics and reports available through Google Analytics.
An Overview of Google Analytics
If you’ve ever used Google Analytics, you know that it’s a versatile tool capable of tracking pretty much any activity on your site.
From the very first moment you log in, you’ll be greeted with an overview of your current web traffic. From there, you can drill down into specific topics like website traffic or conversions for more in-depth analysis.
This versatility makes Google Analytics a bit more complicated to set up than other tools, since you not only have to determine which areas of your site you’ll be tracking but also how you’ll be measuring performance. To help new users get the most out of Google Analytics, we’ll walk you through the entire setup process, covering both the easy and the difficult parts. Once you’ve had a chance to set up and utilize your Google Analytics account, you’ll find it easy to delve back into the tool whenever you need to and identify areas of your site that need some attention.
Setting Up a New Google Analytics Account
In order to get the most out of Google Analytics, you first need to set up a new account. To do this, visit the Google Analytics homepage, click on the Get Started button, and then click on the Get Started button again to continue to the next step.
You’ll then be brought to the Sign Up page, where you can enter your email address and create a password. Make sure you use a strong password (at least eight characters) and then click on the Create Account button.
Your new account will then be created and you’ll be brought back to the main Google Analytics homepage, where you can navigate to any of the available Google Analytics reports. You can also logout at this point and continue to the next step.
Importing Data Into Your New Google Analytics Account
You now have a new Google Analytics account set up and ready to use. The next step is to import your existing data into this account or create new reports as needed.
To begin, visit the Admin menu, click on the Settings button, and then select the Import button located in the top right corner. To continue, either click on the Import button or navigate to the existing data in your Google Analytics account (if you have any).
Select the data you want to import and then click on the Import button.
After the import is complete, you’ll be guided through a couple of quick tips before being returned to the main settings page.
Customize Your Google Analytics Experience
You can now begin customizing your Google Analytics experience to suit your needs. From the main settings page, you can click on the Welcome Section to get a high-level overview of how Google Analytics will display on your site. You can also create and name dashboards (i.e., collections of metrics) as needed to track the data you care about the most.
Explore the Different Metrics and Reports Available
From the main Settings page, you can click on the Views button to get an overview of the different metrics and reports available through Google Analytics.
As you can see, Google Analytics offers a wide variety of metrics and reports, all of which can be used to track your site’s performance and determine the success of your marketing efforts. From the very first moment you log in, you’ll have access to a variety of reports that you can use to make informed decisions regarding your marketing strategy.
Reports in Depth
After going through the high-level overview of the different metrics and reports available through Google Analytics, we’ll now take a look at each report in detail.
The first report you’ll encounter is the Overview report, which shows you the traffic and demographic information for your entire site. The next three reports are more detailed and can be used to track specific interactions on your site. These are the Traffic Sources report, the Landing Pages report, and the Conversion report.
The Overview Report
The Overview report gives you a high-level traffic and demographic information for your entire site. To get started, click on the Overview link from the Admin menu or the Settings menu.
This report helps you understand the demographics, devices, and landing pages that have led to website traffic. You can also use the report to track the traffic originating from different countries or regions around the world.
To access this information, navigate to the Overview page, which will display the most recent overview report. From here, you can double-click on a graph to see more details about that specific metric or go to the Demographics, Device, and Landing Pages tabs to drill down into more specific information.