What Can Google Analytics Do for You? Part 2

This is part 2 of our series on Google Analytics. Click here for part 1.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what Google Analytics can do for you, it’s important to know what to look for when you’re going over your data. It can be difficult to make sense of all the information that you now have at your fingertips, so consider this a guide to navigating all that Google Analytics has to offer.

User Location

This lets you know where the users who are visiting your site are coming from and gives you a better idea of who you should be targeting. Google Analytics can help you identify where the user is located, so you can better focus your strategy, understand where you should be running ads, and get a better ROI.

Keywords

Keywords are an essential tool to ensure that you’re targeting the correct users and bringing them to your website effectively. They’re also vital for an effective SEO strategy. It’s important to understand the difference between organic keywords and paid keywords. Organic keywords are words that people have typed into Google and found you with, while paid keywords are words that you purposely utilize to increase website traffic.

Pageviews

Pageviews help you get a sense of how many people are visiting your page during a given period of time. To see how many views your page has, just go to Audience > Overview. This allows you to see if your site is gaining momentum, stagnate, or losing visitors.

It’s important to note the difference between pageviews, visits, and unique visitors. Whenever your website is viewed or refreshed, that counts as a “pageview”. A single browsing session is a “visit”, and “unique visitors” are the number of people who have visited your site over a select period of time.

Conversions

A conversion takes place when a user visits your website and actually follows through with the action that you want them to take. You can program certain events, like form submissions, downloads, or visits to a specific page as conversions. This is a great way to get an idea of how effective your user journey is.

Average Session Duration

Another tool that can help you to build a more enjoyable site journey for the user is the average session duration function. Naturally, if a user spends a lot of time on your site it bodes well for how effective it is. If they’re leaving quickly, you may want to look into what you can do to keep them around.

Look Out for Red Flags

Now that you know a bit more about what tools you should utilize while tracking Google Analytics, it’s time to learn about what red flags you should be on the lookout for. If users are visiting your site and leaving after only viewing one page, that indicates a high bounce rate. It may be time to make sure your site is user friendly and entices visitors to hang around for a while. The more time on your page, the better.

Of course, you need site visitors to have a substantial amount of data to track at all, and that won’t be the case if you don’t have many people visiting your site. Directing people to your page is vital so that you can attract as many potential customers as possible and know that your analytics represent a large sample size. Use all of your marketing assets as calls-to-action to your website.

SPARKS! has you covered! For more information about how we can make Google Analytics work for you, please contact SPARKS! Marketing Communications at 866-500-888 or visit https://www.onsparks.com/.

Check back soon for part 3 of our series on how Google Analytics can help take your website to the next level.

What Can Google Analytics Do for You? Part 1

It seems like analytics become a bigger part of how people make decisions every day. Their use has never been more present in sports, so why should business be any different?

Companies are realizing that in order to optimize their outreach efforts, they need to be able to use reliable data that tells them how to best allocate their capital. That’s where Google Analytics comes in. But before the service can be used to your advantage, you have to understand exactly what it is and how it functions.

So, What is It?

Simply put, Google Analytics is a web analytics service that helps you track and report website traffic. This information gives you a better understanding of how visitors find and interact with your website. It can also help you manage your digital marketing decisions. It’s also free, so it won’t take up all of your budget. Google Analytics can help your website boost its performance better than any other online tool out there.

Sounds Great, How Does it Work?

Good question. Essentially, Google Analytics uses a tracking code to collect data about who’s coming to your website, where they’re coming from, how long they’re staying, what they’re looking at, and more. Setting up Google Analytics on your site is easy, and something that we can help you with.

Google Analytics uses a cookie placed in the user’s browser to track their visit to your website. This interaction is recorded, and a staggering amount of information can be gathered from it. You don’t just learn surface level information about the user, you know exactly where they accessed your site from and what device they used to get there. Once they’re there, you can track the journey they take through your site, including what pages they went to and how long they were on each one. It’s vital information that will help you better understand what users want from you.

Google Analytics allows you to compare data from previous periods, such as comparing how many visitors you had in April of 2019 versus how many you had in the same month of 2018. It also shows you what specific channels users reached you through, whether that be organic search (SEO), paid search (PPC), or social media. Want to know how many users are actually following through with what you want them to do on your site and creating a conversion? Google Analytics has you covered.

Seems Pretty Important, Huh?

Absolutely. If your business isn’t taking advantage of all that Google Analytics has to offer, you’re not only passing up an opportunity to learn more about potential customers and clients, you’re also letting your competition get ahead. Being able to use this information to your advantage maximizes the performance of your website and provides the strongest ROI. Discover how effective your online strategies are and whether or not you provide a satisfying user experience so you can build on what’s working or correct what isn’t.

What’s the Catch?

There is no catch. Google Analytics is free, but if you want to take things up a notch there is a Google Analytics 360 option. This option is recommended for larger corporations or companies that feel like they’re reaching the limit of what they can do with the standard Google Analytics service.

There’s no such thing as the perfect platform. Google Analytics relies on JavaScript code and cookies to track information. Unfortunately, not all browsers are compatible with JavaScript, and cookies can be blocked by web browsers and ad blockers.

SPARKS! has you covered! For more information about how we can make Google Analytics work for you, please contact SPARKS! Marketing Communications at 866-500-8088 or visit https://www.onsparks.com/.

Check back soon for part 2 of our series on how Google Analytics can help take your website to the next level.

Social Seniors

Think social media is exclusively for millennials? Think again.

More seniors than ever are using platforms like Facebook for a variety of reasons, and that number is only going to rise in the coming years. Love it or hate it, social media has never been more essential to daily life. Want to keep in touch with your kids, grandkids, and old friends? Stay up to date on world events and relevant cultural touchstones? Without social media, that can be tough to do. But how are today’s social media savvy seniors using these tools, and how are advertisers taking advantage of their online presence?

Talk to someone in their teens or early 20s and they’ll say that while they probably still have a Facebook account, Instagram and Snapchat are their preferred apps. Facebook is a place they go to keep in touch with family, like the many baby boomers who are gravitating towards the site. In fact, a recent Gallup poll found that 52 percent of people ages 50 to 64 and 32 percent of those 65 or older use Facebook.

What does the 60+ generation use sites like Facebook for other than commenting on family photos? Sharing inaccurate news, of course! Older Americans are more likely to share “fake news” online regardless of education, sex, race, income, and even party affiliation. So, while people who grew up on the internet have honed their ability to verify what is and isn’t a credible source, the baby boomer generation still struggles with discerning fact from fiction online.

Aside from using Facebook to proliferate the rising trend of false news, most older people are using it for the same reasons that we all do. They want to keep up to date with friends, family, and loved ones throughout the year.

Old and young users aren’t just using social media for different reasons, they also have separate concerns. According to AARP, seniors are much more anxious about protecting their privacy online, with 52 percent of Facebook users over the age of 50 concerned about how their data is getting used. Just 39 percent of 18-to-49-year-olds share the same worry.

With baby boomers now making up such a large portion of the Facebook and social media community, it makes sense that advertisers are trying to find ways to appeal to them and grab their attention on those platforms. According to Bloom, a Senior Living Marketing Solutions company, Boomers on social media sites are 58 percent more likely to visit a company website, 57 percent more likely to continue searching for that company’s service on a search engine, and 42 percent more likely to visit a retailer or store.

So, how do you target seniors online in a way that entices them? Women in this age group are 26 percent more likely to share content online than men of the same age, so gearing your advertisements towards them is one place to start. Boomers also want to share content that’s meaningful and worthwhile with like-minded boomers, so focus more on substance rather than the snappy and clever slang that might appeal to younger users. Like most people, they also prefer messages and graphics that elicit a positive emotional response.

According to Adweek, older users are much more likely to be influenced by online advertising than their younger counterparts. Although they make up just a small percentage of Instagram’s user base, those who are on the app between the ages of 65 and 74 are most likely to search for the advertised product after seeing a promoted post. Common sense suggests that this holds true against all the social media platforms, Facebook included.

As social media becomes a more imperative part of the human experience with each passing year, the number of seniors who not only use the platforms but are comfortable and competent navigating them will only increase. Like with every demographic, it will be up to advertisers to stay afloat among ever-changing trends and user behavior to create content that grabs their attention.

For more information about Facebook advertising or social media marketing, please contact SPARKS! Marketing Communications at 866-500-8088 or visit www.onsparks.com

Standing Out Amid Ad Chaos

The biggest challenge facing advertisers these days is getting in front of their target audience. With so many ads on so many platforms – television, radio, print, online and mobile – competing for the eyes and attention of so many people, how can you stand out?

Companies are competing not just against their competitors, who are seeking the same ad space as they attempt to steal customers and gain new ones; they are competing against non-competitors in other industries who are competing for the audience’s attention, and money, whether it’s disposable income or not. [Read more…]

The Potato – the Greatest Image Makeover

The potato, that simple vegetable that has become such a staple of our diet and which has many nutritional benefits, was a part in one of the greatest image makeover ever. After it was introduced to the European continent via Spain in the 16th century, it was looked upon with utter distaste. [Read more…]

Are there Blue Angels on your team?

Sometimes we get to do fun stuff here at SPARKS! On a recent boating trip to watch the Navy’s Blue Angels perform in Annapolis, I realized that the coordination and synchronization of these fearless flying warriors can be extrapolated as a metaphor for many elements of marketing our business. Not that we risk our lives to jettison ourselves 600+ MPH across the horizon at a separation distance of…oh…18 inches; or that our bodies can withstand 5 G’s without spontaneous combustion (or the release of other bodily matters).

The Blue Angels are the marketing department for the United States Navy & Marine Corps. Not just those magnificent FA-18 Hornets, but the enormous support team that makes their magic take flight. Visualize those six pilots in the Diamond Formation and compare their coordination to your marketing efforts. As the Commander, do you effectively communicate with Lt. Colonel Web, Captain Media, and Lt. Colonel Marketing? Is your “air” show (as in broadcast) synchronized with your larger marketing vision? Do you have the support team and a transport plane filled with enough extra parts to adequately maintain or update the mechanisms of your marketing program?

I wonder if any company can match the precision, thoroughness, and dedication to detail lived each day by “The Blues”. But if you only need to get your business a few feet off the ground, they are an excellent model for growing your business!

Onward & Upward!