DIGITAL MARKETING

B. C. A – V Semester
 Unit V

Analytics and Reporting

Importance of Analytics
Analytics is collecting, analysing, and interpreting data from various digital channels so that
businesses can gain valuable insights into their target audience, campaign performance, and
overall marketing ROI. Analytics has become an indispensable tool for any business that
wants to succeed in the digital marketing. This information can then be used to make
informed decisions about optimizing campaigns, allocating resources, and improving
customer engagement.
By leveraging data and analytics, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their
customers, optimize their campaigns, and make data-driven decisions that drive growth and
success.
By using analytics to measure, track, and analyse data from these different channels,
businesses can gain a comprehensive understanding of their digital marketing efforts and
make informed decisions to improve their performance.
Here are some of the important characteristics of analytics in digital marketing:
1. Measure and Track Campaign Performance:
Analytics allows businesses to measure and track the performance of their digital
marketing campaigns, providing insights into which campaigns are generating the
most traffic, leads, and conversions. This information can then be used to identify areas
for improvement and make data-driven decisions about optimizing campaigns.
2. Understand Customer Behaviour:
Analytics provides businesses with a deep understanding of their target audience,
including their demographics, interests, online behaviour, and purchasing patterns.
This information can be used to create more personalized and relevant marketing
campaigns that resonate with the target audience.
3. Improve ROI:
By tracking the ROI of their digital marketing campaigns, businesses can identify which
channels and strategies are generating the most return on investment. This information
can then be used to allocate resources more effectively and maximize the impact of
their marketing efforts.
4. Make Data-Driven Decisions:
Analytics takes the guesswork out of digital marketing, allowing businesses to make
data driven decisions about their campaigns, strategies, and investments. This data-
driven approach can lead to more effective marketing campaigns, improved customer
engagement, and increased ROI.
5. Stay Ahead of the Competition:
In the ever-changing world of digital marketing, analytics helps businesses stay ahead
of the competition by providing them with real-time insights into industry trends,
competitor activities, and customer preferences. This information can be used to adapt
marketing strategies and gain a competitive edge.
6. Personalization and Targeting:
Analytics enables marketers to create more personalized and targeted campaigns. By
understanding user preferences, demographics, and behaviours, marketers can tailor
content and messaging to specific audience segments, increasing the relevance of
their campaigns and improving conversion rates.

Page 2 of 12
 Unit V

7. Competitive Analysis:
Digital marketing analytics allows businesses to benchmark their performance against
competitors. By monitoring industry trends, analysing competitor strategies, and
comparing key performance indicators, marketers can identify opportunities for
improvement and stay ahead of the competition.
8. Continuous Improvement:
Analytics facilitates a culture of continuous improvement. By regularly reviewing and
analysing data, marketers can identify areas for enhancement, test new strategies,
and iterate on existing campaigns. This iterative process is essential for staying agile
and optimizing performance over time.

Web Analytics Tool – Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a premium and free analytic tool that provides a detailed statistics of the
web traffic and user behaviour. It is used to track and measure visitors, traffic sources, goals,
conversion, and other metrics.
Google Analytics is used by 54.3% of all websites. It is the most popular web analytics tool
in the world, and it is used by businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.
Following is a breakdown of Google Analytics usage by website size:
• Small websites (less than 10,000 pageviews per month): 45.0%
• Medium websites (10,000 to 100,000 pageviews per month): 74.0%
• Large websites (over 100,000 pageviews per month): 93.0%

Google Analytics is more popular among larger websites. This is because Google Analytics
is a powerful tool that can provide valuable insights into how users are interacting with
website or apps. Even small businesses can benefit from using Google Analytics to track
their traffic and improve their website's performance.
Types of Google Analytics Reports:
• Audience Analysis
Audience analysis gives an overview of the audience who visits the website or app
along with session history, page-views, bounce rate, etc. Business can trace the new
as well as the returning users along with their geographical locations.
Following information can be tracked:
- The age and gender of the audience under Demographics.
- The affinity reaches and market segmentation under Interests.
- Language and location under Geo.
- New and returning visitors, their frequency, and engagement under Behaviour.
- Browsers, Operating systems, and network of the audience under Technology.
- Mobile device info under Mobile.
- Custom variable report under Custom. This report shows the activity by custom
modules that are created to capture the selections.
- Benchmarking channels, locations, and devices under Benchmarking. -
Flow of user activity under Users flow.
• Acquisition Analysis
Acquisition means ‘to acquire.’ Acquisition analysis is carried out to find out the sources
from where the web traffic originates.
Following information can be tracked:

Page 3 of 12
 Unit V

- Capture traffic from all channels, particular source/medium, and from referrals.

- Trace traffic from AdWords (paid search).

- See traffic from search engines. Here, business can see Queries, triggered landing
pages, and geographical summary.

- Track social media traffic, which helps business to identify networks where the
users are engaged. It helps to measure the impact of social media on the website.

- See which plug-ins gave the traffic.

- Have a look at all the campaigns built throughout the website with detailed
statistics of paid/organic keywords and the cost incurred on it.

• Behaviour Analysis
Behaviour analysis monitors user’s activities on a website. Business can find
behavioural data under the following four segments −
- Site Content − It shows how many pages were viewed. Business can see the
detailed interaction of data across all pages or in segments like content drill-down,
landing pages, and exit pages. Content drill-down is breaking up of data into sub-
folders. Landing page is the page where the user lands, and exit page is where
the user exits website.
- Site Speed − This captures page load time, execution speed, and performance
data. Business can see how quickly the browser can parse through the page,
measure page timings, user timings, and get speed suggestion. It helps to know
where the website is lagging.
- Site Search − It gives a full picture of how the users search across website, what
they normally look for, and how they arrive at a particular landing page. Business
can analyse what they search for before landing on the website.
- Events − Events are visitors’ actions with content, which can be traced
independently. Example − downloads, sign up, log-in, etc.
• Conversion Analysis
Conversion is a goal completion or a transaction by a user on the website. For
example, download or checkout or buy a product etc. To track conversions in analytics,
business needs to define a goal and set a URL that is traceable.
- Goals − Metrics that measure a profitable activity that business wants the user to
complete. Each time a goal is achieved, a conversion is added to the data.
Business can observe goal completion, value, reverse path, and goal flow.
- Ecommerce − Sets tracking to know what the users buy from the website. It helps
to find product performance, sale performance, transactions, and purchase time.
Based on these data, business can analyse what can be beneficial and what loss
is incurred.

Setting up Web Analytics Tool – Google Analytics

Setting up a Google Analytics account involves creating an account, adding a website or app
– known as property, and adding the tracking code to the website or app.

Page 4 of 12
 Unit V

Step 1: Create a Google Analytics Account

1. Go to the Google Analytics website:
https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/
2. Sign in to Google account or create a new one.
3. Click "Continue" on the "Create a Google Analytics 4 property" page.
4. Enter a name for the property (e.g., website name or app name).
5. Select the reporting time zone and currency for the property.
6. Click "Next" to continue.
Step 2: Add Website or App as a Property
1. Select the type of property that needs to be added - website or app.
2. If property is a website, then enter the URL of the website.
3. If property is an app, then select the platform (Android or iOS) and enter the app name
and package name.
4. Click "Next" to continue.
Step 3: Get Tracking Code
1. Review the terms of service and data sharing settings.
2. Click "I Accept" to agree to the terms.
3. Click "Get Tracking ID" to obtain the tracking code for the property.
Step 4: Add Tracking Code to the Website or App
1. Copy the tracking code provided in Step 3.
2. For websites, paste the tracking code into the head section of every page on website.
3. For apps, follow the specific instructions for selected platform (Android or iOS) to
integrate the tracking code into the app.
Step 5: Verify Tracking Code Installation
1. Install the Google Tag Manager extension in the web browser.
2. Open the Google Tag Manager extension and click on "Tags".
3. Click "New Tag" and select "Google Analytics: Universal Analytics".
4. Paste the Tracking ID from Step 3 into the "Tracking ID" field.
5. Click "Save" to save the tag.
6. Click "Preview & Debug" to test the tracking code.
7. If the tracking code is installed correctly, a green checkmark should be visible next to the
tag in Google Tag Manager.
Tracking and measuring KPIs using Google analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can be used to track and measure Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) for any website or app. KPIs are quantifiable measures that
can be used to assess the success of marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions.
By tracking and measuring KPIs using Google Analytics, user can gain valuable insights into
how the website or app is performing and make informed decisions about how to improve it.
What are KPIs?
KPIs are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives that help to
track the progress of any marketing efforts and determine whether they are achieving goals.
Following aspects can be measured as part of KPIs about website or app:
• Traffic: This includes metrics such as the number of visitors, page views, and sessions.

Page 5 of 12
 Unit V

• Engagement: This includes metrics such as time on page, bounce rate, and goal
conversions.
• Acquisition: This includes metrics such as traffic sources, referrals, and paid traffic.
• Conversions: This includes metrics such as leads, sales, and signups.
Examples of KPIs:

• Track the number of visitors to the website: Business can use the Acquisition Overview
report to see how many visitors came to the website from different traffic sources.

• Track the number of page views on your website: Business can use the Page views
report to see how many times each page on the website was viewed.

• Track the average time spent on the website: Business can use the Average Session
Duration report to see how long visitors spent on the website.

• Track the bounce rate for the website: Business can use the Bounce Rate report to
see how many visitors left website after only viewing one page.

• Track the number of goal conversions: Business can use the Goals report to see how
many visitors completed a specific action on the website, such as signing up for a
newsletter or making a purchase.
How to Track and Measure KPIs Using Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides a variety of reports and tools that can be used to track and
measure
KPIs. To track a KPI, first goals need to be set up in Google Analytics. A goal is a specific
action that users want to take on the website or app, such as signing up for a newsletter or
making a purchase.
Once the goal is set up, user can track the progress towards that goal using Goals report in
Google Analytics. The Goals report will show the number of goal completions, the conversion
rate, and the average value per goal.
In addition to the Goals report, user can also use other reports in Google Analytics to track
KPIs.
Tips for Tracking and Measuring KPIs Using Google Analytics
• Choose the right KPIs: Don't try to track too many KPIs. Focus on the KPIs that are
most important to business.
• Set realistic goals: Make sure the goals are realistic and achievable.
• Track progress regularly: Review the KPIs regularly to see how they are doing.
• Make data-driven decisions: Use the KPI data to make informed decisions about the
website or app.
Conversion Tracking and Optimization
Conversion tracking
Conversion tracking in Google Analytics is the process of measuring and recording how often
users take desired actions on the website or app. A conversion occurs when a visitor
completes a desired action, such as making a purchase, submitting a form, signing up for a
newsletter, or any other valuable interaction. By tracking conversions, one can understand
which marketing efforts are most effective and make data-driven decisions to improve
website's performance.
Conversion tracking works by assigning a unique identifier to each visitor to the website or
app. This identifier is then used to track the visitor's actions as they interact with the site.

Page 6 of 12
 Unit V

When the visitor completes a desired action, such as making a purchase, the conversion is
recorded in Google Analytics.
Methods of Conversion Tracking:
Page tracking: This method involves adding a tracking code to the pages on the website
that needs to track for conversions. When a visitor completes a desired action on one of
these pages, the tracking code will send a signal to Google Analytics that a conversion has
occurred.
Event tracking: This method involves tracking specific events that occur on the website or
app where business can track events such as button clicks, form submissions, and video
plays. When a visitor trigger one of these events, Google Analytics will record the event
and can use this data to measure conversions.
Benefits of Conversion Tracking
There are many benefits to using conversion tracking in Google Analytics, including:
Measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts: Conversion tracking allows to see which
marketing campaigns are generating most leads and sales. This information can help to
allocate marketing budget more effectively.
Identify areas for improvement: Conversion tracking can help to identify areas of the
website or app that need improvement. For example, if business finds that a lot of visitors
are abandoning their shopping carts, it can be investigated the checkout process to see
where there might be friction or difficulty.
Make data-driven decisions: By understanding the conversion rates, business can make data
driven decisions about website or app.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking
The specific steps to set up Conversion tracking will vary depending on using page tracking
or event tracking. Generally below steps are as followed:

• Create a conversion action in Google Analytics. A conversion action is a definition of

the desired action that business wants to track. For example, a conversion action for
"purchase" or "sign up for newsletter" can be created.

• Add the tracking code to the website or app. For page tracking, business will need to
add the tracking code to the pages that needs to be tracked for conversions. For
event tracking, business will need to add the tracking code to the event triggers that
needs to be tracked.

• Verify that conversion tracking is working. Use the Google Tag Manager extension to
test conversion tracking code.

• Once the conversion tracking is set up, business can start to track and measure the
conversions in Google Analytics. Conversion data can be viewed in a variety of
reports, including the Goals report and the Conversions report.

• Conversion tracking is a valuable tool that can help to understand the website or app
and make data-driven decisions to improve its performance.
Optimizing Conversion Tracking:
Optimizing conversion tracking is crucial for accurately measuring the effectiveness of the
marketing efforts and making data-driven decisions to improve website or app's
performance.

Page 7 of 12
 Unit V

Following the optimization strategies, business can ensure the conversion tracking is
accurate, comprehensive, and provides valuable insights for improving website's
performance and achieving marketing goals
Comprehensive guide to optimizing conversion tracking in Google Analytics:

- Define Clear Conversion Goals: Clearly define the specific actions business considers
valuable conversions, such as purchases, form submissions, or newsletter signups. This
ensures tracking efforts align with the business objectives.

- Identify Key Conversion Paths: Analyse user behaviour to understand the typical steps
visitors take before converting. Identify potential friction points or areas where users drop
off.

- Implement Event Tracking: Utilize event tracking to capture specific user interactions,
such as button clicks, video plays, or form field entries. This provides granular insights
into user behaviour leading up to conversions.

- Validate Tracking Accuracy: Regularly test the conversion tracking setup using tools like
Google Tag Manager Preview & Debug to ensure all events and conversions are firing
correctly.

- Track Multiple Conversion Points: Consider tracking different conversion types, such as
primary conversions (direct purchases) and secondary conversions (newsletter signups).
This provides a more comprehensive understanding of user engagement.

- Set Up Value-Based Conversion Tracking: Assign a monetary value to each conversion

type to measure the overall revenue generated from conversions. This provides a more
accurate assessment of campaign ROI.

- Monitor Conversion Trends: Regularly review conversion data to identify trends, patterns,
and anomalies. Analyse changes in conversion rates over time to assess the
effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

- Address Conversion Drop-Off Points: Implement targeted improvements to address

areas where users drop off during the conversion process. This could involve simplifying
forms, improving error messages, or enhancing navigation.

- Personalize User Experiences: Leverage personalization techniques to tailor website

content and recommendations based on user behaviour, interests, and past interactions.
This can increase engagement and conversion rates.

- Regularly Review and Optimize: Regularly review the conversion tracking setup and
identify areas for improvement. Adapt tracking strategies as the website or app evolves
and marketing campaigns change.

Reporting and Data Visualization:

Reporting and data visualization are fundamental components of Google Analytics, enabling
users to transform raw data into actionable insights. These tools empower users to make
informed decisions about their website or app, optimize marketing campaigns, and improve
overall user experience.

Page 8 of 12
 Unit V

Reporting in Google Analytics

Google Analytics offers a comprehensive suite of pre-built reports that provide insights into
various aspects of a website or app, including:
• Audience: Understand user demographics, interests, and geographic distribution.
• Acquisition: Analyse traffic sources, referral patterns, and campaign performance.
• Behaviour: Track user engagement, pageviews, time on site, and bounce rates.
• Conversions: Measure goal completions, conversion rates, and revenue attribution.
These reports can be filtered, segmented, and customized to drill down into specific areas
of interest. Users can also create custom reports to tailor the data to their specific needs.
Data Visualization in Google Analytics
Data visualization plays a crucial role in making Google Analytics reports more accessible
and impactful. These visualization tools help users quickly grasp complex data sets, identify
key trends, and communicate insights effectively to stakeholders. Google Analytics provides
a variety of visualization tools, including:
• Charts and graphs: Convert numerical data into visually appealing charts, graphs, and
line charts to identify trends and patterns.
• Tables: Organize data into structured tables for easy comparison and analysis.
• Maps: Visualize geographical data using interactive maps to understand user
distribution and engagement patterns.
• Segments: Create custom segments to filter data and focus on specific user groups or
behaviours.

Benefits of Reporting and Data Visualization

By leveraging reporting and data visualization capabilities, users can maximize the value of
Google Analytics data and make informed decisions that drive business growth and success.
Effective reporting and data visualization in Google Analytics offer numerous benefits,
including:
• Informed decision-making: Gain actionable insights to make data-driven decisions
about website optimization, marketing strategies, and resource allocation.
• Performance tracking: Monitor website or app performance over time to identify areas
for improvement and measure the impact of marketing initiatives.
• User understanding: Develop a deeper understanding of user behaviour, preferences,
and pain points to improve user experience and satisfaction.
• Campaign optimization: Analyse campaign performance to identify successful
strategies and optimize resource allocation for future campaigns.
• Effective communication: Share insights with stakeholders in a clear and compelling
manner using visually appealing reports and data visualizations.

Page 9 of 12
 Unit V

Google Analytics screenshots for Reference and to understand:

Reports -> Audience

Reports -> AcquitisTion

Page 10 of 12
 Unit V

Reports -> Behaviour

Reports -> Conversions

Page 11 of 12
 Unit V

Reports Menu

Reports Menu - Expanded

Page 12 of 12