At GA-Experts, we also provide PPC Management services through our parent company Omega Digital Media, so we are continually looking at ways to improve the data that Google Analytics provides about a PPC campaign. With this in mind we have developed a new filter that shows exactly the Search Term (i.e. keywords that are searched on) rather than just the Bid Term (i.e. the keywords that triggered a PPC advert).

For example, if a visitor searches for “sony digital camera” and you have an ad configured for the keywords “digital camera” as a Broad Match in Google AdWords, then this search will show your ad. But in your GA reports, the keywords for this search will be reported as “digital camera“. Whilst this gives you good data on your Bid Term, it doesn’t help you refine your keyword triggers because the reports don’t show the actual Search Term.

If you use our Override Bid Term Filter then the same search will show “digital camera, (sony+digital+camera)” in any Google Analytics report that shows keywords (e.g. Marketing Optimisation -> Search Engine Marketing -> Overall Keyword Conversion) or any time you cross-segment against keywords.

This data now allows you to fine-tune your PPC campaigns by getting greater detail from your GA reports. In the example above, if the ‘sony+digital+camera‘ search is a frequent one, you might consider creating an Exact Match advert that took visitors to a dedicated Sony landing page. Or replacing the Broad Match ‘digital camera‘ term with a more precise ‘sony digital camera‘ Exact Match to increase your clickthrough rate.

There’s lots that can be done to optimise a campaign using this filter, so please see below for configuration instructions:

1) Create two filters as per the images here:

Override Bid Term 1 & Override Bid Term 2

2) Create a new profile for your existing site. This keeps the detailed keyword data in a separate profile. You can apply this filter to your main profile(s) if you prefer, but a separate profile allows for continuity and top level reporting in your main profile with keyword detail available as required.

3) Apply the two filters to the new profile, in the order Override Bid Term 1 *then* Override Bid Term 2

You can now view detailed Search Term data from any GA report that shows keyword information. Please let us know any feedback via the blog comments, or email at mail@ga-experts.co.uk.

The Google Analytics reports include data about referrals from organic search results. That is, how many people visited your site from search engines like Google and MSN by clicking on one of the non-paid advertising links that make up the bulk of the search results. Google Analytics gets this data from a list of search engines in the urchin.js file, however this list is not necessarily suitable for all geographic regions because it focuses on .com domains and US search engines such as CNN.com.

Because GA Experts is based in the UK and serves a European client base, we thought it would be a good idea to try and update this list to distinguish between UK and international search engines, as well as to enable GA to recognise some country-specific SE’s, for example the BBC’s search engine, or Voila in France. So we have developed two separate JavaScript files that can overwrite the default list of SE’s and replace them with a more up to date and relevant list. One is designed to update and replace the existing list with a range of international SE’s, the other is designed specifically for the UK market.

Once this file is in place, GA will recognise and report on a wider range of search engines, including keyword data and campaign source/referrer data.

If you just want to update your current list of SE’s, then use the International file, if you are targeting a UK or European base then we recommend using the UK file. Both files recognise the same international search engines, however the UK list differentiates between UK and international domains, e.g. ‘google.co.uk’ vs. ‘google.com’ and also adds a few UK specific SE’s, such as the Google web search on the Orange homepage. The full list of search engines and installation instructions follow:

Installation:

Simply add one of the following lines to your Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC), *after* the call to the urchin.js file and we will update the file regulalrly on your behalf:
- Many Thanks to Matt Trimmer of iVantage for contributing to this file

<script src=”http://www.omegadm.co.uk/uk_se.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>

or
<script src=”http://www.omegadm.co.uk/international_se.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>

For example:

<script src=”http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”>
</script>
<script src=”http://www.omegadm.co.uk/uk_se.js” type=”text/javascript”>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
_uacct = “UA-xxxx-x”;
urchinTracker();
</script>

The following list of search engines is taken from online research and our own data on the most common UK & International search engines. If you think we have missed any or would like to see any other amendments, please let us know - post a comment below.

* AOL.com encrypts keyword data so you will see some strange character strings amongst your other keywords.

Please Note: Use of this JavaScript code is entirely at your own risk. GA Experts have tested this code extensively, however we can take no responsibility for errors, loss of data or any other complications arising from the use of this code

We recently blogged on Google Analytics and data privacy, with the intention of correcting some of the public misconceptions about Google and the way it handles analytics data. One of the issues that prompted this debate was the fact that it was possible (with some clever filtering) to show your visitors IP address in the GA reports.

However we have been testing this feature and it is apparent that Google have recently disabled it. Previously, by stripping out the visitor IP address and adding it to the User Defined variable, the IP address would show up in reports. However, now this report (Marketing Optimisation -> Visitor Segment Performance -> User-defined) now shows a value of ‘(not set)’ for all visitors, as it would if the User Defined variable had never been used.

This is another indication of how seriously Google takes data privacy. It is no longer possible to identify individual users by their IP address in Google Analytics. Not only was this disallowed in the Terms of Service, but in the most recent update to the GA backend, Google have been proactive in disabling this feature which had the potential to identify individual users.

In a recent post on the excellent ROI Revolution blog, Michael Harrison posts a technique for showing visitor IP Addresses in Google Analytics reports using an Advanced Filter. This is an interesting technique and shows some creative thinking, but as he points out:

“…there is a huge caveat to this entire procedure. If you take a look at Item 7 in the Google Analytics Terms of Service, you’ll notice that you are not allowed to “associate any data gathered from Your website(s) (or such third parties’ website(s)) with any personally identifying information from any source”. So, using the filter above will break the ToS.”

Now, we’ve been hearing a lot about GA and privacy concerns recently, and this kind of comment indicates how seriously Google and their partners take data privacy. However, some rival Web Analytics vendors are keen to disparage GA, for example in the new blog from Applied Insights, the Clicktracks CEO opines on Google Analytics. Read the comments below this post for a more detailed response, but it seems clear that there are misconceptions about GA and privacy out there. We have posted on this subject before (e.g. GA Myth Busting) but it seems the myths are persisting.

Just to summarise the situation and answer the two most frequently asked questions:

• Google never pass Google collected data to any third party - whether it is GA or any other product.

• Google will never artificially adjust AdWords bid prices. Google’s senior representatives have said this publicly and with a little cold reasoning you can back this argument up with common sense. The AdWords system works really well for Google, so why would they develop what would have to be extremely complex, highly secret systems and jeopardise their entire business for the sake of a few extra pounds? Avinash Kaushik puts this better than we could on his highly-regarded analytics blog - “Google AdWords plus Google Analytics: Market Manipulation and Possibility of Mischief?“.

To sum up, Google and their partners take the issue of data privacy very, very seriously. This is evident at every level of the GA system; the Terms of Service, Google’s Privacy statement, the public and private behaviour of the GA Partners and the internal processes within the company itself. Anyone who thinks Google, a company under constant and intense public scrutiny, would risk everything by invading users’ privacy is just plain wrong.

Microsoft has recently launched the new Live.com search engine. Currently, when you search on MSN.com (or msn.co.uk, or any other regional variation) your search results are shown on the live.com domain. However, if a user clicks on an organic link to visit your site, then they will not be tracked as an organic search engine referral because live.com is not yet in the list of search engines that Google Analytics recognises.

You can fix this yourself simply by adding a line to the page tag that tells GA what to look out for when it sees a referral from Live.com. Just add

_uOsr[20]=”search.live.com”; _uOkw[20]=”q”;

to your page tag, so it looks like this:

<script src=”http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
_uacct = “UA-xxxx-x”;
_uOsr[20]=”search.live.com”; _uOkw[20]=”q”;
urchinTracker();
</script>

Once you have the extra search engine listed in your page tag, Google Analytics will recognise Live.com as a search engine and the organic search keyword data will also be tracked (PPC links, as long as they are already tagged, should be okay as they are).

There were some teething problems with Live.com that meant there was no referral data at all being passed from MSN/Live.com for the last few days (and this will show in your reports as a drop in traffic from msn.com) but this has now been fixed.

No doubt Google will add Live.com to the next update of the urchin.js file, but until then ensure you have the most correct referral data by adding Live.com to your list of search engines.

With the recent launch of Microsoft’s new paid advertising (PPC) service in the UK, we wanted to highlight how the online marketing tracking features in Google Analytics can be integrated with the new service.

The basic principle is the same for tracking other non-AdWords campaigns, i.e. adding the Google tracking variables to your destination URLs, so the first step is to identify your campaign variables:

Then you append these variables to your existing Destination URL - e.g. http://www.mysite.com/landing_page.htm becomes:
http://www.mysite.com/landing_page.htm?utm_source=MS_UK&
utm_medium=ppc&amp;amp;utm_term=keyword&utm_content=content1&
utm_campaign=campaign_name

Google provides a helpful URL Builder tool to facilitate the building of Campaign Tracking URLs.

There are also a few important issues with Microsoft adCenter in particular:

1) Use Internet Explorer. Even though MS have updated adCenter to support other browsers, our experience would indicate that the most reliable results are obtained from Explorer.

2) Dynamic Keyword Insertion. It is possible to use dynamic variables to insert your exact keywords as the utm_term value by using the adCenter value of {param1}, but you will still need to upload the list of {param1} values manually. This can be a complex process and is recommended only for experienced PPC users managing large campaigns.

3) Uploading your Campaign Tracking URLs. You can either add each URL manually, or if you have large numbers of keyword-specific URLs then you can upload this data from a pre-configured spreadsheet. The latter course of action is, again, complex and not readily understood from the on-screen instructions. Basically, in Step 2. - Ads, select ‘Keyword Destination URL‘ from the Destination URL dropdown. Then in Step 3. - Keywords, select ‘Import or Export Keywords‘ and upload the completed spreadsheet with the Campaign Tracking URLs in column F (Keyword Destination URL {param1})

4) Cost Data - As with other non-AdWords online marketing campaigns, you cannot import cost data into Google Analytics.

Overall, Microsoft’s adCenter looks like a valuable addition to the armoury of the online marketer. There still seem to be a few kinks to work out in the management console itself, but as long as you are tagging your links using the technique described above then Google Analytics can analyse how successful adCenter is at bringing traffic and creating conversions for your website. For more information on how to interpret the data in your reports, we recommend the Top 10 Google Analytics Reports for Search Engine Marketers whitepaper.

If you require assistance setting up an adCenter campaign or migrating an existing PPC campaign to adCenter, then GA Experts’ parent company, Omega Digital Media, has a range of PPC management services that can help.

In a recent announcement to Authorised Consultants and on the Official GA Blog, the team behind GA have declared Google Analytics open to everyone. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the engineering team it is now possible to open a Google Analytics account online with no delays. If you have an AdWords account then you can click on the ‘Analytics’ tab within your account to sign up or just visit http://www.google.com/analytics/.

When you are ready to set up your account there are lots of resources to help you, such as the Installation Guide and all the info in the Google Analytics Help Centre. There are also the resources here on our own blog and we run Google Analytics training courses as well. In the USA we can recommend ROI Revolution and Justin Cutroni’s blog and there is also the GA Google Group as a starting point for questions. Finally, don’t forget the network of Google Analytics Authorised Consultants and their wide range of professional services.

e-consultancy has just published an interview with Brian Clifton, the European Head of Web Analytics at Google. In it, Brian talks about the importance of the relationship between Google Analytics and Google AdWords, and how improving the effectiveness of AdWords campaigns is the driving force behind the free availability of Google Analytics. He also addresses the privacy concerns that keep appearing about Google’s access to your web analytics data, how Google as a whole views GA, and talks about the Google support network - drawing attention to the network of Google Analytics Authorised Consultants (of which GA Experts is one) and the other resources Google provides for support. Read the article at e-consultancy.com

Google Analytics has opened up the world of web analytics to a host of new users, so we thought it might be worth running over some of the basics of why people use web analytics. After all, there’s not a lot of use in slaving over a hot keyboard for weeks to configure your analytics only to sit back, look at your perfectly formed data and suddenly realise you don’t know what to do with it now that you have it.

So welcome to the concept of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) - basically measurements designed to assess performance. You might be familiar with these from other areas of business management and the principle is the same, but we can see their role in web analytics using the traditional mantra:

What KPI’s should I use?
Your choice of KPI’s depends on your business goals as well as who is going to be reading and acting on the data. There are some obvious Key Performance Indicators, but remember that KPI’s are best established as percentages or ratios. Raw numbers mean nothing unless they are put in context. Similarly, KPI’s should be measured over time. Web analytics is not (yet) a perfect science and no WA system can track all your users with 100% accuracy, therefore good analysts must look at trends and changes over time. Some common KPI’s:

• Conversion Rates (Analysed by conversion, visitor type and visitor source (e.g. PPC))
• Cost per Conversion/ROI/ROAS
• Visitor Numbers & ‘Stickiness’
• Visitor Type/Quality
• SEO/SEM Effectiveness
• Internal Search/Exit Rates/Length & Depth of Visits (Measures of how good your site is at providing relevant information)

If you have already set up goals and conversion tracking in Google Analytics then you’ve already got a starting point for your KPI’s. If not, you really need to do this. Every website must have goals, or why have a site?

How do I measure KPI’s?
Get the data into your application of choice (we recommend a good spreadsheet program) then keep plugging the data into your formulas, week after week, month after month. Good analysis is an ongoing process, so set targets and assess whether any changes you make are improving your KPI’s or not. However, don’t get carried away - once you start looking there are hundreds of possible KPI’s. As Eric Peterson says in his highly recommended “Big Book of KPI’s” (see below):

“No KPI Report should have more than a handful of metrics, two handfuls at most“

Google Analytics & Your KPI’s
There is a strong relationship between Key Performance Indicator’s and website goals, so the first thing to do is check that your goals are configured correctly, whether they are conversion goals or ecommerce transactions. Once this is done you can look at some of the dashboards GA provides, which show data trends - Conversion Summary, Marketing Summary & Content Summary:

Then you need to get your data out of GA and into a spreadsheet. Use GA’s export options for this:

KPI’s are a vital element of the whole web analytics process. If you need help establishing, measuring and interpreting yours, GA Experts provides professional services for Google Analytics and our consultants can help you establish which KPI’s are crucial for your business.

Other resources:
Eric Peterson’s “Big Book of Key Performance Indicators”
Yahoo! web analytics forum (KPI’s are a common topic of conversation for web analytics aficionados).

GA Experts have just released a new whitepaper covering the most important Google Analytics Reports for Online & Search Engine Marketers. Whether you manage a Google AdWords campaign, a wider paid advertising campaign or are just tagging your newsletters, these reports will tell you how your online marketing is performing. These are the key questions answered in the whitepaper:

• Where can I see a summary of all my marketing data in one view?
• Where can I see total sales revenue from AdWords and other online marketing sources?
• How can I see an overview of how my PPC advertising is performing?
• How can Google Analytics help me choose my keywords?
• How can I compare my PPC advertising with my organic listings?
• How can I see where my AdWords ads appear on Google search results pages?
• Where can I see ROI and conversion data for my online marketing?
• How can I relate my E-Commerce transactions to my online marketing?
• How do I discover which campaigns are driving traffic to a particular page?
• Where can I see how much traffic comes from content partners?

To download the whitepaper, please visit our Whitepapers section.