How to Drive Actionable Insights from Google Analytics

The greatest tool you can use in regard to your digital marketing efforts is Google Analytics. This web-based platform not only tracks where your traffic is coming from, but can also give you great insight into browsing behavior on several different levels.

By drilling into these analytical insights, you can determine how individuals are interacting with your website, how long they are spending there, and what pages are and are not working.

Of the reports on Google Analytics, few deliver more insight than the Source / Medium report, which provides valuable information on how your channels are performing.

You’ll see several metrics that apply to each channel—bounce rate, time on site, pages/session, and conversion data. It is important to put these metrics into context, as not all channels were created equally. To understand how each channel plays into your marketing mix, it is crucial to understand what each channel aims to do.

You might have conversions stemming from paid search or content engagement coming from organic search, but your DSplus email campaigns set out to keep your brand top-of-mind.

By communicating with customers and prospects from your database each month, it increases the chances they’ll think of you first when considering a new car. For this reason, the metrics for your DSplus email campaigns should be analyzed independently of other channels and sources

Bounce Rate for your DSplus campaigns tend to hover around 60%—this is due to the individual not actively searching for something you’re promoting at that particular time. Email communication represents a different method of customer outreach that is less direct, but can become more engaging over time

Pages Per Session is a tricky metric because context needs to be applied to fully understand what the data is telling you. By dropping individuals on specific landing pages, we are streamlining their experience to be highly relevant, which can cause a lower number of pages consumed in some cases. For this reason, we normally see around 2 pages per session from your DSplus campaigns.

Session Duration is similar to pages per session in that context should be taken into consideration when analyzing your campaigns. Both high and low numbers can indicate different things based on communication type, landing page, and customer life cycle information.

Again, streamlining a browser’s journey to include only the most relevant content based on their click behavior is crucial to providing that browser with a positive experience. Normally, we’ll see DSplus campaign session duration just below two full minutes on the site—just enough time to consume the page they landed on, and one or two other pages, before leaving.

To find out more about your Google Analytics insights, contact your Account Executive who will be able to get you set up and provide further context into what these metrics mean for you!