I’ve noticed two things about Google Analytics as a marketing professional:

1) Google Analytics is an outstanding free tool.

2) Most people aren’t making the most of it.

Get the Most Out of Google Analytics

You can do so much with Google Analytics. For example, you can improve your website by leaps and bounds, make sure your marketing and advertising campaigns aren’t wasting your money, identify and resolve technical errors, know which devices and browsers most access your online content.

With all these benefits and more available at no cost, it’s hard to pick a favorite.

Rather than an exhaustive list, I’ve put together a highlight reel of my favorite Google Analytics features. If you’re not familiar with the platform, this should provide you with a great starter. And if you’ve been using it for a while, it will ensure you’re not missing anything.

Conversions

Anyone can click on a website, but not everyone converts into an engaged user (and then, a customer). Google Analytics allows you to see which channels and strategies generate the highest rates of conversion.

Device Overview

Allows you to see which device (mobile, desktop, etc.) have the highest engagement and conversion rates, and for which devices you can improve the content, user experience, and so on.

Engagement

Google Analytics tells you a lot about what is positively affecting (and what may be detracting from) your users’ engagement. You can review:

• Average Session Duration: How long someone stays on your site
• Bounce Rate: How many people leave your site after viewing one page
• Pages per Session: Average number of pages viewed (not including Page Bounces)

As with all its features, the Engagement tools within Analytics allows you to identify (and emulate) high-performing strategies throughout your website.

Multichannel Data

You can see how all your digital marketing channels are performing, and which ones are driving the most (and least) traffic to your website.

That, of course, will reveal your strongest channels, as well as any opportunities to improve your strategy. You can review the performance of many critical channels, such as:

• Direct Traffic: People who enter your website URL straight into their browser, or access it from their bookmarks
• Organic Search: People who find your website after using a search engine, thanks to SEO strategies
• Paid Search: People who get to your website thanks to pay-per-click strategies (such as Google Ads and other forms of digital advertising)
• Referrals: People who click on a link to one of your URLs from another website
• Social Media: People who land on your website as a result of clicking linked content on social media

Viewing and comparing all your channels’ performance at once is an efficient way to make sure your digital marketing is cost-effective and affords you a strong return on your investment.

Knowing about and reviewing Google Analytics is half the battle. Understanding the meaning of your performance statistics–and knowing what to change within your digital marketing strategy to directly improve them–is just as important. Put those two steps together, and you’re well on your way to a successful digital marketing strategy.

Need help? We’ve got your back.