If you use AdWords, you're probably familiar with the AdWords reports in the Google Analytics Traffic Sources section. Using these reports, you can compare AdWords campaigns and ad groups against each other and track individual keyword performance. But wouldn't it be useful to instantly compare - in every single one of your reports - the performance of AdWords traffic against the performance of all site traffic? Even better, what if you could compare a specific subset of AdWords traffic to AdWords traffic as a whole and compare both of these segments to all site traffic?
You can do all this and more using Advanced Segments. The latest Google Analytics in 60 Seconds video shows how to create a segment that includes only AdWords traffic and then how to refine that segment to include only a specific set of keywords. We illustrate how to isolate brand related keywords in the video, but with a little experimentation, you can create the AdWords segments that are most relevant to your business. Then you could compare how frequently visitors from each segment use the search box on your site (Site Search Overview report), how many new visits versus returning visits came from each segment (New vs. Returning report), and how many visits from each segment came from New York (Map Overlay report).
You only have to define your segments once and they'll be available to any user who has access to the profile. This means you can define segments for others in your organization to use. Also, segments can be used with historical data as well as current data. So, if you want to go back and see how an AdWords segment performed one year ago, you can.
Leave a comment and share your favorite AdWords segments.
Track Yahoo! Search Marketing Campaigns and More with Urchin 6.6
Thursday, June 11, 2009
On Monday June 8, we released Urchin 6.6, a significant upgrade to our "run-it-yourself" web analytics package. This release brings some serious enterprise-level heft to the table, and also advances Urchin's marketing-analysis capabilities in a big way.
New Search Marketing Reports and Tools
Chief among Urchin's new report-side features is the Performance Comparison report. Finally you can compare the performance of your Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM) campaigns side-by-side... Yes, this means you can tap into the Yahoo! API and import your YSM campaigns automatically!
With Urchin 6.6, you can easily compare campaigns, keywords, etc., from different search engines.
There's more. Here's a breakdown of the new CPC-management tools and reports in Urchin 6.6:
YSM integration: Download your YSM campaign data via the Yahoo API.
Deep links into AdWords: Provide your login credentials and Urchin lets you jump directly from CPC reports to related management screens in your AdWords account.
Budget Alerts: If your AdWords campaigns are in danger of exhausting available funds, Urchin will tell you.
Keyword Generation Tool: Add keywords to your AdWords campaigns directly from Urchin.
Copy Campaign Tool: Duplicate existing CPC campaigns (for example, YSM campaigns) as new AdWords campaigns.
Tag Manager: Automates your keyword destination-URL building, a big timesaver.
New reports: Time on Site, Performance Comparison, CPC Structure, and more!
Urchin's new Keyword Generator Tool helps you identify promising keywords and add them to your AdWords campaign, all within Urchin!
It doesn't stop here. We've also taken a close look at how Urchin plays with other other systems in your organization. Which brings us to...
New Enterprise/IT Capabilities
Urchin has long been appreciated by web-hosting companies and enterprises for robust performance and integration flexibility. Urchin 6.6 adds key features that make it even better.
LDAP integration: Use your existing corporate authentication with Urchin, including LDAP, MSAD, etc.
Data API: Pull your Urchin report data into a CRM tool or any other system. (See the Urchin Data API documentation.)
Rollup Report: A new Urchin "home" page shows each user a list of all profiles to which they have access, with summary metrics for each profile.
Process Control: Kill a running Urchin log-processing job gracefully, without corrupting the database.
Urchin 5 to Urchin 6 Migration Utility: Haven't upgraded from Urchin 5 yet? Our new data-migration utility is much faster and less prone to errors.
Urchin's new process control functions allow you to cancel jobs without worry.
Urchin 6.6 is available now as a full-featured 30-day demo from our download servers and licenses can be purchased from any of our Authorized Consultants for US$2995. Check it out!
How do you use web analytics? Do you share data as part of a regular planning meeting? Do you log in once in awhile just to see how things are going?
We want to know! We're gathering information to help prioritize new features and improve Google Analytics and we need your help. If you've used web analytics data to make decisions inside your business or organization, get in touch and tell us how. Email us at gacasestudies@google.com.
We'll republish the most interesting stories here on the blog and we'll even send you a free Google Analytics tee-shirt if your story gets published. We're ready and waiting, so drop us a line!
If you have a team of people on your marketing team constantly checking the website you're tracking with Google Analytics, filtering out specific IP addresses is one of the ways you can make sure you're not tracking irrelevant visits to your site. Excluding these IPs may help you get more accurate numbers for metrics like average time on site (since your marketing team probably spends the most time on your site every day), your visitors' geographic locations, etc.
To start filtering out IPs, follow the steps below:
Collect IPs from anyone in your office (including yourself) that you don't want to track. If they don't know what their IP addresses are, an easy way to figure it out is to go to http://whatismyipaddress.com/.
If you have more than one account, select the account that has the profile you want to apply the IP exclusion filter to.
Once you're on the Profile Overview page, click 'Edit' from underneath the Actions column.
From under the 'Filters Applied to Profile' section, select 'Add Filter.'
Select 'Add new Filter for Profile.'
Enter an easily identifiable Filter name (i.e. 'My IP address,' or 'CMO's IP address).
Select the filter type labeled 'Exclude all traffic from an IP address.' The IP address field will auto-populate with an example IP address. Enter the correct value. Remember to use regular expressions when entering any IP address. For example, if the IP address to filter is:
176.168.1.1 then the IP address value will be: 176\.168\.1\.1
You may also enter a range of IP addresses. For example: Range: 176.168.1.1-25 and 10.0.0.1-14 IP address value : ^176\.168\.1\.([1-9]|1[0-9]|2[0-5])$|^10\.0\.0\.([1-9]|1[0-4])$
Recently Microsoft released a new search engine called Bing, which has begun sending traffic to websites with Google Analytics installed. Bing currently shows up as a referring site in the Traffic Sources reports. We are actively working on an update that will include Bing under the default list of search engines in Google Analytics.
If you absolutely can't wait for the upgrade, you can add the following line to your Google Analytics tracking code as a temporary solution. Note, this workaround is recommended for advanced users only. For more information on adding custom configurations to the Google Analytics tracking code, read this article.
We're very happy to announce the recent launch of Central de Conversiones, a new Spanish-language blog covering Google's measurement tools including Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, Insights for Search, AdPlanner and others.
Both Googlers and GAACs from Spanish speaking countries such as Argentina, Mexico and Spain will be sharing basic tips and advanced web analytics techniques trying to help decision makers integrate data from these tools into their business strategies.
Central de Conversiones will translate important posts from this blog but will also create content and share case studies specific to the Spanish Speaking markets. We're sure that you will find it a very useful tool.
Event Tracking is a feature of Google Analytics that allows you to track visitor actions that don't correspond directly to pageviews. It's a great fit for tracking things like:
Downloads of a PDF or file
Interaction with dynamic, AJAX sites
Interaction with Adobe Flash objects, embedded videos and other media
Unlike virtual pageviews, Event Tracking will not alter your pageview count. This makes it the preferred method for tracking a variety of visitor actions.
We're happy to announce that earlier today Event Tracking became available by default in all Google Analytics accounts. To access the new reports, just navigate to the Content Section of the Google Analytics interface and select the option labeled "Event Tracking."
Screenshot of Event Tracking reports
In future posts, we'll explain more about some of the ways you can put Event Tracking to good use. For now, here are some great resources to get you started:
Note, your reports will not show data until you start sending events. You can use the above resources to find about more about how to send events to Google Analytics.
We hope you enjoy the feature. Leave a comment and let us know what you think!
