This is Part 2 of a two-part series on Google Analytics Profiles and Filters. Part 1: The Must-Haves, covered what I consider to be the basics. Now we’ll get into some of the more advanced, and interesting, GA filter techniques.

Note: Since I posted Part 1, Google Analytics has released their beta versions of Advanced Segments and Custom Reports. These tools are pretty incredible, and can potentially be used in place of many filters. The decision to use profiles and filters vs. advanced segments will depend on each company’s logistics. It will be a case-by-case basis and is something I will cover in a future post.

Advanced Filters Defined

Advanced filters let you extract data from any of the fields in Google Analytics and manipulate that data.

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View related topics: google analytics, google filters, google profiles

Google Analytics (GA) is quickly becoming the analytics package of choice for many companies.

This is not surprising. I mean, it’s FREE!

But that aside, some of the more intricate functionality and customizable components of GA hold real value, and should be utilized. This article is part 1 of a two-part series on Google Analytics Profiles and Filters.

GA filters do just what their name implies. They filter out data so you can more easily find the pertinent information.

Profiles allow you to create different data sets with varying filters for separate reporting. Incorporating these separate profiles and filters into your GA setup can help you analyze data more accurately and efficiently.

Then, if you actually act on your analyses, you can potentially increase your site’s conversion rate.

Profiles and Filters Work Together

An important concept in GA is the idea of separate profiles. You should create a separate profile for each set of data you want to analyze, and then apply the appropriate filter(s) for each profile. It is easier to explain by example, so the rest of this post is a list of what I consider to be must-have profiles & filters, and how to enable them.

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View related topics: google analytics, google filters, google profiles

One of our clients – Ifbyphone - just announced some new functionality that will make it a LOT easier for advertisers to track phone leads by advertising campaign and pull the data into Google Analytics. We're especially excited about what this means for Search Engine Marketing campaigns, although it can be used to track calls from any kind of advertising.

We've always been frustrated when our SEM campaign ROI has been underreported because we didn't have an easy way of telling what phone calls originated from Search. Even in those cases where we had a sense for how much call volume our Search campaigns were driving, we could never attribute the calls to the originating Campaign or Ad Group so we could adjust bids and spending to ensure we were getting the most out of the campaigns.

Some advertisers have developed a basic multiplier they apply to their web leads/sales to account for the lift from phone sales we all knew was happening even though we couldn't measure it. That's better than nothing, but not very precise or actionable.

Some more advanced advertisers have set up custom 800 numbers for various campaigns so they could get more granular call data. But in most cases they had to manually marry up the web data with the phone data, usually weeks or months after the fact. This enabled some better intelligence, but still fell short of having one system tracking everything in real time.

But with Ifbyphone's new system, now we can achieve the vision of having web and phone lead data reported in ONE system. And not just any system, but the very popular Google Analytics. See Thomas Howe's review of this new capability from Ifbyphone here: Simple and Brilliant.

More on how it works on the Ifbyphone blog here: Phone Mashup for Tracking Call Data in Googe Analytics.

More detailed information will be coming out shortly.

As with many things, it will take some good planning and upfront work in order to get the most out of this new capability. But the bottom line is that this solves a big problem for a lot of advertisers. If you drive a decent amount of call volume from your campaigns, you owe it to yourself to check out this new tool. It's an easy and low-cost way to make sure you're spending your advertising dollars more intelligently. Who can argue with that?

I’m sure most of you know that Google Analytics (GA) Content reports display pageviews and unique pageviews, along with other metrics.

Did you know, however, that you can create and track virtual pageviews? You can create a virtual pageview anywhere that you can call a javascript method. This virtual pageview will show up everywhere in the Content reports section that a ‘real’ pageview will.

This means you can track clicks on Flash movies, different CSS layers, pdfs, images, docs…the list goes on.

I am going to give three examples of how you can use virtual pageviews to help increase and track conversions, but first I’ll demonstrate how to set them up.

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When did the web site design process become a roadblock to launching a site, rather than helping it along?

When did the details of site design and function become a site owner obsession, more important than becoming visible, more compelling than getting a business online, spreading the word and making money?

And yes, before you say anything, we’re fully on board with the concept of details making a difference. We even wrote a book about it (Web Design for ROI). But there’s a point at which the details paralyze the process, preventing real action and forestalling any benefits.

Seth Godin wrote a post along these lines entitled “How to Create a Good Enough Web Site” in which he describes a simple”"some web designers would even say heretical”"process for quickly developing and launching a new site. Start with a design that’s “good enough,” Seth says, and focus on what’s important. By doing things in a practical order, not over-thinking the design, and getting signoffs at the right junctures, a web site can go from concept to launch in much less time and with much less trauma than usual. That’s the agile development approach.

From there, we’d add, it’s time to begin iterating and improving your site based on feedback and metrics. By making and testing small changes to design, copy, supportive advertising, and so forth, you can create an exceptional site that has incorporated valuable input”"real, live, authentic input you had no access to during development. And you’ll be online a lot longer than otherwise.

What inputs matter?

To complement an agile web site launch, we recommend tracking and responding to your selected key metrics. That is, measurements that actually matter to your business goals. But most businesses are swamped with stats and measurements. Which ones matter, which metrics are “key?”

Here are a few to start with:

• Your ‘landing page’ conversion rate. This is the page or pages where you send marketing traffic, whether paid search, natural search, email blast, or offline advertising. Track and watch how effective this landing experience is for you over time. Consider doing A/B or multivariate testing to narrow down what works for your site, company, and audience.
• Your shopping cart completion rate (for e-commerce sites). It’s really not OK to have more than half your customers drop out of your checkout process, despite most sites averaging 60% dropoff. Check your analytics for trouble spots in your checkout, to pinpoint which steps are the worst offenders.
• Your RFQ / Registration process completion rate (for lead generation sites). As with a checkout process, there may be multiple steps, and a few of those steps may be bad apples as far as your prospective customers are concerned. Focus your update attention on those steps with the worst issues, and keep a constant, detailed eye on your stats.
• Your home page abandonment rate. If your home page is visible and receives traffic, then track how effective your home page is at drawing visitors deeper into your site. If your ‘bounce’ rates are very high, this may mean you need to clarify your identity, what you do, or improve your visual credibility. Or it may mean you’re using an advertising source that drives low-quality traffic. Either way, it’s important to know.
• Your end stats. By this we mean sales, contract signings, membership agreements, and so forth. Where things get real, in other words. Can you track your traffic, downloads, and lead through to what really matters? If not, you’re missing the full picture. You won’t know what traffic source is your most valuable, where to focus your iterative site improvements, or what’s actually delivering the best ROI for you, you’re working blind.

If you’ve found these tips valuable or at least intriguing, it’s not too late to register for the Voices that Matter conference in San Francisco (Oct 22-25) where Lance Loveday and I are lucky enough to be speaking alongside web greats such as Dan Brown, Jacob Nielsen, Kelly Goto, and many others. Hope to see you there!

View related topics: seth-godin, Web Design