A few weeks ago we announced that we'd become the first Google Analytics Authorised Consultancy in Africa, which naturally made us very very happy. Google Analytics, for those who don't know, is a free service offered by Google that provides you with feedback on how your site is doing. Getting the accreditation required a fair amount of leg work but we feel it really is worth it. We thought it would be a good idea to get some answers from our resident experts about how you can use Analytics and why we think it's so important. Heidi Ocker, our PPC guru, and Craig Raw, our CTO, answered some questions for us.
What is Google Analytics?
Heidi: GA is a free, simple-to-install and easy-to-use Web Analytics solution.
Craig: A way to track how visitors interact with your site.
Why do you use it?
H: I mostly use GA to measure the success of our eMarketing campaigns. It also provides a lot of information on the type of traffic coming into a site and what the traffic does on the site. It helps me pick up problems and identify opportunities.
C: All sites have certain goals to achieve and I want to see if they are succesful in achieving those goals.
Why should anyone else use it?
C: You should be checking on whether or not the investment you made in your website is paying off - and then using that information to figure out how to improve on or fix what you can.
What analytics feature is your favourite and why?
H: I work with AdWords (Google) PPC campaigns a lot, so I personally love the auto-tagging feature that allows you to feed in information from your AdWords campaign. I think this is a big advantage of GA over other tracking solutions where everything has to be tagged individually.
C: I like the advanced segmentation feature because it provides a huge amount of power in terms of slicing and dicing things when segmenting your users. It gives me the flexibility to find out what I need to meet clients needs. Finding out what kind of mobile browser people from Africa are using when visiting a particular site, for example, can provide great insight.
What feature don’t most people know about that they should?
H: I think features like Custom Reporting, Advanced Segmenting and Filters are very useful for tailoring GA to your specific reporting needs. Don’t stick to the bog-standard report - play around a bit more to see what these features have to offer.
C: There's a help option on every page that people should really take advantage of.
Can you tell me a bit about being a GAAC and what it means?
H: Mostly I love the endless parties and free booze. It’s a rockstar lifestyle.
C: The GAAC is essentially a program which helps Google to recommend certain agencies to help people that are using Google Analytics around the world. The certification process exists so that you know you are getting people to help you who know what they are doing.
Why did we choose to get the accreditation?
H: While Web Analytics solutions have been around for a long time, they have always been overly expensive and complicated for the average site owner. GA has changed that and it’s now the most widely-used solution out there. It makes sense that Quirk is accredited for such a popular tool.
Do you foresee any changes in the future of Google Analytics?
H: Yes, it’s a constantly evolving product. One of the bonuses of being a GAAC is that you get to make suggestions to the GA team, and find out about new features before they get rolled out. Top secret stuff. If I told you, I’d have to kill you.
What advice do you have for someone starting to use analytics?
H: Play around - press every button and run every report so that you know where to find everything. And then watch all the Conversion University videos – they will teach you a lot.
C: Make sure that it's implemented correctly. That it is correctly tagged on each and every page on your site, which is an easy thing to do. Other than that, understand that it's a way to track trends, not a way to look at individual visitor behaviour.
Anything you'd like to add?
C: If you're not using Analytics you really should be, it's the best way to measure whether or not your website is worthwhile.
Can you rub your head in a clockwise direction and your tummy in an anti-clockwise direction at the same time?
H: Yes. Can you?
C: I've never tried. (Craig proceeds to). This feels nice...
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If you could write a post about the sometimes massive discrepancies between Google An*lytics results and others such as Nielsens, that'd be awesome.
ps. your commenting function told me the word "an*l"
wasn't allowed. Bit prudish, ne?
Posted by Charlie on 2009/07/13