This chapter takes a look at what analytics is and introduces related concepts. This chapter, and the entire book, is oriented toward beginners. My goal is to encourage you to consider learning more about analytics, including using a tool called Google Analytics , and to see if I convince you that it actually is fun.
Web analytics is becoming increasingly important to online marketers, as they seek to track return on investment (ROI) and optimize their web sites. We’ll learn about Google Analytics, starting with creating a blog and monitoring the number of people who see the blog posts and determining where they come from.
Don’t Be Alarmed: Analytics Can Be Fun
So I remember when I started working in various jobs after college, that one thing I knew for certain is that I didn’t feel like I was a “numbers” person. Accounting, finance, or any other type of numbers always seemed foreboding, and outside my experience and comfort zone. It was the last possible door I wanted to walk through, and to get me through it, you’d have to drag me.
But the interesting thing was that I got my first taste of analytics without even realizing it.
I created a web site with a friend , and we wanted to know how many people were visiting it and where they were coming from, so we searched for a tool that would help us with that. That tool became a part of our toolbox.
It was fun. Getting to see who was coming, what the traffic was like, was really interesting.
Then, in later work experiences , including some where there had been transition in the companies I worked for, including layoffs, I became more sensitive to how these roles related to the overall business.
At one point, a mentor gave me some advice that really helped me. She was experienced and she said to me, “Todd, you need to follow the money trail”.
She wasn’t saying, “bow down to money.” She was just saying, it’s good to understand how money flows through a business—what makes money and what costs a business money.
My perspective on money and finance was challenged, and I realized that it would probably be a good idea to consider not just what I felt like doing, but what would be a benefit to a business or organization—especially during hard times, such as a recession, or competition, etc. I also started to understand that the kinds of skills and roles that had a direct impact on helping a company succeed were in high demand.
This path led me to pay more attention to online marketing in particular, as well as social networking to a particular degree. In the midst of hard economic times, Google was increasing in value, at a time when many or even most companies were having serious financial issues. It was partly because Google was helping companies do a good job of tracking ROI with Google ads—AdWords. AdWords helps businesses know what they are making based on what they are spending in terms of online ads.
As I grew and matured, I also realized that web analytics was an important skill and I started learning more about it. It helped me find work and be competitive.
While I’m still not “passionate” about numbers, I do see things like Google Analytics as an important tool. Maybe I’m more in touch with my inner analyst .
My recommendation is, seriously consider learning web analytics, in order to strengthen your career. It won’t hurt, and it can also be fun.
Another thing I suggest with web analytics in particular, and in any situation where you are dealing with numbers based on purchases, is to remember this aphorism. It may look like a bunch of numbers:
But it’s really not about the numbers, in the end. It’s about the people:
Personal ROI: How Analytics Will Help Your Career and Your Organization
Learning analytics can have a significant impact on your career, regardless of the area of digital marketing you work in.
Social Media Marketing
It’s increasingly important for social media marketers to understand how to measure and optimize the performance of campaigns—you might call this “social analytics”. If you haven’t read my Introduction to Social Media book yet, you might want to have a look. It includes some coverage of social analytics. You could also work your way through this book and then head on over to that one, to see the connections .
Digital/Online Marketing
The goal of digital marketing is often to sell something, or at least to get people to visit and sign up for something. So web analytics is a crucial tool for monitoring how your efforts are going.
Business Intelligence
You could think of this as “advanced analytics”. Business intelligence might include web analytics (reviewing the performance of your web site and associated marketing), but it can also extend into other areas, such as “competitive intelligence,” by using a tool like compete.com or just looking at financial trends. In my own experience, starting out with web analytics helped me understand how online marketing and reports fit into overall business intelligence. It would be fair to say that business intelligence is ROI.
You don’t need any skills to start off, and you don’t need to be a numbers person. This book is for anyone who wants to get a job in online marketing or who wants to learn how the performance of their web sites fits into the business model. Google Analytics is one of the top tools, and web analytics can be a competitive differentiator in the job market, whether it’s one part of a skillset or a dedicated role.
Note
This book is intended to help students to view web analytics info and learn how to develop insights. Skills in this area connect to other areas, such as search engine marketing and social media marketing, and provide a network effect to help students become more effective online marketers, as well as more employable.
Here’s a suggestion and invitation, for your “personal” ROI, that I want you to consider—become Google Analytics qualified. This book is an introduction to the concepts and the tool, and then I’ll point you to more learning material that Google has, which you might want to pursue in order to get qualified. See Chapter 8 for more details.
Basically, having this qualification on your resume or LinkedIn profile will help to show your credibility, to your colleagues and potential employers. In short, it will help your career.
Some certifications cost thousands of dollars to prepare for, and the tests can be expensive too—however, at the time of writing, Google qualification is free .
Organizational ROI
I don’t know if “organizational return on investment” is really a term, but I guess now it is.
What I mean is that even if you already have a job somewhere, going for Google qualification can help any company or organization you are a part of. Not only will it help with your credibility when people interact with you on sites like LinkedIn, but it will also help you think more about tracking ROI. It’s a mindset that will be a benefit to any business, to help you make good choices about which direction to go in.
Free and Corporate Tools
There are a variety of web analytics tools out there, which people use on a free and paid basis. For grins, try going on LinkedIn and doing a job search for “web analytics” to see what comes up. Chances are that one or more of these programs will be mentioned.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is free, and it is always increasing in power, to rival and in some cases exceed the performance of the “paid” tools. For example, you’ll often see companies using a combination of Google Analytics and paid tools. Google Analytics can’t do everything, but it’s a good place to start.
Adobe Analytics: Omniture
Adobe Analytics/Omniture has long been considered one of the top “enterprise” web analytics tools. It has a lot of power, sophistication, and customization. There are things that Omniture can do that Google Analytics can’t, and vice versa. Knowledge of this program can definitely help you get a job or a higher salary. It’s a somewhat chicken and egg situation. It’s an expensive program, with no trial version at the time of this writing, so few people know how to use it well. Hence, it is harder to find people with this skill; therefore, the demand (and salary) can be higher.
If you are going into online marketing and you can find a company to intern at or work with where you have the opportunity to learn Omniture/Adobe Analytics, that could be a good opportunity.
More recently, larger companies have been consolidating smaller companies and developing integrated “marketing clouds,” so you should look at some of the tools that Adobe Analytics is connected with. See www.adobe.com/analytics .
Other “enterprise” options include tools like WebTrends. Hopefully at some point enterprise folks will wise up and offer trial versions to help people get access and learn to use them.
Open Source Analytics
For people who are interested in completely controlling their own data, open source analytics programs may be an option. In certain cases, they may allow you to have the functionality you need, without giving up any of the value. For example, most people and companies accept the value proposition when using a Gmail address, doing a Google search, or using Google Analytics. They know that Google will analyze the data and make money off of it. In other words, when you search for something, Google might display an ad based on your behavior, which you might be interested in.
Google isn’t in the business of selling your contact information, per se, but with analytics, it might gather your information, make it anonymous, and group it with a lot of other data, with the goal of making money off of it. Google can also somehow use related “cookie” information.
Google isn’t doing anything illegal, and personally, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. But you might be interested to just take a peek at some of the open source options out there, in case you end up being more concerned about the data someday, or you end up with a client or employer who is. There are some more value propositions on their sites.
See http://piwik.org and http://www.openwebanalytics.com/ .
As for me, and many thousands of businesses, I’m cool with Google Analytics .
Social Analytics
Social analytics is an area in which particular social media channels, such as Facebook, YouTube, etc., allow you to get information about how your social media efforts are working. You can determine the number of people who like your page, follow you, or talk about you— that kind of thing. There aren’t any dominating “all in one” social analytics tools as of yet, but take a look at Adobe’s “social analytics” offering, to see an example of an attempt to become one.
In general, the social analytics tools are free and built into social media. In some cases, there are low cost tools like Hootsuite (which also has a free version) that will draw some of the material together for you.
If any of that sounds interesting, take a look at my book entitled Introduction to Social Media Marketing (Apress, 2017).
My general advice for beginners is to have some fun learning Google Analytics and also try a bit of social media marketing. Get your feet wet with social analytics .
Things Change
As you explore these areas, be prepared for things to change, but don’t worry. You don’t need to learn every tool. I recommend taking an incremental, gradual approach.
As with social media marketing, there are a lot of options out there, and if your eyes start to glaze over with the mention of all these analytics tools, don’t be alarmed! Don’t try to learn them abstractly—try them out. I’ll introduce them to you in a way that is fun.
Search Drill
If you’re just getting acquainted, I suggest doing a few Google searches to see what’s out there and reading anything that looks interesting:
YouTube Google Analytics intro
Learning Google Analytics
Understanding web analytics YouTube
What the heck is Adobe analytics
Learning More
If you want to click on a link and learn something, try these videos:
Web Analytics—The Basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lfnOYu0zxA
Successful Web Analytics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpDxGrSqA-E
Conclusion
Congratulations on making it through this chapter! I’m trying to make the approach in this book as friendly and relevant as possible, based on the intimidation I used to feel. Feel free to let me know if it’s working, if you feel like you’re still intimidated, or if you feel like it’s “too fluffy”. Best wishes in learning analytics!