Trends, Search Console, and Google...

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Proprietary + Confidential

Trends, Search Console, and Google Analytics

Snehal Thakkar

Thank you

Digital Marketing Simplified (1/2)

Audience Story (Message)

Audiences - People

● Criteria○ Age○ Location○ Gender○ Interests○ Behavior

Story (Message)

● Google for nonprofits○ Google Apps○ Ad Grants○ YouTube○ Google Earth outreach○ Google Maps○ One Today

AdWords Grants

YouTube

One Today

Digital Marketing Simplified (2/2)

Audience KeywordsCampaign

Outline

● Google Trends● Google Search Console● Google Analytics

Google Trends

● Great for looking at trends of various keywords in Google’s search products● Pros

○ Same cost as doing Google Search○ Valuable insights into broad behavior○ Great starting tool

● Cons○ Can be limited data○ Specific terms may not provide data due to privacy

● Examples○ Non profit searches for US○ Non profit searches in Wyoming for specific time period○ Searches for United Way in US

Google Search Console

● One stop shop to see how your website performs on Google Search● Yes this data is FREE to everyone ● Pros

○ Requires website○ Provides awesome insight into improving your website’s search

presence● Cons

○ Requires a website with significant traffic○ Specific terms may not provide data due to privacy○ Limited to website data

Google Search Console - Search Analytics

Impressions = Number of times your website appeared in Google Search Result

Clicks = Number of times user clicked to go to your website

Position = Average position in search results

Google Search Console - Links to Your Site

Google Search Console - Manual Actions

Google Search Console - Google Index

Search Console - 4 Quick Wins!

2. Use Manual Actions report to ensure that your site is performing properly including addressing blocking or html errors

3. Use the Search Index reports to figure out what Google thinks of your site. Keywords, index positions etc.

4. Use the Crawl section to see data about Google crawling your site and address any blocking issues.

1. Use Search Traffic reports to see top keywords and landing pages that people visit

Outline

● Google Trends● Google Search Console● Google Analytics

Why use Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a tool to help you measure if you delivered your story to the right audiences

While Search Console gives you data about one channel (free or organic search) Google Analytics gives you data for all your site or app visitors coming from all channels

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a tool to help you understand who, when, and how visitors interact with your site.

● Who is visiting your site? Are they local people? Regional? National?

● What is causing them to visit?

● Determine why people are visiting your site (volunteers? donors?)

● Are they doing what you want them to do ? (Converting)

Four Principles of Measurement

Build a Strategy

Know Your Goals & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Collect Valuable Data

Start Learning about your Users

Build Your Strategy

Determine objectives

● Why does your organization exist?● What’s the value of your website?

Assess what’s currently there

● How well are current efforts getting users to your site?● Compare site data to other customer databases● Examine digital assets

You may be surprised at the story your GA data tells!

Goals & KPIs

Determine what user actions you want to measure

● Donations● Volunteer Sign-ups

How can you measure these successes?

● Percentage of returning visitors● Donations brought from different outlets● Volunteer sign-ups from each source● Length of time spent on your site

Collect Valuable Data

What information do you need to understand your business’s data?

● Simply implementing tags will get you all the data you need● Find out who, where, when, and how users get to your site

Different implementation options

● Custom Parameters vs auto-tagging● Direct tagging your site vs Google Tag Manager● Integrate with other sources (Adwords, Webmaster Tools, etc.)● Implement event triggers to track specific actions

Learn About Your Users

Segmentation

● Takes a mess of data and brings clarity● Combines users who fit together by location, age,

interests, etc.● Uncover true user activity & insights

How this data can be used

● What drives signups? Mobile? ● How do users end up signing up to volunteer? How

do they decide to donate?● What demographics participate most on your site?

Top Reports: 7 ways to view your data

Account Overview

Audience

Acquisition

Behavior

Conversions

Referrals

Behavior Flow7

Overview: It’s Like Learning your AABC’s

Audiences 2

Acquisition 3

Behavior4

Conversions (Goals) 5a

Types of Conversions

DestinationPages/Screens per session Event

A specific page/location loads

Thank you for registering! web page or app screen

A user views a specific number of pages or screens

5 pages or screens have been loaded

An action defined as an Event is triggered

Social recommendation, video play, ad click

Duration

Sessions that lasts a specific amount of time or longer

10 minutes or longer spent on a support site

Referral Reports6

Behavior Flows7

5 Quick Wins Today

1. Set up Custom Dashboards for a quick one-view approach to the data on your site

2. Track different actions on your site with Goals - from volunteer sign-ups, to e-commerce tracking of donations

3. Link to Search Console to get data on organic search results to see how people get to your site from Google Search

4. Use Site Content Reports to see what pages users visit on the site, where they exit your website, and more

5. Figure out who your users are and what they do on your site to create custom audiences that you can target via Ad Grants

Proprietary + ConfidentialAnalytics Goals: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts was using different marketing initiatives, from Ad Grants to emails, to increase visibility online. They did not have insight into how these initiatives turned into website visits nor actions their visitors were taking on site.

Impact:

Referral Traffic +80% over other organizations in the same Industry vertical

47k new sessions in one month from Google traffic

17, 000 New Visitors

YBCA has since been working with their 3rd party site vendor to be able to set up ‘Ticket Sales’ conversions in GA so they can track all the various ways visitors reach the site and then optimize their marketing efforts based on that data. This is a huge undertaking but they understand the importance of being able to track their data and are working to make it happen!

Additional Resources

● Website: www.google.com/analytics

● Analytics Hotline: 1-866-2Google to talk to a trained specialist

● Analytics Academy: https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/

● Help Center: https://support.google.com/analytics

Takeaways

1. Content is the king. Don’t forget that Google can only get users to your site, but it is up to you to make sure that the content there is relevant

2. Trends and Search Console are great FREE tools to help your non-profit get some data without lot of work

3. For someone who can spend hour a day Google Analytics is FREE tool that will help you better understand your audiences and how they interpret your message

4. Did I mention content? Get your stories and content right and people will be driven to you

Questions thakkar@google.com

Trends, Search Console, and Google...

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