7 Google Analytics Reports To Make Smarter Business Decisions

Google Analytics is a web analytics tool offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.

After implementing Google Analytics, you’ll have a wealth of data at your fingertips. This data will help you make better business decisions.

Here are 7 reports that you can leverage to scale up your business and boost sales.

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1. Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium

I use this report most often because it’s easy to see where users come from.

You can also see metrics like sessions, bounce rate, pages / session, avg. session duration and of course, the number of goal completions, conversion rate and goal value.

This is the perfect report if you want to know where your traffic is coming from. For instance, your top traffic might be google / organic which shows that most people arrive on your site via organic search. The next source / medium might be pinterest.com / referral which shows that this social media channel is the best in driving traffic to your site. You can thus consider leveraging this valuable channel and optimizing your pins further. This report hence tells you where to focus your marketing efforts to boost traffic.

Source: By Rick Maggio via LearnDigitalAdvertising

2. Conversions > Goals > Funnel Visualization

If you’ve set up goal funnels, you’ll be able to see some data here.

Goal funnel is created under goal setup. When you enter the goal details, you have the option to turn on funnel. You can then fill up the various steps and screens/pages that a user has to go through to reach the destination (eg. /thankyou).

The Funnel Visualization will show all the steps that you’ve set up earlier as well as the destination. This report allows you to visually analyze the conversion journey.

The left side of the funnel lists the pages that users visited before converting while the right side of the funnel lists the pages that users exited. You should therefore examine the top pages on the left. Find out the key elements that made people convert on these pages. On the other hand, you can consider improving the top pages on the right. Perhaps, by replicating the key elements of pages on the left.

If you have many steps in your goal funnel, you can figure out which step has the highest number of people exiting. Also, you might consider removing or combining some steps so the funnel is shorter.

If you have a few goals, do examine the funnel conversion rate at the center of the funnel. Some goals are likely to have a higher conversion rate than others. There are many reasons for this. It could be the number of steps in the funnel, the goal itself (free eBook vs consultation), the form page, the form fields and more.

Source: By Patrick Han via Medium

3. Conversions > Goals > Goal Flow

Goal Flow is somewhat similar to Funnel Visualization. This report shows the path your traffic traveled through a funnel towards a goal conversion. You’ll be able to see if users are navigating your content as expected or if there are problems, such as high drop-off rates or unexpected loops.

Here are some questions that you can answer with the Goal Flow report:

• Where do users enter the funnel—at the first step or are they jumping in somewhere in the middle?
• Are there a lot of unexpected exits from a step in the middle of the funnel?
• Is there a place where traffic loops back?
• Is there one segment of traffic that acts differently than other segments? Is it converting more or less often?

Note that there’s this dropdown menu of dimensions that you can choose above the chart, such as source / medium, campaign, event category.

Instead of pages, you can identify top campaigns that directed people to visit your form page. If these are paid campaigns, you can consider increasing ad budget.

Source: Google-Analytics.ie

4. Conversions > Ecommerce > Product Performance

If you run an eCommerce store, I strongly recommend that you analyze the Product Performance report. You’ll be able to identify your best-selling products, top products added to cart, average quantity of products sold and more.

This report includes metrics like product revenue, unique purchases, quantity, avg. price, avg. QTY, product refund amount, cart-to-detail rate and buy-to-detail rate. The last 2 metrics are important. Cart-to-detail rate is the percentage of people who added items to their cart after viewing the product detail pages. Buy-to-detail rate is the percentage of people who purchased the item after viewing the product detail page. You’ll want to get a high percentage for these 2 metrics.

Figuring out your best-selling products can help with your research and development (R&D) roadmap. For example, you might choose to create more products similar to your best-selling products.

You can also learn valuable insights from products that don’t sell as well. After identifying these products and digging further into why they don’t sell as well, you might discover some things. Perhaps, these products only resonate with certain people. Or there might be a flaw in the product. This is where your R&D comes in: to improve the product and create a better version.

Source: By Patrick Han via Medium

5. Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Assisted Conversions & Top Conversion Paths

Assisted Conversions and Top Conversion Paths reports are valuable in providing insight into the buyer’s journey. The former report lets you know which channel, source / medium and campaign assisted conversions while the latter report lets you know the conversion paths.

Although these channels and campaigns did not directly result in conversions, they are still valuable in assisting conversions. For instance, these channels and campaigns might have built brand awareness or influenced your customers’ decision. After looking at the number of assisted conversions and top conversion paths, you might consider adjusting your marketing strategy and allocating more ad budget to awareness and consideration campaigns.

Note that you can select a specific Google Analytics goal and adjust the lookback window at the top left corner. Perhaps, you only want to look at the Contact Us Thank You page or change the lookback window to 90 days.

Source: By Ben Wood via Search Engine Journal

6. Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Time Lag & Path Length

Time Lag and Path Length reports also provide good insights.

• Time Lag: number of days it took from the first interaction to the conversion
• Path Length: number of interactions it took for the user to convert

Time Lag report lets you know how many days it took for a customer to make a purchase. You can use this as a reference when calculating your sales cycle.

Path Length lets you know how many interactions it took for a customer to make a purchase. You can use this as a reference to estimate how many campaigns and channels are required to convert a user. This way, you can better plan your budget and ensure that it’s spread across a few channels.

Again, you can select a specific Google Analytics goal and adjust the lookback window for these 2 reports.

Source: Google-Analytics.ie

7. Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Model Comparison Tool

The Model Comparison Tool allows you to test various attribution models. In fact, you can compare up to 3 attribution models at once!

Here are the attribution models that you can choose from

• Last Interaction: attributes 100% of the conversion value to the last channel with which the customer interacted before buying or converting
• Last Non-Direct Click: ignores direct traffic and attributes 100% of the conversion value to the last channel that the customer clicked through from before buying or converting
• Last Google Ads Click: attributes 100% of the conversion value to the most recent Google Ads ad that the customer clicked before buying or converting
• First Interaction: attributes 100% of the conversion value to the first channel with which the customer interacted
• Linear: gives equal credit to each channel interaction on the way to conversion
• Time Decay: based on the concept of exponential decay, this model most heavily credits the touchpoints that occurred nearest to the time of conversion (appropriate when sales cycle involves only a short consideration phase)
• Position Based: hybrid of the Last Interaction and First Interaction models, this model gives more credit to the first and last interaction and split the remaining credit between them

Each attribution model has its pros and cons. You need to choose one based on your needs.

For instance, if I want to know the top channel, source / medium or campaign that directly results in conversions, I would look at the last interaction model. If I want to know the top channel, source / medium or campaign that exposes my brand to people, I would look at the first interaction model. If I want to give credit to touchpoints between the first and last interaction, I would look at linear, time decay and position based models.

Source: Google-Analytics.ie

Now It’s Your Turn

What are your go-to Google Analytics reports? Why do you like these reports? How have they helped you make better business decisions?