Learning to Love Marketing Analytics

In the following case study, I will examine how the consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand RXBAR utilizes web analytics for its e-commerce site. This will be done without insider information, thus reliance on information from the Internet will be necessary. What is Web Analytics? Web analytics is the quantitative measurement of metrics, or statistics, that reflect user activities on websites. When a web analytics tool like Google Analytics is leveraged, brands and blogs become privy to the tendencies of their consumers’ behavior. These tendencies are measured through metrics such as click-through rate , bounce rate, average time on page, visit duration , goal completions, and more. While such quantitative measurements are insightful, they should not always be taken at face value. Human interpretation of data is often necessary to properly understand how a website is being used and what to do with that information (Reed College of Media, 2019). Ultimately, web analytics assist brands in...

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been exploring the concept of web analytics and diving into the nitty-gritty of Google Analytics. From CTR to Visit Duration metrics and goal and segment filtering, there are many facets to Google Analytics that can be beneficial for businesses trying to understand their customers’ and prospects’ on-site habits. It is a tool utilized by nearly 5 million companies , many with 50 employees or fewer. Needless to say, a tool that is generally free and offers invaluable consumer insight, is popular. While Google Analytics offers robust metrics, with new tools currently in Beta, it does not offer deep insights into sources of social traffic. Yes, the Acquisition report can show a company some information about how social has impacted website traffic, but it is still challenging to piece together a clear picture of why they came from social without additional information; information provided by digital analytics tools like Sprout Social. According to...

The beauty of Google Analytics (GA) for a business in any industry is the ability to learn about your users (aka your customers and prospective customers). Data and metrics within GA provide insight into how people discover your website, what they look at and for how long, and you can track conversions. Depending on the purpose of your business you may just be interested in building an audience (like I am with this blog) or you may have an e-commerce site to sell your product(s). Depending on the purpose of your site, you will weigh the importance of various GA reports like Real Time, Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversions differently. Here is a look at how my blog data and reports of interest compare to Google Demo e-commerce account: Behavior Report The Behavior Report is helpful for deducing your most to least frequented pages. The Page Views metric in particular “can give an indication of how popular a post or page is” but it is best to compare it with another metri...

Whether you are a small business of 1 or have 10-plus employees, it can be challenging to keep up your social media presence. Perhaps you haven’t even started and are curious about which platform is right for your business. The best approach to determining which social platform your business will get the most out of involves considering a few key questions. Questions to Ask Yourself What are your main competitors doing?  What platforms do your target audience use most often?  Is your product or service visual?  How much time do you have to create, edit, and schedule posts? Do you have someone to engage with customers and prospects daily?  Is your brand’s tone of voice professional, quirky or somewhere in between? Not all social platforms are appropriate or valuable for every industry. For example, a property management company would likely have an easier time creating visual content for an Instagram page compared to a technology company that might just h...