Interpreting Analytics Data-Informed Decision Making Ashley Martin - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Interpreting Analytics

Data-Informed Decision Making

Ashley Martin Executive Director, University Marketing and Creative Services Division of Communications and Marketing Kansas State University June 6, 2018

Our Agenda

• Google Analytics 101: Terms and Tools
• Analytics CASE Studies

– Great Plains IDEA Website – K-State’s Academic Search

• Analytics vs. Quantitative Usability

– Great Plains IDEA Website Usability Review – Case Study: K-State Home Page

• Action Items to Take Home With You

– How to set yourself up for data-based decision making

Google Analytics 101

How to Get Set Up

• Figure out who your analytics administrator is for

your website

– University marketing unit? – University IT unit? – College or departmental marketing or IT unit? – In-house staff?

• Determine your goals and key performance

indicators (KPIs) to avoid analysis paralysis

– Define what traffic is most important to you (and why) – Define the insights that will most help you make decisions on your marketing efforts

• Benchmark

– Figure out where you are now and where you want to go

• Set measureable objectives to go with your goals

Sample Goals

• Drive traffic to academic program pages.

– Compare traffic to benchmark data and against your marketing efforts.

• Where: Behavior à Site Content à <Specific page>

– Watch your audience demographics and geographic data to assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and ensure your targeting is still accurate.

• Where: Audience à Demographics, Interests, Geo, Etc.
• Drive inquiries.

– Measure completed inquiries.

• Where: Behavior à Site Content à <Confirmation page>
• Drive applications.

– Measure completed applications.

• Where: Behavior à Site Content à <Confirmation page>

CASE Study – Great Plains IDEA

CASE Study – Great Plains IDEA

CASE Study – Great Plains IDEA

CASE Study – Great Plains IDEA

CASE Study – K-State Academics

CASE Study – K-State Academics

• Top Keywords (All)

– Nursing – Business – Engineering – Vet – Computer – Education – Minor – Animal – Health

• Top Keywords (Online)

– Nursing – Vet – Animal – Education – Nutrition – Pilot (no match) – Cat – Computer – Health

Tracking Tactical Performance

Tracking Tactical Performance

Google Analytics 101 Review

• Define your goals and KPIs first
• Benchmark
• Correlate your goals and KPIs to the appropriate

reports for tracking

• Monitor to track effectiveness of:

– Marketing tactics and tools

• Query strings and tracking tags
• Tracking correlation of traffic spikes with tactical launches

– Audience targeting – Specific programs, as correlated with your in-house inquiry/app/yield data

Analytics à Usability Testing

• When you have analytics that seem to be telling a

story but you can’t quite figure out what it is, usability testing may be your go-to solution

– Ensures you don’t make assumptions – Ensures you truly understand the issue – Ensures you find the appropriate design or navigation solution

Analytics versus Quantitative Usability Testing

• Analytics

– Allows you to see what your users do “in the wild” – The “What”

• Track visitors, see what they do, how long they stay, etc.
• Quantitative usability testing

– An experimental process where you can control conditions – “The “Why”

• Bring users in to complete common tasks
• Listen and watch – how are they moving through your site? How do they

feel about those tasks once they’ve completed them? Did your system break down anywhere?

Quantitative Usability Testing

Case Study: K-State Home Page

Analytics vs. Usability Testing

• Which method is most appropriate for:

– Making changes to my website’s navigation? – Deciding whether or not to retire a web page? – Tracking effectiveness of an offline advertising channel? – Understanding how users seek content on my website? – Understanding the audiences who visit my website? – Understanding the path users take on my website? – Understanding the effectiveness of a website design

• verall?

– Understanding online search behavior (perhaps even as related to search engine optimization)?

Where Do We Go From Here

• Figure out who your Google Analytics

administrator(s) are

• Be able to articulate your goals to them so that

they understand how you wish to use Google Analytics (so they can set it up appropriately for you)

– If there is a piece of data you want but can’t access, just ask! It’s probably possible to build a custom report!

• Set aside your own assumptions and opinions

– This is where analytics and usability can often go wrong. Be as objective as possible when reviewing your data.

Inspiring Action

• Summarize your findings and the reports you

pulled them from

• Determine whether the changes needed are

modifications you can make OR modifications that require marketing/IT assistance

– Fine-tune your audience targeting – Fine-tune your marketing channels – Fine-tune the particulars of your website

• If you need help, re-affirm your goals (both

general and website specific) with those who you need assistance from

Thank you