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) Top Keywords (Online) • • Nursing Nursing – – – Business – Vet Engineering Animal – – Vet Education – – – Computer – Nutrition Education Pilot (no match) – – Minor Cat – – Animal Computer – – – Health – 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 – overall? 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