Google Analytics is a powerful, free tool that tells you what is going on with your website, email and social media. It can also be really overwhelming, until you learn the short cuts.
This session will focus on basic techniques with Google Analytics that will help you understand what is working and what is not with your website, so you can sign up more members, raise more money and reach more people.
Use Google Analytics to Improve Your Website & Attract More Members
1. US Call in #: +1 (646) 307-1716
CANADA Call in #: 1 (647) 497-9389
Access Code: 984-070-797
Use Google Analytics to Improve
Your Website & Attract More
Members
Feature Presenter: Eric Squair (Data Habits)
Thursday, September 17th, 2015
3:00 – 4:00 PM (ET)
Build. Connect. Grow. Membership & more.
@wildapricot #webinarchat
@DataHabits
2. Lori Smith
Smiley Apricot
Community Manager
Terry Ibele
Apricot-in-training
Digital Coordinator
Meet the Apricots
@wildapricot #webinarchat
@DataHabits
US Call in #: +1 (646) 307-1716
CANADA Call in #: 1 (647) 497-9389
Access Code: 984-070-797
3. Earn CAE Credits!
@wildapricot #webinarchat
@DataHabits
US Call in #: +1 (646) 307-1716
CANADA Call in #: 1 (647) 497-9389
Access Code: 984-070-797
4. We are recording this webinar
Yes! We will be sharing the recording of this webinar with you
in a follow up email sent out tomorrow.
You can also find this recording, along with announcements of
upcoming expert webinars on our website:
wildapricot.com/community/expert-webinar-series
US Call in #:
CANADA Call in #:
Access Code:
@wildapricot #webinarchat
@webbright
5. @wildapricot #webinarchat
@DataHabits
Our Presenter Today: Eric Squair, Data Habits
Eric Squair helps clients make smarter decisions about their online work.
One of his favourite ways to do this is by teaching people how to use the
powerful website measurement tool Google Analytics.
He has over a decade of experience working at nonprofits and as an independent
consultant with organizations such as Greenpeace, Amnesty International and
several political campaigns.
Currently he offers workshops, coaching and consulting on web analytics to
nonprofits and independent businesses.
You can find Eric online at datahabits.com
US Call in #: +1 (646) 307-1716
CANADA Call in #: 1 (647) 497-9389
Access Code: 984-070-797
9. Google Analytics for Wild Apricot | DataHabits.com/WildApricot
Google Analytics,
simplified
10. Google Analytics for Wild Apricot | DataHabits.com/wildapricot
Today’s Session
1. What is Google Analytics?
2. Technique 1: Set Goals
3. Technique 2: Track your
outreach
4. The most important report in
Google Analytics
11. Google Analytics for Wild Apricot | DataHabits.com/WildApricot
A web-based tool
that records
(anonymously)
visits to your
website
Google Analytics is...
12. Google Analytics for Wild Apricot | DataHabits.com/wildapricot
Some code you place
on your website
Google Analytics is...
13. Put tracking code at Settings > Site > Global
Javascript
Step-by-step instructions at
datahabits.com/WildApricot
How to Set up Google
Analytics
14. Technique 1: Set Goals
Some definition of success for your
site. Successful completion of a goal
15. How To Track Goals
Easiest when you have a ‘finish
line’
19. Technique 2: Track
Outreach
Add some information to each
link you send out,
telling Analytics who is
clicking
Google Analytics for Wild Apricot | DataHabits.com/wildapricot
22. Google Analytics for Wild Apricot | DataHabits.com/learn
What we covered:
1. What is Google Analytics?
2. Technique 1: Set Goals to
track conversions
3. Technique 2: Track your
outreach with campaign tagging
4. Measure conversions from
outreach
23. Google Analytics for Wild Apricot | DataHabits.com/learn
Resources specific to Wild Apricot
websites: DataHabits.com/wildapricot
Includes free tutorials on how to
make sense of Google Analytics
25. We have recorded this webinar and will be sharing
it with you.
Build. Connect. Grow. Membership & more.
You can also find this recording on our website:
www.wildapricot.com/community/expert-webinar-series
THANK
YOU!
@wildapricot #webinarchat
@webbright
27. Sign up for a demo with Wild Apricot!
In this demo, you will learn how to:
●add and/or import contacts to your membership database
●create and modify membership levels, fees and renewal
policies
●manage events using the events module
●compose and send out email blasts to different member
groups
●manage your finances
●...plus get all your questions answered on the spot.
A Live Demo with Milan
Wild Apricot Technology Consultant
Next Demo: Friday, September 18th
at Noon (ET)
Register here: wildapricot.com/wild-apricot-demo-registration
28. Build. Connect. Grow. Membership & more.
Thank you for participating in our webinar.
www.wildapricot.com
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Editor's Notes
Learn best practices for your industry
Gain real life takeaways that you can implement today!
We often to forget the most obvious question – and it is important to start by asking some key questions. Some baseline information is needed to provide a framework for making decisions during the planning and execution phases.
Without knowing “why,” how will you know if your event was a success?
Additionally: Not only do you need the answers to these questions, you need to ensure that all stakeholders are in agreement with the answers. Solve this challenge by asking the same questions of your organization’s senior management as well as volunteer leaders to ensure you come to a unified answer. It is acceptable to have multiple goals or priorities as long as they are not in conflict with each other and everyone is aware.
Learn best practices for your industry
Gain real life takeaways that you can implement today!
We often to forget the most obvious question – and it is important to start by asking some key questions. Some baseline information is needed to provide a framework for making decisions during the planning and execution phases.
Without knowing “why,” how will you know if your event was a success?
Additionally: Not only do you need the answers to these questions, you need to ensure that all stakeholders are in agreement with the answers. Solve this challenge by asking the same questions of your organization’s senior management as well as volunteer leaders to ensure you come to a unified answer. It is acceptable to have multiple goals or priorities as long as they are not in conflict with each other and everyone is aware.
Learn best practices for your industry
Gain real life takeaways that you can implement today!
We often to forget the most obvious question – and it is important to start by asking some key questions. Some baseline information is needed to provide a framework for making decisions during the planning and execution phases.
Without knowing “why,” how will you know if your event was a success?
Additionally: Not only do you need the answers to these questions, you need to ensure that all stakeholders are in agreement with the answers. Solve this challenge by asking the same questions of your organization’s senior management as well as volunteer leaders to ensure you come to a unified answer. It is acceptable to have multiple goals or priorities as long as they are not in conflict with each other and everyone is aware.
Thanks for inviting me, Don’t worry about writing everything down, you will be emailed these notes after the session.
This is how Google Analytics makes most of us feel: we’re not even really sure what we’re looking for, but we know this is a cool tool and we want to understand how to get useful, actionable information out of it.
Here are your responses to the question: what do you want out of this session?
I can help the first three responses, email me at [email_address] if you have very specific questions about your results.
This is where we want to get to: a simple report that shows us what we are doing to generate new members.
I can show you how to get this information from Google Analytics with two simple techniques: we’ll cover the first technique today in detail, and explain the basics of the second technique. You will be able to tell what’s generating new member signups, email signups, downloads, donations.
This is what we’re going to cover in the next 40 minutes. We’ll look at what Google Analytics is and isn’t, and then look at two very key techniques that will make Google Analytics much easier to use and much more powerful.
We’ll finish by looking at what kind of powerful data these two techniques will generate, and how they will take your use of Google Analytics - and your social media - to the next level.
“Web-based” means you log in to a website to see your site data.
“Anonymous recording” means that each person is tracked in detail, BUT there is no particular identifying details attached: you can’t find out names, email addresses or any other identifying information.
“Visits to your website” means any time someone comes to one page or more of your site. All kinds of data is recorded: browser used, operating system, all pages visited, previous site, search terms used to find your site, even if you have visited the site in the past few months.
Analytics helps you see how and why people are visiting your site, so you can improve your site’s appeal to your audience.
This is the second important part: some code you place on your website.
Note:
- It needs to be the right code!
- You need to place it on anything you want to track: you can’t put it on a PDF or on your Facebook fan page, so those things can’t be thoroughly tracked like your website.
- It is tracking your website (not your Facebook page or your twitter feed) so it assumes your website is where the important stuff happens- donations, signups, advocacy actions.
This is the second important part: some code you place on your website.
See Step-by-step instructions at DataHabits.com/WildApricot
Note:
- It needs to be the right code: Google Analytics has been upgraded in the past 2 years: it’s best to check it’s the same code in your account as the one on your site.
- You need to place it on anything you want to track: you can’t put it on a PDF or on your Facebook fan page, so those things can’t be thoroughly tracked like your website.
- It is tracking your website (not your Facebook page or your twitter feed) so it assumes your website is where the important stuff happens- donations, signups, advocacy actions.
A goal is completed any time somebody does something on your website that you really want them to do: join your organization, donate, subscribe to an email newsletter, download a report, buy something, etc.
CHAT: What goals can you think of for your website??
How do we set up goals in Google Analytics to track conversions?
The easiest to track is when you have a ‘confirmation’ page, often a ‘thank you for signing up / donating / downloading’ page that shows ONLY to people who have converted. In this case, for a free membership signup, you end up at a page at the address
DataHabits.com/Sys/Profile
This URL is only shown the very first time you sign up: every time after that a Membership ID is attached to the URL.
We are going to use this to record when people see this registration confirmation page in Google Analytics.
With Wild Apricot sites, for a free membership you end up at the page your site.com/Sys/Profile
For a paid membership, you end up at yoursite.com/Sys/Profile/Finances
Next we make sure that Google Analytics records a signup every time someone sees one of these exact pages.
We go to Admin > Goals > New Goal > Destination Goal > and enter the URL we want to track in the form field.
See step-by-step instructions at DataHabits.com/WildApricot
With Wild Apricot sites, for a free membership you end up at the page your site.com/Sys/Profile
For a paid membership, you end up at yoursite.com/Sys/Profile/Finances
Next we make sure that Google Analytics records a signup every time someone sees one of these exact pages.
We go to Admin > Goals > New Goal > Destination Goal > and enter the URL we want to track in the form field.
See step-by-step instructions at DataHabits.com/WildApricot
Here’s a dashboard to show you your source of signups (once you set up goals for your site): http://bit.ly/gaconversiondash
Note that you will have to have set up a goal in Google Analytics to see any data in this dashboard!
You add information to each link you send out, and this tells Google Analytics exactly who is clicking on which links to come to your website.
Otherwise, Google Analytics has no way of knowing if the traffic from Facebook is from an ad, a promoted post or a simple social update.
This technique of adding tracking information to each link is called ‘campaign tagging’
This is what we’re after: data that shows us exactly what’s contributing to our online efforts and what’s not.
Once we’re tracking conversions and tagging every link we send out, we can see what we’re doing that’s resulting in new memberships, signups and advocacy actions.
It’s the key to and moving beyond simply measuring how many ‘likes’ and followers we have and into tracking the value of our digital marketing to our organization.
This is the most important report you can get in Google Analytics. It tells you where your conversions are coming from, and what’s driving them.
Now you know whether all that time spent posting to Facebook, or Twitter or running ads is working for you.
You can’t get this information any other way!
Here’s what we covered today.
I have created free Google Analytics tutorials that cover everything we discussed today, broken down into step-by-step instructions. You learn how to set up goals in Google Analytics, how to use campaign tagging consistently and how to view segments of your audience to generate insights.
You can sign up to receive them at DataHabits.com
Please email me with any questions you have about what we covered today.