Goals, Funnels, and Filters

             Google analytics provides actionable information for business leaders when goals, funnels, and filters are used in conversion metrics. In fact, “Google Analytics goals might be the most powerful and underutilized tool in our web analytics toolbox.  According to the 2012 State of Social Media and Web Analytics in higher education report, 97% of those surveyed use Google Analytics.  According to the report, 31% of respondents don’t track any conversions. However, it has been our experience that even fewer are doing this sort of advanced analytics measurement.” (Zquta, 2012)  Most universities track foundational metrics like site visits, page views, and bounce rates, but too few invest their time in trying to answer the bigger questions or in creating goals aligned with their website objectives. Goals will clarify how many visitors came to the site and performed the desired action. It’s important to also set a value to those goals to help with the data driven decision making. Without taking these steps up front, you won’t be able to see if web visitors do what you expect them to do on your website or what the value of their visit to your website is to your business.           

            Before being able to track conversions, one must first identify the objectives of the website to understand what and why you are measuring. Considering the fact that in higher ed., a website might have a number of different constituents, namely prospective students, current students, and alumni, the needs of each group need to be defined and then prioritized. Identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) like page views, bounce rates, and site visits are helpful but the real power of Google Analytics Conversions is to identify and work with metrics that have a deeper impact on the performance of your business, and to translate your website KPI’s to Google Analytic goals. Understanding how to interpret the trends that appear, gives you the potential to achieve business results and gain a competitive advantage. Goals are especially beneficial for those brands that have longer conversion cycles like higher ed.. Goals in these scenarios can give you the extra insight needed to track how and where your users are “converting” on your website.

            Goals can be broken into two types: macro and micro. For higher ed., a macro goal may be ‘increased inquiries’ and a micro goal may be a click on a student profile. “If you don’t have much time to spend on analytics, focusing on these “macro conversions” is the best bet. With a bit more time, you can also define some micro conversions—the steps usually taken by web visitors on the road to the big goal—to your mix.” (Joly, 2013)

            Websites in higher ed. programs may want to track: URL Destinations, Visit Duration, Pages/Visits, and Events and may set up goals like:

·         Outbound clicks to information request forms or applications

·         Engagement goals of 1 minute or longer around feature stories, videos, and other content that requires a significant investment of time to create

·         Event promotions via visits to webinar sign-ups, information session registrations, etc.

·         Number of pages or visits to conversion

(Zquta, 2012)

            Ultimately, the college or program goal may be to increase the number of applications, so the next step is to examine the ‘funnel’ or the traffic flow of your site visitors on their way to the application page. Looking at the funnel visualization report in google analytics will reveal where prospective applicants get distracted or leave the site and what route they typically take to the conversion goal.  Say for example that after examining the traffic funnel, it is determined that prospective students who register for a webinar, usually apply. Therefore, the Google analytics goal may be set to increase the number of webinar registrations by 10/month.  Another example of a program website goal may be to increase engagement with the video about residencies. The analytics goal may therefore be to increase ‘clicks’ on the video by 10%.

            With Google analytic reports, you can also apply filters to the information coming into your account.  You can choose to include or exclude visits from particular page URL’s. Say for example that you just wanted to look at the traffic coming from another feeder program on campus.

            Once goals are established, you can now monitor website performance against the goals and continue to make improvements to the site to reach the specified goals. “As traffic flows through your site and your goal is tracked, your analytics reports begin to reveal the insights you need into your visitor traffic and behavior to better serve the searcher’s intent (and reach the institution’s business objectives). Maybe you begin by adjusting your architecture to get visitors to that page more efficiently. Maybe you update the page copy to be clearer. Maybe you optimize your “Request Information” button to attract more clicks.” (Taza, n.d.) Redefine goals as necessary until you are comfortable with the KPI’s that produce the results sought.         

            Let’s look at an example.  Say the EMBA program looked at ‘conversion path length’ and ‘time lag’ in consideration of setting a goal to decrease the conversion time of a prospective applicant. “Conversion path length is the number of times students interact with the institution across all tracked digital media before completing one of our goals.
Time lag is similar, but instead of measuring interactions, it measures days between the first interaction and the interaction that led to a goal conversion.” (unknown, 2013)

            Looking at this data helps identify prospective student behaviors when they're at key points in the decision making process. So we may determine that the largest percentage of students interact with us five times before clicking on the ‘apply now’ page. So we could try placing the “Apply Now” link earlier in the funnel to try to decrease this time period.

            We may also determine that a high percentage of prospects ‘request further information’ on their first visit to our website. This means that first impressions are critical and the link for further information had better be prominent. It also may mean that if a visitor returns four or five times to the website, they may not yet be a serious applicant.

            Additionally, we may determine that visitors referred from the RBA webpage continue through the conversion funnel at a particularly high rate. This means that the EMBA program needs to make certain that a prominent link is provided on the RBA site as referrals from this site have a high conversion rate. (unknown, 2013)

            With the use of goals, filters, and funnels, Google analytics provides actionable information for EMBA marketers to improve their website to reach their objectives. Also when tying goals to website objectives, results are more manageable metrics and more clearly defined tasks for improvement. One doesn’t need to get overwhelmed with all that google has to offer.

 

References:

Joly, K. (2013, March). Three Steps to Data-Driven Decisions with Web Analytics. Retrieved November 30, 2013, from University Business: http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/three-steps-data-driven-decisions-web-analytics

 Taza, P. (n.d.). Tips on How to Develop Google Analytics Goals for your Higher Ed Website. Retrieved November 30, 2013, from EDUniverse: http://www.eduniverse.org/tips-how-develop-google-analytics-goals-your-higher-ed-website

unknown. (2013, May 31). Google Analytics says you should care about your info request form. Retrieved November 30, 2103, from U of Admissions Marketing: http://www.uofadmissionsmarketing.com/2013/05/google-analytics-says-you-should-care.html

Zquta, G. (2012, October 19). The 5 Google Analytics Goals I Wish All Institutions Tracked. Retrieved November 30, 2013, from mStoner: http://www.mstoner.com/blog/technology-and-software/the-5-google-analytics-goals-i-wish-all-institutions-tracked/