MARCH 2014 - Google Analytics Platform Principles

1.    What are the four main components of the Google Analytics platform?

 Collection 

Configuration 

Continuation 

Processing 

Progressing 

Recollection

  Reporting

The answer to question 1 is: A, B, D, G "Collection, Configuration, Processing, Reporting"

 

2.      The tracking code in Google Analytics:

 Connects data to your specific Google Analytics account  

sends data back to your Google Analytics account for reporting

 tracks changes in your AdWords account

 identifies new and returning users

The answer to question 2 is: A, B, D, "connects data to your specific Google Analytics account, sends data back to your Google Analytics account for reporting, identifies new and returning users"

 

3.      Which Analytics tracking technology would you use to collect how users interact with a web-connected ticket kiosk?

  Software Development Kit

 JavaScript Tracking Code  

The Measurement Protocol  

HTML

The answer to question 3 is: C "The Measurement Protocol"

 

4.      Google Analytics can only recognize returning users on websites, not on mobile apps.

  True  

False

The answer to question 4 is: "FALSE" 

 

5.      During data processing, Google Analytics:

 transforms your raw data from collection according to your configuration settings  

aggregates your data into database tables  

imports data from other sources you've defined, like Google AdWords or Webmaster Tools

 organizes hits into sessions

The answer to question 5 is: A, B, C, D "transforms your raw data, aggregates your data into database tables, imports data from other sources you've defined, organizes hits into sessions "

 

6.      A session in Google Analytics consists of:

 The reports generated by users over a specific period of time  

Interactions or hits from a specific user for all time

 Interactions or hits from a specific user over a defined period of time  

 A group of users getting together in person to discuss Analytics

The answer to question 6 is: C "interactions or hits from a specific user over a defined period of time"

 

7.      How can you add data to Google Analytics from other sources?

 By linking your AdWords account to Google Analytics to import your advertising data

By downloading your data from Webmaster Tools and manually importing it into Google Analytics 

By uploading a .csv file to Google Analytics to attach new dimensions like “Topic” and “Author” to an existing dimension like “Page Title” 

By using Cost Data Upload to import click and cost data from your non-Ad Words advertising campaigns

The answer to question 7 is: D "By using Cost Data Upload"

 

8.      Which of the following are configuration settings that can change how your data appears in your reports?

 Sessions  

Channel

Groupings  

Filters  

Users  

Goals  

Interactions

The answer to question 8 is: B, C, E "Channel Groupings, Filters, Goals"

 

9.      Which of the following are dimensions in Google Analytics?

Campaign

Visits

Time on Page

City

Browser

Language

Pageviews

Unique Visitors

The answer to question 9 is: A, D, E, F "Campaign, City, Browser, Language"

 

10. You can combine any metric with any dimension in a Google Analytics report.

True

False

The answer to question 10 is: "False"

 

11. When does Google Analytics sample data for reporting?

When the data you request has already been calculated in the aggregate tables

When you create a report with metric and dimension combinations that have not been pre-aggregated and the report is based on data from a large number of visits

When the report is pulled at the end of the high traffic week

When you create a report with metric and dimension combinations that have not been pre-aggregated and the report is based on data from a small number of visits

The answer to question 11 is: B "When you create a report with metric and dimension combinations that have not been pre-aggregated and the report is based on data from a large number of visits"

 

12. You've discovered that a significant portion of your site traffic is coming from your internal users and is skewing your customer data. Which of the following solutions should you implement to clean up your report data?

Have your site developers create a new version of your website for internal users only that doesn't have the tracking code

Have your account administrator configure a Filter that excludes internal traffic from being included in your report views

Have your account administrator reprocess the data in your account to exclude internal users

There's not a way to prevent the internal traffic from showing in your reports.

The answer to question 12 is: B "Have your account administrator configure a Filter that excludes internal traffic from being included in your report views"

 

13. You've discovered that data about the Product pages of your ecommerce website is missing from your reports. Which of the following could be the cause? (select all that apply)

The data for the Product pages wasn't collected because tracking code wasn't placed on those pages of the site

Google Analytics doesn't collect data from eCommerce sites

During processing Google Analytics sampled out the Product pages from your reports

A filter applied during processing was configured to remove Product pages data from your reports

The answer to question 13 is: A, D "tracking code wasn't placed on those pages, A filter applied during processing was configured to remove Product pages data from your reports"

 

14. For a website that hosts 45 minute-long documentary videos, what configuration settings could you use to more accurately track user engagement?

Add a Goal that tracks when a user lands on your site homepage

Add a Filter to exclude users who don't watch a video on your site

Adjust the session timeout length to be greater than 45 minutes so that the session doesn't automatically timeout while a user is watching a long video on the site

Create a Content Grouping that groups together all of your video pages in your reports

The answer to question 14 is: C "Adjust the session timeout length to be greater than 45 minutes"

 

15. How could you create a customized dashboard in Google Analytics that you can monitor on a daily basis?

Use the Google Analytics JavaScript tracking code to send data straight into a spreadsheet

Use the Google Analytics reporting APIs to automatically send data to a dashboard application you create

Create a dashboard directly in the Google Analytics user interface and share it with your team

It's not possible to create a dashboard using Google Analytics data

The answer to question 15 is: B, C " Use the Google Analytics reporting APIs to automatically send data, Create a dashboard directly in the Google Analytics user interface"

Getting started with digital analytic

·       The importance of digital analytic

Digital analytics is the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from your business and the competition to drive a continual improvement of the online experience that your customers and potential customers have which translates to your desired outcomes (both online and offline).

One of the most important steps of digital analytics is determining what your ultimate business objectives or outcomes are and how you expect to measure those outcomes. In the online world, there are five common business objectives:

·         For ecommerce sites, an obvious objective is selling products or services.

·         For lead generation sites, the goal is to collect user information for sales teams to connect with potential leads.

·         For content publishers, the goal is to encourage engagement and frequent visitation.

·         For online informational or support sites, helping users find the information they need at the right time is of primary importance.

·         For branding, the main objective is to drive awareness, engagement and loyalty.

There are key actions on any website or mobile application that tie back to a business’ objectives. The actions can indicate an objective, like a purchase on an eCommerce site, has been fully met. These are “macro” conversions. Some of the actions on a site might also be behavioral indicators that a customer hasn’t fully reached your main objectives but is coming closer, like, in the eCommerce example, signing up to receive an email coupon or a new product notification. These are “micro” conversions. It’s important to measure both micro and macro conversions so that you are equipped with more behavioral data to understand what experiences help drive the right outcomes for your site.

·       Core analysis techniques

Segmentation allows you to isolate and analyze subsets of your data. For example, you might segment your data by marketing channel so that you can see which channel is responsible for an increase in purchases. Drilling down to look at segments of your data helps you understand what caused a change to your aggregated data.

Examples:

·         You can segment your data by date and time, to compare how users who visit your site on certain days of the week or certain hours of the day behave differently.

·         You can segment your data by device to compare user performance on desktops, tablets and mobile phones.

·         You can segment by marketing channel to compare the difference in performance for various marketing activities.

·         You can segment by geography to determine which countries, regions or cities perform the best.

·         And you can segment by customer characteristics, like repeat customers vs. first-time customers, to help you understand what drives users to become loyal customers.

·         Conversions and conversion attribution

1.     A macro conversion occurs when someone completes an action that’s important to your business. For an ecommerce business, the most important macro conversion is usually a transaction. A micro conversion is also an important action, but it does not immediately contribute to your bottom line. It’s usually an indicator that a user is moving towards a macro conversion. It’s important to measure micro conversions because it helps you better understand where people are in on the journey to conversion.

2.     Attribution is assigning credit for a conversion. In last-click attribution, all of the value associated with the conversion is assigned to the last marketing activity that generated the revenue. However, there are other attribution models that can help you better understand the value of each of your channels. For example, rather than assign all of the value to the last channel, you might want to assign all of the value to the first channel, the one that started the user on the customer journey. This is called first-click attribution. Or, you might assign a little bit of value to each of the assisting channels in the customer journey.

·         Creating a measurement plan

The measurement planning cycle consists of the following:

·         Define your measurement plan.

 

1.      Document your business objectives.

2.      Identify the strategies and tactics to support the objectives.

3.      Choose the metrics that will be the key performance indicators.

4.      Decide how you’ll need to segment your data.

5.      Choose what your targets will be for your key performance indicators.

·         Create an implementation plan.

After defining your business needs and documenting the technical environment of your business, create an implementation plan that is specific to the analytics tool that you’re using. For Google Analytics, this means defining the code snippets and specific product features that you’ll need in order to track the data defined in your measurement plan. 

·         Implement your plan.

The next step is to have the web development team, or the mobile team, actually implement the tracking recommendations that you’ve made. Some website technologies will require additional planning, such as:

o    Query string parameters

o    Server redirects

o    Flash and AJAX events

o    Multiple domains and subdomains

o    Responsive web design

The most common features used in a Google Analytics implementation plan for a website:

 

o    Implement the standard Google Analytics tracking snippet. This gives you the bulk of the data you need.

o    Determine how to track your KPIs. You can do this using goal tracking and the eCommerce module if you are an ecommerce business.

o    Use filters to normalize your data so that your reports are accurate and useful.

o    Use campaign tracking and Ad Words linking to properly track marketing campaigns.

o    Use custom dashboards and custom reports to simplify the reporting process.

        Maintain and refine.

The final step of the measurement planning cycle is to maintain and refine your plan. Your business requirements and your technical environment can change over time. Without a team to maintain your measurement plan, your data won’t keep pace with your reporting needs.