Using GA 4 to to Prove Value - Greg Jarboe - Aug 8, 2023.pptx

Greg Jarboe's presentation on "Using GA4 to Prove Value" at Paine Publishing's Measurement Base Camp on Aug. 8, 2023

1. Using GA4 to prove value Greg Jarboe President and co-founder, SEO-PR Measurement Base Camp Summer 2023 Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023

2. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can help you show your contribution to conversions and the bottom line Hopefully, your organization has already switched to GA4. Universal Analytics should have stopped processing data on July 1, 2023. This class will cover six important things you need to lean about GA4: Who needs an editor’s role? What does Google mean by “events”? Where do you create micro conversions? When should you build PR audiences? Why is data-driven attribution better? How do you analyze GA4’s reports?

3. Who needs an editor’s role?

4. Even if someone is your organization has already set up GA4 , you sti ll need to get an Editor’s role To access GA4, you need 1 of 5 roles : Administrator. Editor . Marketer. Analyst. Viewer. You want have an Editor’s role. If you don’t have an “Editor’s” role, then you won’t be able to do any of the things that I’m about to tell you. If you can’t get the Editor role, then you’ll need to get someone who has that role to do these things for you.

5. Google Merchandise Store demo account for GA4 shows real business data for an ecommerce site Source: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/#/p213025502/reports/intelligenthome

6. Click Admin, Data Settings, Data Retention to reset user and event data retention from 2 to 14 months

7. What does Google mean by “events”?

8. In GA4, an ‘event’ allows you to measure a distinct user interaction on your organization’s website The following types of events are collected automatically: Automatically collected events are basic interactions with your site and/or app. Enhanced measurement events are measured only if they are enabled . The following types of events require some implementation to see them: Recommended events help you measure additional features and behavior as well as generate more useful reports. Custom events collect information that’s specific to your organization.

9. Automatically collected ‘events’ are triggered by basic interactions with your website and/or app Event Automatically triggered Click* Each time a user clicks a link that leads away from the current domain. File_download* When a user clicks a link leading to a document, text, presentation, video, or audio file. First_visit The first time a user visits a website. Form_start* The first time a user interacts with a form in a session. Form_submit* When the user submits a form. Page_view Each time the page loads or the browser history state is changed by the active site. Scroll* The first time a user reaches the bottom 90% of each page. Session_start When a user engages the website. Video_start* When the video starts playing. Video_progress* When the video progresses past 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% duration time. Video_complete* When the video ends. *New in GA4

10. Click Admin; click Data Streams > Web; then slide the switch On for enhanced measurement events

11. Adding recommended events to your website can help you measure additional features and behavior Event Trigger when join_group A user joins a group. login A user logs in. purchase A user completes a purchase. search A user uses your site search. select_content A user selects content. share A user shares content. sign_up A user signs up. tutorial_begin A user begins a tutorial. tutorial_complete A user completes a tutorial. Source: https://youtu.be/PEPb3uaVILk

12. You can collect additional information for custom events that GA4 doesn’t collect automatically Source: https://youtu.be/QmEOPuJr05w You can create up to 50 custom events that GA4 doesn’t otherwise collect automatically or recommend. You can configure a custom event using: The Google tag (web). Google Tag Manager (web). Firebase (apps). Watch this YouTube video to learn more about custom events in GA4, why they’re useful, and how to configure a newsletter_signup event on your website.

13. Where do you create micro conversions?

14. Measurement mavens can use GA4 to show their contribution to micro conversions on their websites Macro conversions measure any user action that directly impact the success of your organization. For a B2B website, submitting a lead generation form is a macro conversion. Micro conversions measure key steps to completing macro conversions. For example, subscribing to your free newsletter is a micro conversion. In GA4, you can mark up to 30 events as micro or macro conversions . You can also add a value and currency as custom event parameters.

15. You can associate monetary values with some key micro conversions as well as all macro conversions Ecommerce events already have value and currency parameters. x You can add the same parameters to any other conversion event . For example, if 10% of the people who sign up for a newsletter go on to become customers at a later time, and your average transaction is $80 , then you can associate $8 (10% of $80) as the monetary value of a newsletter sign-up micro conversion.

16. Go to Configure > Events. In the Existing events table, select the toggle under Mark as conversion

17. Watch how to mark an event as a conversion when someone signs up for your newsletter in GA4 To add a value when someone has completed a registration form: On the left, click Admin > Events. Click Create event to display the table of custom events. Click the event to modify. In the Parameter configuration section, click Add modification. In the Parameter field, enter currency. In the New value field, enter a currency type (e.g., USD). Click Add modification. In the Parameter field, enter value. In the New value field, enter the value (e.g., 500). Click Save. Source: https://youtu.be/47mpnwPQ10I

18. When should you build PR audiences?

19. Audiences in GA4 let you segment your users in the whatever ways are important to your organization An audience is a group of users who have generated similar behavioral data or who share demographic or other descriptive data. For example, they were acquired by the same PR campaign. You can create a PR audience using a template in GA4. For example, the Acquisition template lets you segment your users by first user source (e.g., BW), medium (e.g., release), campaign (e.g. launch), or default channel group (e.g., referral).

20. You can use the “ suggested audiences ” that are relevant to your industry to create PR audiences You can also use suggested audiences. When you create a GA4 property, you specify the industry category for your business or organization. GA4 will then display a number of preconfigured suggested audiences that you can use based on the recommended events for those categories. Depending on your industry, a PR audience could include users who: Are recently active. Scroll to 90% of a blog post or article. Play at least 50% of a product video. Download a white paper. Complete a tutorial. Complete a registration form.

21. If the suggested audiences don’t fit your needs, then you can create new audiences of your own To create your own audiences, use the audience builder in GA4. Click Admin. Click Audiences > New audience. Click Create custom audience to open the audience builder. You can create a custom audience of users who have signed up for your newsletter. You can also create a custom audience of users who haven’t signed up for your newsletter … yet. Source: https://youtu.be/iz-nlf1mzzs

22. You can use “ audience triggers ” to create PR audiences when users cross conversion thresholds You can create up to 20 audience-trigger events. For example, you can trigger events when users reach key milestones, like initiating a certain number of sessions or reading a certain number of articles. This enables you to ask GA4, “What percentage of conversions came from recently active users?” For PainePublishing.com, the Percent of Conversions for Audience ID of Recently active users was 50.00% during the week of April 18-24, 2023.

23. Why is data-driven attribution better?

24. Attribution modeling in GA4 provides deeper insights and more actionability than ever before Users may visit your website several times before making a purchase or completing another valuable action. Typically, all the credit for the conversion was given to the last click . But other touchpoints have impact, too. An attribution model can be a rule or a data-driven algorithm that determines how to assign credit to touchpoints for conversions. Back in April, Google announced that it would be removing four attribution models starting in May 2023. Source: Danny Goodwin, Search Engine Land, “ Google to sunset 4 attribution models in Ads and Analytics ,” April 6, 2023

25. Click Advertising, Attribution > Conversion paths to see early, mid, and late touchpoints by channel

26. How do you analyze GA4’s reports?

27. GA4 provides several default reports for common use cases, but you can also customize your reports In GA4, you will see a number of predefined reports . The Life cycle collection helps you understand each stage in the customer journey — from acquisition to retention. If someone specifies “ generate leads ” or “ raise brand awareness ” during setup, then the Business objectives collection replaces the Life cycle collection. The User collection helps you understand the people who use your site, including demographic details, the technology they use, as well as a new audiences report , which rolled out last week.

28. Acquisition reports provide information about the press releases and PR campaigns that drive traffic Acquisition reports provide info about where your traffic originates (e.g., google, press release), the channels users arrive at your site (e.g., organic search, referral), and the marketing efforts you use to drive traffic (e.g., spring_sale, earth_day). You need to add campaign parameters to URLs in your press releases, contributed articles, and guest posts so you can get detailed acquisition data in GA4.

29. GA4 provides you with insights into where most, but not all of your website’s traffic is coming from New research found, “A substantial portion of social referral traffic comes without proper, accurate referral data, and is misclassified as ‘direct.’” Rand Fishkin says, “ For those investing in pro-active social media marketing, we recommend using unique URLs to track activity to social promotions .” I’ve seen direct traffic increase 35% and organic search traffic increase 31% when Rutgers distributed 10 press releases in a quarter versus 4 in the previous quarter. Source: Rand Fishkin, SparkToro, “ New Research: Dark Social Falsely Attributes Significant Percentages of Web Traffic as ‘Direct’ ,” April 27, 2023

30. Engagement reports show user engagement and engagement time vs bounce rate and time on site Bounce rate was a fundamentally flawed way to measure engagement. In UA, if someone visited your website, scrolled to 90% of a blog post or article, and then left without visiting any other pages, then that session was a bounce (single page impression), which looked like an unsuccessful session. In GA4, user engagement and engagement time have replaced bounce rate and time on site . Engagement rate is the percentage of sessions that last longer than 10 seconds, have at least 2 pageviews, or have a conversion event.

31. Monetization reports let you to show the revenue generated by your press releases and campaigns GA4’s monetization reports enable you to show the revenue generated by your press releases and PR campaigns. For example, the campaigns named Nov2022_Holiday_V1 or V2 generated 137 purchases of 714 items for a total of $14,184.30 in revenue. The Chrome Dino Camp Shirt was the item that generated the most revenue. You can also show the economic value of micro conversions if you can associate monetary values with some key micro conversions.

32. If your business objective is to “raise brand awareness,” then GA4 provides a relevant report The Pages and screens report shows the pages on your website and the screens on your app that people visit and engage with. The report includes these metrics: Users. Views. Views per user. Average engagement time. Event count. Conversions. Total revenue.

33. Here are four examples of custom metrics that measure how much you raised brand awareness Engaged session per user is the average number of engaged sessions per user. You calculate it by dividing the number of engaged sessions by total users. This is one of the communication standards and guidelines used by the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy uses in its GA4 reports. Average engagement time per user is the average time on a page per user. You calculate it by dividing total user engagement time by total users. Average engagement time per session is the average time on a page per session. You calculate it by dividing total user engagement time by sessions. This number will be lower than Average Engagement Time per User, because a single user can have multiple sessions counted. Views per session is the average number of pageviews per session. You calculate it by dividing views by engaged sessions.

34. If your business objective is to “generate leads,” then GA4 provides a relevant landing page report The Landing page report shows you the first page that a visitor lands on when they visit your website. This helps you identify which pages are performing well and which ones aren’t. The report includes these metrics: Active users. New users. Sessions. Average engagement time per session. Conversions. Total revenue.

35. The User collection helps you to understand the demographics of the people who use your website The Demographic details report includes these key characteristics: Age. Gender. City. Country. Region. Language. Interests. Only aggregated data from users who consent to sharing demographics data are included in the report.

36. The new Audiences report enables you to identify your most engaged and profitable audiences The report is available in the User Attributes topic on the left in Reports. If you don't see the report, an administrator or editor can add the report through the report library. The report includes these metrics: Active users in an audience. New users. Sessions. Views per session. Average session duration. Total revenue.

37. Google just announced additional filters that allow you to control what is shown in your GA4 reports Three new match type filters: Exact Matches : Filter for data that precisely matches specific dimension values. Partial Matches : Filter dimension values using “contains,” “begins with,” or “ends with.” Regular Expressions (Regex) : Provide advanced filtering capabilities. Here are just two examples of how you can use the new match types: Finding specific landing pages: Using “begins with” to show only landing pages that start with “/blog.” Analyzing specific campaigns: Using “contains” to view metrics for campaign names with “GA4.”

38. Using GA4 to show your contribution to the bottom line can really help you to get a seat at the big table Last week, you learned: How to add campaign parameters to URLs so you can measure PR campaigns. Today, you’ve learned: Who needs an editor’s role? What does Google mean by “events”? Where do you create conversions? When should you build PR audiences? Why is data-driven attribution better? How do you analyze GA4’s reports? Once you can measure what matters, you can get a seat at the big table.