What you’ll learn about marketing analytics:
- Understanding any gaps in your conversion metrics is important so that you can adjust your marketing strategies
- Important marketing analytics to look at include:
- Bounce rate
- New vs. returning visitors
- Devices and browsers used to access your content
- Traffic sources
Marketing analytics can be difficult to manage properly, especially at the beginning.
To start, you’ve likely have gone in to set up some common conversions that you look at every now and then, and assume things are fine. However, if you’re driving traffic to your website (and especially if you’re paying to do so) and it’s not converting into leads — then you really need to be digging into your marketing analytics to find out where those would-be conversions are going.
To help you do just that, we’ll dive into the common data fields found on your Google Analytics Home page and provide you with the context to make the correct website adjustments.
Bounce Rate
What it means:
Bounce rate is the metric used to measure when someone lands on your website (from any source) and leaves without visiting another page or triggering an event (conversion).
What it’s trying to tell you:
Typically, your bounce rate will tell you whether the content of your page is satisfying the visitor’s search intent and if you’re providing the value they are looking for. A high bounce rate will usually indicate that you aren’t meeting your visitor’s needs, but there are some exceptions. For instance, if you’re running an ad that points to a contact page, and someone clicks on it and then uses your contact number to reach you, you’ve still managed to answer their needs even if they contribute to your bounce rate.
A high bounce rate tends to result from a user experience issue like poorly placed forms and calls to action, not enough information, or poor mobile desktop usability. As you revisit these elements, take a look at your competitors’ websites — or even pages on your own website that are converting — and try to replicate the layout.
What is a good bounce rate?
Your bounce rate will subjective depending on your specific page goals and what the conversion process looks like. However, these are some standard benchmarks:
- 25-40% is excellent
- 41-55% is average
- 56-70% is higher than normal but might make sense depending on your page goals
- 71% and higher are cause for concern
New vs. Returning Visitors
What it means:
New visitors are those that haven’t been to your site before (as per their IP address or device), while returning visitors are those that have.
What it’s trying to tell you:
This data point will indicate what your engagement looks like. If you’re creating captivating content that engages, educates, and provides value to people, you’ll likely have a high percentage of returning visitors.
Conversely, if you have a lot of new visitors, your SEO and SEM is doing a good job of driving traffic to your website — which is fantastic. SEO and SEM are integral parts of a sound marketing strategy.
What’s a good blend?
Like most web-based metrics, this is subjective to your businesses goals. A rideshare client of ours would rather have more new visitors than returning, for instance, and it’s easy to see why. New visitors show an increase in brand awareness, whereas returning visitors suggests that visiting the website is a better user experience than using their app.
To set a good benchmark, think of your business and what the goal of your website is. If you’re constantly updating your website with new blog content, you’re likely looking for a good blend or both new and returning visitors. Meanwhile, if you’re launching a new product and looking for beta signups, you might only want to consider new visitors to that landing page.
Devices and Browsers
What it means:
What kinds of devices are people using to find your website? Mobile, desktop, tablet? Chrome, firefox, microsoft edge? Your Google Analytics will show you details around all of these inputs.
What it’s trying to tell you:
Devices and browsers are telling you how people are finding your content and website, and this metric requires a both analytical and correlation analysis.
Perhaps most of your traffic comes from smart phones (as is the trending case amongst most demographics). This could suggest that you should be more focused on mobile optimization first and foremost to better satisfy the mobile user experience. It might also suggest that your content should be in a short to medium format, as these styles lend themselves better to mobile users. Alternatively, if a lot of your traffic comes from desktop, this might signify that people are searching for you while in front of their laptop, perhaps signifying search intent that correlates with their office job.
In a more analytical sense, a lack of any one browser or device might signify that your website doesn’t perform well on that device or browser. Browsers in particular are notorious for presenting website information differently, effectively changing the experience for your visitors and potentially losing you a conversion opportunity.
What should you do with this data?
Look at the conversion and bounce rates across browsers and devices. Wherever there are low conversion rates and high bounce rates is where you should focus your attention and optimize your content.
Traffic Sources
What it means:
Traffic sources are the channels that visitors initially find your content or website on. Think of the myriad of platforms that you promote your content on:
- Organic search
- Paid search
What it’s trying to tell you:
The traffic sources data points are telling you where your marketing strategies are working and where they are not — which is important as you look to increase your ROI.
If things are firing on all cylinders on one platform, then you should stoke the fire there, pointing more of your efforts in that direction. However, any increase of your efforts in one direction will typically result in a decrease in another area. Ultimately it will be a judgement call where to pool your resources.
What to do with this information:
If you’re finding a lot of success on one platform — be it Instagram or LinkedIn — this might be indicative of the style of content your users prefer. If we look at those two platforms, for instance, how they showcase content (and how brands use them) is very different.
Another thing to consider is that even though one channel is converting less traffic into leads, that doesn’t mean it should be disregarded. It’s very possible that you have channels that generate fewer leads that are better quality than others. Again, the channels you use, and the results you garner, are all subjective to your individual goals.
As you revisit your Google Analytics results, use this post to guide you. If it’s still feeling overwhelming and you feel you need help, let’s connect! We’ve helped countless clients optimize their SEO and website performance, and we’re always looking for new partnerships.
Photo by Myriam Jessier on Unsplash
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