2.1 Importance of Google Analytics

Notes

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.