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Tracking Data Effectively

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Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Tracking data effectively

Let's take some time to look at the best practices for using Google Analytics, so you know you have all bases covered.

  • Tracking: Firstly, tracking. You need to confirm that the analytics tracking code is applied across every page. You also need to ensure that it is has been customized to cover all relevant domains, so you can track customer interaction with your website, ecommerce transactions, and so on.
  • Different Views: You also need to confirm that different Views are implemented in order to maximize Google Analytics’ tracking capabilities. Useful Views include time zone, default page, currency, Google Ads cost source, and site-search tracking.
  • Visits from inside company: You shouldn’t track visits from inside your company or from your partners, as this can skew traffic and conversion numbers. So your Google Analytics Views should include Internal IP filtering, so that data reports don’t include employee or partner traffic.
  • Unfiltered view: It's best practice to have an unfiltered view for reference purposes. This is usually called an ‘All Site Data’ view. It doesn’t have any filters applied, so you always have a baseline to report against.
  • Define KPIs: Remember, everything you are tracking in Google Analytics is to help you deliver on Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. So before you begin analyzing your campaign data, it's important to define your KPIs, so that the campaign’s effectiveness can be benchmarked against these metrics. Likewise, it's essential that Goals are set up in Google Analytics as a way of measuring these KPIs.
  • Track offline marketing activity: The final word on website analytics is to consider the importance of appropriately tracking offline, as well as online, marketing activity. Not all purchases or actions happen online, so it's important to track how offline factors can influence user behavior and conversions, so you can take the appropriate action and make more informed decisions.
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Bryan Kam

Bryan is an IT engineer who has worked in media, financial information, and algorithmic trading. He specializes in automation technology and large-scale Linux deployments. He also has a great interest in literature and the arts, and is working on projects to increase intellectual engagement in London.

Data protection regulations affect almost all aspects of digital marketing. Therefore, DMI has produced a short course on GDPR for all of our students. If you wish to learn more about GDPR, you can do so here:

DMI Short Course: GDPR

If you are interested in learning more about Big Data and Analytics, the DMI has produced a short course on the subject for all of our students. You can access this content here:

DMI Short Course: Analytics

The following pieces of content from the Digital Marketing Institute's Membership Library have been chosen to offer additional material that you might find interesting or insightful.

You can find more information and content like this on the Digital Marketing Institute's Membership Library

You will not be assessed on this content in your final exam.

    ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE

    Analytics with Google Analytics
    Bryan Kam
    Skills Expert

    This module begins with the fundamentals of web analytics and the associated legal responsibilities and best practices concerning data collection, consent, and privacy that enable a digital marketer to draw actionable conclusions from website or marketing channel data. It demonstrates how to set up and configure Google Analytics and install Google Analytics tracking code to glean insights about the website’s traffic and audience. It covers setting campaign goals to analyze performance and analyze customer conversion journeys. It also provides comprehensive detail on how to use Google Analytics reports and features to monitor and analyze digital campaigns.