Table of Contents

Introduction xix Part I Getting Started 1 Chapter 1 What s Your Game Plan for Success? 3 What s Your Current Plan of Online Action? 4 Why Did You Build a Website? 4 What Does Your Website Look Like? 4 What Does Your Website Do? 6 How Does Someone Benefit from Your Website? 6 How Do You Plan on Marketing Your Website? 7 How Are You Measuring Success? 8 Visits, Hits, and Page Views 8 Time on Site, New vs. Returning Visitors, and Events 9 Conversions, Goals, and Successes 11 Customer/Visitor Feedback 12 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) 13 Doing It Online Is Different from Doing It Offline 13 Fast, Faster, Fastest! 14 No Charge for Changes 14 Much Higher Level of Accountability 14 Getting Started on Your Journey to Success 15 Part II Google AdWords 17 Chapter 2 Welcome to Google AdWords! 19 Creating a Google AdWords Account 20 Creating a Google Account 20 Opening a Google AdWords Account 21 Creating Your First AdWords Campaign 23 Choosing a Billing Method and Entering Billing Information 24 Becoming Familiar with the Google AdWords Interface 26 The Home Tab 26 The Campaigns Tab 27 The Opportunities Tab 29 The Reporting Tab 30 The Billing Tab 31 The My Account Tab 31 The Home Tab 32 Alerts 33 Account Status 33 Announcements 33 Watch List 33 Keyword Performance 34 Active Campaigns 35 Campaign Performance 35 Help and Tips 36 The Campaigns Tab 36 Functions and Features within the Campaigns Tab 37 The Campaigns Sub-Tab 39 The Ad Groups Sub-Tab 40 The Settings Sub-Tab 40 The Ads Sub-Tab 42 The Keywords Sub-Tab 42 The Networks Sub-Tab 44 The Audiences Sub-Tab 44 The Opportunities Tab 45 The Reporting Tab 46 Report Types 47 Settings 47 Advanced Settings 48 Templates, Scheduling, and E-Mail 50 Viewing Your Report 50 The Billing Tab 51 Billing Summary 52 Billing Preferences 52 Agency/MCC Billing 52 The My Account Tab 53 Account Access 53 Notification Settings 54 Preferences 54 Chapter 3 Cost-per-Click Advertising 55 A Brief Review of Cost-per-Click Advertising Online 55 What You re Actually Charged For 56 Where Your Ads Actually Appear 57 The Critical Role that Landing Pages Play 58 The Google AdWords Quality Score 61 Quality Score for Google and Search Partners 61 Quality Score for the Google Content Network 62 Optimizing Your Quality Score 62 Keyword Match Types 65 Broad Match Keywords 65 Phrase Match Keywords 65 Exact Match Keywords 66 Negative Match Keywords 66 The Great Debate: Keyword Match Types 67 Cost-per-Click Ads 68 Standard Text Ads and Restrictions 68 Using the Keyword Insertion Function 70 Testing and Experimenting with Different Ads 71 Other Types of Ad Formats 72 Geo-Targeting 73 Selecting a Country, State/Region, or City 73 Creating a Custom Targeted Area 74 Who Actually Sees My Geo-Targeted Ads? 75 Chapter 4 Advanced Opportunities within Google AdWords 77 The Google Content Network 77 Text Ads 78 Image Ads 79 Video Ads 81 Automatic and Managed Placements 83 Tips for Success on the Content Network 83 Display Builder 85 Selecting Your Ad Template 85 Editing and Launching Your Display Ad 86 AdWords Bidding Options 88 Bidding Focus on Clicks (CPC) 88 Bidding Focus on Impressions (CPM) 88 Bidding Focus on Conversions (CPA) 89 Advanced Campaign Settings 89 Languages 90 Position Preference 90 Delivery Method 92 Ad Scheduling 92 Ad Rotation 94 Frequency Capping 95 Demographic Bidding 95 Ad Extensions 96 Location Extensions: Business Owners 97 Location Extensions: Non-Business Owners 98 Phone Extensions 99 Ad Sitelinks 99 Product Extensions 100 Chapter 5 AdWords Tools of the Trade 103 Google AdWords Editor 103 Downloading Your Campaigns 104 Working within AdWords Editor 104 Posting Changes Live 110 Google (DoubleClick) Ad Planner 110 Viewing a Site Listing 111 Creating a Media Plan 112 Ad Planner for Publishers 118 The AdWords Conversion Tracking Tool 118 How Conversion Tracking Works 119 Creating and Installing Conversion Tracking 120 Conversion Tracking Data and Reporting 121 The Search-Based Keyword Tool 123 Other Available AdWords Tools 125 My Change History Tool 125 Ads Diagnostic Tool 126 Ad Preview Tool 127 Keyword Discovery Tool 128 Traffic Estimator 128 IP Address Exclusion Tool 130 Site and Category Exclusion Tool 131 Chapter 6 Google AdWords: Analysis and Insights 133 Measuring Success and Taking Actions 133 Focus on Impressions 134 Focus on Clicks 136 Focus on Conversions 139 General Actions to Take 141 Answers to Common Questions and Problems 143 When Should Ad/Keyword Bids Be Changed? 143 When to Add/Pause/Remove an Ad 145 When to Change Your Campaign Settings 145 When to Create New Campaigns 146 When to Reorganize Your Account 147 Part III Google Analytics 149 Chapter 7 Welcome to Google Analytics! 151 The Google Analytics Account 152 Basic Functions within Google Analytics 156 Date-Range Tool and Comparing Date Ranges 156 Trending Graph Customization 157 Adding Reports to the Dashboard 158 Exporting Reports 159 E-mailing Reports 159 Dimensions (Segmenting) 161 Table Filtering 162 Other Table Options 163 Help, FAQs, and Common Questions 166 The Overview and the Dashboard 167 The Visitors Section 170 Benchmarking 172 Map Overlay 173 New vs. Returning 174 Languages 175 Visitor Trending 176 Visitor Loyalty 177 Browser Capabilities 178 Network Properties 179 Mobile 180 The Traffic Sources Section 181 Direct Traffic 181 Referring Sites 182 Search Engines 183 All Traffic Sources 184 Keywords 185 Campaigns 186 Ad Versions 186 The Content Section 186 Top Content 188 Content by Title 189 Content Drilldown 189 Top Landing Pages 189 Top Exit Pages 190 Site Overlay 190 Navigation Summary 191 Entrance Paths 192 The Goals Section 193 Total Conversions 195 Conversion Rate 195 Goal Verification 195 Reverse Goal Path 196 Goal Value 197 Goal Abandoned Funnels 197 Funnel Visualization 197 The E-Commerce Section 198 Total Revenue 200 Conversion Rate 200 Average Order Value 200 Product Performance 200 Transactions 201 Visits to Purchase 201 Days to Purchase 202 Chapter 8 The Web-Analytics Industry 203 How Google (Web) Analytics Works 203 What Information Does Google Analytics Collect? 206 Personally Identifiable Information (PII) 207 First-Party vs. Third-Party Cookies 208 Limitations of Google Analytics 209 Web-Analytics Metrics 212 The Web-Analytics Association 212 Web Metrics and Dimension Definitions 212 Metrics 212 Dimensions 213 Unfortunate and Common Misconceptions 214 Misconception: Web Analytics Is Accounting Software 214 Misconception: Google Analytics Publicly Shares and Sells My Information 215 Misconception: A $125,000 Tool Will Solve All My Problems 216 Misconception: One Tool Should Be Enough for Me 216 Misconception: Web-Analytics Tool X Should be Exactly the Same as Web-Analytics Tool Y 217 Misconception: Google Analytics Can t Handle Large Volumes (Because It s Free) 218 Misconception: The More Data My Dashboard Has, the Better! 218 Misconception: Too Many Visitors Are Listed on the Top Exit Pages Report 219 Misconception: You Should Use Year-over-Year and Decade-over-Decade Comparisons 220 Becoming a Great Web Analyst 220 Failing 221 Segmentation 221 Comparisons 223 Executive Dashboards/Reports 224 Competitive Intelligence 224 Understanding Your Website 225 Chapter 9 Sophisticated Google Analytics Features 227 Intelligence and Custom Alerts 227 Understanding Intelligence 228 Significance and Sensitivity 230 Group by Dimension 230 Creating a Custom Alert 231 Advanced Segments 234 Default Advanced Segments 234 Creating a Custom Advanced Segment 235 Sharing and Editing Your Custom Segment 239 Custom Reports 239 Creating a Custom Report 240 Sharing and Editing Your Custom Report 242 Advanced Segments and Custom Reports Together 242 Motion Charts 243 Site Search Reports 244 Secondary Dimensions and Pivoting 247 Advanced Table Filters 248 Annotations 249 Chapter 10 The Technical Side of Google Analytics 251 The Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) 251 The urchin Tracking Code 252 The ga.js Tracking Code 253 The async Tracking Code 254 The JavaScript File 255 The Tracking Code Wizard 255 What the GATC Can t Track 257 Google Analytics Cookies 258 The --utma Cookie 258 The --utmb and --utmc Cookies 260 The --utmz Cookie 260 The --utmv Cookie 262 E-Commerce Tracking 262 Enabling E-Commerce Tracking 262 The E-Commerce Tracking Snippet 263 Common E-Commerce Tracking Mistakes 266 Event Tracking 267 Categories, Actions, Labels, and Values 268 Event Tracking Reports 269 Custom Variables 271 Schema and Key/Value Pairs for Custom Variables 272 Custom Variables Reports 273 Common Customizations 274 Virtual Page Views 274 PDF and Other File Downloads 275 Sub-Domain and Cross-Domain Tracking 275 Sub-Domain Tracking 276 Cross-Domain Tracking 276 Modifying Cookie Timeout Values 277 Adding an Organic Search Engine 278 Creating Profiles, Goals, Filters, and Other Settings 279 Creating a Profile 279 Editing Profile Settings 280 Goals, Values, Funnels, and Engagement 280 Filters and Regular Expressions 282 User Management 284 Part IV Google Website Optimizer 285 Chapter 11 Welcome to Google Website Optimizer 287 What Is Google Website Optimizer? 287 How Google Website Optimizer Works 289 A/B Experiments 290 Multivariate (MVT) Experiments 292 Reports and Data Available in Google Website Optimizer 295 A/B Experiment Data 295 Multivariate Experiment Data 297 Creating an A/B Experiment with Google Website Optimizer 298 Step 1: Website Owner Buy-In 298 Step 2: Create a Google Account 298 Step 3: Logging in to Google Website Optimizer 298 Step 4: Choosing the Experiment Type 298 Step 5: Review Experiment Checklist 299 Step 6: Identify Experiment Pages 300 Step 7: Tag Your Experiment Pages 300 Step 8: Review Settings and Launch 301 Step 9: Follow-up Experiments 302 Creating a Multivariate Experiment with Google Website Optimizer 302 Chapter 12 Elementary Statistical Concepts 305 Elementary Statistics 306 Why Is Elementary Statistics Important? 306 Types of Statistical Data 306 Types of Surveys and Samples 309 Histograms and Normal Distributions 310 Mean, Median, Mode, and Midrange 311 Averages and Outliers 312 Standard Deviation and the Range Rule of Thumb 313 Z-Scores 315 Confidence Intervals and Margin of Error 315 How to Approach Your Data After Reading This Chapter 316 Chapter 13 The Technical Side of Google Website Optimizer and Experiment Ideas 319 The Google Website Optimizer Tracking Code 320 Tracking Code for an A/B Experiment 320 Original Page Coding 320 Variation(s) Page Coding 322 Conversion Page Coding 323 Tracking Code for a Multivariate Experiment 324 Test-Page Coding 325 Conversion-Page Coding 326 Creating MVT Combinations and Editing HTML 327 Part V Executing Your Game Plan 329 Chapter 14 Google AdWords and Google Analytics 331 Syncing Google AdWords and Google Analytics 331 Step 1: Administrative Rights 332 Step 2: Destination URL Auto-Tagging 334 Step 3: Syncing and Applying Cost Data 334 The Google AdWords Report Subsection 337 New AdWords Segmentation Options 337 The Overview Screen 339 Campaigns Report 340 Keywords Report 341 Day Parts 342 Destination URLs 343 Placements 343 Keyword Positions 344 TV Ads 344 Other Ways to Combine AdWords and Analytics 345 Importing Your Google Analytics Goals into Google AdWords 345 AdWords Search Funnels Report 346 Running Multiple AdWords Accounts at the Same Time 347 Chapter 15 Google AdWords and Google Website Optimizer 349 Using AdWords for Your Website Optimizer Experiments 350 Experiment: New AdWords, New Landing Pages 350 Experiment: New AdWords, Existing Landing Pages 352 Experiment: Existing AdWords, New Landing Pages 352 Experiment: Existing AdWords, Existing Landing Pages 353 Ideas for Landing-Page Experiments 353 Designing for Usability vs. Designing for Conversions 353 Calls to Action 355 Landing-Page Headlines 357 Selling/Value Propositions 358 Short, Medium, and Long Forms 359 People, Places, and Things 360 Chapter 16 Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer 363 Tracking Code Compatibility 363 Using GA and GWO on One Domain 364 Using GA and GWO on Sub-Domains 365 Analyzing Google Website Optimizer Data in Google Analytics 366 Annotations 367 Advanced Segments 367 Custom Reports 368 All Traffic Sources 369 Map Overlay 370 New vs. Returning 370 Mobile Devices 371 Goals Overview 373 Reverse Goal Path 373 Creating a Duplicate Profile for Your Google Website Optimizer Data 374 Part VI Wrapping It Up 377 Chapter 17 Google Programs to Add to Your Game Plan 379 Programs for Analysis 380 Google Insights for Search 380 Google Trends 384 Programs for Your Website 388 Google Webmaster Tools 388 Google FeedBurner 390 Programs for Advertising 391 Google TV Ads 392 Google Merchant Center 395 Google AdSense 396 Chapter 18 Programs to Add to Your Game Plan Outside Google 399 Manual URL Tagging 399 The Five Query Parameters 400 Tips to Ensure Your Query Parameters Work Properly 403 Pay-per-Click Programs 404 The Yahoo!/Microsoft Search Alliance 404 Ask Sponsored Listings 405 Some Other Tools to Add 406 URL Shorteners 407 Klout 407 Twitalyzer 408 PercentMobile 410 CrazyEgg 411 Appendix A Resources and a Thank-You! 413 Getting in Touch with the Author 413 Thank You, Reader! 414 Google Resources 414 Non-Google Resources 417 Blogs to Subscribe To 421 Index 425

About the Author

Joe Teixeira is Director of Web Intelligence at MoreVisibility and a Google Analytics Certified Partner. He is a leading expert in the field of web analytics, and is Google AdWords Qualified as well as certified in Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN AdCenter.

Reviews

'10/10 , I have rarely gained so much benefit from a technical book...fantastic.' (Bcs.org. March 2011).