The whole idea of web analytics is one that has become
increasingly complex (some might call it “detailed”) over the course of the
past several years. Metrics have exploded from simply tracking hits on an
individual web page, regardless of whether they were unique visitors or not.
Now tools like Google Analytics offer free reporting that can provide details
about actions and interactions of each individual visitor from time spent on
the site to search keywords used to get there.
With all
these types of web metrics, it seems as though we can get our hands on nearly
any kind of data regarding the visitors to our pages. I have a hard time
imagining ways to improve on what we currently have at our fingertips. This can
probably be attributed, in part, to the fact that I’m still learning to make
sense of the data that is already available to me! Regardless, analytics
developers are still creating new, valuable metrics. Here is a quick overview
of two of the newest reports on deck.
LogMyCalls
This is the latest development in Google’s Phone CallTracking App Gallery. The new tool allows users to input data on customer phone
call campaigns, integrating this data with web analytics tools at the same time
(PRWeb, 2012). One way the app accomplishes this is by inserting unique phone
numbers in a web page for different referring campaigns. Calls generated
through these numbers can be attributed directly back from those campaigns,
providing a specific referral source within Google’s web analytics platform.
(Website Integration, 2012) This “Dynamic Number Insertion” leads to more
precise analysis of the affect of specific ad campaign elements on web traffic
and, ultimately, conversions.
Browser Size Analysis
This is a new metric tracked by the free Google Analytics
tool. Browser size has become increasingly important to analysts as the number
of different devices used to access the Internet continues to grow. Even
certain classifications of devices such as mobile phones or tablets have very
different ranges of screen resolutions. Of course, screen resolution can
drastically affect the user experience on a website. The new Google Analytics
metric not only provides data about how many visitors are coming to a
particular page with different browser sizes, but it also offers a
visualization tool so that marketers can actually preview what their page looks
like in different browser sizes so they can gain a clear picture of whether
certain page elements like e-commerce buttons may fall outside the viewable
area for some users. (Perez, 2012)
With an ever-changing array of
analytics tools at our fingertips, it’s tough to keep up with the latest
resources available to maximize our marketing impact. I’m sure we’ll soon see
the day where we can track what brand of shirt our website visitors are wearing
when they visit our site so we can draw some new conclusions about our
demographics. (OK, maybe this is a little far-fetched?)
In the end,
I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that these analytical
reports don’t all have to be used at once to be effective at providing insight
into marketing tracking and website optimization. In fact, I would venture to
say that we don’t even need to look at some of these reports to make a positive
impact on our sites’ designs. As we sort through our constantly-changing
toolbox of metrics, let’s keep that in mind!
References:
Perez, J. G. (June 4, 2012). Google Analytics adds
browser-size analysis. PCWorld. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/256818/google_analytics_adds_browsersize_analysis.html
PRWeb. (May 30, 2012). Google Analytics adds LogMyCalls to
Phone Call Tracking App Gallery. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved from http://www.chron.com/business/press-releases/article/Google-Analytics-Adds-LogMyCalls-to-Phone-Call-3595059.php
Website Integration. (2012). LogMyCalls. Retrieved from http://www.logmycalls.com/website-integration
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