Google Analytics Setup Guide

Today we are looking at Google Analytics together. I would like to show you the most important functions of Google Analytics in a practical, short guide. Now we will look at what you can use Analytics for and which metrics you should keep in mind at the beginning.

WHY we use Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to measure important metrics about our site, such as page views, events that occur, session duration, bounce rates, and generally the behavior of people on our site.

HOW we use Google Analytics

I mainly use Google Analytics to monitor the above metrics and use them for optimization purposes. It is important to know that you can obtain a lot of data in Google Analytics. I have learned that it makes sense to focus only on important metrics and not too much on unimportant ones. You’ re quickly tempted to optimize on the basis of insignificant data. Here, less is more.

WHAT we use Analytics for

In particular, we will use Google Analytics metrics such as…

• page views
• duration of sessions
• bounce rates
• occurring events
• device usage
• behavior on the page
• source of the user

…measure. As mentioned above, there are many more metrics you can look at. But first we want to focus on the most important ones. In addition to the above metrics, there are also conversions (e.g. purchases), which we can track via analytics and display in a meaningful context. We will look at this later.

How Google Analytics works

To make it simple: Google Analytics is built into our website via a code snippet. This code snippet now reads the data on our website (or tracks it). The tracked data is now forwarded to Google Analytics. There, the data is visualized via the interface and prepared in a way that is comprehensible for us.

Here you can see how to integrate Google Analytics on your website. We’ll now look together at how the Google Analytics interface is structured and where we find which data.

Overview of Google Analytics – the 5 report groups

The interface of Google Analytics is divided into the following 5 report groups:

• Real-time
• target audience
• aquisition
• demeanor
• target actions

These report groups give us access to all the metrics we need. Let’s start with the first group real-time:

1. Real Time

As the name suggests, we can see in real time what is happening on the site.
Why is this important? When we set up and test tracking for our site, it is often helpful to see which events, pages are currently active.

We also see how many people are online on the site and how they behave on the page. This is especially interesting during a launch to see if everything works as desired.

2. Audience

In the first step not yet so important for us. Here we see general information about the people who visit our site. This also includes the location and demographic interests as well as the device used (the former is important to understand in which kind of format your site is most frequently viewed – keyword optimization for mobile).

3. Acquisition

One of the most important tabs in Analytics is – where do my visitors come from? Here we can see in detail where the visitors on the site come from (source). This is especially important to understand which traffic sources works best. Later we learn which sources are most profitable for us (event & conversion tracking in Google Analytics).

4. Behavior

It is equally important to find out how visitors behave on the site. Practical tools such as the behavioral flow allow us to understand, how visitors move around the site. We can see which pages are viewed one after the other and where people get off. We can also see what events have occurred on the site. These can be e.g. page views, target actions or button clicks.

5. Conversions

We can have our target projects displayed in a funnel visualization under Conversions. If you sell e-commerce products, you can also view detailed information on purchases, transactions and sales via e-commerce tracking.

Here you will find the most important metrics in Google Analytics

I would like to show you a compact overview where you can find which data in Analytics.

Important at this point is that you can find the same metrics in many instances in Analytics. The reason for this is that it makes sense to look at metrics from different perspectives (in different relations). For example: the duration of the sessions, in connection with other data of the user: session duration measured at the channel (source), session duration based on the used device…

Therefore I would like to show you a small selection of paths, which I use particularly frequently for analysis purposes:

Get more data using the secondary dimension

In Google Analytics, we can display data from UTM parameters in addition to the standard data, e.g. campaign data. The function with which we can do this is the secondary dimension.

The secondary dimension allows us to add more metrics. In the example above, you can see which media was used for the Google Ads campaigns. In this case CPC stands for Cost Per Click – the medium of the campaign.

Other secondary dimensions that I often add for analysis purposes:

• Medium
• Source
• Campaign

Advanced features in Google Analytics

Creating Goals

A useful function in GA is to create goals. Why do we do this? It allows us to measure what targets have been triggered on our website. In our case, we want to see how often someone has subscribed to a newsletter on our site. We can easily create this – and visualize it in a funnel.

Create a goal funnel in Google Analytics:

Step 1: We click on “Goals”

You can find the target by clicking on the cogwheel, Admin, on the corresponding button (see picture).

Step 2: Now we select “Create new target”.

Step 3: We select a suitable template

You can also click on “Custom” to create your own configuration. This works almost the same.

Step 4: Identify the goal

You give the goal a distinct and meaningful name – e.g. Signup for newsletter “XY”. Then you choose your configuration method. If you would like to measure via a thank you page, select “destination”. If you have an event you want to measure, you can select “Event”.

Note: Currently it is only possible to create a funnel based on destinations. At the moment, funnel visualization with events are not possible in GA.

Step 5: Configure the Goal

Now indicate the goal of the thank you page you want to measure. In our example we have a landing page and a thank you page. The thank you page will be opened after you have successfully subscribed to the newsletter. We set the funnel so that it only measures when all steps are taken in this order by the visitor.

Note: Once you have created the goal, you can no longer delete it! You can pause, rename, reconfigure the target – but you can’t delete it from Google Analytics anymore.

Step 6: Open the Funnel Visualisation

Step 7: Evaluate the Funnel Visualisation

After some time, once we’ve measured some of the targets we’ve reached, your funnel should look something like this. We can now see how many people have successfully registered via the landing page. At the same time we see where the people came from and where they went after they left the landingpage. That is important!

Create events

Events are another possibility to visualize specific target actions in Analytics. An event is displayed in Google Analytics when a trigger defined by us triggers and passes an event to GA.

WHY do we use events?

To measure target actions. Events are always used when I want to measure more than just page views. Example: We have a landing page with a prominent CTA (Call to Action). We want to see how often the button is clicked. Now put a trigger on the button and use the GTM (Google Tag Manager) to define an event that should be passed to us as soon as the button is pressed.

WHAT do we use events for?

Practical usage examples are:

• Measuring Button Clicks/ Link Clicks
• Capture interactions with video content

UTM parameters – making incoming links measurable

In order to evaluate your campaign data in GA, it makes sense to attach UTM tags to your incoming links. In short: what are UTM tags? A UTM tag is an addition to your incoming URL to your website. This addition contains parameters of the source, the medium and other parameters. This allows you to search for this data within the secondary dimension of Google Analytics.

Example: https://mywebsite.com/?utm_source=FacebookAds&utm_medium=impressions&utm_campaign=MyTestCampagne

Add Google Analytics tracking code to your own page

There are basically two ways you can install the tracking code on your site:

• Manual
• via the Google Tag Manager (recommended)

I recommend the installation via the Google Tag Manager. Why? With the GTM you can centrally add code and tags to your website, WITHOUT having to touch the code every time and update your page – which is nice.

Possibility 1: Install the code manually (not recommended).

To install the tracking code on your site, go to the header area of your website and place the code directly after the <header> tag. If you want to do this, you can read the instructions here (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008080?hl=en)

2nd option: Insert the code via the Google Tag Manager (recommended)

If you have the Google Tag Manager installed on your site, you can easily and quickly install Google Analytics on your site. If you don’t have the GTM installed on your site yet, I recommend you do it now (this is how you install the Google Tag Manager on your website).

Did you like this Google Analytics Guide? Let me know with a comment.

On this page I share my learnings with you. You have found a better/ faster/ more effective way to do what I explain? Let me know at hi@founder-hacks.com – I am happy to improve the article! Let’s grow together!