Google's Universal Analytics is now available to the public, and some have speculated that it will change the way businesses use data. But, is Universal Analytics (UA) truly a game changer? Many of the benefits promised by UA hinge on two new wrinkles in the platform: 1) the ability to get data into UA from any source, and 2) the shift from tracking visits to tracking visitors. Let’s take a closer look at each: Sending Data To Google Google's new "Measurement Protocol" makes it possible to send data into UA from any device that captures and transmits data. (That's right, any device.  The [...]

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Google Analytics announced today a new administration landing page with upgraded settings that is scheduled to launch during the coming weeks. The latest round of upgrades will make all admin settings accessible from the new administration page under the admin tab, with account, property, and view settings organized into three columns. (Google is now referring to the 'profiles' setting as 'views' in an attempt to match the present and future meaning of what it represents: a view of the data Analytics.) Help content has been relocated under the 'Help' tab near the top right corner of the [...]

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It turns out that for the past roughly 6 years, the US government has been "collecting" or "mining" US citizens' personal data and communications from telcos and Internet companies -- effectively "spying" on US citizens. Those data, it has been alleged, come in large part from direct access to the servers of most of the Internet's biggest brands: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL and others. (Dropbox was apparently cited in leaked documents as “coming soon.”) These bombshell disclosures follow yesterday's discovery that the US government was collecting Verizon telephon [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Facebook: Privacy | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: PRISM | Legal: Privacy | Microsoft: Privacy | Top News

With marketing becoming increasingly programmatic, it is important to leverage every possible metric that can provide insights into customer behavior. For digital marketers, this usually means analyzing site traffic data; but, advertising data can also be used to great value in behavioral analytics. In this article, I show one example of this type of analysis along with the results. Distribution Of Click-To-Conversion Time A metric common in all forms of digital advertising is click-to-conversion time, also known as conversion delay, which is the delay between when the ad was clicked to w [...]

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Google announced the launch of a new API for Content Experiments in Google Analytics to allow developers to test site content with programmatic optimization. The API relies on the the multi-armed bandit approach currently used for Content Experiments, but users can override it to rotate content evenly during experiments or use their own proprietary logic. Other features of the new API include: Testing changes to content without redirects: The original Content Experiments JavaScript snippet causes a page redirect. With the Content Experiments API it is possible to test changes to conte [...]

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Soon you'll be able to share Google Analytics dashboards with other profile users. Google announced that dashboard sharing will be available to all users in the coming weeks. Currently, users can share dashboard template links, which don't pass any traffic data. Template Links are a great option for sharing dashboard configurations you think other Google Analytics users will appreciate. The new dashboard sharing feature is designed to be used among users working on the same account, so you can make sure everyone is keeping an eye on the same key metrics. A new "Share Dashboard" option wil [...]

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According to a recent study conducted by public relations firm Weber Shandwick, 76 percent of executives believe it is a good idea for CEOs to participate on social media networks. Of the executives working for CEOs who use social media, 67 percent believe that it is a good use of their CEO's time. The study revealed that CEOs who are active on social media channels rate significantly higher when it comes to leadership attributes than CEOs who do not leverage social media. When asked which words described their CEO, 43 percent of executives with socially active CEOs labeled their company [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Social Media

Last week, Amazon launched Engagement Reports to help developers monitor app usage metrics. Engagement Report data includes information from the Kindle Fire HD, the new Kindle Fire, and Android devices that use the most recent version of the Amazon store. Tracking daily and monthly active devices, installs, sessions, average revenue per device and retention, the Engagement Reports are free and do not have to be integrated. Users can filter the reports by marketplace, view them as a chart or downloaded as a CSV.  Apps submitted and published after October 25, 2012 will have Engagement Repor [...]

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Google Analytics announced a number of new updates today to Goals, including a new set-up process, new templates, and a new verification option. Goals are created at the profile level, and can be started by navigating to a user's account, property, and profile from the admin tab. Once the correct profile is selected, a user must click Goals and then select Create a Goal to begin the goal set-up flow. New Goals Set-Up Flow Once in the goal set-up flow, users will have access to redesigned templates along with new templates that can be added to an Analytics account. When using a templat [...]

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I have a couple of cool tools in my kitchen: The Aero Press and the Vitamix. I love them both. The Aero Press is a convenient way to make a great cup of morning coffee. It helps me accomplish a habitual practice I engage in each day. But, the Vitamix (a high speed blender) has shifted my understanding and approach to food. I’ve learned to use different types of raw foods to fuel whatever activity I’m about to engage in (tip: try kale for mental clarity). This shift has improved my performance and productivity both mentally and physically (some in my family even point to a sunnier dis [...]

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As we move into an age where personal computing is dominated by mobile devices, there has been a push across the advertising industry for hyper-local advertisements. Targeting consumers with ads tailored to their locale increases the relevance of advertising, focusing on markets that pertain to the environment around the user. However, when it comes to local advertising, not all locations are created equal. The value of locally targeted ads depends heavily on who is searching for what -- and where. Frequency & Efficacy Of Local Ads To gauge the value of locally targeted advertisements [...]

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[caption id="attachment_37768" align="alignright" width="300"] Image via Shutterstock[/caption] Often, you want to look at your metrics over a longer time period than usual in order to identify long-term trends. This is especially true if your metrics are "jagged" and move around a lot. You have two choices: You could use a larger time period. If you usually watch daily metrics, switch to weekly. Or monthly. Or quarterly. This will smooth out your data and will also smooth out directional trends emerging from your data right at the time when you want to catch such changes. You could u [...]

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In response to customer feedback, Google has added more custom filter fields to Google Analytics, giving users more flexibility to modify and limit the traffic data included in profiles. Of the nineteen new fields, nine are mobile related. Three new fields have been added to help filter social traffic. Below is the full list of new filter fields available: Mobile Is a mobile device Is a tablet Mobile brand name Mobile model name Mobile marketing name Mobile pointing method Mobile has QWERTY keyboard? Mobile is NFC supported? Mobile has cellular radio? Mobile has wi [...]

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In the paid search world, ad rank and average cost per click (CPC) are determined by three factors: your own bid (max CPC), your competitors’ bids, and a numeric representation of ad relevance known as quality score. This quality score acts as a modifier, making it possible for an ad with higher “quality” to outrank a competitor’s ad at a lower bid. While the relationship between bids is straightforward to understand, quality score is much more opaque, being affected by many factors such as click-through rate (CTR), keyword and ad copy relevance, quality of landing page, etc. Man [...]

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Google Analytics has launched Conversions to Real-Time reports. Spotted by @RossGraphitas, who says it went live in the UK around 8pm there today, the new report shows real-time activity for all Goal URLs set in your Google Analtyics account. We're seeing it live here in the U.S., as well. Anyone else seeing it in other regions? Postscript: Google has now officially announced the real-time Conversions beta in a blog post.  And it sounds like more features are in the works: An important note, with this first launch we’re introducing URL based goals only. So computed goals such as [...]

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With today's announcement of their viewability measurement tool, Active View, receiving accreditation from the Media Rating Council, Google released new data highlighting CTRs of display ads based on viewability metrics. According to their findings, users are up to 21 times more likely to click on a viewable ad. The viewability metric measures the percentage of an ad that is viewable on screen and the length of time the ad is displayed. To meet the IAB's standard for viewable impressions, at least, 50 percent of the ad must be viewable on screen for one second or longer. After comparing [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: Display Advertising | Marketing Tools: Analytics | Statistics: Online Advertising | Top News

Google is introducing "The Customer Journey to Online Purchase" analytics report today, a new benchmarking tool that provides insight into the various elements impacting a single campaign. Leveraging data from 36,000 of their largest advertisers across 11 different industries in seven countries, Google's new interactive analytics tool offers advertisers a broad view of online buying behaviors and interactions. Using information from Ecommerce and Multi-Channel Funnels, the benchmark data illustrates how buyers move toward a purchase and the length of time it takes to make an online buying de [...]

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Want to understand all the ways that Google Analytics can help you learn how people are interacting with your site? A new "periodic table" may prove useful. Created by Jeff Sauer, the table from his company Jeffalytics covers everything from "As" (AdSense Reports) to even stuff Google Analytics can't report -- "Np" for Not Provided. Here's a look: Be sure to visit the actual Periodic Table of Google Analytics page, where you can get a PDF version of the chart to print, embed code to put the chart on your site plus an interactive version that lets you hover over an element to underst [...]

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As social media becomes an increasingly vital component of marketing strategies, agencies are getting more comfortable with associated social data. For example, analyzing brand mentions and sentiment data is becoming fairly common practice, even among smaller shops. But, as I’ve pointed out earlier, social listening data is just the tip of the iceberg. The variety and volume of data available to marketers keep getting bigger -- and more interesting -- each day. Agencies that know how to harness and use social data creatively will profit and grow; those that do not will be left behind.� [...]

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"Negative" metrics -- you might prefer the term "De-optimization Metrics" -- can be just as important to your continuous optimization efforts as your positive ones. The purpose of a negative metric is to isolate for you the deleterious effects you may inadvertently be having on your positive metrics. A negative metric is not necessarily something you want to get less of. For example, one might mistake "reduce bounce rate" as a negative metric -- but really, it's just a more convenient way to refer to the positive metric of "increasing the un-bounce rate." Rather, a negative metric is someth [...]

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