Executive Summary
There are two occasions in particular when it is imperative that your Google Analytics account is configured accurately. These are:
- During a migration
- When you’re re-evaluating marketing strategy based on Google Analytics data
In early 2016, our client, Pentasia, had just completed a website migration and were soon to plan their marketing strategy for the remainder of 2016 and into 2017.
A Google Analytics Audit was long overdue.
As such, we worked with Pentasia over a 3-month period, delivering:
- A Google Analytics Audit and follow up Google Analytics Implementation Plan.
- Upgrade of Google Analytics tracking to Universal Analytics from Classic Analytics via Google Tag Manager.
- A review of all existing Goals and Events and configuration and testing of new Goals and Events, implemented via Google Tag Manager.
The Result
Pentasia were able to move into 2017 with confidence in knowing that they were collecting accurate data and tracking all the important user conversions and interactions on their new website, resulting them being able to make better, well-informed marketing decisions.
“SiteVisibility’s Google Analytics work gave us trust in our data. We’ve got visibility of the customer touchpoints that matter to our business which means we can track the performance of our site and ongoing digital marketing campaigns.”John Doyle - Group Head of Marketing & Operations - The Conexus Group
Challenges
At the time, Pentasia had limited Google Analytics governance, meaning that their Google Analytics configuration hadn’t been checked or upgraded at the actual time of the migration.
- They needed to upgrade from Classic to Universal Analytics.
When we came to audit Pentasia’s Google Analytics account later in the year, we found they were still using the old Classic Google Analytics code, which meant that they weren’t benefitting from all the additional features of Universal Analytics.
- They were wholly dependent on their developers for Analytics implementation.
Pentasia’s marketing team were fully dependent on their developers for adding and editing site code, including any Analytics changes. Pentasia wanted the flexibility of being able to make future Analytics changes without the need to involve their development team.
- Goals and Events were not being tracked correctly or at all.
During our audit we found that a high percentage of Pentasia’s core website objectives were not tracked as Goals or Events. In addition to this, the existing Event tracking that had been set up, was not configured in a way that was easy to interpret when it came to reporting.
How We Helped
In order to overcome these challenges, we planned the following three phases of work with Pentasia.
- To undertake a Google Analytics Audit followed by an Implementation Plan.
As part of Pentasia’s new website launch and need to revisit strategy, they wanted to:
- Understand any current Google Analytics configuration issues
- Understand any potential Google Analytics enhancements that should be implemented
- Ensure that the new website’s micro and macro user interactions were tracked correctly as Goals and Events
- Upgrade to Universal Analytics (and Google Tag Manager in the process)
Our starting point was to undertake a Google Analytics Audit to review all the critical Google Analytics configuration settings. The goal of our audit was simply to:
- Identify any current misconfigurations and fix them
- Identify any potential configuration enhancements
- Understand the severity of any spam traffic currently impacting the account
- Configure the necessary filters and segments required to filter out Spam and Ghost traffic
- Understand the current tracking status of Goals and Events
The outcome of the audit was an Implementation Plan. This is our version of a Google Analytics project plan, designed to map out all the steps needed in order to correctly configure a Google Analytics account and make it easier to report on marketing performance in the future.
- Upgrade to Universal Analytics via Google Tag Manager.
Classic Analytics is a legacy version of Google Analytics and was replaced by Universal Analytics in late 2012.
Pentasia had yet to upgrade to Universal Analytics and so as part of our implementation plan with them, we planned the upgrade to Universal Analytics via Google Tag Manager.
Setting up Google Tag Manager as part of this process also allowed us to solve Pentasia’s problem of being heavily dependent on their development team.
- Plan, configure, test and implement Goals and Events using Google Tag Manager.
Once Google Tag Manager had been set-up and configured to track Google Analytics, we could then move on to planning and configuring the websites micro and macro conversion points in the form of Goals and Events.
We kicked off this process with an open discussion with Pentasia about their business and website goals and then started to break down these goals in the form of interactions that could be tracked in Google Analytics.
Using a combination of Google Tag Manager and Google Tag Assistant, we were then able to implement, test, debug and configure new Goals and Events to reflect the new website’s key conversion points.
All of the above was completed within a three month period.
The Outcome: How this helped Pentasia
The Google Analytics project undertaken with Pentasia gave them the reassurance and confidence to make marketing decisions based on trusted and accurate data. They were able to move forward into improved reporting and measurement planning and with the switch to Google Tag Manager, no longer have to go through their developers to make simple Google Analytics changes.
Future Plans
Pentasia now take full ownership of their Google Analytics accounts and have invested in internal training and Analytics governance.
If you’d like to discuss how we could help you with your Google Analytics account, please feel free to call us on 01237 733433 or contact us using the form below. Our team will be happy to talk!