Microsoft has recently launched the new Live.com search engine. Currently, when you search on MSN.com (or msn.co.uk, or any other regional variation) your search results are shown on the live.com domain. However, if a user clicks on an organic link to visit your site, then they will not be tracked as an organic search engine referral because live.com is not yet in the list of search engines that Google Analytics recognises.

You can fix this yourself simply by adding a line to the page tag that tells GA what to look out for when it sees a referral from Live.com. Just add

_uOsr[20]=”search.live.com”; _uOkw[20]=”q”;

to your page tag, so it looks like this:

<script src=”http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
_uacct = “UA-xxxx-x”;
_uOsr[20]=”search.live.com”; _uOkw[20]=”q”;
urchinTracker();
</script>

Once you have the extra search engine listed in your page tag, Google Analytics will recognise Live.com as a search engine and the organic search keyword data will also be tracked (PPC links, as long as they are already tagged, should be okay as they are).

There were some teething problems with Live.com that meant there was no referral data at all being passed from MSN/Live.com for the last few days (and this will show in your reports as a drop in traffic from msn.com) but this has now been fixed.

No doubt Google will add Live.com to the next update of the urchin.js file, but until then ensure you have the most correct referral data by adding Live.com to your list of search engines.

With the recent launch of Microsoft’s new paid advertising (PPC) service in the UK, we wanted to highlight how the online marketing tracking features in Google Analytics can be integrated with the new service.

The basic principle is the same for tracking other non-AdWords campaigns, i.e. adding the Google tracking variables to your destination URLs, so the first step is to identify your campaign variables:

Then you append these variables to your existing Destination URL - e.g. http://www.mysite.com/landing_page.htm becomes:
http://www.mysite.com/landing_page.htm?utm_source=MS_UK&
utm_medium=ppc&amp;amp;utm_term=keyword&utm_content=content1&
utm_campaign=campaign_name

Google provides a helpful URL Builder tool to facilitate the building of Campaign Tracking URLs.

There are also a few important issues with Microsoft adCenter in particular:

1) Use Internet Explorer. Even though MS have updated adCenter to support other browsers, our experience would indicate that the most reliable results are obtained from Explorer.

2) Dynamic Keyword Insertion. It is possible to use dynamic variables to insert your exact keywords as the utm_term value by using the adCenter value of {param1}, but you will still need to upload the list of {param1} values manually. This can be a complex process and is recommended only for experienced PPC users managing large campaigns.

3) Uploading your Campaign Tracking URLs. You can either add each URL manually, or if you have large numbers of keyword-specific URLs then you can upload this data from a pre-configured spreadsheet. The latter course of action is, again, complex and not readily understood from the on-screen instructions. Basically, in Step 2. - Ads, select ‘Keyword Destination URL‘ from the Destination URL dropdown. Then in Step 3. - Keywords, select ‘Import or Export Keywords‘ and upload the completed spreadsheet with the Campaign Tracking URLs in column F (Keyword Destination URL {param1})

4) Cost Data - As with other non-AdWords online marketing campaigns, you cannot import cost data into Google Analytics.

Overall, Microsoft’s adCenter looks like a valuable addition to the armoury of the online marketer. There still seem to be a few kinks to work out in the management console itself, but as long as you are tagging your links using the technique described above then Google Analytics can analyse how successful adCenter is at bringing traffic and creating conversions for your website. For more information on how to interpret the data in your reports, we recommend the Top 10 Google Analytics Reports for Search Engine Marketers whitepaper.

If you require assistance setting up an adCenter campaign or migrating an existing PPC campaign to adCenter, then GA Experts’ parent company, Omega Digital Media, has a range of PPC management services that can help.

In a recent announcement to Authorised Consultants and on the Official GA Blog, the team behind GA have declared Google Analytics open to everyone. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the engineering team it is now possible to open a Google Analytics account online with no delays. If you have an AdWords account then you can click on the ‘Analytics’ tab within your account to sign up or just visit http://www.google.com/analytics/.

When you are ready to set up your account there are lots of resources to help you, such as the Installation Guide and all the info in the Google Analytics Help Centre. There are also the resources here on our own blog and we run Google Analytics training courses as well. In the USA we can recommend ROI Revolution and Justin Cutroni’s blog and there is also the GA Google Group as a starting point for questions. Finally, don’t forget the network of Google Analytics Authorised Consultants and their wide range of professional services.

e-consultancy has just published an interview with Brian Clifton, the European Head of Web Analytics at Google. In it, Brian talks about the importance of the relationship between Google Analytics and Google AdWords, and how improving the effectiveness of AdWords campaigns is the driving force behind the free availability of Google Analytics. He also addresses the privacy concerns that keep appearing about Google’s access to your web analytics data, how Google as a whole views GA, and talks about the Google support network - drawing attention to the network of Google Analytics Authorised Consultants (of which GA Experts is one) and the other resources Google provides for support. Read the article at e-consultancy.com

Google Analytics has opened up the world of web analytics to a host of new users, so we thought it might be worth running over some of the basics of why people use web analytics. After all, there’s not a lot of use in slaving over a hot keyboard for weeks to configure your analytics only to sit back, look at your perfectly formed data and suddenly realise you don’t know what to do with it now that you have it.

So welcome to the concept of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) - basically measurements designed to assess performance. You might be familiar with these from other areas of business management and the principle is the same, but we can see their role in web analytics using the traditional mantra:

What KPI’s should I use?
Your choice of KPI’s depends on your business goals as well as who is going to be reading and acting on the data. There are some obvious Key Performance Indicators, but remember that KPI’s are best established as percentages or ratios. Raw numbers mean nothing unless they are put in context. Similarly, KPI’s should be measured over time. Web analytics is not (yet) a perfect science and no WA system can track all your users with 100% accuracy, therefore good analysts must look at trends and changes over time. Some common KPI’s:

• Conversion Rates (Analysed by conversion, visitor type and visitor source (e.g. PPC))
• Cost per Conversion/ROI/ROAS
• Visitor Numbers & ‘Stickiness’
• Visitor Type/Quality
• SEO/SEM Effectiveness
• Internal Search/Exit Rates/Length & Depth of Visits (Measures of how good your site is at providing relevant information)

If you have already set up goals and conversion tracking in Google Analytics then you’ve already got a starting point for your KPI’s. If not, you really need to do this. Every website must have goals, or why have a site?

How do I measure KPI’s?
Get the data into your application of choice (we recommend a good spreadsheet program) then keep plugging the data into your formulas, week after week, month after month. Good analysis is an ongoing process, so set targets and assess whether any changes you make are improving your KPI’s or not. However, don’t get carried away - once you start looking there are hundreds of possible KPI’s. As Eric Peterson says in his highly recommended “Big Book of KPI’s” (see below):

“No KPI Report should have more than a handful of metrics, two handfuls at most“

Google Analytics & Your KPI’s
There is a strong relationship between Key Performance Indicator’s and website goals, so the first thing to do is check that your goals are configured correctly, whether they are conversion goals or ecommerce transactions. Once this is done you can look at some of the dashboards GA provides, which show data trends - Conversion Summary, Marketing Summary & Content Summary:

Then you need to get your data out of GA and into a spreadsheet. Use GA’s export options for this:

KPI’s are a vital element of the whole web analytics process. If you need help establishing, measuring and interpreting yours, GA Experts provides professional services for Google Analytics and our consultants can help you establish which KPI’s are crucial for your business.

Other resources:
Eric Peterson’s “Big Book of Key Performance Indicators”
Yahoo! web analytics forum (KPI’s are a common topic of conversation for web analytics aficionados).

GA Experts have just released a new whitepaper covering the most important Google Analytics Reports for Online & Search Engine Marketers. Whether you manage a Google AdWords campaign, a wider paid advertising campaign or are just tagging your newsletters, these reports will tell you how your online marketing is performing. These are the key questions answered in the whitepaper:

• Where can I see a summary of all my marketing data in one view?
• Where can I see total sales revenue from AdWords and other online marketing sources?
• How can I see an overview of how my PPC advertising is performing?
• How can Google Analytics help me choose my keywords?
• How can I compare my PPC advertising with my organic listings?
• How can I see where my AdWords ads appear on Google search results pages?
• Where can I see ROI and conversion data for my online marketing?
• How can I relate my E-Commerce transactions to my online marketing?
• How do I discover which campaigns are driving traffic to a particular page?
• Where can I see how much traffic comes from content partners?

To download the whitepaper, please visit our Whitepapers section.

Hot on the heels of the recently released AdWords Analysis Report is a new AdWords Keywords Position Report. It is now possible to examine which positions your AdWords adverts are appearing in, and which have the best conversion rates. Then you can use the Position Preference function in AdWords to ensure your ads are placed where they create the best results. This is a tremendous resource for all AdWords users.

You can see this report under Marketing Optimisation -> Search Engine Marketing, and it contains data on the conversion data and $/Visit values for your ads segmented by ad position.

This is designed to work with the new Position Preference function in AdWords. Position Preference means AdWords will try to show your ad whenever it is ranked in your preferred position and to avoid showing it when it is not. More info on Position Preference is available from the AdWords Help Centre.

“Where do your AdWords ads appear on Google search results pages? How does each position convert for your particular keywords? Drill down from any keyword to see its display position: T1 through T3 indicate that your ad was promoted to the top of the search results page. Positions 1 and higher indicate a position in the right-hand location.“

In person, at conferences, on the phone and over the web, we hear a lot of people talking about Google Analytics. Unfortunately not all of it is well-informed, so here for the record are our Top 10 Google Analytics Myths, and why you shouldn’t belive everything you hear:

1. Google Analytics is for home users only
2. GA uses third party cookies
3. Google doesn’t provide any support for GA
4. Google Analytics slows your website down
5. GA is only a Google AdWords tool - “it’s the next version of Conversion Tracker”
6. You can only get Google Analytics if you have an AdWords account
7. Google will use conversion data to fiddle the auction system of AdWords
8. Google Analytics is free because they will charge you later when you are locked in
9. Google will use your data to sell more adverts
10. GA is free because they are farming the data for industry trends, ROI, conversion metrics, PageRank, etc.

1) Google Analytics is for home users only
Wrong. GA is a scaleable web analytics solution that can adapt itself to any user. We’ve implemented GA for multinationals as well as SME’s, and the GA client list contains names like General Electric and The Financial Times. Just because Google Analytics is free, doesn’t mean it’s small time - it just means that with GA, everyone can get access to enterprise-class web analytics.

2) GA uses third party cookies
Just plain wrong. This is a favourite line propagated by the competition (running scared since GA was released). GA uses first party cookies and that means accurate reporting, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Our whitepaper on web analytics data collection - explains the importance of using first party cookies.

3) Google doesn’t provide any support for GA
Way off again. Not only is there online support here - http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/request.py. But there’s a global network of authorised consultants providing support in 16 languages (http://www.google.com/analytics/support_partner_provided.html). Google Authorised Analytics Consultants (GAACs) provide support, training and consultation on all aspects of GA. The theory behind the GAAC program is for Google to spend its money on making the best web analytics package it can, and making it available for free, whilst you spend your money on the most difficult part of the problem - interpreting the data.

An influential post from Avinash Kaushik highlights this problem. To summarise - ditch your expensive analytics vendor, get a GA account and spend the money on analysis. We couldn’t agree more.

4) GA slows your website down
Err, well okay, maybe slightly, but we’re talking about milliseconds. GA works by page tagging, and any time you add more content to a web page, it will increase loading times. However if you follow best practice (adding the tag before the </body> tag) then your page will load first. Also, bear in mind that any page tag based web analytics package (which is the majority)
will work the same way.

5) GA is only a Google AdWords tool - “it’s the next version of Conversion Tracker”
In a way, it is the next version of Conversion Tracker, but that’s like saying that a Rolls-Royce is the next version of a Model T Ford. GA is the Google version of Urchin-on-Demand, a product of the Urchin company bought by Google in 2005. As such, it was a popular and highly regarded web analytics solution capable of tracking any online marketing even before it was integrated with Google AdWords.

6) You can only get Google Analytics if you have an AdWords account
Not at all. Anyone can apply for a Google Analytics account, whether or not you are using AdWords. Admittedly, if you don’t have an AdWords account you are limited to 5 million pageviews per month, but then all you have to do is open an AdWords account (£5.00) and that restriction is lifted. This is a world class web analytics product. For free. That’s not too much
to ask is it?

7) Google will use conversion data to fiddle the auction system of AdWords
Just not true. The Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy prevent this and besides, why risk it when the system is working so well?

Google is free because they will charge you later when you are locked in
Although we can’t read the minds of the Google people, and they love to bowl googlies (Wiki:Googly) every once in a while, this just doesn’t make sense. There is a partner product to GA, called Urchin Software, which is a paid product designed for in-house use and the two products complement each other nicely. There’s just no need to charge for GA.

9) Google will use your data to sell more adverts
Nope. Google’s privacy policy is clearly written out here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy.html. We’ve read it so you don’t have to, and it’s a lot more strict than many of the other online services you might have signed up for. Think about it - Google’s high public profile means that if they get this issue even slightly wrong, the whole world will know about it.

10) Google is free because they are farming the data for industry trends, ROI, conversion metrics, PageRank, etc.
As Authorised Google Analytics Consultants, we have been assured by a senior source at Google that this is just not going to happen:

“… knowing your conversion rates and ROI is great for your business - you the client need to know this. And its important to you that you maximise ROI to your best potential. However this is of no interest to Google, beyond the fact that Google are happy that you are using their tool to perform the task. Benchmarking clients is the job of third parties, Google does not offer this service.” Dr. Brian Clifton, Head of European Web Analytics at Google

In order for the AdWords system to work there has to be trust between the advertisers and Google themselves, and Google is never going to sacrifice that trust just for a few more dollars when the system is working so well for all concerned the way it is now.

So that’s our Top Ten - let us know if you’ve heard any other GA myths that need de-bunking.

Two significant recent developments:

• Google has upgraded the way in which AdWords and Google Analytics manage time. Firstly, you can now set the global time zone in both AdWords and GA.
• Closely related to this is the facility to choose the time of day when your AdWords ads run.

For example, if your website’s goal is to generate phone enquiries, but only during working hours, then you are now able to run your ads from 9am to 5pm in your local time zone, or you can raise your bids for certain time periods. If you set your time zone in AdWords, it is also applied to a linked Analytics account. The serving of ads at specific times of day is known as “dayparting“, and it can be a highly effective PPC management technique.

Of course, in order to establish whether or not you should use dayparting, you need a good web analytics package. Some of the key questions to answer:

1) When is your traffic visiting your site?
2) When is the traffic converting best?

Sometimes the two are not the same - many of our PPC management clients ask us to turn off their ads when they have few clickthroughs. But the number isn’t as important as the conversion rate - you may have fewer clickthroughs, but are they converting better? In Google Analytics, you can set the date range view to hourly and then check your conversion reports (Content Optimisation -> Goals & Funnel Process -> Goal Conversion) to establish when conversions are highest and whether dayparting might be useful for your site.

The example below shows that the best converting time of day for this goal is 4-6pm. If you raise your CPC budget for this time period you’ll attract more of your best converting customers.

Click for a larger image

Remember, dayparting isn’t suitable for everyone - use your web analytics.

Recent posts to the Web Analytics Forum in Yahoo, as well as the general buzz in the web analytics community would seem to indicate that Google are making good on their commitment to ramping up capacity for Google Analytics.

When the Google Analytics was first released as a free product, the demand was massive - way more than Google were expecting. So to maintain the quality of the user experience the invitation code system was implemented. It was never meant to be a permanent fixture, and now it looks like the wait for a code is really coming down. Examples:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/webanalytics/message/6787

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/webanalytics/message/6952?l=1

You can apply for your Invitation Code directly at Google:
http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html