Have you ever driven around an unfamiliar neighbourhood for hours, searching without a GPS for your destination? Well, running a website without the Google analytics plugin is just like driving around in a new neighbourhood without a GPS; you keep running in circles, end up depleting your fuel and time while going nowhere near your destination. However, if you are operating an e-commerce website, that analogy might be putting it lightly.
Think about all the effort and time that you could have saved if you had a clear idea of who should be your target audience and how to guide them to purchase a product. And let’s not forget all the revenues that you will get if you had the right set of data and a way to analyze them to work in your favour. There is a straightforward solution to all this trouble, you can collect and manage all your data with a simple plugin- Google analytics.
When it comes to digital marketing, Google analytics is your one-stop solution. To be precise, it is unthinkable to be in the e-commerce business and do not know about Google analytics. In this article, we will explore how you can use Google analytics to work in your favor.
What Is Google Analytics (GA)?
Google Analytics is a web analytic tool that helps to track and analyze your website traffic. Although this concept might sound simple, there is an ocean of opportunity waiting for you with Google analytics. Google Analytics can provide all the data related to your website. Developed by Google back in 2005, this free tool (there is a paid version named Google Analytics 360) is now being used by millions of Ecommerce websites around the world.
With this plugin, you can have this essential information for your website-
-How many visitors visit your website?
-Where are they coming from? (Such as Google, Facebook, YouTube)
-How long do they stay on your website?
-What pages do they visit?
-Visitors’ demographic profile (such as gender, age, country, etc)
-what type of device was used by the visitor
How Google Analytics Works?
To present you with the data about your website traffic, Google Analytics has to collect the data. It can collect data in several different ways- the most popular one being by a tracking code. When you install Google Analytics, a tracking code is attached to every page of your website.
Whenever a user interacts with your website, it is done through a browser; the browser used by the visitor goes to your website. Google Analytics has no other option to collect user interaction data than this browser. To retrieve this browser data, Google Analytics can use the HTTP request from the user, system information, or use first-party cookies. Along with the tracking code and browser data, Google Analytics can capture every little information about user behavior (down to their screen resolution) on your site and store it on the Google Analytics server.
You can view a finished report of this datum once they are processed. However, this information collection doesn’t violate user privacy as they stay anonymous; with a unique tracking, ID attached to their browser.
How You Can Use Google Analytics for Boosting Ecommerce Sale?
In digital marketing, there is no boundary in how many ways you can use Google Analytics’ data in your favor. From tracking your web traffic to optimizing your content you can accomplish all that and more with Google Analytics. Here we have discussed some of the ways you can use Google Analytics for boosting your e-commerce sale.
Understand Your Audiences’ Interest
Every visitor browses the website with a purpose, to find what they want. To cater to their needs, you can use Google Analytics’ demographic data to determine their interest. With the affinity category report, which categorizes users according to their interests, you can even customize your marketing strategy. If you can analyze this data and find a connection to user interest and your sales rate, you will eventually be able to boost your sale.
Track Your Web Traffic
Web traffic is the number of visitors to your website. By tracking your web traffic you can find where your visitors are coming from. With Google Analytics you can track all sorts of traffic, from, organic, referral, direct, social media, or email traffic. Once you know which sources are directing the most traffic to your site, you can focus on boosting your presence on that source.
Understand User Experience
There are some processes involved in e-commerce that lead to a sale. To understand at what step your visitor stops interacting with your website, you can use Google Analytics behavior flow data. It can identify at what page users lose their interest by not finding what they are looking for. Then it becomes easier for you to work on those weak points; making your website more engaging to the visitors and propel them towards a sale.
Measure Lead Conversion Time
Whenever a visitor is successfully guided to take any action, it is called a conversion. The action can be purchasing a product or signing up for your website newsletter. By knowing how much time or interaction it took for a lead to convert, you will be able to determine what sort of marketing tactics works for you- longer or shorter. From the Google Analytics path length report, you can identify this and know where you need to focus.
Optimize Your Content
There must be an on-site search button built into your website. Google Analytics allows you to see what users are searching on your website; with the exact keywords and products. As a seller, you can use it to your advantage in many different ways. One way to make it useful is to optimize your website content according to those keywords.
Track Your Marketing Campaigns
If you are running marketing campaigns in different Media you can track its progress with Google Analytics. For example, if you are running a marketing campaign with a YouTube video, you can track how many people were guided to your site after watching the video. You can also incorporate Google AdWords or Google AdSense to better track your marketing campaign.
To conclude, the concept of Google Analytics might seem complicated at a first glimpse; but once you get the hang of it and understand how much potential it holds for your e-commerce business, you can’t proceed without it. However, Google Analytics presents you only the data; and to be honest, loads of them.
You need to know how to sort them out and use them in your favour. Connecting this data with your sales conversion rate is what matters most in E-commerce. To the right person, this data can be a goldmine with countless sales and revenue but if you can’t figure out their proper use, they are completely useless. So, you better learn how to use Google Analytics to find that goldmine of yours!