Campaign Data Issue Being Corrected

Campaign Data Issue Being Corrected: "

Late last week, we made a change that caused some visits and campaign data to be processed incorrectly. All data was properly collected, but your reports may currently be missing some visits and campaigns information for the dates June 24th through June 29th. We are reprocessing this data and expect to have all report data corrected by early in the week of July 12th.

The impact of the incorrect processing will vary by site. Sites that receive a large number of new visitors and new campaigns have been most affected. Again, we are reprocessing, and all reports will soon be corrected. We will update the blog once reprocessing has completed and data in all accounts is correct.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and are taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Google Analytics Team

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New Edition Of A Great Book

New Edition Of A Great Book: "A few years ago, Brian Clifton was working at Google in London, leading our team in Europe. Since then, he's left to focus on growing his own Google Analytics Certified Partner called GA Experts From Omega Digital Media and written a fantastic book called Advanced Web Metrics With Google Analytics, which has just released a new edition. According to Brian, here's what's changed in the new edition:
'Since the first edition was published in 2008, a lot has changed - both for Google Analytics and the web as a whole. Remember two years ago hardly anyone had heard of Twitter. In that time Google Analytics has integrated with AdSense and Feedburner, launched event tracking, advanced segments, Intelligence alerts, motion charts, custom reporting, custom variables and the data export API. The new edition covers using all of these in detail from a practitioners point of view and with as many real-world examples as I could muster.'

It's very well written and readable with screenshots - a great resource for all things Google Analytics. Ways to get the book:Order from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or direct from Wiley the publisher, or buy the PDF ebook




Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Use Case: Twiddy & Company

Use Case: Twiddy & Company: "We’re excited to hear from users that are able to attribute some incredible growth to Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer, and many of the other tools we offer. Today, we’re taking a quick look at Twiddy & Company, which uses Google Analytics on a daily basis to optimize their website. They are one of our best examples of using marketing tools from Google to generate skyrocket growth. If you run a business, we think you'll enjoy this story and be inspired - it's like a blueprint for using Google Analytics for a successful SMB that relies on their website. Make sure you read to the metaphor they use around bounce rate - we love it!


Also, Twiddy & Company was also recently featured in a CNN Small Business Article, where they shared their success in using Kampyle, which uses the Google Analytics API to analyze web analytics and user feedback.


Meet Doug Twiddy

Doug Twiddy started selling real estate in 1978 in the sleepy village of Duck, North Carolina. After selling a few oceanfront lots, the owners built a few homes and asked the question “can you rent out my home when I’m not using it?” Today, Twiddy & Company manages 860 vacation rental homes on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. These homes range from a 23 bedroom oceanfront on 20 acres to a 3 bedroom soundfront.


We sat and talked with Doug at length, and here's what's important to him, in his own words.

Favorite Reports
“Before Google Analytics, we only knew half of the working equation. Now that e-commerce tracking is installed, we can see the complete formula and it illuminates the true end result. Before we were following indicative numbers, now we can follow the most fundamental and necessary ingredient in all of business. Top Content is also especially useful at highlighting the exact exposure an individual home receives. This feature has created an all out addiction for home owners. Now their first question in relation to their performance is how many visitors their individual home has received.

Bounce rate is also a must-have for us. It’s the online equivalent of the human senses. We know a higher bounce rate means that something on that page doesn’t smell, look, or taste good.”


How Analytics has changed their approach in analyzing the website

“Google Analytics is our compass in terms of allocating our resources. It allows an evolution of marketing. The more successful ideas draw more time and capital. Even the non productive ideas yield educational lessons. In many instances, we learn more from a quick failure than a slow success.”

How they tested changes on the website

“We’ve recently started testing with Google Website Optimizer. How did we ever survive without this? Our old testing setup was an elementary A/B test but Google Website Optimizer engaged the hyper drive. David Booth at Webshare helped us get started and the results quickly produced the laughter of humility. The variables are now part of our secret sauce. Not only did it make it easier, it made it more successful in an exponential fashion.”

How Google Analytics has changed their company

“Google Analytics gives Twiddy the tools to outperform the market; the metrics for successful marketing. One of the unforeseen benefits includes the hospitality of the phone calls. By examining what the visitors are looking for online, Twiddy is able to produce more relevant content online that decreases the redundancy of questions for the reservationists. The reservationists now can focus on the more personal side of the vacation experience and guests can fulfill their desire to research the choices and arrive at a very intelligent decision.

Google Analytics has had a very tangible impact on the success of the company. It’s become ingrained into the daily routine and crucial to the marketing strategy. General Patton had the 3rd Army, Twiddy & Company has Google Analytics.”




We congratulate Twiddy & Company on their success. If you find yourself in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, be sure to stop by their offices and say hello.


Posted by Ashish Vij, Google Analytics Team

The Power of Multiple Custom Variables, part 2

At first glimpse, the dashboard numbers confirm that the Spanish-speaking customers who visited the wedding registry and looked at suits is more likely to buy than the English-speaking customers who visited the same store sections! This is invaluable feedback to report back to your marketing team.

Concluding Remarks


We can easily create additional segments/reports (or use Secondary Dimensions & Pivoting, or extract the data via the GA API) and have a much deeper understanding of user behavior on the site, and act on these findings.



What if you don't have an ecommerce site? No worries, the same concepts explained in the the above example are totally applicable to other types of sites. Lead generation sites, content sites and other types can definitely benefit from this powerful MCV feature. Just think of visitor segments & user actions that are important to you and then apply a similar implementation approach.



Now go out, segment, analyze and truly understand your users!
Related Posts

Google Analytics - Custom Variables


Deep Dive Analysis in Google Analytics: Secondary Dimensions and Pivoting




Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Building A Business With The API

Building A Business With The API: "Do you like web analytics data? Do you like number crunching in Excel? Get ready to drool once you click on the images below to look at them up close. But don't jump ahead just yet! A little background on a great story...

When we released the Google Analytics Data Export API, we were excited to see what developers would build - but it’s even more exhilarating to see developers profiting from all their hard work. One developer, Mikael Thuneberg, has succeeded in doing just that, by starting a new business consulting around our API called AutomateAnalytics.com.

Mikael started working with the API in June 2009, developing a set of VBA functions to import data into Excel (VBA is Excel's built-in scripting language). His free solution has many benefits:

It does not require installing plug-ins


Reports are simple to share with others


The functions can be used just like any of Excel's built-in functions like SUM or COUNT



Check out the getting started guide to learn how to use this free tool to generate the jaw-dropping reports below - click images to enlarge:















Click images for larger versions


Because the solution is free and easy to use, Mikael quickly got requests from companies to build custom reports. As he discusses, ”All of these customers have excellent skills for analyzing data, but have asked for help in automating time-consuming manual work, like data retrieval and building custom visualizations.”


One of these came from Sanoma Games, the online gaming unit of Sanoma Group, one of the largest media companies in Europe. Sanoma owns dozens of popular sites, and so it was taking huge amounts of time for their analytics team to keep track of KPIs, let alone gather data for in-depth analysis.


Mikael built an Excel tool for them that fetches and processes the data they need in a matter of seconds. Now Sanoma's analysts can spend their time analyzing and taking action, instead of manually copying the data from one place to another.

Mikael eventually got many requests for customized reports from leading Internet companies, which led him to create AutomateAnalytics. As Mikael says, “I’ve always wanted to run a business. What I thought would be a fun project led into an amazing business opportunity. The Google Analytics API really helped me realize this goal.”


We’re really impressed with what Mikael has done and thrilled to share his story!


Posted by Nick Mihailovski, The Google Analytics API Team

Happy Father’s Day 2010 Logos From Google & Others

Happy Father’s Day 2010 Logos From Google & Others: "Today is Father’s Day in many countries and we wanted to wish you a Happy Father’s Day. Here is a collection of the various logos from the search industry celebrating the day.
Google:

Yahoo Animated:

Yahoo Static:

Baidu:

Sogou:

DogPile:

Bing:

Ask.com:

Cre8asite Forums:

Search Engine Roundtable:



*** Read the full post by clicking on the headline above or, in Facebook, by clicking on the 'View Original Post' link below. ***"

Google Is Top Shopping Site, TheFind Passes Yahoo As The New Number Two

Google Is Top Shopping Site, TheFind Passes Yahoo As The New Number Two: "According to comScore data, Google Product Search has become the top comparison shopping engine online. Number two is now TheFind, which moved in front of Yahoo Shopping in terms of average daily users:

Source: comScore
TheFind has been quietly moving up the ladder over the past couple of years and now has surpassed all longer-established competitors except [...]



*** Read the full post by clicking on the headline above or, in Facebook, by clicking on the 'View Original Post' link below. ***"