Google Analytics for the EOFY

It is always useful at this time of the year to forecast budgets, future cash flows and areas to invest funds. The question always on the mind at the end of financial year (EOFY), is how effective has my advertising been? This will inevitably show what funds need to be reinvested where, from marketing spend to areas which you think need to be improved.

There are always the key fundamental steps businesses must take to ensure they’re ready for 30th June, but we thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the more common elements and tools we like to use in preparation for the EOFY.

One of the key elements from Google Analytics is looking at benchmarking. From here you can compare how you did this time last year, or how you stack up to your competitors.

This is how it would look comparing your results for the 3rd quarter of this financial to a similar sized website in the same vertical in Australia:

As you can see this company is very strong in paid search but suffers in areas like organic and direct. This suggests that this business doesn’t have the same brand name in the online space or the SEO rankings of its competitor.  So we can see that more investment needs to be made in organic rankings and brand awareness campaigns.  This website is very poor across social media, which forms an important part of the online space. The percentage being 96% less than a similar site proves that there is a large gap and investments need to be made to improve the standings.

Looking at Acquisition data and a breakdown of all channels, this Q3 compared to Q3 2014, gives the following screenshot:

We can see there has been big improvements from last year on both paid and organic search, but our social media results have dropped by 50% when measuring raw transitions. This website has e-commerce tracking, so you can view purchase information as well.

Again comparing under conversion, e-commerce, and Q3 to Q3 last year we get this overview (in your account you will have specific financial information):

Overall, it becomes clear that this website is performing weaker on all fronts.  Using segmentation, we can see how effective our channels were. This example is in relation to paid traffic:

This might show you what you already know, but the financial figures are great for explaining results to the CFO in the company or your accountant.

One last important step is understanding what medium played a hand in getting those valuable conversions. Still under conversions, we have attribution. This shows by default which medium had the last interaction before the conversions, so you know which medium was your best sales person. It is also important to change this setting to see the other roles different mediums play:

Leaving it on last interaction, and looking at paid search, we get this information:

Paid search has had a major impact on our conversions, with a 43% increase in the last interaction. All things point to a successful year for paid search, and big improvements when comparing the same quarter last year.

The recommendations for this website would be to keep paid search so that it can continue to do what it is doing, or even look to increasing spend in this area. Looking at the SEO strategy, there is space here to improve organic rankings. The biggest change this website could make would be to improve their social media campaigns and social media referrals, as they are a long away behind their competitors.

The EOFY is the perfect time to review your business, and therefore assessing the data you have accumulated in your Google Analytics account is the perfect starting point. Don’t rush through your review and make sure you pick up on the areas which are crying out for more love and attention. Importantly, stick with the strategies you have in place which are working, and build upon this. Good business practice isn’t just about learning from past mistakes, but it means setting yourself up to be able to face the challenges and opportunities which will come in the future. Let the experts at SponsoredLinX help! Call us today on 1300 859 600.