Analytics Update – January 2018

Below are the new websites (hostnames) showing-up the in Mason Google Analytics Roll-Up since our last meeting:

We have released a new version of the standard Mason GTM container which adds tracking of expandable content areas, and improves organization.

For more info, see this post: Version 3.2 of the Standard Mason GTM Template Container Released.

I am working on further updates to the Mason Standard TM Container. The auto-link domains list will now be shared between both roll-up properties used in the GTM container. It will also include a “Window Loaded” trigger (for example if you want to use jQuery code in a “Custom HTML” tag). I also plan to modify the hostname validation trigger to make it less restrictive (tickets.com example).

I have begun creating a set of ‘building-block’ GTM examples demonstrating different techniques/methods for implementing tracking in GTM. These are useful both as demonstrations for others to review and build-upon, as well as a repository of solutions we have designed and implemented.

Click here to see the post about GTM examples.

I have added a new goal to the Mason Google Analytics Roll-Up which tracks completions of the information sessions and campus tours form. This is one of our university-wide goals. See more info about our university-wide goals here.

See an example of this implementation here.

I plan on making some improvements to the real-time goal reports, including a details page for each goal showing the goal completions on different timescales (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc.), and segmenting the graphs by in-state, out-of-state, and international.

Click here to see the real-time goal reports.

Google has released an new tracking code snippet.

• If you are using on-page scripts for multiple Google products, you should consider upgrading. This new script is designed to be one script to replace the multiple separate scripts for each Google product.
• If you are only using Google Analytics, you don’t need to worry about upgrading; behind-the-scenes, gtag.js just loads the same analytics.js library you have already been using.
• If you are using GTM, you don’t need to worry about upgrading.

More info:
Google gtag.js Developer Guide
LunaMetrics: What Is gtag.js with Google Analytics and Do I Need It?

Google has released an update to GA regarding how users are managed. More info on user management changes in Google Analytics here.

Key takeaways:

• “Administrators can now centrally manage users across all Google Analytics accounts linked to your organization.”
• “Now you can more easily manage large teams of users by creating a group, placing the appropriate people inside it, and granting the groups access to the appropriate Analytics accounts.”

We have begun the purchase process for Mouseflow tracking software. We did a trial to determine how easy it is to integrate and what kind of data we get from it. It provides good click and scroll heat-mapping and session recordings.

This is probably something we’d use for specific purposes for limited periods of time (user testing, redesigning pages/processes, etc.), rather than keeping it active on our website(s) all of the time.

I am working on a set of custom GA dashboards optimized for Mason so that we can see much of the data that is relevant to us in one place and in a uniform way across Mason websites.

There will probably be a 2-3 custom dashboards, focusing on overall metrics, acquisition details, and conversion information.

I will be making changes to the interface of the Mason Campaign URL Builder to make it more clear.

I plan to rename some fields and change the display based on the medium selected.

The source field will be re-enabled for medium=email.

I have released an updated version of the Google Analytics/Microsoft Excel Internal Site Search Term Comparison Reporting Tool. It has a few improvements to the interface, as well as improved formatting of its chart output, and a one-click export process for its data summaries and charts.

Click here to download the tool.

I have released a new Google Analytics/Microsoft Excel Reporting Tool that provides comparison summary information for top pages across two different date ranges.

Click here for more information or to download the tool.

The Digital Communications team is revising our process of redesigning websites to include consulting with the website owner on website goals and setting-up goals in Google Analytics prior to the state of a project.

Why? Because simple metrics like page views and even session counts don’t matter. When redesigning a website to consolidate related content and make the site more user-friendly, it will very often result in fewer page views/sessions.

The only way to determine if a redesign has been successful for your website is to figure out what it is that you want the website to do for your users, measure its success in achieving these goals ahead of the redesign, and then measure it after the redesign.

Including goal definition and goal tracking configuration at the beginning of the process provides a good opportunity to encourage website owners to focus on KPIs/conversions rather than simple metrics.

New York Times: Tech Giants Brace for Europe’s New Data Privacy Rules

The New EU General Data Protection Regulation will soon go into effect, which will outlaw many data collection/tracking practices which have been standard-practice for many years.

CBC: ‘Terrifying’: How a single line of computer code put thousands of innocent Turks in jail

Use of a particular tracking pixel, which has been used in a number of different apps, was asserted by the government of Turkey to be evidence of terrorism.