The term Google analytics “add ons” simply refers to features that are not set up by default. If you’re looking to ever get more advanced with analytics it is crucial that you add on a few features to help you dig deeper into your data. We covered several of these features in depth in the past (which this article will reference), but taking a quick look at some of your options can oftentimes help you determine which features you want to learn more about at a deeper level.
7 Google Add Ons for Analytics Not to be Missed
You don’t want to add on everything available all at once because things can get confusing, so being selective is a great option for those who are not yet analytics masters. Digital Strategist Zac Martin highlighted a few of these add ons in his Search Engine Watch article, so below are a few ideas coming from him as well as a few of our own:
Funnel Visualization
This is an interesting tool that you can use to see what stage of the buying cycle you are losing potential leads and customers. For example, if you seem to engage visitors up until your pricing page, you may want to re-look at not only your prices but also whether or not you could improve the webpage design. Always be sure to A/B test different layouts and/or market certain pages if you see a trend.
Content Experiments
Content experiments from analytics allow you to test 10 versions of a page as opposed to just two (which is called A/B testing) or testing various combinations of different features of a single page (which is called multivariate testing). As discussed in one of our past articles, this is technically considered an A/B/N testing model. A few things you can do with Content Experiments include comparing different webpages for performance, determine how many users are participating in an experiment, what your objective is and more. Click the article mentioned above to learn how to get started and use this Add On wisely. Below is a screenshot from MarketingLand:
Goals
This is one of the most popular add ons for Analytics. Whatever it is you’re asking someone to do — signup for a free eBook, use a coupon code to make a purchase, etc. — a Goal will allow you to see metrics for that specific action so that you can track what’s happening. You can see where people are coming from before they take the action, what device they used, where they were located, the ROI of the Goal, and more.
Event Tracking
This tool sounds very similar to Goals except it measures interactions more so than actions. For example, you can see how many people watch a video or share an article, which are considered Events. This add on allows you to tag the event and then see those metrics in your analytics so that you can determine how to better optimize these events.
Account Linking
People forget about the fact that you can manually link your different Google accounts — AdWords, AdSense, etc. — so that everything is in one place. This will automate all of your reporting so that you can see how all of your metrics work together and then make changes accordingly. You can learn more about how to link your accounts here.
Remarketing (with Smart Lists)
If you talk to any Web Analyst, this is the one area where small businesses are still falling short and sometimes outright ignoring that they shouldn’t be. Turn on the remarketing feature of analytics so that you can create custom audiences and then transfer that data into your AdWords account for better optimization. Smart lists were actually just recently created as a new option you have when creating your remarketing lists that lets analytics manage your list for you.
Partner Gallery
This isn’t quite an add on like the rest, but it still deserves an honorable mention because so many are still not taking advantage. The Partner Gallery helps users connect with and learn about different Google Analytics options from Google professionals and developers. It makes it easy to find people who have gone through rigorous qualification standards who can answer your questions as well as a great place to discover new apps.
As more and more platforms and ways to search online emerge, more data points become important. Are there any analytics add ons that you can’t live without? Let us know in the comment section below.
Republished by permission. Original here.
Images: Google
These are some really valuable tools for any website owner / webmaster. They can take a little bit to get working in some cases though but really worth it.