Take a Fresh Approach to Your Measurement Strategy Part Two: Assessing and Establishing New Goals

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In our previous post in this series, we shared how to evaluate your current digital strategy with an annual analytics tagging and data audit. Next, let’s turn to how to setup and evaluate new goals using Google Analytics. Having goals and an analytics tagging strategy will save your company money because your data will help you determine where to invest your time and resources. Of course, there may be times when a new product is being considered based on current trends or customer needs instead of solely on data. However, no matter how you look at it, data is necessary to understand what those trends might be and to become sophisticated enough with your data to perform predictive analysis. The more you put processes in place to validate the correct data is captured, the more you will be able to understand the success of the site, app or marketing changes you make, and which products or services make sense to offer in the future.

Goal Assessment Questions

  1. List out your goals from last year. What did you learn from the data about your goals? 
  2. Which questions are you still trying to answer but lack the data to do so? 
  3. How do your previous goals align with overall business goals? 
  4. Are there any new goals you have for this coming year? What do they look like? How will you measure them? 
  5. Are you launching any new sites, apps or products? Do you have data to support the changes you would like to make?
All of the above are great questions to ask your business when assessing new goals, but some can even be asked per site update or product launch to ensure the right analytics are being captured. After all, if you do not measure how users interact with your site, tools and products before converting, how will you know what is working and what is not? 

Use Analytics to Measure Goals and Take Action

As Google Support articles state, defining goals is a fundamental component of any digital analytics measurement plan. Having properly configured goals allows Google Analytics to provide you with critical information, such as the number of conversions and the conversion rate for your site or app. Without this information, it is almost impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of your online business and marketing campaigns.

Set up Goals in Google Analytics 

Goals are configured at the view level. They can be applied to specific pages or screens your users visit, how many pages/screens they view in a session, how long they stay on your site or app and the events they trigger while they are there. Every goal can have a monetary value, so you can see how much that conversion is worth to your business. Using values for goals lets you focus on the highest value conversions, such as transactions with a minimum purchase amount.

Use Data Visualization 

Create a dashboard in the visualization tool of your choice to standardize your data views and automate reporting. A visualization tool is a great way to bring several reports and data sources together so that executives or departments are consistently referencing the same data when needed. It is also ideal for instilling data governance and limiting access to data parameters. 

Create Audiences to Increase Conversions

Take advantage of products like the Google Marketing Platform and share audiences between your web and app data through Google Analytics to Display & Video 360 or Google Ads. This will help you maximize your user journey from your web and app platforms to specific targeted audiences (360 Only Feature) and help you meet your conversion goals.

Keep up with Trends

Marketing trends will continue to evolve alongside technology and privacy changes. Keep current trends in mind when discussing current and future business goals. Google recently posted a video, “ What will marketing look like in 2030? ”, with guest speakers discussing their perspective of what marketing might look like in the future.  Adswerve is available to help with any and all of your media and analytics strategy needs. We are a team of digital analytics and programmatic experts. Reach out to contact@adswerve.com if you are interested in working with us!