This post originally appeared on the Google Analytics Japan blog. - Ed.

Google Analytics’ e-commerce tracking allows online merchants to measure items sold and tie those results back to their digital marketing activities. But did you know that it can also be used to track non e-commerce activity?

Nissan Motor Company does just this. Nissan operates in the automobile industry, and owns a network of websites designed to help consumers around the world decide which Nissan vehicle they would like to purchase.



Nissan uses e-commerce tracking whenever a visitor submits a request for a test drive or a brochure. They treat each request as if a car were sold, and record details such as the model, colour, transmission type, and location of the vehicles people inquire after. A traditional Google Analytics implementation for a non e-commerce site would simply use goals to measure conversions. So why did Nissan opt to use e-commerce tracking instead?

They wanted to be able to measure more information about each inquiry within their Google Analytics reports. By implementing e-commerce tracking they are now able to pass additional information to their Google Analytics account, such as the category, colour, and model of car the visitor was interested in. Nissan's Global Marketing Strategy Division then analyses this information to understand which vehicles are in hot demand in each market; it then feeds those insights to their manufacturing plants across the globe to ensure that there is enough supply to satisfy demand.

One of the benefits of Google Analytics is that you can decide who should have access to your suite of reports. Nissan’s Global Division uses this feature to decentralise access to their different market operations, allowing each country manager to log into Google Analytics and quickly assess the popularity of different models for their market. Nissan employed a Google Analytics Certified Partner in Japan, Ayudante, to help set up their account profiles and custom reports that could then be accessed by each of the country managers.

Nissan’s Global Marketing Strategy division says there are 3 key benefits they gain from Google Analytics as a whole:

1. It is easy to assess product popularity globally and by market. The user experience is seamless and there was no complex setup necessary.
2. Custom reports allow you to easily view complex information in one view. It dramatically reduces the time to summarize multiple reports, document it, and share it within the organisation.
3. Google Analytics gives them access to timely information, which allows for better decision making.

Even if you are a non e-commerce site, you should explore e-commerce tracking as a means of measuring more information about the products or services your visitors are inquiring about. Then share that information with your wider marketing and product teams so that they can make effective decisions to maximise sales.

Posted by Noriyuki Ouchi, Google Analytics Solutions Consultant, Google Japan and Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar, Senior Conversion Specialist, Google Southeast Asia

Google Analytics Certified Partners play an important role in Asia Pacific’s web analytics ecosystem. They are the Google Analytics implementation and reporting experts, and they partner closely with businesses of all sizes to help them improve and grow their online presence. This is one in a series of articles from Google Analytics Certified Partners across the region.

Adrian Tan is one of the founders of clickTRUE Pte Ltd, Southeast Asia’s first Google Analytics Certified Partner. - Ed.


I would like to share an example with you on how our team at clickTRUE use insights from Google Analytics to benefit our clients’ online marketing effectiveness. Recently, a world leading electronic security and alarm monitoring service provider approached us to optimise their reporting and analysis framework. We helped them adopt Google Analytics as a way of measuring the number of leads generated by their website. With Google Analytics we were able to react to changing conditions within days rather than months.


Problem: Non real-time analysis
The client ran several Google AdWords campaigns to drive sign-ups via their enquiry forms. These sign-ups represented the number of leads for their business and provided a forecast of their revenue for the months ahead. The client was used to consolidating the enquiry form sign-ups from their website on a monthly basis and sending it to us for analysis.

We would analyse the numbers and determine how many conversions (i.e. enquiry form sign-ups) were attributed to their AdWords campaigns. We would then suggest and implement changes for their following month’s AdWords campaign so that they could generate a higher volume of sign-ups at a lower cost. Waiting for monthly reports was less than ideal. Since we deal with the Internet, we wanted to measure the performance of our enhancements in real-time! We wanted to cut down this lag to make more timely changes and more quickly achieve the client’s target number of leads per month.


Solution: Integrating Google AdWords and Google Analytics
Being a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we knew that one of the best ways to get near real-time insights about the performance of a website is to use Google Analytics. We worked with the client to implement Google Analytics on their website, and then integrate their AdWords account, so that we could attribute conversions to AdWords clicks.

Here is how we approached the creation of the reporting and analysis framework for the client:

Step 1: Link the Google AdWords account to the Google Analytics account
We first linked the client’s Google AdWords and Google Analytics accounts.

Step 2: Define goals within Google Analytics
We defined a goal in their Google Analytics account as visitors who arrived at a “Thank You” page after submitting their contact details.

Setting up the goal was easy: we took the URL for the “Thank You” page as the goal URL.

With Goals set, we were now able to more accurately assess how each keyword in the client’s AdWords campaign was converting visitors into sign-ups (leads). Better yet, we were able to assess these on a daily basis, and didn’t have to wait for the monthly reports.


Step 3: Setting up the reporting framework
We created a set of custom reports to to address the key performance indicators that were most relevant for the client. Below is one of our custom reports that lists keywords and the associated metrics for clicks, visits, cost-per-click, impressions, clickthrough rate, bounce rate, time on site, and goal conversion rate. If we were to rely on Google Analytics’ standard reports, we would need to combine three reports to get this information. You can get a copy of this custom report here.

Step 4: Taking action by optimising keywords
With the above in place, we are better able to drill down and do optimisation on the keywords instead of just depending on traditional statistics such as clicks, cost per click and clickthrough rates.

For example, when we first ran the campaign, the keyword “CCTV” generated the most number of clicks. We needed to find out if this keyword was effective in producing qualified leads.

On closer inspection, we saw that the keyword “CCTV” was performing poorly in terms of bounce rate and conversion rate.

The bounce rate for “CCTV” was 7.32% worse than the site average. Visitors coming from this keyword left the site without signing up or even visiting any other pages. It indicated a poor visit quality – visitors did not find the content on the landing page relevant.

To help optimise the performance of this keyword, we analysed the actual search query used by visitors that contributed to goal conversions. For example, visitors who searched for “CCTV Singapore” and clicked on the client’s ads were more likely to sign-up and convert.

Such search queries were immediately added as phrase match keywords in the client’s campaign and set with a higher bid to have their ads appear more frequently . This fine-tuning allowed us to only show the ads to an audience that is looking for security solutions rather than to non-relevant searches for “China Central Television” that was also know as CCTV. We also included such non-relevant searches as negative keywords to filter out irrelevant impressions and improve clickthrough and conversion rates.

Through the use of better defined keywords, such as with approproriate keyword matching for the “CCTV” root keyword, we obtained much better conversion rates – increasing the rates from 1.55% to a range of 1.96% to 25% and a corresponding increase in ROI of at least 66%.

Actionable insights on early data results in 114% lift
The time previously spent waiting for monthly reports was now put to good use optimising based on almost real-time data. The lift in leads demonstrates the benefits of this strategy – a 114% increase after the first three weeks of the campaign. The client is now ahead of schedule in achieving their target number of leads and meeting their revenue forecast.

We strive to replicate the above process in all our engagements:

• Setting goals allows us to measure site performance and understand whether we are being successful or where we need to improve.
• Linking AdWords and Google Analytics accounts allows us to assess paid traffic performance in terms of bounce rates and conversion rates.
• Last, but not least, we cannot emphasise enough how important it is to analyse your Google Analytics data on a regular basis and take immediate actions to experience real-time gains.

Posted by Adrian Tan, Co-Founder, clickTRUE Pte. Ltd.

This is part of our series of posts highlighting the new Google Analytics. The new version of Google Analytics is currently available in beta to all Analytics users. And follow Google Analytics on Twitter for the latest updates. This week we’ll be discussing how to use updated custom reports.

Every website is different, yet we focus much of our time on the standard reports in our web analytics tools. Custom reports have been an integral part of Google Analytics since 2008. With the new platform, we took a close look at how we could improve the custom reports to make them more usable and powerful.

The Custom Reports tab
For starters, custom reports now live under their own tab, which you can find next to My Site in the main menu bar.

The overview shows a list of all the custom reports available for your profile. You can also view, edit, or share a custom report, and, of course, you can also build a new custom report.


Building a custom report
As with the previous version of Google Analytics, you build a custom report by picking the metrics and dimensions you want. For the new platform, we’ve made some enhancements. Let’s walk through the creation of a custom report for measuring the effectiveness of content on this blog (borrowing from one of Avinash’s awesome custom reports).


Getting the right data
We saw that custom reports were most useful when focused on subset of data. For my blog report, I've decided that I want to only focus on referral traffic. In the old version, I’d have to combine an advanced segment with my custom report to do this analysis. With the new platform, we’ve made it possible to make the filter part of your custom report.

You can add multiple filters to the same report, and filter on dimensions other than those you’ve chosen to use in the report. Best of all, these filters are saved as part of your custom report. As soon as you (or your boss) opens the report, you’re looking at the data you need.


Organizing your report
Like the current version, you can build multiple report tabs into your custom report. This is helpful to organize your report, or build different views for people across your organization. In the new Google Analytics, you’re no longer restricted to using the same dimensions for each report tab, which allows you to truly get all of the data you care about in one custom report. There are two types of report tabs available: Flat Table and Explorer tabs.

Explorer report tabs are similar to the report view that is used across Analytics. They allow you to drill down into data, as well as add a secondary dimension. When creating an Explorer tab, you can also create Metric Groups, which help further organize your report for easier analysis. For our example, I've built out an Explorer tab focused on content quality metrics with a drill down into where the traffic came from.

Flat Table report tabs allow you to look at two dimensions side by side, meaning you don’t have to click to drill down into your data. We’ve created this report view to make it easier to export the information you care about, email it to a colleague, or simply print it out. For the example report, I have a Flat Table tab focused on where the traffic came from and the quality of that traffic.

And here's the finished report:

Sharing your custom reports
Once you've finished creating your report, you might want to share it with your team. One of the most widely used features of Custom Reports has been sharing, which allows you to share a link to your custom report configuration with others.

Like the current version, sharing a custom report in the new Google Analytics only shares the structure of the report, not the data from your account. There is one difference to keep in mind, when you share a custom report in the new version, the link will always reflect the state of the report when you first created the link. So, if you create report, share it with your colleagues, and then make further changes, the link you shared will still point to the first version of the report. You can share your reports from the Custom Reports overview. Just click the share link:




And here’s a link to the custom report example we’ve referenced throughout this post: http://goo.gl/McSBl.


Finding a home for your old custom reports
Did you spend a lot of time creating the perfect custom report in the old version? Not to fear: we’ve created a migration tool to help you migrate your reports from the old version to the new Google Analytics. From the Custom Reports Overview, you’ll see a section called Migrate Custom Reports. It will let you know if you have reports to be migrated. Keep in mind that migration only works one way. Once you move your reports over the new version, you won’t be able to use them in old version.

Using standard reports to analyze your website can only take you so far, which is why we’ve put so much effort in making custom reports more powerful and easier for Google Analytics v5. Please continue to give us your feedback on the new Google Analytics. Happy analyzing!

Posted by Kate Cushing, Google Analytics team

Michael Fox is a co-founder of Shoes of Prey, an online retail store that allows you to design women's shoes online, which are then handmade and shipped to you. Michael blogs about running Shoes of Prey at the business blog www.22michaels.com. - Ed.

Like most online retailers, we’re always looking for ways to turn our website visitors into customers.  We use Google Analytics to monitor the performance of our website and our online marketing and to understand how to make our website even more appealing to potential customers.

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve our website, we recently asked ourselves: which pages on our site are most influential to our customers’ purchase decisions? For example, if someone visits our testimonials page, does that make them more likely to make a purchase? How about watching the videos on our leather page, visiting our gallery, or arriving on our small shoes or wedding shoes landing pages?  We knew the answers to these questions would help us maximise the number of purchases from our website.

Custom reports
To start answering these questions, we created a Custom Report in Google Analytics to review the “Highest Converting Pages” on our website.  You can make a copy of our custom report setup here and use it with your own site data.

This report shows us three key data points:

1. Pages that people visited (Page column)
2. The number of views each page received (Pageviews column)
3. How many sales (ie goal completions) were generated in that same visit session after visiting one or more of those pages (Total Goal Completions column)

Analysing the data
We then divided Total Goal Completions by Pageviews (on a separate spreadsheet) to discover what percentage of people who visit a particular page end up making a purchase. We assumed that the higher the percentage, the more valuable that page for turning visitors into customers. We could then promote the content on those pages more across our website.



We kept in mind a few circumstances that could impact this data. For example, people visiting our shopping cart or logging into our members area will have a high conversion rate, so we filter those pages out. Customers looking to purchase may be more likely to visit our page about our returns policy. We also kept in mind that we were looking at the same visit session only. Often, customers make multiple research visits before they finally make a purchase.  Therefore, we were conscious that there may be other pages that motivate purchases, but are not reflected in our custom report because they were viewed in another session.

After reviewing the data, we determined that our most influential pages were:

1. Leathers page
2. Returns policy page
3. Tab2 - the delivery tab on our product page
4. Customer testimonials page

Taking action from our insights
Knowing our most influential pages has helped us maximise the number of purchases we generate through our website. Once we reviewed the data, we took the following next steps:

• We’re in the process of redesigning our shopping cart, and we’ll look at ways to incorporate this information within each step to reduce drop off and increase conversion rates. For example, we’ll provide information about our returns policy and deliveries within the shopping cart pages itself. This will reduce the need to click away to our FAQ page.
• We’ll also consider making some of this information, especially our customer testimonials, more readily accessible on our home page and custom shoe designer.
• We’ll include some of this information on key search engine marketing landing pages such as our gift certificate page.  For example, we’ll incorporate customer testimonials in order to assure those purchasing our gift certificates that they are providing a gift that will be appreciated.
• This will be good information to incorporate into discussions on our Facebook fan page and in videos on our YouTube channel.

We’re excited by the range of insights that Custom Reports provides us.  It allows us to slice and dice our data within a single report rather than having to combine separate reports within a desktop spreadsheet.  We would love to hear about the custom reports that you find useful for your online business.

Posted by Michael Fox, co-Founder and Director of Operations, Shoes of Prey