New Google Analytics function : Multi-Channel Funnels

by | Jun 23, 2011

6 min read

If, like me, you have been working for large organisations spending a lot of money on paid search, ofline advertisement, direct marketing and even SEO, you will find that Marketing channel attribution issues often end up being an haggling process amongst the different business owner.
Now for all of you who actually want to model out customer behaviour and determine what works the best for your business, Google has given you a free tool to evaluate how your users behave on site

Multi-channel conversion funnel

Image credit

http://www.google.com/analytics/analytics-funnels.html
Transcript & Images

Google Analytics Multi-channels funnel introShoe Store

Time: 0:00 When someone visits your website and does something you want them to do, like buy an item or visit a certain page, its called a conversion. And as a marketer, you’ve probably set up conversion tracking to see what’s working. Usually the last ad, search or referral clicked on directly before the conversion gets all the credit.

Shoe Store

0:21 In reality, a conversion is a lot like scoring a goal in a basketball game. It takes more than one player to make it happen. And if you were coaching the team, you would want to see all the players who assisted in the goal, so you could identify how they interacted and score again and again, right?

Its the same in online marketing. If you think of the marketing channels that drive traffic to your site as your players, the ones making the assists are often just as important as the one making the goal.

Google Analytics Multi Channels funnel 6

0:48 The ways your costumers interact with your channels are all part of the marketing funnel leading to conversion. Often, your customers engage more with these channels than they do with the final click that’s getting all the credit.

1:00 Imagine being able to see how your costumers interacted with all your channels before the conversion. Just like a coach, you’d be able to identify channels making the assists and optimize your marketing for more conversions.

Google Analytics Multi channels funnel 8

1:13 Well now you can, with Multi-Channel Funnels, new, in Google Analytics. When you set up a goal or track e-commerce transactions in Google Analytics, Multi-Channel Funnels automatically shows you how costumers interact with your digital channels for up to a month or more before the conversion happens.

1:30 Let’s have a look. Starting with the Overview report, you can see a snapshot of the total number of conversions, as well as the amount of conversions that had assists before the last click.

1:41 Then, to see the number of interactions your visitors had with your channels, check out the Path Link report. Here, you can easily see if conversions happened because of interactions with the marketing funnel, or if the last ad clicked was solely responsible for the conversion.

Google Analytics Multi channels funnel Path Length

1:57 Understanding customer purchasing behavior is one of the most important insights you can have. With the Time Log report you can see the amount of time customers take from the first channel interaction to conversion.

Google Analytics Multi-channels time lag

2:10 Another report, called Top Paths, shows the different routes customers take before the conversion. You can view all these paths through filters like ‘Campaign’ or ‘Keyword’ to see the popular paths through your funnel and find out what’s working. The Top Paths report can also tell you how your channels work together and in what order to bring you conversions. For instance, is an e-mail newsletter causing searches that lead to conversions, or perhaps a banner ad is triggering direct visits?

assisted conversions

2:38 Get even more granular with the Assisted Conversions report where you can see which specific channels, campaigns or keywords assisted and how. It’s a great way to test and see how new campaigns and channels are contributing in the funnel.

assisted conversions
2:52 Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics, the easy way to see and analyse how costumers interact with your channels to optimize your marketing funnel.

 
 
 
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