Using Analytics and AdWords to Grow Your Business Sustainably

Follow these steps and keep an eye on your metrics so you know when to grow!

 

There are dozens of data points you can track in your ecommerce store. Users, sessions, transactions, conversions and more!

Are you lost yet? Keep reading for an in-depth explanation. The more you know, the more you grow.

Analysis – Confirmation – Streamlining – Growth

Many eCommerce businesses try to grow their businesses too quickly. Without the proper metrics in place, they a store and then start spending money they shouldn’t on marketing their products. This seldom works; instead, you should focus on responsible, attainable growth.

Let’s talk about how to use Google eCommerce analytics to move through each stage and grow your business, responsibly.


Analysis

If you already have an eCommerce store, you still might want to read through this if your products aren’t selling or you aren’t generating enough revenue to keep up with your expenses. Determining your product value and assessing consumer interest in your products are the most important parts to analyzing your business.

During this stage, you won’t be focused on your analytics as much. Take time to research other brands in your industry. Take advantage of the market research that large corporations have done, they pay for this valuable information and, in some cases, focus group testing. If you can get an idea what works for businesses similar to yours without shelling out a ton of money, you should definitely use this to your advantage. Scope out your competition. Make sure to keep an organized record of all of your findings, so you can reference it later if you need to.


Confirmation

You’ve done your homework by this point. The confirmation stage is necessary for identifying your market opportunity and product value. You want to confirm that the products you are selling solve a consumer’s problem or fit a specific need, niche, or gap in the market. If you can’t confirm that your products are valued, needed, or wanted, you may not achieve much success with your eCommerce store. 

This is where your analytics come into play:

  • Bounce Rate – “The percentage of single-page sessions in which there was no interaction with the page. A bounced session has a duration of 0 seconds.”  

    • If you see a high bounce rate at first, don’t freak out. This is why we kept a record of our findings from the analysis phase. Start comparing your store to the others you researched. How is the layout? Is it mobile responsive? You can even use an online tool to check your page load speed. Don’t give up. Make those adjustments.

  • Pages Per Visit – “Pages/Session (Average Page Depth) is the average number of pages viewed during a session. Repeated views of a single page are counted.”

    • Are users clicking around on your site? Is your menu easy to navigate? If your page count is low, you may want to re-visit your site with a “fresh set of eyes” to determine why users are not moving on. Try making your menu/page navigation more appealing. Many websites are adopting more of a flow navigation, that leads users from one page to the next, ensuring that each page is adding value to the user’s experience.

  • Average Session Duration – “The average length of a Session.”

    • Studies show that the longer a new user stays on your site, the more likely they are to convert to a customer. With that being said, publish engaging content. Users are more likely to hang around if there is something to hang around for. And for Pete’s sake, get rid of any pop-ups , paywalls, or other user deterrents that may drive users away from your site.


If you’re still unsure what could be causing low numbers, ask friends, family or business contacts for feedback on your site.

When your analytics start showing numbers you are happy with, move on to the Streamlining Stage


Streamlining

Now that you’ve confirmed there is a market for your product, you can put processes in place that allow your customer conversions to be streamlined and effective. By now, you have determined that people want what you’re selling on your webstore. Now, you need to make it easy for them to convert from website users to eCommerce customers.

During this phase, you’ll want to focus on these 3 metrics:

  • Site Speed – Check your Site Speed in Google Analytics to find out if your load times are above or below target. The main reason customers choose eCommerce over retail shopping is for a speedy checkout. If your site is slow, it could turn away potential customers.

  • Behavior Flow - The Behavior Flow metric clearly defines the path website users travel from one page to the next. This report can help you see what content keeps users engaged with your site. The Behavior Flow report can also help identify potential content issues, or reasons users may leave your site without converting.

  • eCommerce Conversion Rate – “The percentage of sessions that resulted in an e-commerce transaction.”

    • This is the big one: are your products selling? If not, you need to identify why. Are you missing crucial information such as return or shipping policies or terms and conditions? Is your website secure with https and SSL/TLS? Make changes until you see sales.

Once you’re happy with your metrics, you can start growing.


Business Growth

So now, you’ve gotten your site running efficiently and you’ve optimized your customer conversion processes. You should be making some revenue from your online store. It’s time to grow and take your business to the next level.

This is the proper time to start investing time and resources into growing your business. You can start running Boosted ads on social media, and utilizing Google’s AdWords Search and Display Networks. Set your budget, and if you need help running your campaigns, we are Google Certified in AdWords and would be happy to help you.

  • Site Visitors and Acquisition Source - Site traffic is an important way for you to measure if your ads are working.

  • Conversions and Clicks - Your conversions and clicks should start going up in tandem with your advertising expenses, but you should be making more than you spend.

  • Revenue - If you are spending more on Ads, you need to be making more in revenue. If your revenue isn’t rising, you may need to re-visit your Ad Strategy. Luckily, Google keeps track of this for you.

If all of your metrics look good you can, and should, keep increasing your marketing budget. This is where your business grows. It’s a good practice to continue checking all of your metrics weekly and make adjustments accordingly. If you see a decline or a decrease, just reach out. We are here to help.