Inntopia & Google Analytics: Tracking from Source to Conversion Best practices for tracking visitors with Inntopia s IBE & more
The next 60 minutes Why Track Visitors? Using Google Analytics on your site Setup & Installation Problems with Data Self Referrals, Custom Widgets, internal links Conversions & Goals Other Tracking Methods Email Campaigns, Flash, Banner Ads, PayPerClick, SEO & Landing Pages Reporting & moving forward Scheduled Reporting & the GA interface
Why Track Visitors? Why not know? How many visitors, when they visited What they looked at, where they entered, where they left What OS, browser, flash version they had Who sent them What they asked for or bought? Goal fulfillment / Conversion referring site your page(s) INNTOPIA BOOKING PATH search_07.aspx itinerary07.aspx customer07.aspx itinerary_reserve07. aspx inntopia/other widget Google Analytics (and other analytic products) can help you allocate your marketing dollars efficiently
Setup & Installation Using Google Analytics (GA) on your site Email address, password, google account, website
Using GA on your site (continued) Placing the code within Inntopia Per Inntopia s GoogleConversionTrackingGuideV1.3.doc Placing the Google Analytics (GA) code on your site Any call to urchintracker(), utmlinker(), utmsettrans(), or utmlinkpost() functions (ie inntopia widget) must be AFTER the urchin.js load.
Using GA on your site (continued) Linking to other domains Whether inntopia.travel or other domains different from your own Two lines of code MUST BE INSERTED to ensure proper tracking Must use udn= none to strip the URL off of the secondary domain pages Must use ulink=1 to ensure linkage from multiple domains is counted as one visit NOTE: Inntopia places the same script formatting with your GA Account number on their booking pages
Problems with Data: No Visitors Check for the cookie! Internet Explorer Tools menu Internet Options Browsing History Settings View Files Web Developer for FireFox http://chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/
Problems with Data: Self Referrals Self Referrals are the result of improper linkage from your domain to a secondary domain (inntopia.travel) Instead of the actual referrer source, medium and other data showing up, yourdomain / referral shows up This referral erasure comes from improper linkage from your website (via packages link, search results, itinerary or custom widgets).
Correcting Self Referrals Linking to secondary domains must be done properly for the Google Analytics Tracking Cookie (GATC) to work HL links in navigation, banners or text links to external domains need to use utmlinker() within the link Custom widgets, Flash forms, etc have to use utmpost() function to pull GATC data through to the IBE
Correcting Self Referrals (continued) Improving tracking, especially for self-referrals, makes a world of difference.
Conversions & Goals Using GA s built-in Goal tracking, you can not only track the Inntopia Booking path, but also other paths on your site(s) referring site your page(s) inntopia/other widget search_07.aspx itinerary07.aspx customer07.aspx contact form INNTOPIA BOOKING PATH confirmation/ tthankyou CONTACT FORM PATH itinerary_reserve07. aspx Job application Personal Information confirmation/ tthankyou HR JOB APP PATH Real Estate Listings Request Information Form Confirmation REAL ESTATE REQUEST INFO PATH You can also pull the GATC data into your results for better reporting (email confirmations, database, etc)
Conversions & Goals (continued) If you aren t tracking & storing conversion data, how do you know which campaigns worked?
Email Campaigns! Other Tracking Methods Use Google s URL Toolbuilder at http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578
Other Tracking Methods (continued) Track Flash events as pageviews in your GA If you have flash animations that utilize events, you can track them as pageviews in GA Organize your pageview names for future analysis & comparison to other pages
Other Tracking Methods (continued) Banner Ads Tag your external campaigns using the URL Toolbuilder method Monitor Successes & Failures Pay Per Click (PPC) with Google AdWords, Yahoo, MSN, other) Make sure your PPC setup either links to your GA account or you tag ads appropriately Test & retest tracking before launching campaigns Don t set it and forget it Monitor, Adjust and Test your PPC campaigns often (daily/weekly) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Landing Pages Verify your traffic FROM organic search engines as well as where they land. Monitor the visit from the landing point forward
Reporting & moving forward Setup Weekly or monthly reports in GA (with optional comparisons) and schedule for email
Our time together Set it up right the first time. Just because it s free to use doesn t mean you shouldn t spend time and money setting it up. Bad Data In = Bad Data Out! Setup Goals & track GATC data in your forms Filter out known false visitors Track everything and anything you can. Monitor your Analytics Keep an eye out for bad links, high bounce rates, new visitor counts, seasonal comparisons, ecommerce conversion rates, etc Use the Reports to analyze trends, track campaigns and determine where to spend your next dollar.