If you haven’t married your AdWords account with your Analytics account, now is a good time to take that step forward. Otherwise, you are missing out on data that you can only get with true integration.
Google is constantly upgrading Analytics and adding new features for AdWords. Some of most recent upgrades include a new feature that now allows AdWords advertisers to add columns to their campaigns for Bounce Rates, Pages Per Visit and Average Duration. Remarketing lists can also now be created in Analytics and then added into your AdWords campaigns.
Along with the more recent changes, I wanted to share a few of my favorite analytics reports for managing and optimizing Google Display campaigns.
(Almost) Real Time Clicks & Conversions By URL
Relevant ad distribution is important, and this report in Google Analytics lets you see the relevancy of placements where your ad is being shown. You may be getting clicks for game sites or weather sites that might not be converting for the ads and landing pages in your campaigns.
Filtering (topic and/or category exclusions) may be needed to improve the quality of your traffic and to lower your conversion costs.
Here is a walk-through on how to see your Google Display Campaign URLs for today’s clicks.
This screen shot shows some potential problems with our targeting — showing high clicks and no conversions across a handful of non-relevant URLs
Compare Stats For Automatic Placements Vs. Manual Placements
The quality and variety of automatic placements is very different from managed placements. This section in Google Analytics gives you a breakdown for performance and could open the door for additional managed placement opportunities.
How often should you check for and add managed placements to your AdGroups? I usually run full managed placement reports when I audit an an older account and monthly for newer accounts. While this Analytics report will certainly allow you to see potential problems, please allow your placements enough time to prove their performance.
For example, if you paused a placement URL after getting ten (10) clicks without a conversion, your expectation was for a 10% conversion rate from that placement. A 10% conversion rate is probably unrealistic and pausing that placement may actually hurt your conversion opportunities in the future.
Conversion Paths
Conversion paths are confirmation that visitors really don’t always convert on the first visit. The screen shot shows various paths visitors take before they take action and by using secondary dimensions, you can break down your display campaign conversion path data even further.
Assisted Conversions
Similar to conversion paths, the assisted conversions report shows how your Google Display campaigns assist other site traffic toward conversions. For some industries, this number may be higher than others. This number is also a good way to look at branded advertising campaigns.
Time Lag
Some conversions happen quickly. Others trickle in over several days or even months. The time-lag report is helpful to look at before you set up durations for your remarketing audiences and campaigns.
If most of your conversions take place in the first 7 to 15 days, you might consider testing a more aggressive remarketing campaign that targets that time frame after their first visit.
Your Feedback
Please share how you have used Google Analytics with your Google Display Campaigns. Do you have other tracking and reporting software that you prefer for heavy Google Display strategies?
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