New Google Analytics Features Make it Smarter, More Powerful

Google Analytics adds more powerful reporting capabilities, expands mobile measurement and adds intelligence engine to drive smarter data insights.

Several new features for Google Analytics were announced last month designed to make the free web analytics platform more powerful and easy to use.  Below is a highlight of several new features.

Goal tracking improvements.  In addition to increasing the number of configurable goals to 20 per profile, new site engagement goal types have been introduced.  Engagement goals can be set based on the visit duration or the number of pages viewed during a visit.  For example, a goal can be set to occur if time on site surpasses 10 minutes or after 12 pages have been viewed in a visit.  These new goal types allow site owners to measure the proportion of visits that meet a time on site or pageview threshold and are especially valuable for content websites.  AdWords advertisers can use these Google Analytics goals for campaign optimization in cases where ecommerce conversion is not applicable or the target behavior.

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Google Paid Listings Now Appear in iPhone Maps

Local search ads take mobile leap on iPhone.

Google Sponsored Listings have started to appear within the Maps application installed on every iPhone and iPod touch device. These paid listings appear alongside organic results when users perform relevant searches, helping local customers find appropriate businesses from their mobile phone.  PM Digital is working on getting more details on the specifics of this new program and how it relates to Google’s Local Business Ads program.

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3 Tips for Measuring Marketing Efforts in Omniture SiteCatalyst

Omniture SiteCatalyst is a popular and extremely customizable web analytics platform.  Marketers new to SiteCatalyst are sometimes surprised that the default traffic source and campaign reports don’t always summarize activity in a manner that they’d like to see results.  Below are 3 suggestions to consider related to traffic source measurement before setting up or enhancing your SiteCatalyst implementation.

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Using Webmaster Tools to Optimize Online Marketing

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service that provides diagnostic reports and tools for improving a site’s visibility on Google and other search engines.  While it focuses on technical aspects of search engine crawling and is aimed at webmasters and SEO practitioners, it also contains several features and reports of particular interest to online marketers.  Listed below are three features of Google Webmaster Tools that can help improve your marketing efforts.

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A Look at Social Media Measurement

Most online marketers are comfortable with the measurement and metrics behind traditional click-based programs like paid search.  Less rigorously measured and discussed is activity from social media sites like user-generated links and comments placed on sites like Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon.  While social media as a channel presents unique challenges to measurement, there are several tactics marketers can take to start measuring the impact of social media on their business.

Outbound links. If your site includes a social bookmark or sharing tool, measuring usage of this tool can help answer…

• Which social sites are my customers using to share my content?
• Which types of content are customers sharing most?  Should frequently shared content be more prominently featured?
• What type of customer is sharing content on social media outlets? Is your business benefiting from this?

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