A measurement plan helps you stay on track

Online marketing is all about data. If you want to be results-driven, you need to know what information you can extract from that vast pool of data. A measurement plan is a huge help here. Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google My Business, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and so on all provide reports, and as a business, you want to be able to assess the results properly.

Define all the actions on your website

Open the homepage and identify the actions a website visitor can take. These might include clicking on an email address, clicking on a telephone number, signing up for the newsletter, starting a chat, and so on. Next, click your way through your website and make a note of all possible actions. Be sure not to forget form submissions, such as the contact form, quote request form and placing an order. Once you have the complete list, you can get started with Google Tag Manager. 

Creating conversions in Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a tool we use to track actions in order to gain insights into data relevant to you. We can track conversions in Google Analytics, as well as enrich data from Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc. We set up the list of actions on your website as triggers in GTM. As soon as someone triggers one of these, GTM activates what is known as an ‘event’. For each event, we determine which source (for example, Google Analytics 4) to enrich and provide the relevant data. You can link multiple events to a single trigger. So, if your contact form is triggered, we can fire an event to record a conversion in Google Analytics 4, as well as an event in Google Ads Conversions and an event in Facebook Ads Conversions. What’s interesting, however, is that all these data sources interpret these events differently, meaning that the statistics from each of these data sources differ. This naturally gives rise to the usual discussions. 

Creating a dashboard in Data Studio

Google Data Studio is a brilliant reporting tool. You can connect to various data sources, enabling you to create a dashboard featuring only the metrics that are relevant to your business. Data Studio offers built-in connectors (to Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Ads, Google Sheets and more), but you can also use third-party services to establish direct links with, for example, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Google My Business, etc. These paid services come at a hefty price. 

Google Script can help you automatically retrieve data from data sources and add it to a Google Spreadsheet. You can also manually export data each month and then add it to a Google Spreadsheet. There are many ways to skin a cat, but it all depends on how much manual work you can afford to do. 

Presenting objectives using figures, tables and graphs

With a Google Data Studio report, you have plenty of options for tailoring it to your objectives. At SEO Ninja, we provide an overview of all metrics per service on the first page, using Google Analytics as our central foundation. As well as basic metrics such as visitor numbers and conversions, we also break down these figures by traffic source, device type and target audience. We want to know which traffic sources are most effective. Naturally, you want to know how every euro invested translates into conversions and online revenue.

Adjusting targets

Understanding statistics provides answers, but often raises even more questions. If you know what works well, you’ll also spot areas for improvement. For example: why are there fewer conversions via Google Ads, whilst organic traffic generates more conversions with far fewer visitors? That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Google Ads and SEO complement each other, and a purchasing process is (often) not something that happens overnight. 

You can now set targets based on the data. 

• Increasing visitor numbers is often not particularly interesting. It can be far more interesting to double the conversion rate (the ratio of conversions to visitor numbers) from 1% to 2%. This is known as conversion optimisation. 
• If you notice that Pinterest’s conversion rate is very high, see if your Pinterest strategy could be improved. Post more pins and experiment with a promoted pin. Don’t just try it out once as a one-off experiment; analyse the results: what went well, what could have been improved, and which approach is more likely to succeed in your next campaign. 

Depending on your budget, you can run targeted online marketing campaigns. The measurement plan helps you to better determine which results are in line with your objectives. Google Data Studio is a great tool for this, but with Google Tag Manager you can enrich the data so effectively that you gain even better insights. 

Would you like some help setting up Google Data Studio and Google Tag Manager? We’re here to help.