2010

All posts from 2010

Why you want multiple Views in your Google Analytics

by Kelly Kubrick on December 10, 2010
Teapot image credit – Fairy Engine

Although the concept of having test vs. development/staging vs production environments is well known to the information technology world, it is not a common concept for those of us on the marketing-communications or business side of the lunch room. However, in digital analytics, the concept is critical.

In Google Analytics, a “View” is a collection of settings and definitions used to generate a unique set of your reports. A View is specific to your account and your organization’s page tag (or Google Analytics tracking code). Within a View, you can have custom settings, including setting a particular ‘home page’, time zone, establishing unique access rights by users, enabling filters and more.

Start with the Google Analytics account hierarchy

Google Analytics account hierarchy

Google Analytics account hierarchy

In Google Analytics, a View is the “inner circle” of the hierarchy of your Account, and the ‘level’ that you’ll spend the most time in.

By contrast, at the outermost ring, you’ll find your Google Analytics Account Settings that define ownership over contents of your account. In the middle, you’ll find your ‘Property’ settings.

Ideally, organizations will have 1 Google Analytics account, but within that account, they might have 1 or more properties (such as multiple websites / domains or a mobile app).

Finally, within a property, there can be multiple views (formerly profiles), which are all different views of the same data set, collected the same way for everyone with Views in the account.

Google Analytics account hierarchy: Account vs Property vs Views

Google Analytics account hierarchy: Account vs Property vs Views

Generally, your website equals your view.

However because of the availability of enabling filters, your Google Analytics account can – and should – have more than one view.

Additional views are generally created because of reporting requirements.

Views are typically created by copying a “master” set of data and then applying filters to the copy.

Filters are our friends

Filters are a means of eliminating unwanted or isolating specific information, thus filters are how we create different Views in Google Analytics. For example: If website XYZ.ca has no filters, we would call it “View A – Unfiltered” versus website XYZ.ca with filters applied, might be named “View B – Filtered”.

A typical rationale for a separate View would be to separate internal / employee website visitor activity from client/customer website visitor activity. Using filters, you can create Views of your website or mobile app data that:

  • Includes only only your prospects / customer and excludes your staff, agencies or contractors, or that
  • Includes only your staff, agencies or contractors but excludes your prospects / customers

Alternatively, you might want to exclude referral spam, also known as ghost spam traffic, which can inflate your numbers with ‘fake’ data.

Always best to create at least 3 Views

Knowing that there might be different filters needed, it’s better to anticipate the request by creating and maintaining at least 3 views in your account from the outset. Further, when you create the different Views, incorporate creation / modification dates and if possible, which filters have been applied.

The 3 views you want should include:

  1. Your “Unfiltered” or “Raw” data view
  2. Your “Test” view and
  3. Your “Master” or production view, where you want everyone spending their analysis time.

Unfiltered or Raw data View

Your ‘unfiltered’ view is exactly that – it includes all data collected by Google Analytics, and is reflective of the “gross” traffic to your website. It includes everybody and everything. And, once you’ve created it, you can ignore it. It will simply collect data, essentially giving you a backup copy in case something ever goes wrong. And believe me – it can go wrong.

Test View

Your test view is a copy of your unfiltered View, but it’s meant as a sandbox – or a playground – where you can safely create, test, apply, delete and generally experiment before applying ‘final’ version filters to your Master View. It’s also a safe place to test configuration changes: your search settings, or Goals or Funnel Visualizations.

Master View

Your Master view is copy of your Raw Data View – but this time with (your fully tested) filters, such as Exclude Employees, enabled and applied. This is the View you want everyone looking at. In fact, I’ve often named this view “USE THIS ONE – Master View: Excludes internal” so everyone internally knows its the place to be.

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Kelly KubrickWhy you want multiple Views in your Google Analytics

Mobile Marketing: Ten Ways to Make an Impact

by Kelly Kubrick on November 5, 2010

Zone5ive, OCRI‘s technology speaker series, has announced session details for the upcoming Wednesday November 10, 2010, event entitled:

10 Ways to Make an Impact with Mobile Marketing

Rob Woodbridge from Untether.tv will be speaking about using mobile marketing to help businesses grow. Right now.

Session details from the folks at Zone5ive:

“Whether your business is high tech, low tech, consulting or selling ice cream, your marketing plan should include mobile. Never has it been easier or cheaper to extend your brand and measure its impact through the most personal of all impersonal items, the thing we both covet and hate but won’t leave at home: the cell phone.

Do you want to know what is beyond Foursquare? Interested in learning about context-driven commerce? What about predictive analytics or the latest location-based marketing services? Come and discover tactical ways in which you can begin to embed mobile into your marketing execution.

What do you want to know about how to leverage mobile marketing in your industry? Submit your questions now to rwoodbridge@gmail.com or via Twitter using hashtag #zone5ive.”

Register Online

Date: Wednesday November 10, 2010

Time: 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for Registration/Networking/Light Lunch, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. – Presentation

Location: Brookstreet Hotel, 2nd Level, 525 Legget Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K2K 2W2

Complimentary underground parking (3 hour limit)

Costs:

Early Registration (received by OCRI no later than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday November 9, 2010)
$40.00 – OCRI members (plus 13% HST)
$65.00 – Non-members (plus 13% HST)
$15.00 – Students (plus 13% HST)
Students must register via fax or via email
Late / On-Site Registration
$50.00 – OCRI members (plus 13% HST)
$75.00 – Non-members (plus 13% HST)
$25.00 – Students (plus 13% HST)
Students must register via fax or via email

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Kelly KubrickMobile Marketing: Ten Ways to Make an Impact

Call for Speakers – eMetrics Toronto April 2011

by Kelly Kubrick on November 4, 2010

Calling all Ottawa companies, organizations and associations – we need you! Toronto’s eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit is on the hunt for speakers for the April 26-29, 2011 summit to be held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.

The speaker submission deadline is December 12th, 2010.

In particular, eMetrics is looking for stories that tell the ” how-to and how-much, about the challenges you overcame, the experiments that failed, how you won a budget increase for online marketing because your ROI rocks! And, how you are evangelizing online marketing analytics and experimentation in your organization.”

In other words, open your measurement kimono! Consider sharing the good, the bad and the ugly from your recent analytics learnings. Why would we ask such a thing? Simply because it works – eMetrics is about receiving golden nuggets of learning from fellows and friends in our burgeoning analytics industry. Having attended three eMetrics summits myself, I can tell you the best presentations were those where practitioners described the particular digital measurement problem they tried to solve and explained the results. No holds barred.

Memorable speakers for myself include Breanna Wigle, who proposed an “RFF Score” (Recency+Frequency+Number of Facebook Friends) as a methodology for social network analysis for Military.com. Then there was Alain Tremblay from Bell Interactive who walked us through identified points of failure in a shopping cart, and explained how qualitative data analysis pointed them towards solutions. Wonderfully concrete. Or the always charming Vicky Brock who delivered a great case study on understanding visitor behaviour when you don’t sell online. She described specific content improvement actions that could be taken based on her analysis of a university’s onsite search engine data. Great stuff.

I’m hoping that Ottawa folks will consider submitting a speaker proposal – whether it be for an analytics or a social marketing outreach campaign within a federal government department, or a search marketing program at a private sector company, or a social media membership recruitment effort from an association. I know you’re out there, fellow Ottawans – let’s make sure we let the rest of Canada know it!

Please contact me if you have any questions about the event or to discuss ideas or topics you are considering. To help you brainstorm, the 2011 eMetrics content focus includes the following topics:

  • Digital Management
  • Media Analytics: Cross Media, Cross Platform
  • Site Optimization and Usability
  • Campaigns and Acquisition Optimization
  • Social Mobile Marketing Metrics

Good luck!

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Kelly KubrickCall for Speakers – eMetrics Toronto April 2011

GTEC, Gerry McGovern deadline & Zone5ive @ Brookstreet

by Kelly Kubrick on October 6, 2010

What do these have in common you ask? Apart from the usual web-ian theme, they are also three of Ottawa’s events this month (so far!). Have I missed any?

1. GTEC (Canada’s Government Technology Event) is in full swing – if not nearly done – at the Westin Hotel (search for GTEC on Twitter to get a sense of the conversation…). Very healthy exhibitor floor and I caught a couple of sessions, including the G20 case study on Canada’s lead role in “the world’s largest social media project”. Kudos to Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada for opening the kimono and sharing details on how the whole project got off the ground, how things went during and what’s likely to happen next.

2. Zone5ive’s next session, “The Bigger Picture: Taking your Product into Today’s Market” is set for Thursday, October 14, 2010. This month’s speaker is Corien Kershey, Director of Strategy at Marketing Magnitude. In case you haven’t attended this year, please note that Zone5ive has moved to the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata (who put on a great lunch in September – thanks Brookstreet!).

3. Although technically not an October event, NeoInsight and OCRI are offering an early-bird discount (until 5pm on October 15th) for their Task Management Masterclass with Gerry McGovern in Ottawa on November 3rd (and Halifax on November 1st). Having attended a previous Gerry McGovern event, I expect this one will be a sell out too!

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Kelly KubrickGTEC, Gerry McGovern deadline & Zone5ive @ Brookstreet

Ottawa’s jam-packed June

by Kelly Kubrick on June 23, 2010

I’m not sure if it was intentional or not – trying to beat a pre-summer vacation frenzy? – but this past month, Ottawa has been jam-packed with with web-related events. Which is, of course, excellent news for our fair city. Our web-ian community grows!

A quick round up of those I was able to catch:

  • GovCamp Ottawa, our local version of GovCamp Canada: “an open environment for conversation about the role of municipal, provincial and federal governments in cultivating the growth and prosperity of Canada’s vibrant communities…”. My first ‘un-conference’, and an intriguing experience. After hearing from a kick-off panel, the audience created the agenda on the spot. I joined a debate about how valuable (or not) subject matter experts are in an open government model, a discussion about inter-jurisdictional (federal, provincial and municipal) applications and a session about how to measure the impact of open government data using examples and success stories. Overall though, my favourite part was the live Twitter feed during the panel itself; highly amusing to be part of a top-trending topic on Twitter for a day…
  • “Winning the War on Google” featuring Rebecca Lieb, presented by the nascent Ottawa Web Marketing Club.ca. Rebecca has an impressive search pedigree and covered a lot of the fundamentals of search. Unfortunately, the most interesting material – the future of search – came at the end with little time left. She touched on implications of universal search e.g. the blending of search results – organic, news, images, video, social, etc. to illustrate why it’s – truly – no longer about rankings. Also, intriguing stats from comScore: “In early 2008, 17 percent of searches contained some type of blended result. In late 2008, it was 31 percent of all search results.” Look out marketers!
  • “Social Media Marketing Experts Reveal All” with panelists Scott Lake from SWIX, Erin Blaskie, Lifestreamer (my new favourite word – see BabyCenter’s research segmenting social moms) and Michele Bedford-Thistle from Microsoft, presented by OCRI‘s, Zone5ive technology marketing speaker series. Each panelist had an extremely different take on social and how they’ve incorporated it into their professional selves and businesses. Finally – concrete evidence about why organizations don’t need to panic about the ‘right’ way to ‘do’ social.

There were still other events I was not able to attend, including:

  • “Wikibrands – Reinventing Your Business in A Customer Controlled Marketplace”, featuring Sean Moffit and presented by SMB Ottawa (Social Media Breakfast Ottawa). For reasons that I’m unclear about, there’s no reference to the event on the SMB Ottawa web page,  but you can find the presentation on slideshare. Perhaps they are pure-Twitterists?
  • MARCOM 2010 – “professional development and educational forum for public and not-for-profit marketers and communicators”
  • Your Facebook Business Account – Turn “Fans” into Customers Session 3 of Using Social Media to Drive Business featuring Erin Blaskie, presented by the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. Fortunately for me, Erin posted the presentation on slideshare.

If you were able to attend any of these, comment away – I’d be curious to hear what you learned at each.

And finally, although it not exactly an event, there is a deadline worth noting – CMA Ottawa is touting the fact that the entry deadline for the 2010 Canadian Marketing Associations Awards is June 24th, 2010.

Go Ottawa!

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Kelly KubrickOttawa’s jam-packed June

Building Your Nonline Library Community

by Kelly Kubrick on May 3, 2010

I’m very pleased to be speaking at the upcoming Manitoba Libraries Conference 2010: The Power of Many – The Power of Partnerships: May 17 – 19th in Winnipeg, Manitoba. My session is entitled “Building Your “Nonline” Library Community”: A Blueprint for Success”.

My intention is to explore a challenge faced by many organizations today – the struggle to stay relevant to an increasingly distracted group of stakeholders. All of us, and libraries in particular, need to take full advantage of any and all available tools to help us to build and remain connected to our communities.

In fact, for today’s library, the availability of online tools can be a double-edged sword – a profusion offering overwhelming opportunity. Should you use these tools to build an online community? Or are they best suited to build our ‘offline’ community? Or, should we stop trying to differentiate, and embrace “non-line” marketing – with thanks to http://www.nonlinemarketing.com – in our community building efforts?

Could your library use these online tools as a gathering place for book lovers? Or to harness enthusiastic members willing to increase non-member awareness of your library’s facilities and programs? Or to help identify potential donors, volunteers or Friends? What about using these tools to influence your community ‘influencers’? Which approach makes the most sense for your library?

On May 19th, I hope you’ll be able to join me in exploring examples of nonline communities and be inspired about ways you can use today’s online tools to enhance your library’s community building efforts.

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Kelly KubrickBuilding Your Nonline Library Community

Is Your Search Marketing Missing In Action?

by Kelly Kubrick on April 16, 2010

Many thanks to CMA Ottawa, the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Marketing Association, for inviting me to speak at their upcoming luncheon on April 27th, 2010.

I’m especially pleased about the about the topic I get to tackle – search engine marketing. Back in December 2008, I was fascinated to read a study describing how business owners find search campaigns more scary than filing taxes. Since then, I’ve concluded that this might indeed be the case – which is not a good thing.

Search marketing may be the great leveler and I don’t like the idea of business owners shying away from it. Instead, I’d be much happier if they at least understood enough about the tactic to decide if it should be included in their marketing mix or not.

My hope is to demystify search marketing and in particular, talk about:

  • Measuring visibility instead of worrying about rankings
  • Why it’s not really about your home page anymore
  • How you can leverage your own subject matter expertise

I’ve just returned from eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Toronto and Canada’s Search Marketing Expo, SMX Toronto, and my head is brimming with search ideas and issues; I’m really going to have to rein myself in…

I hope to see you on April 27th!

Event details:

When:    Tuesday April 27th, 2010, from 11:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Where:    Hampton Inn and Conference Centre, 100 Coventry Rd, Ottawa
Cost:    $40.00 for CMA members, $55.00 for non-members

Register through CMA Ottawa

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Kelly KubrickIs Your Search Marketing Missing In Action?

Ottawa Web Analytics Wednesday: Feb 10th, 2010

by Kelly Kubrick on February 3, 2010

Join us on Wednesday February 10th, 2010 for Ottawa’s next Web Analytics Wednesday!

As usual, it will be held at the Black Rose Room (downstairs, at the back) of the Heart and Crown Pub at the Byward Market location, 67 Clarence Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 5P5.

However, on the “not as usual” front, our presenter will be Jim Sterne, web analytics guru extraordinaire. Among other guru-like accomplishments, Jim is the Founding President and current Chairman of our Web Analytics Association.

Jim is visiting three of our fair Canadian cities and in Ottawa in particular, will also be speaking the next day, February 11th, 2010 at OCRI’s Zone5ive Marketing Forum.

Also – please note that this month’s Web Analytics Wednesday begins at 7PM (as opposed to the usual 6PM).

Register Online

See you there!

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Kelly KubrickOttawa Web Analytics Wednesday: Feb 10th, 2010

Get the web analytics edge – enter to win $675.00 of learning!

by Kelly Kubrick on January 26, 2010

Attend OCRI Zone5ive Marketing Forum on Thursday February 11, 2010 in Ottawa, Canada and enter to win $675.00 CAD worth of learning from UBC’s Award of Achievement in Web Analytics!

The Web Analytics Association (WAA) has collaborated with The University of British Columbia (UBC) Continuing Studies to offer the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics. This series of courses is delivered 100% online so that this educational commitment fits into your schedule and is available to working professionals around the world!

Supported by Online Authority, this month’s Zone5ive speaker is Jim Sterne and his topic is “Translating Web Intelligence into Business Value.” Jim Sterne is Chairman of the Web Analytics Association and Founder and Chairman of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit

Contest details:

– Contest open to paid registrants and attendees of the OCRI Zone5ive Marketing Forum, Thursday February 11th, 2010 at the Travelodge Ottawa Hotel and Conference Centre Centennial Ballroom from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

– Course voucher will be awarded via random business card draw to be held following the speaker’s closing remarks. The winner of the draw must be present to receive the course voucher.

– Course voucher is issued by University of British Columbia Continuing Studies and is valued at $675.00 CAD. The course voucher may be used by the bearer towards the tuition fee (before taxes) for one online UBC Continuing Studies Web Analytics Course beginning on or before March 1st, 2011. The course voucher must be surrendered at the time of registration (in person, by mail or phone). No refund will be made should the course tuition be less than $675.00. Course voucher not redeemable for cash.

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Kelly KubrickGet the web analytics edge – enter to win $675.00 of learning!

Jim Sterne in Ottawa, Canada February 11th, 2010

by Kelly Kubrick on January 22, 2010

Online Authority, OCRI and Zone5ive are pleased to announce that Jim Sterne, Chairman, Web Analytics Association and Founder and Chairman of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit will be returning to Ottawa, Canada on Thursday February 11th, 2010. Jim’s topic is:

Translating Web Intelligence into Business Value

Session Summary:

We started out counting hits just to prove that our website was being seen. Then we started measuring more closely in order to make our websites better. It turns out that web data can be valuable much more broadly. Jim Sterne walks us through the stages of using web intelligence to get to know our customers better, to optimize our marketing and finally to improve the business as a whole.  Web analysis is now about what customers want, how they respond, and what they will buy. Marketing analysts can now deliver actionable insights that lead to higher profits, lower costs and improved customer satisfaction. Come to this session and learn how simple tools and techniques can help marketing get down to business.

Speaker’s Biography:

Jim Sterne is Chairman of the Web Analytics Association and Founder and Chairman of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. As an author, a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and a public speaker, Jim Sterne focuses his twenty years in sales and marketing on the changing landscape of the Web as a medium for creating and strengthening customer relationships. With a special focus on Web metrics, his company, Target Marketing, is dedicated to helping companies understand the possibilities and manage the realities of conducting business online.

Event Information:

Date:  Thursday, February 11, 2010
Time:  11:30 a.m.– Registration/networking lunch, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Presentation

Place:  **NEW LOCATION** Centennial Ballroom, Travelodge Ottawa Hotel & Conference Centre, 1376 Carling Avenue

Cost:   Early Registration (received by OCRI no later than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday February 9, 2010)

$40.00 – OCRI and Web Analytics Association (WAA) Members (plus 5% GST)
$80.00 – Non-members (plus 5% GST)
$15.00 – Students (plus 5% GST)

Late and On-Site Registration (received by OCRI after 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday February 9, 2010)
$50.00 – OCRI and Web Analytics Association (WAA) Members (plus 5% GST)
$90.00 – Non-members (plus 5% GST)
$25.00 – Students (plus 5% GST)

Event pre-registration closes February 10th at 5:00 p.m.

Register online* or contact Tanya Calvo, Conference Administrator, Membership & Corporate Programs, OCRI at (613) 828-6274 ext 224 or tcalvo@ocri.ca.

On-site registrations are welcome.

*Online registration must be made by credit card

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Kelly KubrickJim Sterne in Ottawa, Canada February 11th, 2010