Measure Your Marketing’s Power with Google Analytics

  • What is a custom campaign in Google Analytics?

  • How can you run a custom campaign?

  • What can you learn about your marketing from a custom campaign?



Picture Roberto’s Rain Sticks, a provider of percussion instruments and music education content to schools and professionals around the world.


To get customers to visit his website, rrsticks.com, Roberto has created a ton of online marketing. But while he knows a lot of people see his posts, ads, and emails, he’s not sure if any of it is actually driving drummers his way.


A friend has told Roberto that Google Analytics can help him track his marketing and find out which pieces are working and which aren’t.


But what types of marketing can Roberto test with Analytics?


There are tons of ways to reach people online: blog posts, social media, paid search ads, newsletters, video ads, etc.


Each of these is an “asset” in your digital marketing campaigns. Analytics’ “Custom Campaigns” can help you generate info on how much traffic each asset drives to your website.


With this info, you can compare what makes one asset more successful than another – a particular copy point, a video vs. a non-video post, etc. Then, you can adjust underperforming pieces or just drop the duds.


Let’s return to Roberto. He’s made new marketing assets to promote a series of drum classes and wants to use a custom campaign to see how effective each asset is.


Roberto’s website also has a new page for his classes, rrsticks.com/classes, and he wants every asset – whether it’s a search ad, newsletter, or anything else – to send people there.


But if all of these new assets are driving to this one webpage, how can Roberto measure which specific assets are generating business? That’s where Analytics can help him out.


With Analytics, Roberto can give each asset its own custom, measurable URL and have every one of those URLs redirect to the classes page.


For example, Roberto can link his search ads to rr.sticks.com/searchads and his newsletter to rrsticks.com/newsletter. But both URLs will forward automatically to rrsticks.com/classes.


Based on how often each page loads, Roberto will know which asset people are clicking, so he’ll know how effective each asset is. But he can also be sure that everyone will see his classes content. It’s a multi-layered marketing win.


LISTEN UP

The URLs you build for your assets might be way more complex than the examples we used. For instance, Roberto’s newsletter URL might actually look like: rrsticks.com/classes?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=classes&utm_term=drum&utm_content=new


The Analytics Developers Tools site has a custom URL builder. It takes you through creating URLs step-by-step, like a digital marketing cookbook.


You’ll find the custom URL builder in the Analytics Developers Tools site. It helps you tackle one asset at a time to help you from getting lost in a sea of marketing stuff.


For each asset, enter the webpage you want to drive people to. For Roberto, that’s rrsticks.com/classes. Then, to make each asset’s URL unique, enter up to 5 pieces of info: Source, Medium, Campaign, Content, and Term.


To identify the Source, consider where your asset’s running. Using a newsletter to advertise a new product? The Source is “newsletter.” For a search ad, the Source could be “Google,” “Bing,” or “Yahoo!,” depending on which ad network you use.


Next, consider the asset’s Medium – what you’re using to get your message out. For a newsletter you email out, the Medium could be “email.” Campaign, meanwhile, helps specify what you’re promoting, like a “Holiday-Sale.”


Now, say your holiday campaign has two banners – one advertising “half off” and one advertising “big sale.” Content lets you distinguish between them, so you can see which brings in more traffic. Term lets you call out an asset’s keywords.


REMEMBER

Stay consistent with spelling and capitalization when you enter all this info. Analytics is case sensitive (and you don’t want to hurt its case feelings).


As you enter the info, your custom URL will build automatically so you can test it.


Once the page loads, do what you want customers to do. If the URL you’ve linked to your newsletter loads a sign-up page for a mailing list, try signing up. Linked a URL to a search ad that has a coupon code? Try buying an item with the code.Ok – you’ve made custom URLs. Before pushing them out to cyberspace like baby e-chicks leaving the nest, test them to ensure they’ll give you the data you want.


Start by opening an incognito window or private browsing session in your web browser to ensure you’ll get a clean look at your brand-spankin’-new URL. Then, copy and paste the URL you created into the address bar and hit return.


Once the page loads, do what you want customers to do. If the URL you’ve linked to your newsletter loads a sign-up page for a mailing list, try signing up. Linked a URL to a search ad that has a coupon code? Try buying an item with the code.


To see if your custom URLs generate useful data, consult the Real-Time Overview Report. To find it, select “Real-Time” in Analytics’ “Reporting” tab. If the URLs are working, go use them to help you get the goods on your marketing.


DO THIS NOW

Creating a custom campaign in Analytics can be a powerful way to learn more about your online marketing. Ready to see what a custom campaign might look like for your business?


If you’re participating in the course, go to the next section to access your self assessment. 


KEY TAKEAWAYS

  1. Creating a custom campaign in Google Analytics lets you test how effective different pieces of your marketing are.

  2. The more you know about your marketing assets, the more thorough your test can be.

  3. You can track the performance of your custom URLs through Analytics Campaigns Reports.