Whether you are working on your construction website, blogs, social media, or any digital property, it is crucial to understand your users and customers and get insights into how they interact with your website.
And the only top-tier choice for analytics capable of getting the data you need is Google Analytics (GA). GA is one of the most popular digital analytics software today. It is Google’s free web analytic service that enables you to analyze in-depth detail about everything that has happened on your website. Ultimately, it provides valuable insights that help shape the marketing success strategy for your construction business.
This blog is purposely written to help you understand Google Analytics and will guide you to using it like a pro.
Let’s get started.
What Is Google Analytics Anyway?
If you keep up with the latest news and trends, you know already that today’s marketing analytics revolves around data. This data, in particular, will show you how people behave on your website, what they want, and other actions they take. Let’s just say you have already gathered a ton of data. But do you know what you will do about it? Do you know what it all means? In short, data will only be meaningful and useful if you know how to use it.
That is why using the best tools to collect and assess data from any web properties is necessary, as it helps you make sense of all the patterns and act accordingly to get ahead of your competitors. And GA is the only perfect tool you can use anytime.
But Why Do You Need to Use Google Analytics?
Let’s say you are promoting your newly launched construction website and running a blog. By default, there are a couple of questions that require direct answers. Having all of these answers will help you understand what is working for you and what is not.
Here are some of the questions:
- How many people are visiting your website?
- How are these people getting to your website?
- What is the location of your web visitors?
- Which pages on your website are the most popular?
- How many visitors have converted into leads?
- What devices do website visitors use?
- What type of content attracts your web visitors the most?
Google Analytics incorporates a whole suite of marketing solutions like Google Data Studio and Google Ads. This tool integrates data from multiple touchpoints to create a comprehensively detailed map to help you explore your audience.
With GA, you can learn more about your visitors. And the more you learn about these people, the better you will be at giving them what they are looking for, resulting to lead acquisition success.
Introducing Google Analytics 4 – The Latest Version of GA
What is G4? And what does this new version mean for website owners and marketers? How different is it compared to the first version?
GA4 is not just a redesign of GA. In fact, it is an entirely new product that can be installed in addition to your existing GA profile. So, do not be confused. The new GA4 has many features that make it completely different from the first version, and the new user interface is one of the biggest differences you will notice first.
Here is a brief introduction to some concepts associated with GA4:
- Events: These are user interactions via website or app – such as button clicks, page views, user actions, etc. Unlike before, events do not require additional customized code. Some events are analyzed by default.
- Parameters: These are additional bits of information that will give context to every event. For instance, parameters can be used to define the value of a purchase or to deliver context into how, where, and why a certain event was logged.
- User property: This is the demographic information and attributes about the users.
- User ID: This element is used for cross-platform user tracking.
You can use both GA and GA4 side by side. You will not be forced to switch to the latest version of GA, especially if you are not yet ready. However, it was announced that the standard Universal Analytics properties would soon stop processing data by the start of July 2023. And you have no choice but to transition to G4 one of these days.
How to Navigate and Use GA Like a Pro?
Now, let’s go over to what this blog is all about. Let’s get into using Google Analytics like a pro, shall we?
1. Set up your GA goals
A goal is an activity you want people to take on your construction website. Some examples of GA goals are:
- Filling in a contact form
- Downloading an e-book
- Making a purchase
- Other activities that are relevant and crucial to the success of your construction business.
Moreover, you have to set and track different types of goals in your GA. And these goals are:
- Destination goals
- Visitation duration goals
- Pages visited per session goals
- Event goals
Defining your goals is a fundamental factor in measuring your website’s analytics. That is why you have to be clear with your GA goals and set and configure them properly.
2. Understand GA’s Real-time reports
The real-time reporting tab of GA allows you to track all your website activities as it occurs. And this will show you how people are reacting to any of your marketing efforts. Make use of real-time reports when tracking time-sensitive promotional marketing campaigns and try to troubleshoot some important parameters.
But the major question is, what data can you get from these reports? Let’s take a closer look below:
· Overview: This report shows a bigger picture of what is happening on your website. It includes location, sources of traffic, the number of visitors, and many more. All in real-time.
- Location: A view of the geographic location the user is in, both in list form and on an interactive map.
- Traffic sources: This data is organized by the Source (Origin of the traffic). It shows the number of visitors from each source.
- Content: This report shows what pages your web visitors spend time on. You can switch the view between your active users and the list of page views in the last 30 minutes.
- Events: Track event goals in real-time and break down specific categories.
- Conversions: This report displays which goals active web visitors are completing. In addition, it gives insights into the total number of active users who have completed a particular goal.
3. Take a detailed look at acquisition reports
In GA, Acquisition reports will help you understand your web traffic, where it comes from, and the entirety of your traffic channel. They can also help you better understand how your marketing campaigns are performing. Some of the data you can obtain from the Acquisition Overview reports include the following:
The channels that drive the most traffic to your construction website (organic, direct, paid, email, etc.)
Engagement metrics for every channel (bounce rate, pages per session, session duration, etc.)
Conversion and conversion rates per channel.
As you should know by now, personalization is critical to standing out in the ever-competitive digital world. And only when you dig deeper into your traffic acquisition reports can you know what is happening to your website. Additionally, the reports can help you focus more time and resources to build more effective campaigns.
4. Enable Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reports
One of the top features of GA is the Demographics and Interest Report. This feature allows you to get a clearer picture of your website visitors. For instance, it generates data regarding your visitor’s location, gender, interests, and other critical audience-centric data.
In order to get this data, you should enable the Demographics and Interest report. Once you enable the reporting function, it may take a day or two for GA to generate your visitor’s demographic data. The interest report, however, is particularly important as it displays other topics your visitors are most interested in. This report can be breakdown into three categories (Affinity, In-market, and Other Categories).
Determining the interests and demographics of your web visitors can help you target high-value users. Overall, doing everything accordingly can help you fine-tune your marketing campaigns to get your desired results.
5. Use Tag Manager to Understand More the Impact of Your Marketing
GTM for short, Google Tag Manager, is a handy GA feature that enables you to implement and manage marketing tags (some snippets of code) without the need to modify the code itself. With the GTM feature, there is no need for you to rely on any developer to create, test, implement, and fix your tags.
But how can GTM help you better understand the direct impact of your marketing? There are only two words for that – event tracking.
GTM allows you to specify any events you want to track. And all you need to do is to input a group of attributes to look for and record on your web pages. In this way, it is easier for you to monitor and evaluate the success of your marketing campaigns.
Ready to Get Started? Team up with ConstructionMarketing.io!
When you get the most out of Google Analytics and when it the platform is used correctly, you will have a gold mine of invaluable information. Having a pile of accurate data gives you the power to make the best decision for the first time, especially when it comes to your marketing campaigns.
GA is purely technical. So, if you find the overall configuration difficult to start, you can hire experts!
ConstructionMarketing.io is a full-service digital marketing agency that is all about data and analytics! We have a team of Google-certified experts that can help you leverage GA and implement strategies unique to your construction brand.
One of our specializations is Google Analytics strategy. We will conduct a website audit and site optimization, collect and unify your data, validate your data integrity, extract data-driven insights, and more.
We create and look for more opportunities for your brand. We want you to be always on top of the game!
If you have other questions, you can contact us today. We offer consultations.