Google announced the ‘Add a Pitstop’ feature within Google Maps is now available on iOS devices in all countries where navigation is offered.
The post Google Maps for iOS Receives ’Add a Pitstop’ Feature appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Monday 29 February 2016
What Google’s Elimination of Side-Rail Ads Means for Your PPC Program
Google recently announced it is eliminating text ad impressions on the right-hand side of its results pages. Previously, upwards of 10 or 11 total ads were eligible to show on the first results page with a majority showing up on the right-hand side. Going forward, there will now be a maximum of 7 total ads… Read More
The post What Google’s Elimination of Side-Rail Ads Means for Your PPC Program appeared first on Portent.
How To Prepare WordPress for Facebook’s Instant Articles
How to Set Up WordPress for Instant Articles Install Pagefrog and head to “Mobile Formats” > “Set Up” Navigate to Publishing Tools in your Facebook page Navigate to Production under the Instant Articles section (source) Click on the Set Up button (source) Grab your RSS feed URL: http://ift.tt/1ncdgku Paste it into the RSS Feed URL […]
The post How To Prepare WordPress for Facebook’s Instant Articles appeared first on Builtvisible.
How To Prepare WordPress for Facebook’s Instant Articles
How to Set Up WordPress for Instant Articles Install Pagefrog and head to “Mobile Formats” > “Set Up” Navigate to Publishing Tools in your Facebook page Navigate to Production under the Instant Articles section (source) Click on the Set Up button (source) Grab your RSS feed URL: http://ift.tt/1ncdgku Paste it into the RSS Feed URL […]
The post How To Prepare WordPress for Facebook’s Instant Articles appeared first on Builtvisible.
Moving From Likes To Reactions
Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.
This week we discussed:
- Heather B. is still away on vacation this week.
- Everyone is all excited that Facebook is moving beyond the "like" button. Now, you can get much more expressive about what someone else posts, with these new animated "reactions." They've been testing different ones in other parts of the world, have analyzed the data and are now ready for prime time. So, if someone has posted bad news - you're not forced to "like" it. You can now be angry, sad... well, you get the idea. Have you tried them? How do you like it? As simple as it sounds, my guess is that this will become a treasure trove of sentiment data for Facebook. Think about it, if suddenly you're not liking a bunch of stuff, Facebook can start targeting you with more relevant ads based on your mood.
- Apple is still entangled in this fight with the CIA to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. As the government pushes them to help, Apple is moving in a very different direction. Just this week, Apple hired Frederic Jacobs, a Switzerland-based developer who worked to develop secure messaging app Signal -- the communications app of choice for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden -- to work on its CoreOS security team. This is interesting. What if Apple can suddenly prove that their system is so private, that no one can get in?
- App of the week: Google's Art Project.
Listen here...
Tags: app of the week apple chom 977 fm chom fm ctrl alt delete ctrl alt delete with mitch joel digital media edward snowden facebook facebook reactions frederic jacobs google google art project guest contributor heather beckman iphone j walter thompson jwt like button mirum mirum agency montreal radio morning show mornings rock with terry and heather b radio segment radio station signal messaging app social media soundcloud technology terry dimonte twitter wpp youtube
Empower Your Indirect-Sales Marketers
You want your network of resellers, distributors, and channel partners to promote your products and services, but everyone's swamped with info from your competitors and focused on their own agendas. So, how can you drive engagement? Read the full article at MarketingProfs
How to Set Up a Local AdWords PPC Campaign That Kills the Competition (Part 1 of 2)
Are the leads you're getting from Google in too short supply for your taste? That no longer has to be the case, because you now have the definitive guide to dominating Google AdWords for your local area. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
SEJ Wrap-Up: Google Removes Sidebar Ads & All Google Compare Products—What’s Next? by @megcabrera
This week’s SEJ Wrap-Up is all about Google's removal of the sidebar ads, and its upcoming shutdown of its compare products.
The post SEJ Wrap-Up: Google Removes Sidebar Ads & All Google Compare Products—What’s Next? by @megcabrera appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
How to Use the Google AdWords iOS App
The Google AdWords iOS app was officially introduced to global audiences on January 28. The app is ideal for PPC managers that need to manage AdWords campaigns on the move. This is a guide on how to use the Google AdWords iOS app. You will need to download the app from the App store and […]
The post How to Use the Google AdWords iOS App appeared first on SEMrush Blog.
Which Types of Facebook Brand Posts Get the Most Engagement?
Do shorter or longer Facebook posts get more Likes, comments, and shares? Is it better to embed videos directly on the social network or use YouTube links? What days and times see the highest engagement rates? Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Content Marketing and Advertising Meet in a Dark Alley: Who Wins, and Why?
Traditional advertising pretty much had its way with the 20th century. Big campaigns with big budgets from big companies influenced the things we did, said, and thought. And it’s safe to say that influence continues into the 21st century. But content marketing is starting to make some noise of its own. In fact, interest in
Read More...
The post Content Marketing and Advertising Meet in a Dark Alley: Who Wins, and Why? appeared first on Copyblogger.
Winning Mobile Marketing Strategies #semrushchat
Mobile marketing is a huge topic! From UX/UI to AMP pages — there are dozens of things to keep in mind in order to get the most out of your website’s mobile presence. During our last Twitter Chat, our guest expert (and dear friend) Nick Wilsdon @nickwilsdon, the Global SEO Lead of VodafoneGroup, and all our […]
The post Winning Mobile Marketing Strategies #semrushchat appeared first on SEMrush Blog.
Win a Ticket to #SEJSummit Santa Monica! by @sayscaitlin
Want to attend #SEJSummit for free? Here's your chance. Enter our photo contest at #winSEJ16!
The post Win a Ticket to #SEJSummit Santa Monica! by @sayscaitlin appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
How to Create a Promoted Pin That Will Actually See Results by @annaleacrowe
Ever look at your Pinterest Promoted Pins and think, "There’s just something off here?" Find out how to optimize your Promoted Pins with this guide.
The post How to Create a Promoted Pin That Will Actually See Results by @annaleacrowe appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Google Treats Some Subdomains as Single Site, Not Multiple Sites
There has been a pretty fierce debate in the SEO industry on the issue of subdomains versus directories, and in what kind of situation websites should use each kind. But John Mueller made another interesting comment in the most recent Google Webmaster Office Hours. The question was a longer complicated question about the use of […]
The post Google Treats Some Subdomains as Single Site, Not Multiple Sites appeared first on The SEM Post.
Triggering Manual Action Won’t Fix Algorithmic Search Issues in Google
Normally SEOs don’t set out to trigger a Google manual action unless they are specifically testing something. But Gary Illyes was asked an interesting question on Twitter. If a site had some kind of algorithmic penalty, would causing a manual action, then fixing it, cause the algorithmic issue to be lifted? As you can imagine, […]
The post Triggering Manual Action Won’t Fix Algorithmic Search Issues in Google appeared first on The SEM Post.
How to Use Facebook Ad Bidding
Do you use Facebook ads? Have you tried ad bidding? Understanding how to use Facebook ad bidding will help you reach your campaign goals for less money. In this article you’ll discover how to use Facebook ad bidding with your Facebook ad campaigns. Facebook Ad Bidding The bidding options for Facebook ads have changed slightly. [...]
This post How to Use Facebook Ad Bidding first appeared on .
- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
A whole year? Yes, a whole year for leaping.
5 Creative Ways to Grow Your Email List
Want to grow your email list? Got a blog? New tools and placement options have made it easier than ever to create an offer that compels blog visitors to share their email address with you. In this article you’ll discover five unique ways to grow your email list from your blog readers. #1: Put Your [...]
This post 5 Creative Ways to Grow Your Email List first appeared on .
- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
The Google Analytics Add-On for Sheets: An Intro to an Underutilized Tool
Posted by tian_wang
With today’s blog post I’m sharing everything one needs to know about an underappreciated tool: the Google Analytics add-on for Google Sheets. In this post I’ll be covering the following:
1. What is the Google Analytics add-on?
2. How to install and set up the Google Analytics add-on.
3. How to create a custom report with the Google Analytics add-on.
4. A step-by-step worked example of setting up an automated report.
5. Further considerations and pitfalls to avoid.
Thanks to Moz for having me, and for giving me the chance to write about this simple and powerful tool!
1. What is the Google Analytics add-on and why should I care?
I’m glad I asked. Simply put, the Google Analytics add-on is an extension for Google Sheets that allows you to create custom reports within Sheets. The add-on works by linking up to an existing Analytics account, using Google’s Analytics API and Regular Expressions to filter the data you want to pull, and finally gathering the data into an easy and intuitive format that’s ripe for reporting.
The Google Analytics add-on’s real value-add to a reporting workflow is that it’s extremely flexible, reliable, and a real time-saver. Your reporting will still be constrained by the limitations of Sheets itself (as compared to, say, Excel), but the Sheets framework has served almost every reporting need I’ve come across to date and the same will probably be true for most of you!
In a nutshell, the Add-On allows you to:
- Pull any data that you’d be able to access in the Analytics API (i.e analytics.google.com) directly into a spreadsheet
- Easily compare historical data across time periods
- Filter and segment your data
- Automate regular reporting
- Make tweaks to existing reports to get new data (no more re-inventing wheels!)
If this all sounds like you could use it, read on!
2. Getting started: How to install and set up the Google Analytics add-on
2A. Installing the Google Analytics add-on
- Go into Google Sheets.
- On the header bar, under your Workbook’s title, click add-on.
- This opens a drop-down menu — click “Get add-ons.”
- In the following window, type “Google Analytics" into the search bar on the top right and hit enter.
- The first result is the add-on we want, so go ahead and install it.
- Refresh your page and confirm the add-on is installed by clicking “Add-ons” again. You should see an option for “Google Analytics.”
That’s all there is to installation!
2B. Setting up the Google Analytics add-on
Now that we have the Google Analytics add-on installed, we need to set it up by linking it to an Analytics account before we can use it.
- Under the “Add-ons” tab in Sheets, hover “Google Analytics” to expose a side-bar as shown below.
- Click “Create New Report.” You’ll see a menu appear on the right side of your screen.
- In this menu, set the account information to the Analytics account you want to measure.
- Fill out the metrics and dimensions you want to analyze. You can further customize segmentation within the report itself later, so just choose a simple set for now.
- Click “Create Report.” The output will be a new sheet, with a report configuration that looks like this:
- Note: This is NOT your report. This is the setup configuration for you to let the add-on know exactly what information you’d like to see in the report.
Once you’ve arrived at this step, your set-up phase is done!
Next we’ll look at what these parameters mean, and how to customize them to tailor the data you receive.
3. Creating a custom report with the Google Analytics add-on
So now you have all these weird boxes and you’re probably wondering what you need to fill out and what you don’t.
Before we get into that, let’s take a look at what happens if you don’t fill out anything additional, and just run the report from here.
To run a configured report, click back into the “Add-Ons” menu and go to Google Analytics. From there, click “Run Reports.” Make sure you have your configuration sheet open when you do this!
You’ll get a notification that the report was either successfully created, or that something went wrong (this might require some troubleshooting).
Following the example above, your output will look something like this:
This is your actual report. Hooray! So what are we actually seeing? Let’s go back to the “Report Configuration” sheet to find out.
The report configuration:
Type and View ID are defaults that don’t need to be changed. Report Name is what you want your report to be called, and will be the name generated for the report sheet created when you run your reports.
So really, in the report configuration above, all the input we’re seeing is:
- Last N Days = 7
- Metrics = ga:users
In other words, this report shows the total number of sessions in the specified View ID over the last week. Interesting maybe, but not that helpful. Let’s see what happens if we make a few changes.
I’ve changed Last N Days from 7 to 30, and added Date as a Dimension. Running the report again yields the following output:
By increasing the range of data pulled from last 7 to 30 days, we get a data from a larger set of days. By adding date as a dimension, we can see how much traffic the site registered each day.
This is only scratching the surface of what the Google Analytics add-on can do. Here’s a breakdown of the parameters, and how to use them:
|
Parameter Name |
Required? |
Description & Notes |
Example Value(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Report Name |
No |
The name of your report. This will be the name of the report sheet that's generated when you run reports. If you’re running multiple reports, and want to exclude one without deleting its configuration setup, delete the report name and the column will be ignored next time you run your reports. |
“January Organic Traffic” |
|
Type |
No |
Inputs are either “core” or “mcf,” representative of Google’s Core Reporting API and Multi-Channel Funnels API respectively. Core is the default and will serve most of your needs! |
“core” / “mcf” |
|
View (Profile) ID |
Yes |
The Analytics view that your report will pull data from. You can find your view ID in the Analytics interface, under the Admin tab. |
ga:12345678 |
|
Start / End Date |
No |
Used alternatively with Last N Days (i.e you must use exactly one), allows you to specify a range of data to pull from. |
2/1/2016 – 2/31/2016 |
|
Last N Days |
No |
Used alternatively with Start / End Date (i.e you must use exactly one), pulls data from the last N days from the current date. Counts backwards from the current date. |
Any integer |
|
Metrics |
Yes |
Metrics you want to pull. You can include multiple metrics per report. Documentation on Metrics and dimensions can be found in Google’s Metrics & Dimensions Explorer |
“ga:sessions” |
|
Dimensions |
No |
Dimensions you want your metrics to be segmented by. You can include multiple dimensions per report. Documentation on metrics and dimensions can be found here. |
“ga:date” |
|
Sort |
No |
Specifies an order to return your data by, can be used to organize data before generating a report. Note: you can only sort by metrics/dimensions that are included in your report. |
|
|
Filters |
No |
Filter the data included in your report based on any dimension (not just those included in the report). |
“ga:country==Japan; |
|
Segment |
No |
Use segments from the main reporting interface. |
“users::condition:: |
|
Sampling Level |
No |
Directs the level of sampling for the data you’re pulling. Analytics samples data by default, but the add-on can increase the precision of sampling usage. |
“HIGHER_PRECISION” |
|
Start Index |
No |
Shows results starting from the current index (default = 1, not 0). For use with Max Results, when you want to retrieve paginated data (e.g if you’re pulling 2,000 results, and want to get results 1,001 – 2,000). |
Integer |
|
Max Results |
No |
Default is 1,000, can be raised to 10,000. |
Integer up to 10,000 |
|
Spreadsheet URL |
No |
Sends your data to another spreadsheet. |
URL for sheet where you want data to be sent |
By using these parameters in concert, you can arrive at a customized report detailing exactly what you want. The best part is, once you’ve set up a report in your configuration sheet and confirmed the output is what you want, all you have to do to run it again is run your reports in the add-on! This makes regular reporting a breeze, while still bringing all the benefits of Sheets to bear.
Some important things to note and consider, when you’re setting up your configuration sheet:
- You can include multiple report configurations in the the sheet (see below):
In the image above, running the report configuration will produce four separate reports. You should NOT have one configuration sheet per report.
- Although you can have your reports generated in the same workbook as your configuration sheet, I recommend copying the data into another workbook or using the Spreadsheet URL parameter to do the same thing. Loading multiple reports in one workbook can create performance problems.
- You can schedule your reporting to run automatically by enabling scheduled reporting within the Google Analytics add-on. Note: this is only helpful if you are using “Last N Days” for your time parameter. If you’re using a date range, your report will just give you the same data for that range every month.
The regularity options are hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.
4. Creating an automated report: A worked example
So now that we’ve installed, set up, and configured a report, next up is the big fish, the dream of anyone who’s had to do regular reporting: automation.
As an SEO, I use the Google Analytics add-on for this exact purpose for many of my clients. I’ll start by assuming you’ve installed and set up the add-on, and are ready to create a custom report configuration.
Step one: Outline a framework
Before we begin creating our report, it’s important we understand what we want to measure and how we want to measure it. For this example, let’s say we want to view organic traffic to a specific set of pages on our site from Chrome browsers and that we want to analyze the traffic month-over-month and year-over-year.
Step two: Understand your framework within the add-on
To get everything we want, we’ll use three separate reports: organic traffic in the past month (January 2016), organic traffic in the month before that (December 2015), and organic traffic in the past month, last year (January 2015). It’s possible to include this all in one report, but I recommend creating one report per date period, as it makes organizing your data and troubleshooting your configuration significantly easier.
Step three: Map your key elements to add-on parameters
Report One parameter breakdown:
Report Name – 1/1/2016
- Make it easily distinguishable from the other reports we’ll be running
Type – core
- The GA API default
View (Profile) ID
- The account we want to pull data from
Start Date – 1/1/2016
- The beginning date we want to pull data from
End Date – 1/31/2016
- The cutoff date for the data we want to pull
Metrics – ga:sessions
- We want to analyze sessions for this report
Dimensions – ga:date
- Allows us to see traffic the site received each day in the specified range
Filters – ga:medium==organic;ga:landingpagepath=@resources
- We’ve included two filters, one that specifies only organic traffic and another that specifies sessions that had a landing page with “resources” in the URL (resources is the subdirectory on Distilled’s website that houses our editorial content)
- Properly filling out filters and segments requires specific syntax, which you can find on Google’s Core Reporting API resources.
Segments – sessions::condition::ga:browser==Chrome
- Specifies that we only want session data from Chrome browsers
Sampling Level – HIGHER_PRECISION
- Specifies that we want to minimize sampling for this data set
Report One output: Past month’s sessions
Now that we’ve set up our report, it’s time to run it and check the results.
So, in the month of January 2016, the resources section on Distilled’s website saw 10,365 sessions that satisfied the following conditions:
- organic source/medium
- landing page containing “resources”
- Chrome browser
But how do we know this is accurate? It’s impossible to tell at face value, but you can reliably check accuracy of a report by looking at the analogous view in Google Analytics itself.
Confirming Report One data
Since the Google Analytics add-on is an analogue to what you find on analytics.google.com, in your account, we can combine separate pieces in GA to achieve the same effect as our report:
Date Range
Organic Source/Medium
Landing Page Path & Browser
The result
Hooray!
Now that we’ve confirmed our framework works, and is showing us what we want, creating our other two reports can be done by simply copying the configuration and making minor adjustments to the parameters.
Since we want a month-over-month comparison and a year-over-year comparison for the exact same data, all we have to do is change the date range for the two reports.
One should detail the month before (December 2015) and the other should detail the same month in the previous year (January 2015). We can run these reports immediately.
The results?
Total Sessions In January 2015 (Reporting Month, Previous Year: 2,608
Total Sessions In December 2015 (Previous Month): 7,765
Total Sessions In January 2016 (Reporting Month): 10,365
We’re up 33% month-over-month and 297% year-over-year. Not bad!
Every month, we can update the dates in the configuration. For example, next month we’ll be examining February 2016, compared to January 2016 and February 2015. Constructing a dashboard can be done in Sheets, as well, by creating an additional sheet that references the outputs from your reports!
5. Closing observations and pitfalls to avoid
The Google Analytics add-on probably isn’t the perfect reporting solution that all digital marketers yearn for. When I first discovered the Google Analytics add-on for Google Sheets, I was intimidated by its use of Regular Expressions and thought that you needed to be a syntax savant to make full use of the tool. Since then, I haven’t become any better at Regular Expressions, but I’ve come to realize that the Google Analytics add-on is versatile enough that it can add value to most reporting processes, without the need for deep technical fluency.
I was able to cobble together each of the reports I needed by testing, breaking, and researching different combinations of segments, filters, and frameworks and I encourage you to do the same! You’ll most likely be able to arrive at the exact report you need, given enough time and patience.
One last thing to note: the Google Analytics interface (i.e what you use when you access your analytics account online) has built-in safeguards to ensure that the data you see matches the reporting level you’ve chosen. For example, if I click into a session-level report (e.g landing pages), I’ll see mostly session-level metrics. Similarly, clicking into a page-level report will return page-level metrics. In the Google Analytics add-on, however, this safeguard doesn’t exist due to the add-on being designed for greater versatility. It’s therefore all the more important that you’re thorough in outlining, designing, and building your reporting framework within the add-on. After you’ve configured a custom report and successfully run it, be sure to check your results against the Google Analytics interface!
Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Good advice in general that also holds true for using the Google Analytics add-on for Google Sheets.
Supplementary resource appendix:
- Kristi Hines' Google Analytics for Beginners guide – See title.
- Google's Analytics Core Reporting API Documentation – Dig around here to find out how to build reports that give you exactly what you’re looking for!
- Avinash Kaushik's Analytics Resource – Discusses the Google Analytics reporting framework and how to think about metrics and sessions.
- RegExr – General Regular Expressions resource.
- Debuggex – Visual Regular Expressions debugging tool.
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Why Machine Learning Is Revolutionizing Search
Here’s Why Monday Episode 57 Machine learning is the next great computer revolution, one that is already here. We don’t have to wait for the future; Google has been using machine learning to solve many complex search-related problems for years, and the applications keep growing, including last year’s announcement of the addition of RankBrain to the […]
Sunday 28 February 2016
marketing vanity metrics
Marketing is increasingly data-driven. But the data we choose matters. It’s tempting to cherry-pick the data that makes us look or feel good. Or the easiest data to persuade an audience to buy into whatever we want them to believe. This is particularly the case in digital marketing, where over-simplified numbers like Likes or YouTube views are frequently used as…
Average Marketing
Average marketing….. Starts with the business’s emergency, not with the customer’s wants and needs. Focuses on short-term tactics, rather than on long-term business goals. Is designed to persuade not to connect, inspire or delight. Invites the customer to buy, instead of to belong. Speaks to everyone and so engages with no one. Is only measured…
Average Marketing | From The Story of Telling
5 Reasons Why Audiences Only Accept Remarkable Content and Ideas by @cognitiveSEO
No matter how powerful a story is in itself, we’re going to like it more if it feeds our curiosity. Here's why audiences only accept remarkable content.
The post 5 Reasons Why Audiences Only Accept Remarkable Content and Ideas by @cognitiveSEO appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Better Marketing Metrics With Google's Avinash Kaushik
Episode #503 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
He's back! Google's Digital Marketing Evangelist, bestselling author (Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0), powerful blogger (Occam's Razor), friend and marketing big brain, Avinash Kaushik. His monthly posts may as well be business books, and his insights into what should really count today for marketing is refreshing. He's got an attitude, he is full of passion, and he has some ideas about what we all need to be thinking about in this day and age. More recently, Avinash also lauched his own, personal, e-newsletter titled, The Marketing-Analytics Intersect (you best sign up for it), and we're back to debate the entire marketing landscape. Enjoy the conversation...
You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast #503.
Tags: activate tech and media outlook 2016 advertising podcast audio avinash kaushik blog blogging brand business blog business book business podcast david usher digiday digital marketing digital marketing agency digital marketing blog facebook gatorade google itunes j walter thompson jwt leadership podcast management podcast marketing marketing blog marketing podcast mirum mirum agency mirum agency blog mirum blog occurs razor see think do care snapchat super bowl the marketing analytics intersect twitter web analytics web analytics 20 web analytics an hour a day wpp
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