BUS572-5 Analytics Courses and Reflection

Although our client has not opted into utilizing Google Analytics, these Google Analytics Platform Principles and the Google Analytics Fundamentals have deemed very useful and informative; allowing me to pass this information along to business owners I know that could benefit from Google Analytics. 

I think that the presentation of this material was helpful, allowing individuals to work at their own pace; complete with lessons, activities, and videos.  It served as a helpful refresher to some key concepts that we have already learned, as well as teaching an more in depth version of how all the data is compiled and reported in Google Analytics. 

I found the Behavior Reports to be a very important report generated from Google Analytics.  This report allows you to identify how users interact with your website.  The information provided can assist with identifying the intent of your users and how easily they navigate through your website.  Having this information directly at your fingertips can be ever so useful in making smart business decisions about whether your website is working to your advantage. 

BUS572-4 Cookies, Search Engine Advertising and Google Analytics

 

 

Concept 1 - Cookies

 

In the fourth session, one important concept that I have learned is in regards to cookies.  Prior to this class, I was not aware of what cookies were or why one would enable/disable cookies.  Cookies are small files that store information on your hard drive about you or your computer.  Sites that run Google Analytics issue first party cookies that allow the sites to uniquely (but anonymously) identify first party visitors.  These cookies allow Google Analytics to make a distinction between first time visitors and returning visitors.  This proves to be very helpful for a business to identify how many new customers are viewing their website ("How google analytics," ).  Say for example that a business was hoping to gain brand awareness with their website, it would be very important to know if the advertising or marketing you have completed, worked by driving new users to the website.  On a side note, I have heard that having too many cookies stored on a PC could slow the PC down, has anyone else heard this information?  Do you think it is true?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concept 2 - An Empirical Analysis of Search Engine Advertising

 

Another important concept this week deals with the Ghose and Yang article we covered.  I found it very enlightening how they discovered that ads in the middle are actually more profitable than other advertisements (Ghose & Yang, 2009).  I would have thought that advertisements that appeared with a higher rank, would yield higher profits.  Another interesting fact that was discovered within their article was the notion that brand specific information in a keyword is associated with a decrease in both click through rates and conversions (Ghose & Yang, 2009).  However, retailer specific information in a keyword is associated with an increase in both click through rates and conversions (Ghose & Yang, 2009).  I have found this very useful prior to the completion of our project, as it may be less beneficial to use brand specific keywords.  Although their testing confirmed the case, I would like to complete an A/B testing to see if an Ad created for Brand versus Retailer would fair better.  Prior to reading this article, would you have thought Retailer Ads and Middle Ads would fair better?  Included below is an article indicating that generic keywords fair better than branded keywords.

 

Generic vs. Brand

 

 

Skill Set 1 - Google Analytics

 

The skill set I found most valuable this week was learning more about Google Analytics, the process behind the scenes and what you are able to accomplish by using it.  Although our client is not set up to use Google Analytics, it is very beneficial to know how it works and what tools and resources you have when analyzing your website.  As I mentioned before, my mother has her own luxury items website (including wedding accessories, jewelry etc...).  Since learning about the functionality that Google Analytics has, I have asked her Webmaster to set her up so that we can begin looking at analyzing what works and what does not on her website.  I anticipate that by viewing the pages that certain users are interested in, against which pages they drop off of, we could get a better handle on the type of products people are coming to her site to view.  The knowledge this week with Google Analytics will continue to assist with my mom and her business, far after ending this term.  Has anyone else identified that Google Analytics could help them in a personal endeavor?

 

 

Personal Reflection

I found this week to be very enlightening with the journal readings on empirical analysis and further information on Google Analytics.  I am excited to start the GOMC, having completed the pre-work and the foundation of how it all works.  I think the experience ahead of us will be rewarding to see how our work paid off in results and also challenging in identifying what changes we can make to obtain a better result for our client.  My learning goals are to navigate the campaign better and to assist with identifying additional possibilities to enhance our click through rates. 

 

 

Ghose, A., & Yang, S. (2009). An empirical analysis of search engine advertising:. Management Science, 55(10), 1605-1622. doi: 10.1287

 

How google analytics works: deeper dive into analytics with a focus on cookies. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com/partners/