Google Analytics: More Powerful, Flexible And Intelligent

By John Joyce on October 26, 2009 - Comments 0

Amost a year after everyone’s favorite Analytics Guru, Avinash Kaushik, unveiled significant new Google Analytics features, they’ve added another impressive round of enhancements.  The real value of this latest upgrade is that GA continues to automate the process of answering the big question in web analytics -  “why?”

Google Analytics had always lacked the ability to take a more granular look at data and be able to slice an dice information on the fly.  According to the announcement on Google’s blog, GA has now become more powerful, flexible and intelligent:

Engagement Goals – Measure user engagement and and branding success.

Expanded Mobile Reporting - Track mobile websites and mobile apps.  Initial release will support tracking of PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX sites.

Advanced Analysis Features – Remember when Microsoft introduced pivot tables in Excel?  This type of functionality was added to GA last year and now, you can filter the rows in a table based on different metric conditions.

Multiple Custom Variables – You can now define and track visitors according to visitor attributes, session attributes and page-level attributes.

Sharing Segments and Custom Report Templates - You can share the URL link for a report with anyone who has an Analytics account and a pre-formatted report template will automatically be imported.

Analytics Intelligence (I can’t wait to try this feature) – This feature is based on a new algorithmic driven intelligence engine.  The gathered information will generate alerts when there are significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics and dimensions.

Custom Alerts – Set your own alert criteria and identify delivery mechanism.

Google continues to enhance the most powerful FREE tool on the internet and business owners should do their best to take advantage.

Will Bing Twitter Help Your Small Business?

By John Joyce on October 22, 2009 - Comments 0

First, Microsoft surprised us when they released bing and it was actually a useful alternative search engine.  Now, they’ve surprised again by beating Google to the “Twitter Integration Party”.  Instead of being sequestered to the Twittersphere, small business tweeters will now gain exposure to the 80% of internet users who don’t use Twitter.

Ping and FriendFeed allow you to distribute your “microcontent” across all social networks and, now, Bing (and, yes eventually Google) will index not only the text of the tweet, but the link content as well.  I’m not sure if there will be an adjustment required by users based on how the information will be presented but there didn’t seem to be an issue when Google added images and video to their search engine.

This is pretty powerful stuff for a small business owner and should allow them to expand their online presence without significant effort.

Google Crashes And So Does My Productivity

By admin on May 14, 2009 - Comments 0

I’m not sure if you’re able to access most Google tools right now, but I can’t.  I never realized how much I use Google during a typical day but when I was unable to access links from Twitter or complete my daily research, I was unable to complete a number of vital tasks.  And, it’s not just direct access to the Google properties that was affected,  for example, any site using Google Analytics just hung because it couldn’t retrieve necessary data from Google.  That’s scary!  (more details)

Hello, my name is John, and I’m addicted to Google…

People Won’t Buy It If They Don’t Know It Exists

By admin on May 13, 2009 - Comments 0

I recently wrote a quick blurb about Google getting out of the radio advertising business and I was never really able to get much detail on the failed venture.  One of the things I do know, from my personal experience, is that Google never promoted the service.  When I was working with GotVMail back in 2007, they were one of a handful of  companies that were able to beta test Google Audio for nearly a year.  I couldn’t understand why the testing period was so long and why they didn’t promote the service more aggressively once it formally launched.

Now I understand why.  Jessica E. Vascellaro wrote an interesting article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal outlining the failure of this once promising marketing tool.  She sites the lack of tracking mechanisms as the reason for the plug being pulled but also pointed to the lack of interest on the part of radio station owners.

I don’t see it that way.  Nobody knew about the service!  The only reason I knew about it is because we were a big Adwords client and were allowed to kick the tires a bit.  I was planning on using the service as a compliment to the other inbound/outbound marketing services I offer to my clients.  I was also planning on using toll-free phone numbers and landing pages to track the success of campaigns.  So what if the Google dashboard didn’t currently offer such functionality – you know it would inevitably be developed or purchased.  Look how companies like ReachLocal track “local” online advertising campaigns.

The Internet giant dropped the ball by making Google Audio the best kept secret in company history.  Any business in this country could have had 1) access to professional voice talent to record spots 2) access to national, regional and local markets and 3) the ability to break down target audience by a complete set of demographic characteristics.

I love the radio guys who say, “we would have sold it on our own”.  That’s not true.  Google was paying a minimum on inventory whether it was sold or not.  Why were the radio guys complaining about the so called discounted pricing being introduced by Google?  $500 for a $1000 slot is better than $0, right?  That attitude worked out well for the newspapers.

Finally, the Google Audio service offered a CPM of slightly more than $1 which I challenge anyone to beat in any medium.  It’s a shame the recession came along and swept away what could have been a very effective marketing platform, at least for me and my clients.

Goodbye Google Audio – we hardly knew thee.

Local Radio Spots for Your Business?

By admin on January 22, 2009 - Comments 0

What if I told you that you could advertise your business on local radio for less than you would spend on a local  Google Adwords campaign?  When I was working at GotVMail, we used Google Audio to target prospects based on demographics, geography, station format and time of day.   You have access to the top 25 markets in the country with access to over 1600 FM and AM stations.  Google Audio allows you to advertise your local business just like you were a large company without having to deal with the “sales weasels” at your local radio stations.

Google did announce yesterday that they’re no longer selling advertising space in newspapers so let’s hope they don’t do the same with Google Audio.