Google Analytics - Choosing Standard Reports

Assignment: Choosing Standard Reports

Directions:

First, review the Airbnb case study following these directions:

Using the case study, identify the pages where you have identified that the website is gathering data on your visit.

Using the Clifton textbook “Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics” Third Edition, written by Brian Clifton (2012) as an audit tool, explain whether the Approach that is described in the case study is likely to achieve the results listed, or if using the Clifton text, you could design a better approach.

Go to the Airbnb.com website and conduct a thorough review. Then, identify and explain the three most important reports that you think you will use in measuring the performance of your website. A thorough explanation will include both the aspects of how the reports and constructed as well as how they are used.

This essay needs to be APA Format, intext citations with references and 3 pages long; the title page and the reference list do not count as pages for the assignment. You must have 3 pages of text in addition to the title page and reference list.

Airbnb Case Study

www.airbnb.com

Founded in 2008, Airbnb is a community marketplace for people to

list, discover, and book accommodations around the world, online or

from a mobile phone. Airbnb’s aim is to connect people to unique travel

experiences in more than 33,000 cities and 192 countries around the world.

The challenge of managing tagging complexity

Airbnb is structured with a centralized product team that collaborates

on marketing projects. The company uses a large number of website

tags, including a unique tag for each of their multiple AdWords accounts

and additional tags for an array of vendors measuring different types of

conversions. To accommodate the needs of various vendors, many tags

had to be replicated several times. At one point, Airbnb was running 88

different audience lists and 100 different tags.

In order to prevent a bottleneck between the operations and marketing

teams, Airbnb needed a tag management system. The first solution the

company tried was not successful — it required significant technical

knowledge to implement tags, needed add-on tools for QA and reporting,

and was too expensive.

Streamlined marketing through Google Tag Manager

After researching alternatives, the Airbnb team opted to shift its tagging

to Google Tag Manager. A number of factors contributed to the decision.

Airbnb already used several Google tools, so the team felt Google Tag

Manager’s tag templates would enable a smooth integration. Also, Google

Tag Manager’ extensive QA and reporting features would make it easier

to locally test and deploy tags. Finally, because Google Tag Manager is a

free solution, it offered a tangible benefit to the company’s bottom line.

According to Maria Hwang, a lead on Airbnb’s online marketing team,

standard setup was straightforward and did not take long to implement.

Airbnb also built a data layer to enable the company to pass custom

parameters for remarketing purposes.

Cutting tag deployment from days to hours

In terms of alleviating demands on technical resources, it immediately

became clear that Google Tag Manager’s templates made it much easier.

Airbnb improves vendor data collection

to 90%, reduces tag deployment time

using Google Tag Manager

About Airbnb

• www.airbnb.com (Website address)

• Headquartered in San Francisco, CA

• Accommodation listings in 192 countries,

33,000 cities

Goals

• Prevent bottlenecks between operations

and marketing teams

• Implement tags fluidly

• Avoid unnecessary replication in tagging

• Minimize size of snippets to enhance

Performance

Approach

• Implemented Google Tag Manager

• Built a data layer

Results

• Cut tag deployment from days to hours

• Increased site speed by 8%

• Faster launches of new programs, tools,

and vendors

• More accurate data, better

optimizations, better ROI

and quicker for engineers to meet the needs of the marketing and

operations team. Maria and her team can create tags from vendors on the

fly and send these to the engineering team to be rapidly implemented,

usually within two hours. “From a marketer’s standpoint, it’s way easier

than ever before,” she says.

In the past, tagging was a back-and-forth process that would average two

to three days to complete. “Previously, there were a lot of touch points,

lots of room for error along the way,” Maria says. The laborious procedure

included checking that JavaScript tags were correct and establishing QA

before eventual deployment. “With Google Tag Manager, it’s a matter

of an hour or so from receiving a tag to testing to QA to deployment,”

reports Mona Gandhi, Airbnb software engineer. “It’s exponentially

better.”

The solution has also improved the ability to implement entirely new

marketing strategies. “We were able to expand to a few more AdWords

accounts, and Google Tag Manager makes it easier to consolidate all the

tagging,” Maria says. And thanks to Google’s pre-formatted tag templates

from other vendors, the marketing team can quickly and efficiently adopt

new tags. So it’s simpler for Airbnb to try new tools, use more third party

vendors, and launch new advertising programs on any platform requiring

website tagging.

Improved QA, reporting, data, and speed

Prior to implementing Google Tag Manager, detecting issues with data

due to tags not firing correctly was an everyday occurrence. Today, Mona

reveals that conversion counts are much more accurate and in line with

Airbnb’s internal data: the team is now collects vendor data for 90% of

conversions. Thanks to this more accurate conversion data, Airbnb is

better equipped to optimize to a CPA metric than was possible in the past.

The result is an improved ability to manage ROI of marketing activities.

Airbnb has also made extensive use of Google Tag Manager’s preview

and debug options, improving their QA and ability to see which tags

are firing on pages. A final benefit has been that Google Tag Manager’s

JavaScript snippet is smaller than that of Airbnb’s previous solution.

Enhanced website performance has been noticeable, with a reported 8%

improvement in page load time.

© 2013 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

“With Google Tag Manager,

it’s a matter of an hour or so

from receiving a tag to testing

to QA to deployment. It’s

exponentially better.”

-- Mona Gandhi, Software

Engineer, Airbnb

About Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a free tool that makes it easy for marketers to add

and update website tags—including conversion tracking, site analytics,

remarketing, and more—with just a few clicks, and without bugging the IT

folks. It gives marketers greater flexibility, and it lets webmasters relax and

focus on other important tasks. To learn more, visit

google.com/tagmanager