client Report Template

GA – Client Project Part 1 – TO DO LIST 2 (Weeks 3/4) Mgmt5074

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This week we begin our deep dive into your client's GA data to uncover meaningful

insights and actionable recommendations.

You will need to dig through lots of data until you find interesting things to talk about in

your report. Not all clients will face the same issues.

The first thing you want to do is ensure you're looking at clean and relevant data.

To do this, set up a custom segment so that you're only looking at regional data that

would be most meaningful to your client's business.

For example, the Boys & Girls Club of London would be concerned with local traffic.

Narrowing your data to Ontario would be sufficient to weed out the bot traffic and

accidental traffic coming from elsewhere. It won't be perfect but it will be MUCH better

than before.

When you set up the custom segment for your client project, name it *Client Name + Your

Name. Note the asterisk in front. This will be our sign not to delete it. If you ever get a

warning that we have used our max number of custom segments, just go ahead and

delete some and then you will have room to add. Do not delete any with an asterisk in

front. Every time you log-in, you can search for your client custom segment and reapply it

before looking at the data.

You also need to make sure you're looking at statistically significant data. For example,

you can't say "Mobile users from Toronto bounce from the site at a rate 3x as high as

other mobile users" if there are only 5 mobile users from Toronto.

The best way to approach your client's data (and any web analytics data for that matter) is

always with a question. If the question doesn't lead to meaningful insight, then go on to

GA – Client Project Part 1 – TO DO LIST 2 (Weeks 3/4) Mgmt5074

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another question. For example, ”I wonder if people who visit the site from a mobile

device view more than one page on the site?”

When you find interesting information that may be problematic, raise red flags, or warrant

further investigation, you may not always be able to explain it and that's okay. It's

perfectly fine to mention things the client should look into. For example, you might see

that mobile users were, at one time, a very profitable segment for the company but have

recently dropped off in numbers. You check traffic acquisition sources and see that the

cause is a drop in direct traffic from mobile. This can't really be explained but certainly

worth including in your report. As long as you include as much data as you can (ie.

segment of traffic that has declined and the traffic source that resulted in the decline,

you're fine).

Here are some sample questions to get you started but you should add your own too. You

don't have to answer each of these questions in your report. Only the most interesting

conclusions should make it to the submission.

How have total volume of sessions and/or users changed over time? How does this trend

look over different segments of visitors? (eg. Mobile users, sessions from different

regions). If yes, then mention it in this part of the report and indicate you will follow up in

the next report when you investigate which traffic sources are leading to the

increase/decrease.

How is bounce rate trending? Do you feel it’s a reasonable bounce rate given the nature

of the site? Don’t forget to present bounce rate by visitor segments (eg. By geo-region, by

language, by browser, by mobile device, etc…)

Do you think users are, on average, viewing a reasonable number of pages on the

site/staying on site for a reasonable amount of time? Can visitors get all they need in a

GA – Client Project Part 1 – TO DO LIST 2 (Weeks 3/4) Mgmt5074

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few pages? What can you recommend that might draw people deeper into the site if you

think it’s important? Since bounces have 1 pageview, you should filter out bounced visits

from this discussion. If your client is tracking conversions, investigate whether increased

page depth leads to higher conversion rate.

Has the ratio of new to returning visitors changed? How do new/returning visitors

engage/convert on the website? Is there anything we can do to improve these

metrics? Is it important for the site to have returning visitors? Does the company need to

work on getting more visitors to come back? If so, how can they do that? What are other

similar companies doing?

Which geographic region(s) is most traffic coming from? Have the region(s) from which

the site pulls its traffic changed over time? Are there opportunities that you believe the

company should be capitalizing on?

Does it appear as though the site is meeting the needs of visitors from different geo-

regions? Are bounce rates (and other engagement/conversion metrics) higher in some

areas (within the target) than others? If possible, provide some reasons why that might be

the case. Is there a particular geo-region(s) driving traffic that is ultra-engaged with the

site (ie. Bounce rate much lower than average, much higher than average session

duration/pages per session)? These may be regions that the client might consider doing

more customer outreach.

Is bounce rate higher than average on a particular browser? This may indicate problems

loading/displaying the page.

Ask yourself, ”What do users want to accomplish on my client's site from their mobile

device?” Check out the site on a mobile device (more than one type if possible). Do you

think it's easy for them to accomplish this/these task(s)? How does mobile traffic behave

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compared to desktop traffic (ie. bounce rate, conversion rate)? If behaviour is different, do

you think this is normal? Based on the data you're seeing, should the client be

investigating how their site renders on a particular mobile device?

Run your client’s site through Google’s mobile-friendly test tool. What suggestions does

Google have to improve mobile-friendliness? Don't forget these suggestions are

electronically generated. Now, do your own manual test based on what you have learned

in class so far. Are there other elements of the mobile site that you believe need to be

changed to improve the user's experience? Be sure to include lots of screenshots to

illustrate your points.

A hint when you're pulling data: The longer the time frame, the bigger the data set and the

more reliable the numbers. When possible, pull year over year data to see trends over

time. This will rule out seasonality that may impact the data. For example, comparing Jan

- Jun to Jul - Dec data might not always be a great idea.