Today we wanted to let you know about a new enhancement to how Google Analytics and AdWords work together. You can now see your Google Analytics conversion metrics within your AdWords account by importing your goals or transactions directly into AdWords.

This integration lets you easily see the Return on Investment from your AdWords campaigns directly inside the AdWords interface, therefore allowing you to optimise your ads and keywords based on Google Analytics data. In the past, you needed to separately install AdWords Conversion Tracking to do this.

Before you attempt to import goals into AdWords there are a few things to check...

• Make sure you have linked Google AdWords and Analytics. If you have not done so already visit this help centre article.
• Enable data sharing within your Google Analytics account to allow Analytics and AdWords to work together.
• Ensure you have goals set up in Google Analytics and they have completed conversions via traffic form AdWords.
  

Once you've met the requirements above you are ready to import your goals.

Just follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the "Conversion Tracking" page from within your AdWords account.
2. Click "Link your Analytics goals and transactions" from the Conversion Tracking table (only visible if you met the above requirements)







3. Select the Goals or Transactions you want from the list.
4. Edit the action name so you can identify the goals in your AdWords reports.
5. Select "Link" from the bottom of the table to finish.

Your imported Goals and Transactions will show up in your account, along with AdWords conversion metrics. You can use this data to see which ads, keywords and campaigns are bringing in the best ROI and then optimise your campaigns based on this information.

Drive AdWords ROI with Conversion Optimizer

One of the benefits of importing your Google Analytics Goals and Transactions into AdWords is that you can use them with the Conversion Optimizer, an AdWords CPA bidding tool that has been shown to help advertisers get more conversions from AdWords.

Conversion Optimizer makes it a lot easier to manage your AdWords bidding and maximize results. Find out how one of our AdWords advertisers benefited from implementing Conversion Optimiser in our Success Stories pages.

We hope you find this new enhancement to how AdWords and Google Analytics work together useful. Please let us know if you have any feedback.

Posted By Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team

We're delighted to announce a new blog for our German speaking Conversion Room visitors across Europe. Our German Conversion Room blog launched last week and will cover Google Analytics, Website Opitmiser and AdWords converison tools just like the Conversion Room.

Check out the new blog today by visiting conversionroom-de.blogspot.com. You can also sign up for the site feed to have weekly posts delivered directly to your email address.

If you have ideas for topics you'd like to see covered on this blog, or our new German blog, please drop us an email.

Posted By Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team

Have you ever wondered how good the return on investment is from your AdWords traffic? More importantly have you ever asked yourself how you can improve it? In today's post we're going to address these thoughts and go over how you can answer three specific questions:

Which of your AdWords keywords are generating the most revenue?

Which are generating the least revenue?

How can you make your keyword advertising more profitable?

Before we begin, make sure that you have linked your Google Analytics and AdWords accounts together in order to see detailed AdWords reporting within your Google Analytics account. To find out how, check out this video. With both accounts linked the next step is to ensure that you make decisions based on trustworthy data. Isolate the data you need in Google Analytics by following the steps below...

Make decisions based on valid data

Imagine the following scenario, you've just started tracking with Analytics and 10 visitors arrive on your site, all of them converting by performing an action you have set as your goal. You could say that you have a 100% conversion rate since every visitor you have tracked has converted. However, it is unlikely that this behaviour will hold true for the next 10 visitors.

To ensure that we are making decisions based on normal user behaviour we will only examine keywords that meet a certain threshold of visits. The higher the threshold, the more diluted the one off anomalies become. If most of your keywords are showing tens of visits rather than hundreds of visits, you can always expand the date range to increase their visit numbers.

Generate your AdWords optimisation report


Now that we have isolated only the keywords we're interested in, we can return to the 'AdWords Campaigns' report.


Under the 'Site Usage' tab we want to focus on the 'Bounce Rate' metric. We'll then compare it to a metric that shows us the return for our money such as 'RPC' (revenue-per-click) under the 'Clicks' tab or 'Goal Conversion Rate' under the 'Goals' tab. Whilst it's possible to toggle between the different tabs it's probably best to create a Custom Report , as seen below, to show only the data we are interested in.

With our new report now active, click on the 'google / (cpc)' entry to see only AdWords keywords. Next click on the comparison link on the top right of the report and compare 'Bounce Rate' on the left with either 'Goal Conversion Rate' or 'RPC' on the right.

Now that we have manipulated the data to show only information that is relevant, the next step is to discuss what can we do with it.

Separating the winners from the losers

The report should now be ordered by keywords that have a higher bounce rate first. Looking at the right of the screen we can see that of these keywords those with a green bar have performed above average for 'Goal Conversion Rate' or 'RPC', whilst those with a red bar have performed below average, i.e. green is 'good', red is 'bad'.

Now it's time to optimise your keywords...

Group 1: High Potential keywords

From the initial screen isolate only our 'green' keywords. These are keywords with a good return but a poor 'Bounce Rate'.

We should focus on trying to optimise these top performing revenue generating keywords with the aim of further increasing the return they bring in.

For our list of 'High Potential' keywords consider the following, our aim is to decrease the 'Bounce Rate' but maintain our higher than average return.

1. Examine the current Landing Page and consider deep linking further into the site to more relevant content.
2. Experiment with different ad copies that include the keyword in the title and possibly the Visible URL.
3. Drive visitors to a Landing Page that is built around those keywords. Experiment with Google Website Optimiser to achieve the best results.
4. Concentrate a higher percentage of your advertising budget on these keywords.

Group 2: Poor Converting Keywords

Previously we focused on the keywords that were generating the greatest return from AdWords. Looking on the other end of the scale we'll focus on the keywords that are performing below average and outline what actions you could take with them. Switch to the default 'table' view and order by 'Goal Conversion Rate' or 'RPC' so that the poorest performing keywords show first. Switching back to our 'comparison' view we should arrange our report to see poor performing 'Goal Conversion Rate' or 'RPC' results on the left and 'Bounce Rate' on the right, as in the image below.

Focusing on the keywords with poor conversion rates and that are in the red section of 'Bounce Rate' we can consider the actions below. Our aim is firstly to improve the 'Bounce Rate' and secondly, the return we get from these keywords:

• Are these keywords relevant to your product/service? If the keywords are not relevant, are not performing, but are using up budget you could consider removing them. If they are relevant or you feel they have potential, optimise to improve performance per the steps below.

1. Examine the current Landing Page and consider deep linking further into the site to more relevant content.
2. Experiment with different ad copies that include the keyword in the title and possibly the Visible URL.
3. Drive visitors to a Landing Page that is built around those keywords. Experiment with Google Website Optimizer to achieve the best results.
4. Consider expanding these keywords to make them more specific or conversion focused e.g. 'buy google hat' in place of 'google hats'.

Group 3: Non-converters The final group of keywords are those that are within the green section of 'Bounce Rate' from the report structured in Group 2. Remember, a green 'Bounce Rate' indicates that visitors to the site via these keywords are more likely to explore your site.

These keywords don't convert but are driving traffic beyond the landing page. People are sticking around so these keywords do have some value. It is possible customers are researching before they commit to a purchase and to confirm you could look at the 'Visits to Purchase' report within the Ecommerce reports section of Google Analytics.

If you are satisfied that these keywords help in the conversion process then you could take the following action:

1. Move these keywords to a branding campaign whereby you could allocate a specific budget you are comfortable with to this campaign.
2. Consider expanding these keywords to make them more specific or conversion focused e.g. 'buy google hat' in place of 'google hats'. Monitor their performance over time to see if they improve.

Now you should be able to analyse your AdWords keywords using the data in your Google Analytics account. To learn more about optimising your AdWords campaigns visit the AdWords Help Centre and to find out more about optimising AdWords using Google Analytics check out this video.

We'd love to hear how you've used Google Analytics data to improve your AdWords performance, if you've got tips to share please let us know.

Posted By Eoin O'Carroll, Google Analytics Team

Calling all Website Optimiser users! Do you get a kick out of setting up new tests, and waiting eagerly for the results? Or have you read our Techie Guide to Website Optimiser end to end and are hungry for more? Well then we have some excellent advanced resources in store for you.

Eric Vasilik, the lead Website Optimiser engineer based in the US, has put together a new GWO Tricks blog showcasing some of the advanced techniques which can be performed using Website Optimiser. These include:

• Multiple goals: Setup tests where you can track multiple goals separately. For example you may want to track brochure downloads, separately from product sales within the same test.

• Website Optimiser and Google Analytics integration: Import Website Optimiser data into Google Analytics so you can reap the benefits of additional features such as segmenting experiment traffic against your GA data.
• Fragmented Sections: Experiment with your site in such a way that you can fragment pieces of the page that you want to change, but allow you to have those pieces change together.

It's important to note that these are fairly advanced articles, so if you're just starting out with Website Optimiser, you may want to begin by looking at our Beginners Guide to Website Optimiser or the dedicated GWO Help Centre.

If you have tests that you've run with Website Optimiser, and would like to share, don't hesitate to contact us!

Posted By Edward Jackson, Google Analytics Team

If you are an AdWords advertiser, you may remember in May we posted on how the new AdWords interface can improve efficiency and results.

New features we reviewed in the post included:

• Graphs to track your performance over time
• Integrated reports that provide detailed search and content network data
• Faster editing to help you make changes quickly

And a lot's been happening since...

You've probably received an email from us letting you know that your account will be converted to the new interface in the coming weeks. Today we have two release updates to share with you: we've recently made the new interface available to everyone who uses AdWords Standard Edition globally, and we've begun the migration process with a small number of accounts.

In our email, we stated that you would have at least 30 days before we update your account. This 30 day period is a minimum; in fact, most advertisers will have more than 30 days before their accounts are switched to the new interface. We're taking a gradual and deliberate approach to ensure a smooth transition, and we won't upgrade your account until we're confident that the new interface meets your advertising needs.

So, how should you prepare for the transition to the new interface? First, the single most important resource to help you get up to speed is the new AdWords interface microsite*. Here you can find short videos explaining the benefits of the new interface, a before and after guide, and even a short quiz you can take to make sure you're ready for the changes.

Next, if you haven't explored the new interface yet, now is a good time; try it by signing in to your AdWords account. If you notice any issues that make it difficult to manage your campaigns in the new interface, please let us know right away by submitting feedback.

If you've already sent us feedback on the new interface, thank you! We're listening closely to your comments and are working to fix the problems you've reported, such as scrolling and slow load times for some types of browsers and Internet connections.

We've already made a number of changes in response to your feedback, and this week we've released updates to the new interface that address many of the top issues we've heard. And we're not done yet; we'll continue to make ongoing improvements to the new interface over time.

For those of you who joined the beta test early, we hope you like how the new AdWords interface has improved. And for those of you just getting started, we hope you're already noticing a few of the ways the new interface can help you get more out of your AdWords campaigns.

* Microsite also available in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, and many more.

Originally posted on the Inside AdWords blog

Posted by Ruth Brennan, Google AdWords Team

Today, in part 3 of our spotlight on Google Analytics features, we are looking at Motion Charts.

What are Motion Charts?

Motion Charts allow you to animate your Google Analytics reports so you can easily visualise and explore trends in your data. They offer multi-dimensional analysis of all metrics for a particular report within your Google Analytics account.

How do I use Motion Charts?

Look for the 'visualize' button at the top right of the report interface within your Google Analytics account.

Next, create your customised Motion Chart by selecting the type of information you want to see on the X and Y axis, and then selecting what the size and colour of the circles or bar graphs represent. When you've selected the metrics you want to see, simply click on the play button to see your data animated!

You can also link to your newly created chart directly by copying the URL at the 'Link to chart' button shown below:

Why would I use Motion Charts?

Now you know how to create your own charts you may be wondering how you can use this feature in your day to day analysis. Below are two examples that may be useful...

1. Identify AdWords opportunities
If you have an AdWords account linked to your Google Analytics account, you may want to look at the bounce rate for visits to your site via these keywords.

Go to 'Traffic Sources' - 'AdWords Campaigns', and then drill down to the keyword level. Set the date range to one month. Select 'Visualize', and create your motion chart using the following settings:

X axis: Bounce Rate
Y axis: Revenue
Size: Clicks
Color: Visits

Press play and you will be able to animate your data and easily see which keywords generate a lot of revenue for your business but also have a high bounce rate. There is an opportunity to grow revenue by reducing the bounce rate on these profitable keywords.

2. See trends in behaviour for different languages
If you have an e-commerce website, it could be useful to look at your visitors' language preferences in order to see areas where you could focus marketing efforts and website development to increase conversions and drive revenue.

Go to 'Visitors' - 'Languages'. Set the date range to one month. Create your Motion Chart using the settings below:

X-axis: E-commerce Conversion Rate
Y-axis: Bounce Rate
Color: Revenue
Size: Visits

If your website is only available in English, for example, use this report to look for languages other than English that drive lots of visits to your site and actually convert well.

If visitors from these languages have a high bounce rate it may be a worthwhile investment to have your site available in these language to keep visitors on your site for longer. Conversely, if visitors from a particular language have a relatively low bounce rate but are converting fairly well this is an indication that they are happy to use the English version of your site. You could wait until further down the line to look at translating your website for these languages.

Check out this YouTube video to see Motion Charts in action:





You can also visit our Help Centre to learn more, or read posts from our colleagues in the US.
Once you've mastered Motion Charts we'd love to hear from you by email if you've thought of other cool uses for this feature.

Next week we'll have a post from our Google Website Optimiser Specialist, so make sure to check back then, or sign up to our site feed so you never miss a post!

And if you have suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in future posts please let us know at conversionroomfeedback@googlegroups.com



Posted By Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team

Our colleagues in the US recently posted  an article clearing up a few myths that exist about Google Analytics.  They have shared some really interesting insights into Google Analytics in this post so we thought we'd share it with our Conversion Room readers too.

Myth 1: "You get what you pay for." Google Analytics is free, which means the system is down a lot. 

Google Analytics makes use of the same network of secure and reliable data centres used to power Google.com, making downtime an extremely rare occurrence. We have a large team focused exclusively on keeping your data safe and accessible, and benefit from multiple redundancies in our infrastructure around the globe (this makes us fast as well).

We even rely on Google Analytics for our own mission-critical products such as AdWords, which see huge volumes of traffic every day. If you're still having doubts, we'd encourage you to talk to some users and ask them how their experience has been with uptime.

Myth 2: Google Analytics is basic and doesn't have any "advanced" features or metrics 

This one is a tough one to swallow! A more frequent complaint is actually that Google Analytics has too much data. The product includes over 90 standard reports with more than 125 metrics and dimensions covering everything from visits to internal site search queries.

Custom reports and user-defined variables allow you to create your own metrics and reports where the standard ones don't meet your needs. 

With Pivoting, Advanced Segmentation, Secondary Dimensions, Event Tracking and the ability to share customisations, Google Analytics reports are more powerful than ever. Google Analytics may look "basic," on the surface, but it can do a lot more than you think!

More Info (Feature List, Custom Reports, Advanced Segmentation, Analytics API)

Myth 3: Google Analytics only supports third-party cookies

False! Google Analytics has always used first-party, not third-party cookies. First-party cookies are important because they allow Google Analytics to track repeat visitors, so you can see which keywor

d, referring site, etc. is responsible for bringing buyers even when it takes multiple visits for them to convert.

Myth 4: Google Analytics is not really accurate

If you've spent time doing web analytics work, you'll know the sinking feeling that 

comes when two sets of numbers don't match. If you're experiencing a data discrepancy, don't panic. There are many others in the same boat.

Google Analytics uses JavaScript tags to collect data. This industry-standard method yields reliable trends and a high degree of precision, but it's not perfect. Most of the time, if you are noticing data discrepancies greater than 10%, it's due to an installation issue. Common problems include JavaScript errors, redirects, untagged pages and slow client-side load times.

For tips on how to sensibly approach data reconciliation, check out this post by Avinash Kaushik, Google's Analytics Evangelist, or this whitepaper on accuracy in Google Analytics.

All web analytics tools face the same technical limitations posed by JavaScript tags, so if another vendor claims their tool is more accurate, ask for some evidence.

More Info (Web Analytics Data Reconciliation Checklist, Whitepaper)

Myth 5: It's not possible to export your data from Google Analytics

Not true! You have two options for exporting data. Use the "export" button at the top of each report to export the current view in PDF or XML (up to 500 rows). Or, use the new Analytics Export API to extract large amounts of data in any format you like. Also, if you want to share data with a colleague, you can schedule reports to be delivered directly to their email inbox, or even send regular updates to your own email address.

More Info (How to Export your Data, Analytics API)

Myth 6: With Google Analytics you can't control your data

You have three options for data sharing in Google Analytics. You can change these options at any time from inside your Analytics account.do not share your data

• share your data with Google to improve its products
  
• share your data anonymously for benchmarking

No matter which option you choose, your data is protected by several layers of defense:

1. Dedicated security and infrastructure teams
   
2. Multiple redundancies to prevent data loss
   
3. Network redundancies to keep data accessible
   
4. Advanced security, firewalling and routing to keep data secure
   
5. Restricted access and principle of least privilege for personnel
   

If you opt-out of data sharing, your data will remain within Google Analytics and will not be shared with other products or services. If you decide to share your data with Google, it will be used to improve those products and services. Lastly, if you decide to share your data anonymously with others, it will be blended with other data to support the Google Analytics benchmarking feature. For more information on these options and what they mean, refer to the Google Analytics data sharing FAQ.

If you're still concerned, Google also offers a software product called Urchin (www.urchin.com) that you can run locally.

More Info (Data Sharing FAQ, Google Privacy Policy)

Myth 7: Google Analytics does not support A/B or multivariate testing and isn't well-integrated with other tools

Google offers a full range of marketing products including a free testing tool called Google Website Optimiser. You can use it to test different page elements and find out which ones yield the highest conversion rate and ROI. You can also use Google Analytics in conjunction with Website Optimiser to create an optimisation plan for your site.

Google Analytics is also integrated with many of Google's other business products including AdWords, AdSense, and AdPlanner. It is also widely supported by third party tools ranging from content management systems, to email suites, to call center applications. In addition, you'll find many products that are complementary to Google Analytics including DoubleClick, TVAds, Webmaster Tools, GooglwTrends, Insights for Search, Feedburner, and more.

More Info (Google Website Optimiser, GWO Blog)

Myth 8: You can't segment data in Google Analytics

In October 2008, Google Analytics released three new Enterprise Features: Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reports and Motion Charts. Advanced Segmentation lets you segment visits by dozens of metrics and dimensions such as geographic location, time on site, referral site and much much more. You can create segments on the fly and apply them to virtually all the standard reports in Google Analytics as well as custom reports.

Myth 9: You have to spend a lot of money to get "real" web analytics

Getting a return from your Analytics data does take an investment. The most important investment to start with is making sure you or someone at your organisation has the expertise and time to put your data to use. If at that point you still feel you need to pay more for a more complicated tool, that's OK, but remember that every dollar you spend on a tool takes away from money you could be spending on actually getting results, i.e. hiring or contracting a talented analyst (see the 90/10 Rule).

The question sometimes comes up, "if Google Analytics is free, what's in it for Google?" Google benefits from Google Analytics in two ways. First, if webmasters build better sites, it helps us connect searchers with the information they need faster. Second, if advertisers use Google Analytics, they are able to see their advertising ROI, which helps us demonstrate the value of Google AdWords. Both aspects have helped create a strong business case for Google Analytics over the years.

Google Analytics is getting more powerful with each new update, and you may be surprised by what it can do! You can find out more by signing up for Google Analytics webinar's here.

More info (90/10 Rule)

Our next post will cover part 3 of our series focusing on Google Analytics features and we'll look at Motion Charts. 

Posted by the Google Analytics Team