Lesson Goal

To explain common bidding strategies and techniques used to create profitable AdWords campaigns.

Terms to Know

Before we get into specifics, there is basic terminology you should understand.

• Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising. Hopefully you already know how to define PPC. With pay per click ads, you do not pay for your ads to appear on search engines. Instead, you pay only when your ad is clicked.

A benefit of PPC advertising is that you only pay for interactions with individuals who express interest in what you have to offer. If users aren’t interested in your ad, they won’t click it, and you won’t incur a cost. This can help you maximize your return on your advertising efforts.

• Cost Per Click (CPC). The amount you pay when someone clicks on your ad. You can limit this cost by setting your max CPC bid in AdWords. You won’t always pay your max CPC–sometimes a lower bid can “win” the auction. (To review how PPC advertising works, refer to this lesson). How much you do pay is called your actual CPC.

• Cost Per Acquisition. The average amount of money it takes to get a user to convert (submit a form, purchase a product, call the business etc). This number is calculated as:

Total Spent on PPC Advertising in a Given Time
   Total Number of Conversions in that Time

The lower this number, the better, because this means you don’t have to invest a lot of money to get new business.

• Click Through Rate (CTR). The rate at which individuals who see your ad click on it. To find CTR:

Total Number of Clicks on an Ad in a Given Time
Total Number of Impressions for that Ad in that Time

A higher CTR is favorable here, because it indicates that individuals are interested in your ad and want to find out more. However, if the clicks do not lead to conversions, a high CTR can mean a high cost with minimal return.

• Conversion Rate. The rate at which individuals who have clicked on your ad convert. This helps you determine if your ad and site experience provide the user with what they wanted to find. To calculate conversion rate:

Total Number of Conversions in a Given Time
Total Number of Clicks on Your Ad in that Time

You want to have a high conversion rate because this means your ads are actually leading to sales.

Bid Strategies

How do you decide what to bid? Look at the keywords you are interested in and review Google’s suggested bid for that word. You’ll generally want to bid a bit higher ($1-2) than that amount. Then monitor your performance for that word and adjust your bid accordingly.

Increasing a Bid

In general, it’s a good idea to consider increasing your bids when:

• You’re not getting as many impressions or clicks as you’d like
• You’re under budget
• Google tells you that your bid is below the required amount to get on the first page
• Your ad has a low average position
• Your ad have a low quality score
• You think converting keywords might do even better with a bid boost

Decreasing a Bid

Think about decreasing your bids when:

• Your keywords aren’t converting, have a low click through rate etc.
• Your CPA is higher than your goal

It’s key to make bid changes in small increments. Little changes do add up, and it does take time to see results. Making small changes also helps you narrow your most successful bid range.

AdWords Bid Strategy Options

AdWords gives you several bid strategies to choose from, including:

• CPC bidding. Focused on bringing customers to your site. You have the ability to improve your CPC efforts by enabling enhanced CPC.

• Enhanced CPC (ECPC). With this option you give AdWords the ability to increase your bid by up to 30% (after bid adjustments have been applied) if it seems more likely that a conversion could occur.

To enable this feature, click on the Settings tab of a campaign, navigate to the bid strategy section, and click Edit. Then check the box next to Enable Enhanced CPC. Your ad rotation setting will automatically be changed to optimize for conversions as well.

We recommend using CPC bidding, optimizing for clicks. Once you’ve gathered enough data, you can decide if you want to optimize for conversions.

• Cost per Impression bidding. Focused on getting your ad shown on Google’s Display Network, which we’ll talk about in the next lesson. Your bid is the maximum you are willing to spend for 1000 impressions.

• CPA bidding. Emphasizes getting the most conversions on your site. You must have at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days to be able to use this method. You still pay per click, but have your choice between two types of bids.

• Target CPA: With this bid type, you can set your desired average cost per conversion. AdWords bids might go above or below this number, but the overall average should be the same.
• Maximum CPA: In this case you specify the most you’re willing to spend per acquisition. The majority of your bids should be below this value.

Target CPA is generally the better option, as it’s easier to track, and according to AdWords, those using this option tend to get more conversions.

You can select your bid strategy in the Settings tab of a campaign. Scroll to Bid Strategy and click Edit. There is also an option for flexible bid strategies, which you can learn about here.

Setting Bids

We’ve reviewed how to set bids based on keyword match type, as well as which words are leading to conversions. Now we’ll go over how to set default bids and when to change bids.

You should check on your AdWords campaigns regularly to monitor how much you’re bidding for keywords and if you are on track with your budget.

Be sure to regularly update your negative keyword list to prevent spending money on words that aren’t related to your site or campaign.

Manual vs. Automatic Bidding with PPC Advertising

To get the most control over your bids, select the option to manually manage your bids. You will be able to set the maximum bid you are willing to pay per click.

Automatic bidding, on the other hand, allows AdWords to adjust your bids for you to maximize clicks. You can set a bid limit, which will limit how high AdWords can go with your bid. Note that if you have day and time bid adjustments in place, these will no longer be in effect with automatic bidding.

You can select your bidding strategy under the Settings tab of your campaign. When you activate automatic bidding, it will apply to all of your keywords in that campaign. We recommend using manual bidding.

Default Bids

When you are setting up a campaign in AdWords, you can set the default bid. This will apply to your campaign’s first adgroup.

You can also adjust the default bid for established adgroups. To do so, click into the adgroup, then at the top of the page where it says Adgroup Default Bids click Edit.

Bid Adjustments

AdWords provides the option to set rules for automatic bid adjustments. You can create rules that will increase or decrease your bid automatically in certain circumstances. For example, bid adjustments can be set to occur depending on:

• Device being used. You can set rules to change your bids for an entire campaign or adgroup when a search has been conducted on a mobile device.

• Location. Set a bid (at the campaign level) to be increased or decreased based on a user’s geographic location.

• Ad scheduling. Have your bids be adjusted based on the time of day, days of the week, etc. This is great for if your customers tend to be online at a specific time, as you can have your bid automatically increase at these times, and decrease at other times.

• Remarketing lists. This allows you to adjust your bid based on users’ interactions with your site. You can set remarketing lists in AdWords, so if an individual visits your site but doesn’t convert, you can alter which ad they see, or adjust your bid for these individuals so your ad is more likely to show for them.

Bid adjustments are calculated using percentages. For example, you can set your bid to increase by 20% if the search occurs on a mobile device. You cannot set a bid to increase by a set amount, such as to increase by $1.50.

To set a bid adjustment, navigate to the appropriate campaign, and then click Settings. Click on Locations, Ad Schedule or Devices. Next, select the checkboxes for the item you want to change and click Set bid adjustment. Bid adjustments can only be set at the campaign or adgroup level.

Remove a bid adjustment by clearing the cell under the Bid adjustment column and in the row for the item you want to change.

Google provides a thorough explanation of bid adjustments here.

The Importance of Split Testing Ad Copy

“Competition Breeds Excellence” – You can think of split testing like a competition. You’re putting one variation up against another and evaluating them based on which performs better. Continuous testing of ad copy leads to increased click-through and conversion rates.

What You’ll Walk Away With

After completing this lesson, you’ll know:

• How to explain the ad copy testing process
• How to implement ad copy testing best practices

The Basics of Ad Copy

Good ad copy is enticing and clear. It makes users want to learn more and drives them to click on your ad. Getting users to decide to click on your ad is the ultimate goal of pay per click (PPC) ad copy. Unfortunately, you have a very limited amount of space to accomplish that goal.

Elements of a PPC Ad

Here’s the basic format of a PPC ad:

Headline (no more than 25 characters)
Description line 1 (no more than 35 characters)
Description line 2 (no more than 35 characters)
Display URL (no more than 35 characters)

The description lines are the meat of your ad, and where you can include details about your product or service. Including a call to action encourages users to take action and click.

The display URL is a simplified URL of the page users will be directed to and that they see in the ad. This gives them an easier way to remember your site.

The destination URL is where clicking on the ad actually takes users. For example, with Things by Bean, a display URL might be: thingsbybean.com/birthday, while the actual page URL might be thingsbybean.com/birthday-cards. Both URLs go to the same place; it’s just that the display URL is a bit shorter and simpler to remember.

Google’s PPC Ad Formatting Rules

Google has established guidelines and restrictions for PPC ad copy that must be followed if you want your ad to show. They include:

• • Not using the word “Click”
  • No curse words
  • No exclamation points in the ad’s headline
  • Only one exclamation point allowed in the ad
  • No all caps wording

Keep these restrictions in mind as you brainstorm ideas.

Search vs. Display Ads

There’s a notable difference between search ad copy and display ad copy. With search ads, you know that customers are looking for something you offer, otherwise, your ad wouldn’t have been triggered.

Display ads are more intrusive because users haven’t necessarily expressed interest in purchasing from you. Therefore, the approaches to search and display ad copy should differ.

Since search ads are text driven, use descriptive wording with a stronger call to action to entice users to click. Display ads can be text or image based. With image based display ads, there’s a little less pressure on the wording of the ad because the image can help users get a better idea of what’s being offered. We’ll go into more detail about display ads in a future lesson.

Testing methodologies should be the same for both search and display ads.

Best Practices

There are several best practices for ad copy testing. These guidelines ensure that your data is accurate and the process goes smoothly.

Test Different Ad Concepts

Before you get into testing the details of your ad, test the concept you are using. Ad concepts are the driving force behind an ad. There are three common ad concepts:

• Fear. Capitalize on users’ fears. Make them feel like not having your product or using your service could lead to a negative outcome. Or, you can assure them that your product will protect them from some type of danger.

• Value. Emphasize the economics of what you’re offering. Stress that it’s money well-spent or that they won’t find deals like this elsewhere.
  
• Emotional. Tap into users’ goals and ideals. Make them feel like your offering will make them happy or improve their lives in some way.

See which of these strategies works best for your site before you start testing the more intricate aspects of your ads. Once you find one that works, stick to it!

Test One Element at a Time

Once you’ve found a strategy that works, test variations of ads that use that strategy. Ideally you should only test one ad element at a time so you can trace results accurately.

For example, we might test these two value-based ad headlines:

Buy 2 Cards, Get One Free            vs.              Save Money on Cards Today

However, we would keep the rest of the ads the same: the same description lines, the same display URL, and the same destination URL.

Include Your Keywords

This is specifically for search ads. When users enter a query, their keywords appear bolded in the results. If your ad contains the keywords, it will also include that bolding. This makes it stand out and shows that it’s relevant to their query. Users are more likely to click on ads that contain their search terms because it indicates that the result is closely related to what they were hoping to find.

Run Ads Simultaneously

Just as in science, it’s important to control as many variables during your ad copy tests as possible. This includes the time during which your ads are run. Customers engage in different behaviors at various times of the day and days of the week. You should have all of your ad variations running at the same time to be sure that these factors don’t influence your results.

This setting can be accessed in the campaign settings tab of AdWords. Once you’ve clicked on a campaign and navigated to the settings tab, click advanced settings, then View Ad Schedule. You’ll be able see at what times your ads are running and on which days.

Rotate Ads Evenly

Another aspect to control is the distribution of your ad. You want to be sure that every ad has equal probability of being shown. Clearly, if one ad is shown more than others, it will appear as if it’s performing better.

Use Labels to Segment Results

It’s much easier to interpret your results if you can categorize them into meaningful groups. You can segment results by using labels in AdWords. After you’ve written an ad, check the box next to it in AdWords, then click the dropdown menu that says “Labels” toward the top of the data set. You’ll be given the option to create a new ad label.

Your label should reflect what’s being tested, i.e. the headline, the concept etc. Organizing your ads this way makes it easier to get an overall picture of what’s working.

Be Patient

For a test to produce worthwhile results, you must let it run for an appropriate length of time. A good yardstick is that you can compare your ads when each has had about 50 clicks. If the test appears inconclusive, give it a little more time.

What to Test

Which ad copy element should you test first? With multiple testable elements, it can be difficult to determine where you want to start.

Headlines

Headlines have a significant impact on users’ decisions to click on an ad. The headline must attract their attention and indicate that they will benefit from what the ad is offering. If you want to run a test quickly, the headline is a great place to start.

Calls to Action

Like headlines, calls to action can have a powerful impact on an ad’s performance. Since the call to action is where you actually direct users to do something, it can make or break whether visitors click on your ad. Calls to action should be clear and emphasize the benefits of what you’re offering and why users would want it.

For example, “Don’t miss out! Give us a call” makes individuals think that if they call, they’ll make the most of an opportunity rather than letting it slip by, whereas, “Call us today,” is pretty blah. See the difference?

Formats

Formatting changes are subtle, but worth testing. For instance, starting with the headline with a number can make your ad stand out, ie: “17 ways to lose weight” vs. “ways to lose weight.” For basic formatting and experiment ideas, check out the table below.

Extensions

AdWords now has extensions which you can use to add new elements to your ad. There are many options, ranging from those that allow you to link to particular pages beneath your ad to those that give you more text.

To learn more about AdWords extensions, check out this page from Google.

Test ideas include ads that have these extensions against those that don’t, or one type of extension versus another.

How to Determine a Winner

As we mentioned earlier, when your ad variations each have about 50 clicks, you likely have enough data to make a decision. Does one have more conversions than the other? That’s your winner! If it’s neck and neck, give it some more time. Check in every few days to see if anything changes.

Note that you want to focus on ads that convert, even if they have fewer clicks. Take the following example:

Ad #1 clearly entices readers to click more than Ad#2, but Ad #2 puts it to shame with regard to conversions.

Once you’ve determined a winner, use it as your new baseline. But realize that testing is never done! You should start thinking about what you want to test next. By continuing to refine your winning ads, their performance should improve.

In the example above, we could try to apply the element in Ad #1 that we think drove clicks to the ad with great conversions to see if we could make a superior ad.

Looking at your click through rate in AdWords can also help you know which ads caught visitors’ attention most. You can then transfer this ad message to other marketing outlets, both on and off line.

Lesson Goal

By the end of this lesson, you should know:

• What the Google display network is and how it differs from the search network
• The ad formats that can be run on the display network
• How to set up a display campaign

How Do Display Ads Work?

Google’s display network consists of sites, blogs, videos, and apps that show AdWords ads. It places your ad on relevant sites by:

• Looking at your keywords to determine which sites are related
• Allowing you to select specific sites where you would like your ad to appear, called placements
• Targeting individuals who have visited your site or have specific interests

Types of Display Ads

There are four types of ads that can appear on the display network:

• Text ads. These look exactly like search ads, but appear on websites other than Google’s search engine.

• Image ads.

• Rich media ads. This ad type includes animation or movement of some kind.

• Video ads.

Display ads are meant to capture users’ attention and encourage awareness throughout their sales journey. Search ads come into play when users are further involved in the process and are actively looking for a product or solution to their problems.

While most people do not click on display ads, simply viewing them can influence their purchase decisions in the future. There’s a great piece on Marketing Land that discusses these differences.

How to Set Up a Display Ad Campaign

Now we’ll review the steps of creating a display ad campaign. We’ll go into more detail about available options and recommendations as well.

Campaign Types

Creating a display ad campaign is a bit different from making a search campaign. When making a new display campaign, you’ll have three options for campaign type, which determines where your ads will be shown:

• Display Network Only. Ads are shown on:

• • • Sites that show relevant Google Ads
    • Apps
    • Videos
    • YouTube
    • Gmail
    • Google Finance
    • Google Maps
    • Blogger

• Search Network with Display Select. Ads can appear on the search network as well as on relevant placements in the display network. In this case, budget is shared between the networks, and display ads will be shown more judiciously.

There are also two campaign sub-types. These have different settings under different campaign types. Here are the features for the sub-types of a Search Network with Display Select campaign:

• Standard. With this sub-type of campaign you have access to basic location and language targeting, basic bidding and budgeting, and popular ad extensions. This type is not available on display network only campaigns.

You do not have access to more advanced options, including the display network tab which includes placements, remarketing, demographics etc, social options, ad scheduling and delivery options, advanced keyword matching, and more. In addition, you can only include text based display ads.

• All Features. This option includes everything from the standard option, as well as the display network tab. It does not include interest category, gender, age, etc targeting

An often used display network only ad campaign type is remarketing. In this case, display ads are shown on the display network to individuals who have already visited your site.

For more on these differences, check out this reference page from Google. Choosing the right campaign type is important, because it’s not recommended that you change it once the campaign has started.

For Things by Bean, we’ll make a Search Network with Display Select campaign. Once we’ve logged into our AdWords account, we’ll go to the Campaigns tab and click the red + Campaign button.

Then we’ll be directed to name our campaign and select the campaign sub-type. We’ll pick the All Features option.

We can then choose if we want to include Google’s search partner network (we do), where we want our ad to show geographically, and if the ad should be shown on online and local shopping channels.

Bidding

Bidding options for the search network with display select are the same as those for the search network. You can bid manually, or set automatic bidding. In the advanced options section, you can also optimize for clicks, use enhanced CPC, or optimize for conversions.

Bidding options for the display network only include cost per impression bids. In this case, you pay per thousand ad impressions.

On the display network you can also set default bids and bid adjustments, like with search advertising.

Once you’ve set up your campaign and adgroups, you can change the bid for a keyword or keywords by selecting them with a check box and either changing the amount in the Max CPC column, or clicking Change max CPC bids in the Edit dropdown.

Other Settings

Next, we decide if we want our ads to be shown evenly over time, or if we want them to be shown at an accelerated rate. We recommend having ads show evenly over time so you can reach users who go online at different times equally.

Ad extensions, which give you added abilities like links and additional text, can be selected in the next step. We’ll include a location extension to show Things by Bean’s store location.

We then move to the advanced settings section, which contains the following:

• Schedule: Start date, end date, ad scheduling. Here you can decide the time frame for when you want your ads to show, and specify specific days of the week and times you want your ads to be shown.

For our example, we’re not going to make any specifications, because we want to gather data about our audience before we make limitations.

• Ad delivery: Ad rotation, frequency capping. In this section, you can decide if you want your ads to have an equal chance of being shown, or if you’d like to optimize them for clicks or conversions.

We’re going to rotate our ads indefinitely. This way, we can gather data and decide if and when we want to optimize our ads later.

The frequency capping option lets you limit how many times an individual can see your ads. You can limit the number of impressions by day, week, or month. You can select if you want that cap to apply to a single ad, an adgroup, or an entire campaign.

Typically it’s better to cap impressions at 5 per day. We’ll limit the number of impressions per adgroup per day to 2 for our Things by Bean.

We’re not going to go into dynamic links or search ads, as that’s more advanced.

Creating an Adgroup

Once you click save, you’ll be prompted to create your first ad and adgroup. Your first ad is a text ad, but once your adgroup has been saved, you can make other types of ads.

Now we’ll add our keywords. These keywords must be specific to our product and site because they will not only impact when our search ads are triggered, but also where they will be shown on the display network.

You can add negative keywords after you’ve created your campaign and adgroups by clicking on the Keywords tab and scrolling down to the Negative keywords section, then clicking Add.

We’ll also get to review our chosen max cpc, and then we can save the adgroup. Our first ad will be up and running!

If you want to check all your settings and make more ads before you start your campaign, click the green dot next to the campaign and select Pause. This will enable you to keep working and your ads won’t go live until you’ve re-enabled the campaign.

Placements and Remarketing

We’ve selected the keywords we want to trigger our search ads, which will also be used to place our ads on relevant sites. To further narrow our target audience, we can create placements and remarketing efforts.

Placements

Under the Display Network tab, click Placements.

Then we’ll click the red + Targeting button, followed by selecting Placements in the Add targeting dropdown menu. Now we can enter or search for a site where we want our ad to appear.

On this page, we can also specify exclusions, such as words we don’t want to trigger our ads, types of sites we don’t want our ad on, etc. Here we can choose if we are ok with our ad being shown in videos, or below the fold of the page as well.

For Things by Bean, we don’t want ads for our products to be on inappropriate sites, and we want our ad to appear above the fold.

Remarketing

You can also select who will see your ads based on their previous interactions with your site. In the type of campaign we chose, this option is under the Audiences tab. Now we’re going to click the red +Remarketing button.

Next, we’ll click the Targeting dropdown and Interests & remarketing. Now we can target individuals who have visited our site recently, or decide to exclude them. You must first have a remarketing list in place. To learn how, click here. We’ll also choose the Bid Only option, because we do want to have these ads shown to those who might not have visited our site yet.

It’s generally a good idea to take people who have visited our site and converted off of our remarketing list, because they have already done what we wanted them to do (and we don’t want to bug them). Under the Campaign exclusions dropdown, we’ll click the Interests & remarketing option. Then we’ll place our list of those who have converted in our exclusions. Again, to learn how to make a list like this, click here.

In our example, we’re targeting people who visited the Things by Bean site in the last week, but are excluding people who have already opted in to our emails or converted.

Making a Display Ad

To make a display ad, navigate to the Ads tab of your campaign and click the red +Ad button. You’ll then see your ad format options.

We went over the different types of ads earlier in the lesson. Here we’ll quickly review how to make an image ad. To find out more about the various types of ads, including tips for making them, visit this page from Google.

Once you’ve clicked Image ad, you’ll be prompted to either create an ad or upload one. If you already have an image ready, simply upload it. You can click Supported sizes and formats in the upload area to see available ad sizes and formats.

If not, click Create an ad. AdWords will then scan your site and generate ads for you to review and edit. You’ll be asked to enter your display and destination URLs.

After you’ve uploaded or created your ad, click Save. Now when you select All ads in the drop down on the left side of the page, you should see a preview of your image ad. When you click on it, you should be taken to your destination URL.

If you need a little help making ads, select Ad gallery once you’ve clicked +Ad. This tool can help you make all kinds of ads, including videos, interactive, social and more. Just follow the outlined steps and use the what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editor to make your ad.

When you’re ready, re-activate your campaign!

Optimizing Ads

Take advantage of the ability to make engaging, illustrative ads. People enjoy looking at images, and the right picture can reinforce your message. Google has an extensive list of best practices for creating display ads.

Monitoring Display Ads

Reviewing display ad performance differs slightly from studying search ad performance. This reflects the distinction between their characteristics and goals. Since most display ads are not clicked, but are viewed and then encourage a user to convert at a later time, basing display ad performance on clicks isn’t the best.

With search ads, you optimize for clicks and emphasize a strong click through rate. For display ads, it’s better to focus on conversions and view through conversions (when an individual has seen a display ad and converts in the next 30 days). To learn more about monitoring and evaluating ad performance on the display network, look at this guide from Google.

Lesson Goal

By the end of this lesson you should know:

• How to set goals for Facebook ads
• Facebook’s ad campaign structure
• How to create an ad campaign
• How to monitor and report on performance

About Facebook Ads

Facebook ads can be highly targeted to ensure you’re reaching the best set of potential customers. They can appear in an individual’s newsfeed, on the right side of the page, or Facebook’s mobile feed.

Ads can also show individuals if their friends have interacted with your business.

Elements of Ads

What is included in a Facebook ad depends on its placement. Desktop and mobile newsfeed ads include the following:

• Your business name
• If their friends have interacted with you
• Images or videos
• Description text
• A call to action

A desktop newsfeed ad:

A mobile newsfeed ad:

Ads appearing in the right column of Facebook are smaller and only include images and videos, and your text. Here’s an example of a column ad:

Setting Goals in Facebook

There are several goals an ad can accomplish on Facebook:

• Getting customers to interact with you on your Facebook page or event
• Getting visitors to go to or interact with your website
  • Note that for this goal, you will also need to create a Facebook conversion pixel for your site.
• Getting users to download or use your app

We’re going to focus on the first two types of goals.

Campaign Structure

Facebook’s ad campaign structure is somewhat similar to that of AdWords. Its highest level is campaign, which contain ad sets (like adgroups), which contain ads. Here’s the diagram Facebook provides:

• Campaigns. Objectives are set at the campaign level in Facebook. Each campaign must have an advertising objective, and can not have more than one objective.
• Ad sets. Targeting options, scheduling, placements, budget, and bidding settings are all set at this level.
• Ads. These are the actual advertisements that can contain images, videos, and text.

Creating an Ad

Now we’ll walk through making an ad in Facebook, explaining your options as we go. For this example, we’re going to make an ad for Things by Bean’s Christmas cards.

1. Log in to Facebook with your company account. Click the drop down arrow in the upper right hand corner of the page, and select Create Ads. Note that you don’t actually need a business page to create ads on Facebook.

2. Then choose the objective for your campaign. The options are explained in plain language. For our Things by Bean example, we’re going to set our objective to Send People to Your Website. Then we’ll be instructed to enter the URL for the site we want to promote, in this case thingsbybean.com/christmas

3. We then name our campaign, enter our location and currency information, and finally, our account name (Things by Bean).

4. Next, we choose our targeting options. We want to enter as much information as possible to have our ads shown only to those we think will be really interested in our cards. We’ll target the US, those aged 20-35, and both men and women. We’ll target only those who speak English. There are many more options for demographics we can explore, which are shown in the dropdown menu below.

5. Now we’ll focus on limiting our audience based on their interests and behaviors. Targeting based on these parameters is often more successful than targeting based on demographics because you understand more about the customer.

            We can choose from predefined options, or search. We’ll target people who are interested in family and friendship,           Hallmark, greeting, and Christmas cards.

 We do the same thing for behaviors. We’re going to target Trendy Homemakers, Shoppers, those who like entertaining, those who exhibit above average spending and shop online. We’re also going to target those who have purchased gift products, specialty foods and gifts. We’ll leave the connections setting to all, as we want to reach all qualified individuals, and not just those who are already connected to our page in some way.

Facebook keeps track of our settings and tells us how many people we could reach.

This is a very large reach. However, since it is our first campaign and we don’t have much insight about who will come to our site from social media, this is ok. As we get more information, we can further refine our campaigns. Typically a smaller, very targeted reach is best.

6. Next we set our budget. We’re going to keep it small at $5.00 per day, and we’ll have it run continuously. You can also choose to set a lifetime budget, which is the maximum you’ll spend to run your ad set, as well as select starting and ending dates and times for your ad.

Facebook automatically sets our bidding strategy based on our objective. You can see this under Advanced Options in this section. We’ll add Interested in Cards to the ad set name Facebook created to make it easier for us to remember what sets this group apart. With our budget, Facebook estimates that we’ll reach at least 2,500 people per day.

7. It’s time to actually make our ad. Facebook makes it easy by allowing us to simply upload an image or search for one we can use from Shutterstock. Each image we select will create a different variation of our ad. Next, we decide which text and URL we want included. 

We have 25 characters for our headline. Let’s use. Make Christmas special. You have 90 characters for your text above your image, and 200 for the text that appears below your image, if you click Advanced Options. You can also select a call to action button. Note that adding a button might cut off some of the text below your image.

 A live preview of your ad as it would appear in each placement type will be shown on the right side of the page. If you don’t want a specific placement type, just click Remove. 

8. When you’re happy with your ad, click Place order. You’ll be prompted to add your billing info then.

Boosting Posts

An alternative to advertisements is boosted posts. A boosted post is a post you’ve written on your page that you’ve paid to have show higher up in people’s newsfeeds, so they’re more likely to view it. These posts also have the word Sponsored on them, and will not appear in the right hand column.

 To boost a post, simply click Boost Post after you’ve written what you want to say. You’ll then have to option to select whom you want to target, and how much you want to spend on boosting the post. You can boost a post for up to 1 week.

 Note that you can’t delete a boosted post after you’ve sent it live. You’ll first have to unboost it, edit it, and then reboost it.

Creating Offers

If your page has at least 50 likes, you can create offers for your page. An offer can be a discount or other promotion that users can redeem in-store or online. These offers will appear in users’ newsfeeds.

 To create an offer, you can click Offer at the top of your page timeline, or navigate to the ads creation tool and select Offer claims as your objective.

 You’ll then enter your headline, description text, and image for your offer. You’ll also have to choose an expiration date, and a limit for the number of claims. Click More Options to enter a start date, the URL where the offer can be redeemed (if the offer is online), and the redemption code. Add any applicable terms and conditions, and then click Create Offer.

You can create an ad to promote your offer, or boost your offer. Facebook explains how on this page. To see how many people have redeemed the offer, go to your Page Insights.

Monitoring Performance

Once you have ads up and running, you’ll be able to monitor their performance with Ads Manager. This video shows you how to access and navigate Facebook Ads Manager. Ads Manager lets you stop campaigns and ads, edit the budget and schedule of existing ad sets, and more.

 Judge performance based on your campaign objectives. If your objective was to get people to click through to your site, you should focus on that number. Check in on your Facebook ads every week or so to see how they’re performing and check that everything is running smoothly. 

Page Performance

If you just want to see how your page is doing, you can look at Page Insights, which will provide metrics on engagement, likes, and the reach of your posts. You’ll see Page Insights at the top of your page only after 30 people have liked your page.

Boosted Post Performance

You can see the number of unique visitors who have seen a boosted post on the post. To see how many of them saw it organically or through an ad, hover over this number. For more details, you can go to your Ads Manager or Page Insights.

Reporting

Facebook’s Ad Manager also offers the ability to create reports. Once you’re in the Ads Manager, click Reports. A default report showing general metrics will show. You can customize which columns are included by clicking Customize columns. To change the date range, simply navigate to the date and select the starting and ending dates for the data you want to see in your report. Like in AdWords and Google Analytics, you can apply filters to limit which data you see.

 When you’ve organized your report, you can export it as an Excel or CSV file by clicking the blue Export button toward the top of the page. You also have the option to schedule reports, which will be emailed to specific email addresses on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. To do so, click Schedule toward the top of the page.

 For more information on reporting in Facebook, visit their help page.

Lesson Goal

By the end of this lesson, you should:

• Know about the different types of ads available on Twitter
• Understand the types of campaigns
• Know the various targeting options
• Be able to create and monitor an ad campaign

Types of Twitter Ads

There are three major types of ads available on Twitter. Each ad type is labeled as promoted in users’ feeds so they can tell the difference between ads and non-paid activities.

• Promoted Tweets. A Tweet that has been targeted toward a specific audience. Promoted Tweets can reach a larger group of people and include both your current followers and other users. There are a variety of design options including the ability to feature images or video. Promoted Tweets are the least expensive advertising option.
• Promoted Accounts. Involves having your account appear as a suggested account to follow to potential consumers. Promoting accounts is slightly more expensive than promoting Tweets.
• Promoted Trends. A promoted trend appears at the top of users’ Trending Topics module on the left side of their page. They come at a premium price–up to $200,000 for the top spot for just 24 hours! They also require a Twitter Ads Account Manager.

Since Promoted Trends are so expensive, we’ll focus on created promoted Tweets and promoted accounts.

Who Sees Your Ads

Twitter uses members’ activity and registration information to determine which ads to show them. It also uses information provided from ad partners, such as browser cookies and hashed email addresses (not sure what a hashed email address is? Check out this article from ClickZ).

It is valuable to note that users have the ability to avoid tailored ads by selecting a specific setting in their account. However, it doesn’t seem like many users actually take advantage of this setting.

Campaign Types

Twitter has two basic ad campaign types:

• Objective-based. Objective-based campaigns allow you to select the goal of your campaign. This impacts how you go through the campaign setup process, and what your campaign will look like. You are only charged for actions that match your objective.

• Custom. With this type of campaign, you are charged per engagement, such as if a user retweets, favorites, replies to, or clicks on your ad. However, you tend to be charged less per engagement.

It’s generally a good idea to use an objective-based campaign because these campaigns are built specifically to help you achieve your desired goals, and Twitter does the work of creating a streamlined setup process.

Objective-based Campaign Types

There are five types of objective-based campaigns. Each focuses on helping you achieve a different goal.

• Followers. This campaign type is meant to increase the number of people who follow your account. You will only be charged for new followers you gather during that campaign. You won’t be charged for Tweet engagements or clicks to your website. This type of campaign promotes your account.
• Website clicks or conversions. With this style of campaign, your goal is to either increase clicks through to your website, or gain conversions on your site. You’ll only be charged for these actions. Individual Tweets will be promoted, rather than your entire account.

To set up a clicks or conversions campaign, you must place a snippet of code on the page of your site associated with conversion (like a Thank You page) so Twitter can record data. Note: you won’t be able to see the option to create this tag unless you’ve entered your billing information.

• Tweet engagements. With Tweet engagement campaigns, you create promoted tweets with the goal of getting Retweets, replies, favorites, etc. You can promote a Tweet that will only be seen by your followers, or you can have your promoted Tweet shown to a specific target audience. You will only be charged for these actions, and won’t be charged for impressions.
• App installs or engagements. This campaign involves trying to get users to either install or open a mobile app. You’ll be charged only when someone installs an app or opens the app from your promoted Tweet.
• Leads on Twitter. The goal of a Leads campaign is to collect email addresses from users who are interested in what you have to offer. They can share their email addresses with you straight from your promoted Tweet. Again, you’ll only pay for leads you acquire.

Targeting Options

Twitter ads give you targeting options based on the following:

The options available to you will depend on the type of campaign you select. To learn more about Twitter ad targeting, visit their help page.

Twitter Cards

Twitter cards add pizazz to your Tweets by including images, video, or other features beyond plain text, beneath a Tweet. Some require that you install a snippet of code on your site. You’ll be able to create lead generation, app, and website cards without installing code. To learn more, about using code for Twitter cards, click here.

Different Twitter cards are used for different campaigns. There are a total of eight styles of Twitter cards:

• Lead generation. A lead generation card includes an image and a call to action where users can enter their name, email address, and Twitter handle.
• Photo. This card type will add an image to your Tweet.
• Gallery. A gallery card is a photo card that shows up to 4 images.
• App. An app card includes an image and button that will bring users to a page where they can download your app.
• Player. This type of card is meant for displaying videos, GIFs, and music.
• Product. These cards include an image and 200 characters to provide information about your product.
• Website. A website card includes an image, link, and button. They’re great for trying to get users to visit your site.
• Summary. This type of card can be used as a preview of web content and includes a thumbnail.

The Top Four Menus

At the top of your Twitter ads page are four menus. You’ll only be able see the Campaigns menu until you add your billing information.

• Creatives. There are two options under the Creatives tab: Tweets and Cards. Tweets is where you can see your promoted Tweets and account campaigns, and any scheduled Tweets. The Cards option is where you can see any Twitter Cards you have created.
• Analytics. The Analytics tab includes a breakdown of data on Tweet activity, Followers, and Twitter cards. Once you select the option you’d like, you’ll see relevant metrics. For example, in the Tweet activity option, you’ll see the number of impressions, engagements, and any replies to your promoted Tweets.
• Tools. The Tools tab has three options: Audience Manager, App Manager, and Conversion Tracking.
  • The Audience Manager is where you can see data on your tailored audiences and change settings.
  • In the App Manager, you can set up tracking and advertising efforts for apps.
  • Conversion tracking shows the status of conversion codes you’ve created as well as their settings. If you click Edit next to the conversion tracking code, you can see a copy of the code you need to paste on your site and adjust the settings.

Creating an Ad

Now we’ll walk through how to create an ad. Twitter makes the process fairly simple. You’ll need to log in to ads.twitter.com with your Twitter user name and password. For our example, our goal is to increase the number of followers for our Things by Bean account.

1. First, decide on a campaign objective, or if you’d like to run a custom campaign. In this example, our objective will be to gain new followers, so we’ll create a Followers campaign. Once you’ve chosen one, Twitter will show you a preview of where your ad will be displayed and how it will be optimized.

2. Next, name the campaign. We’ll name our campaign New Followers. You can also choose to set start and end dates or run the campaign continuously. We’re going to run the campaign continuously.

3. Then, write 3 or 4 new Tweets or pick existing Tweets. These Tweets will be used to help promote your account.

4. Next we choose our targeting options. We will target the US, both genders, all devices and platforms, those with interest in family and specific hobbies (shown in image).

5. Now we set our max budget per day and max budget per follower, as well as if we want our ads to be shown throughout the day evenly, or at accelerated pace. We also establish total budget for campaign to ensure that we don’t overspend.

We’ll set our max daily budget to $10, our max bid per new follower to $3, and have our ads shown evenly throughout the day to ensure that we won’t miss those who log in toward the end of the day (at least until we know which times are most profitable for us).

6. Finally, we launch the campaign or save it as a draft. To edit the ad, we would go to our Campaign Dashboard (ads.twitter.com and log in). Then we’d click Edit next to the appropriate campaign. 

Monitoring Performance

To see how your Twitter ads are doing, visit your dashboard, at ads.twitter.com. You’ll then be able to see which campaigns you’ve launched. You can also see any campaigns you’ve saved as a draft by selecting Draft campaigns from the menu toward the top of the page.

You can review Tweet, follower, and Twitter card analytics in the Analytics tab at the top of the page.

Clicking on any of these options will bring you to a more detailed view of data. For example, here’s what a Tweet activity analytics dashboard looks like:

Scrolling down the page you’ll see information on the number of times your links have been clicked, as well as the number of Retweets, favorites, and replies.

Why is Google Analytics Important?

You can use Google Analytics (often referred to as GA or analytics for short) to transform the raw data about your visitors and their movements on the site into easy to read, valuable information.

Using Google Analytics can help you understand what your users are interested in and where your site might need improvement, as well as spark ideas for new content or methods of engagement.

What You’ll Walk Away With

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Understand what Google Analytics is
• Navigate through the Google Analytics interface effectively

We’ll cover how to read the reports, how to track additional website elements, and other topics in future lessons. For now, you just need to know your way around the reporting suite.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is an online platform that allows site owners to track traffic to their site and visitors’ actions on the site. It can provide an overview of how your site is being used or be used to dig deeper for more detailed analysis.

Setting Up Google Analytics

Outfitting your website with Google Analytics tracking code is typically quite simple.

What you’ll need:

• The Google Account you want to use to manage the reporting
• Access to the backend of the website you want to track (i.e. where you can add content and alter code)

All set? The steps for setting up an Analytics account are as follows:

1. Visit the Google Analytics home page and and sign-up or log into your existing account.
2. Find your tracking code. If you’re setting up a new account it will be presented to you; if you have an existing account, it’s located in Admin –> Tracking Info –> Tracking Code.
3. Your tracking code must then be placed on every page of the website you want to track, directly before the closing head tag (</head>).
   • It’s a good idea to place the code within the site header so it will automatically be added to every page.
   • Do not alter the code in any way, as this could break it and prevent it from reporting.

Once the tracking code has successfully been placed on the site, the Tracking Code page will show if the code is working properly.

Analytics is then ready to go! If you run into issues installing your code on your site, try using Google’s Tag Assistant extension. It will tell you what issues it’s encountering and link you to relevant articles to the fix the root cause.

Using Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager allows you to easily make changes to your website’s tracking code. Your web tracking codes are stored in containers, which can be easily installed sitewide and then be remotely modified.

Google Tag Manager containers also allow for easy bulk changes and implementations. If, for example, you wanted to add a specific tracking code on a number of pages, rather than manually adding it to each page, you can simply write a rule that only places the code on pages matching the rule’s criteria.

We’ll talk more about using Google Tag Manager in future lessons. For now, just know that it’s an alternative way to add tracking code to your website and can drastically reduce the amount of technical implementation time needed for adding or modifying web tracking codes.

The Interface

Your Analytics home screen lists the properties for which you have installed Analytics.

Each property can house multiple websites. For instance, if our greeting card company, Things by Bean, had a main website and a secondary website used at conventions and other events, both would be housed under a single Google Analytics property.

By default, Analytics opens to the Overview section of the Audience category. It shows basic information, including a graph of the sessions on your site over time and the number of users.

Date Ranges

The default time range in Analytics is the previous month. You can set the date range by clicking on the dates shown in the upper right hand corner of the screen. You can also compare two separate time frames. To do so, check the Compare option and enter your second date range in the provided fields.

Analytics should stay on that date range throughout your session. However, it’s a good idea to double check that your date ranges are consistent as you navigate through Analytics, as different date ranges will deliver different data sets.

Dimensions and Metrics

Dimensions and metrics will be covered more extensively in another lesson, but it’s valuable to know about these elements as you make your way through Analytics.

A dimension is a category such as browser type or page title. A metric, on the other hand, is how those dimensions are measured. For example, if we wanted to see how many visitors came to our site using Firefox, the dimension would be browser type, and the metric would be the number of visitors.

You can use dimensions to filter your data in any section of Analytics. This option can be found below the graph of the information and above the data table.

The Four Major Sidebar Sections

The left side of the page contains several sections and most of your navigation will be done here. The first four options are Dashboards, Shortcuts, Intelligence Events, and Real Time.

We’ll discuss how to use these sections in our more advanced Google Analytics lessons.

For now, we’ll be talking about the next four sections found on the sidebar and the types of data they contain in Analytics.

The four major sections of Google Analytics navigation are:

• Audience
• Acquisition
• Behavior
• Conversions

Audience

You can find information about who your visitors are in the Audience tab in the sidebar.

We’ll only be discussing a few of the subsections in the Audience reports for this lesson. If you’d like more information about one of these sections, you can click on it in the table to learn more from Google’s help articles, linked below.

Audience Overview

The Audience Overview section provides general data about the users on your site, such as how many users have visited the site, the language they speak, and how many of them are first time versus returning visitors.

Geo

The Geo category includes information on the language spoken by site visitors and their geographic location. Clicking on either sub option will bring you to a more detailed page.

Behavior

Here’s what you’ll find in each sub tab of the Behavior section of the Audience category:

Technology

The Technology section of the Audience tab includes data on two topics:

• Browser & OS: See which Internet browsers visitors are using to access your site and their operating system (ie. if they have a Mac or a PC)
• Network: See which Internet provider your users have

Mobile

Under the Mobile sub tab of the Audience section are Overview and Devices options.

• Overview: Presents the breakdown of users who accessed the site via a desktop/laptop, mobile phone, or tablet.
• Devices: Provides more detailed information about the machines visitors used when they accessed the site, such as if they were using an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.

Users Flow

This tab displays a flowchart that illustrates users’ movements throughout the site. This can provide insight into their thought processes and reveal behavior patterns.

Acquisition

The Acquisition section focuses on how users came to your site. For example, you can see if they found you on Google or through another site.

Most of the commonly used subsections for this category are listed below. We won’t be talking about every subsection in this lesson, so as before, you can read more on Google’s Analytics support site, linked below.

Acquisition Overview

The Acquisition Overview provides a visual snapshot of how users have reached your site. Graphs show the number of sessions over time as well as the distribution of the channels used to find the site.

All Traffic Channels

Channels are the different avenues through which a user can access a site. For example, if you click on a link to a site in Facebook, you would have taken a social channel to get to the site. This tab breaks down how many visitors utilized each channel. Channels include:

• Direct: A user types the exact URL into the address bar
• Organic Search: A user conducts a search on a search engine like Google and they clicked on the result that represented your site
• Referral: A user clicks on a link to your site from another website
• Paid Search: A user clicks on a pay per click advertisement that leads to your site
• Social: A user clicks on a link to your site that was on social media

All Referrals

This section provides detailed information on the traffic to your site that came from referrals. You can see which site individuals came from, and how many people came from that site.

AdWords Campaigns

This section allows you to link to your AdWords account to get more detailed information on visits that were a result of clicking on a PPC ad.

Queries

This tab shows you which queries, i.e. keywords, visitors typed into a search engine that have brought up your site as a result. Hopefully you find that the user clicked through to your site, believing it was a good result that was relevant to their query.

Social Overview

The Social section shows how social media sources have contributed to your site’s traffic. It includes the following:

• Overview: A brief overview of how social networks impact site traffic
• Network Referrals: A breakdown of which social media networks have led to visits to your site, how many visitors, and how engaged those users were
• Landing Pages: Information about user engagement and the number of sessions on the pages visitors landed on when coming from a social media network
• Conversions: Displays the number of conversions from visitors coming to your site from social media
• Plugins: Provides a summary of which content is being “Liked” or “+1” etc.
• Users Flow: A flowchart illustrating the movements of users from social media

Behavior

The Behavior section of Analytics provides insight into what your visitors are doing while they are on your site. It includes the following subcategories:

Behavior Overview

The Behavior Overview gives a quick glimpse of how many page views your site is getting, the average amount of time spent on a page, and the bounce and exit rates, etc.

Behavior Flow

Much like the User Flow section in the Audience tab, the Behavior Flow illustrates how users are navigating through the site.

Site Content

The Site Content tab provides the opportunity to dig into the specific data for each page of your site. There are four subsections, including:

• All Pages: Shows pageviews, average amount of time spent, entrances, bounce rates, and exit percentages for each web page. You can toggle between the page URL and the Page Title in the bar above the data table to make the data easier to organize.

• Content Drilldown: Differs from the All Pages tab in that it allows you to compare sections of a website rather than just the individual pages.
Content Drilldown Example
With our greeting card company, let’s say we had a birthday section and a graduation section, each with their own subpages. In the Content Drilldown, we would be able to compare how birthday section as a whole is doing compared to the entire graduation section. You can read this blog post for more details.

• Landing Pages: Provides information on the pages where visitors enter your site. You can find session and engagement information for your landing pages here, as well as goal conversions and completions.
• Exit Pages: Shows the pages from which your visitors leave your site. This data can reveal which pages might need to be revamped to keep users on your website.

Site Speed

This section shows how fast your web pages are loading in comparison to your site’s average, and also provides suggestions to improve load times.

Site Search

The Site Search tab summarizes what users have typed into your website’s search bar, which requires some set-up to track. It has three reporting subsections.

• Usage: Compares the number of visits that did and did not include a search.
• Search Terms: Shows exactly what visitors typed into your site search bar. This information can point to potential improvements for a better user experience.
Search Terms Example
For instance, if many users on our greeting card company’s site searched for Doctor Who themed birthday cards, we could give this product its own page or add it to the navigation menu so it would be easier to find.

• Pages: Shows on which pages searches are conducted. Seeing from which pages users are conducting searches can guide your content creation and ensure that all desired information is found on the appropriate page.

Events

Events are specific actions your users complete while they are on your site. You can configure an event to “fire” when a visitor clicks a particular button, submits a form, etc. This section shows you where events are being completed, which occur the most often, and the path users took before they triggered an event.

Conversions

This tab includes four subsections. In these reports, you’ll find out which website objectives your visitors are completing and how they’re being completed.

Goals

The Goals tab has five subsections. We’ll briefly describe the most valuable.

• Goals: Displays the URL for the pages you have identified as a signal to Analytics that a goal has been completed. Note that you have to set up goals for Analytics to track them. We’ll show you how to do this in a future lesson.
Goal Example
With our company Things by Bean, we might make our “Thank You for Contacting Us” webpage a goal completion location because when someone reaches that page, it implies that they sent in their information and a goal was accomplished.

• Reverse Goal Path: Shows which pages visitors went to before they completed a goal, giving you an idea of what might have spurred them to complete a goal.
• Funnel Visualization: Highlights the number of users in each step of the funnel.  You must have created a funnel to see data. A funnel is a sequence of pages that lead your visitor to complete a goal. To learn more about Funnel Visualization, you can visit this page by LunaMetrics.
• Goal Flow:  Similar to Funnel Visualization, but the steps of a Goal Flow are not defined as they are in a funnel. To see the major differences between the two, check out this table from Google.

Multi-Channel Funnels

This section shows how users might see a combination of website referrals, social media mentions, and email campaigns before converting. Since we can’t tell which channel led to the conversion, we can attribute this conversion to the combination of all three. Google’s instructional video provides insight into using the Multi-Channel Funnel functionality.

The Four Tabs at the Top of the Page

Let’s move away from the left sidebar to the tabs at the top of the page. The four tabs are:

• Home
• Reporting
• Customization
• Admin

The Reporting tab is where you’ll spend most of your time, but it’s good to know what you’ll find in the other tabs as well.

Home

The Home tab is where you’ll find your list of properties and the websites associated with them.

Reporting

Here is where you interact with and view the data associated with the property you selected in the Home tab. The left sidebar contains all of the reporting sections that we just covered in this lesson.

Customization

In the Customization tab you can make your own custom reports. We’ll teach you how to build custom reports in an upcoming lesson.

Admin

The final tab at the top of the page is the Admin tab. Here you can change user settings, set up filters, find your tracking code, and more.

Accounts, Properties, and Views

The Admin tab is divided into three sections which define the account structure in Analytics.

• Account: The highest level in Analytics and what lets you access the tool. An account can have multiple properties.
• Property: Essentially, your website. A property can have multiple views.
• View: Different perspectives on or collections of data.

Confused? We’ll use our go-to example to help clear things up.

Our Account would be our company, Online Academy. Properties would include any websites we have, such as thingsbybean.com, and if we have other sites like info.thingsbybean.com. Then, within each property we could have multiple views, such as a view that filters out visits to our site from within our store and one that does not.

So our example could look like this:

Things by Bean (Account) → thingsbybean.com (Property) → All Website Data (View)

Google has an extensive explanation of this account structure here.

Goals

We’ve discussed that goals are actions we want visitors to take while they are on our site (and we’ll discuss Goals & Events again in greater depth in upcoming lessons). You can set up goals in the Admin tab, under the View section.

Here’s what you have to do to make a goal:

• Click the red “+New Goal” button on the left side of the page.
• Name and design your goal. The name should be descriptive so you can easily remember what that goal is.
• Select the type of goal you want to make.
• Fill in the required information.

There are several types of goals that align with different actions users can take on a site.

• Destination Goals: Refer to when a user visits a particular page.
• Duration Goals: Refer to when a user has spent a specific amount of time on a page or site.
• Pages/Screens per Session Goals: Refer to when a user has viewed a certain number of pages on the site.
• Event Goals: Refer to when a user has taken a specific action, such as clicking a “Contact Us” button. An event must be setup before you can make an event goal.

Note that you can only have 20 goals per view and goals cannot be deleted. If you need more goals, you’ll need to create another view or edit an existing goal.

Filters

Filters allow you to place limitations on the data you’ll see in Analytics. This means you can ignore actions you don’t want to include in your data, or focus only on the ones you do want.

For example, if we didn’t want to include our own visits to our company site from our physical store, we could filter out our store’s IP address. With this filter, any of the actions we take on our site at our own store won’t be included in our data, so we won’t skew our own results.

Try These Tracking Exercises

Complete the exercises below before moving on. You’ll gain critical hands-on experience that will help you become the marketer you were meant to be. Plus, it makes completing the quiz at the end of the lesson even easier.

Exercise A: Reading Google Analytics

Effectively reading Google Analytics’ reports comes down to asking yourself a few questions:

• Where did the traffic come from (e.g. search, social, etc.)?
• Where did the traffic go (e.g. homepage, service page, blog post, etc.)?
• What did the traffic do (e.g. purchased, bounced, viewed more pages, etc.)?

So by looking at your sources for the traffic and analyzing their behavior, you can start pinpointing the exact marketing effort that made the impact.

Exercise B: Troubleshooting GA Installation

Google Analytics installation process is fairly easy — you add one small snippet of code in a site-wide element and it begins collecting data.

However, technical peculiarities about your website and other innocent errors can create problems during installation. But thanks to Google’s Tag Assistant, identifying those issues is easier than ever.