Converge Consulting holds a number of Google Analytics workshops around the country each year. Typically, we have 15 to 20 people in the room and they possess a wide range of experience and familiarity with Google Analytics.

What we have found is that there are always a number of “Aha moments” during these day and a half sessions. Comments often include, “So, how can I track that?” or “That was the mystery I was trying to solve!”

Those are great moments, however they are usually followed with a burning desire to track everything that moves.

So where should you start? Once you finally get the keys to the car, where should you drive to first?

Our advice is to begin with the actions on your site that will lead to student inquiries, applications, visits and donations and affect your school’s bottom line.

Hopefully, you have goals set up around these key elements of your site. Whether they hit a specific “thank you” page or you’re using events to track goals, you need to have a way to track how you are doing on these elements.

You are also hopefully using campaign tracking to make sure that Google Analytics can correctly identify your site’s traffic sources, mediums and campaigns. It seems like a lot of work to get this all set up, but the payoff is….

Traffic Sources > Sources > All Traffic
Now at the top of the report, switch the view from “Site Usage” to “Goal Set 1” (or two or three or four). As marketers, you are likely spending time, money and energy on these specific marketing efforts. Now you have a simple, clear view into what sources are driving traffic to your site and which sources are converting best on your goals!

Avinash Kaushik recently published a great blog on this topic. Avinash tells us to obsess about real business profitability and to go beyond Google Analytics to see what traffic sources are best at leading to applications, starts and completions. Great advice.

Remember, Google Analytics is a great tool to help us understand a much larger picture. That larger picture will help us craft a smart, well informed multi-channel marketing plan that is rooted in evidence.