Data is fantastic. It allows us to make informed decisions when improving our marketing campaigns, redesigning our websites and optimizing our digital advertising campaigns. The problem analytics users often face is the dreaded ‘analysis paralysis,’ caused by being overwhelmed by millions of data points when attempting to drive actionable insights. In these situations, I almost always recommend segments.
What are segments?
Segments are a tool within Google Analytics that provide the targeted frame of reference we need to see the most relevant data within our reports. Think of it like using your DVR to sort through all of the available TV shows and record only shows you are interested in. Segments use the same principle – you tell analytics what’s important so you can look at that data.
[Tweet “Think of segments like using your DVR. #HigherEd”]
Click on each of the five segments below to import them to your analytics account.
Most institutions will rename their internal internet networks with the institution name. You can import this segment and replace the [institution ISP name] slug in the advanced conditions with your institution’s network name. If you don’t know it offhand, the network name is in the Audience>Technology>Network report.
This segment displays all user activity from campus. How would this be helpful? Consider a graduate school that receives a percentage of inquiries from undergraduates. By applying this segment and comparing data with all users, you could see the percentage of undergraduates in your applicant pool and find out how those users consumed content to guide your future content development efforts.
Just like the internal traffic segment, you will need to edit the advanced conditions of this filter to reflect your institution’s network name (replacing the [institution ISP name] slug). This segment displays all users who visited your site off campus.
The external traffic segment can be helpful during tasks like website redesigns, where we want to understand what pages are driving the most traffic and prospective student engagement.
Both internal and external segments can incorporate the entire view within analytics using an exclude/include IP address filter. The important distinction between segments and filters is how they are processed. Filters are processed at the server level, and they remove or alter data before it reaches analytics. Servers, on the other hand, are applied within the web tool to determine what data you want to see. Since filters alter data, I recommend using a segment wherever possible and only using filters when necessary.
One of the most commonly used reports within analytics is the all pages report, which displays the most commonly viewed pages on your website. Your top page is likely your home page, followed by your login pages. This data isn’t as impactful as we might hope, but we can make improvements by segmenting our sessions by users who visit a specific section of the site.
By importing this segment and editing the advanced conditions to replace the /[section]/ slug within the advanced conditions with a page path on your site, /academics/ for example, you can view the traffic that came to your site from those pages, find out where they came from and learn what they did there.
Campaign tracking is something we talk about frequently at Converge. From digital advertising to email and social marketing, tags are essential components for measuring your inbound marketing efforts. These little UTM parameters allow us to measure the success of any tagged URL and provide the attribution for specific posts or emails. We use the campaign traffic segment to measure the success of our marketing campaigns and narrow our analytics focus to the campaign in question.
By altering the [campaign name] slug in the advanced conditions of this segment, you can use and replicate this segment for any marketing campaign.
A common question we hear from clients working to improve their organic positioning through SEO is this: How do we measure the success of our investment? Several metrics signal improvements, but one of the biggest indicators is an increase in converting organic traffic to your website. This increase indicates you’ve reached the correct target audience.
Converting organic traffic lets you narrow down your data for organic converters. I recommend digging into your landing pages report and top pages report with this segment applied. You can see where users came into your site and completed an organic conversion and which other pages they interacted with along the way.
[Tweet “These segments are a starting point for slicing and dicing analytics data.”]
These segments are a starting point for slicing and dicing analytics data to find the most relevant insights. Create your own custom segments and play with the system segments already available within analytics. Additionally, if you have a segment you enjoy, share it in the comments below!
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