Blog #5: Google Analytic Platform Principles

This week assignment was extremely useful. We got to watch several videos that explained the ins and outs of Google Analytics. I took one of the courses before, when Chatham announced the opportunity to get a certificate on Google Analytics. But, I was excited we got the opportunity to get the certificate on Google Analytics Platform Principles, it is a great tool to know, plus it can help us to get a job, given that we already know what this is all about, and how it works.
Of course, it took me several hours to go thru the whole thing, but I think it was worth the time. And, I liked that we had the option to read the material as well, because in past occasions I have had problems understanding the speaker due to sound quality or accent.

Blog #4: Understanding the Google Analytics world

This week I am focusing on the videos we had to watch. Google Analytics seems to be a world full of options for businesses that need to gather information to target their market and to provide the product or services people truly need or want. The way GA collects information is not very complicated, but there are different options to do it. How? With cookies! Cookies are classified in depending on the kind of information they collect and the amount of time they have until they expire. One type of cookie is session identifier. It determines the beginning and the end of a session. If the visitor is inactive for 30 minutes, then the cookie expires and is deleted from a browser. But, you can definitely customize it so it can last longer periods of time.  This sounds great because it tracks visitors, so the business can know how many people are visiting the website. But, when should this cookie be used? I just wonder this because when it expires, it counts again the visitor, so the company does not get returning visitors and new visitors distinction when they get the information. How do you think a business should decide this cookie is a good option? Figure 1 shows an example of how visits are counted using session identifier.
 

Figure 1.- Source: Brooks Bell

Another term I learned was placement targeting. According to Google's website, placement targeting allows AdWords advertisers to choose specific ad placements where they'd like their ads to appear. An ad placement can be an entire website or a specific sub-set of ad units within that site, such as only ad units on a site's sports pages or all ad units at the top of the page (Google, 2014). This term was very interesting to learn because it gave me an explanation of why there are some ads that do not strictly relate to what I am searching but are related. For example when I visit Edmunds.com to find a car, usually an ad of State Farm appears selling insurance. I am not saying this is exactly what they do, but they could be doing placement targeting and choosing to appear in this page because if a person is looking to buy a car, he or she would probably need to purchase insurance too. I think this is really important because this can increase visits, impressions, and even conversions because you are having more exposure and catching the attention from people that was not really looking for your product, but could be interested. This could be applied for many other industries, like when a person is looking for running shoes, then a company that hosts marathons can advertise their events with ads in this website, as long as the website is within the Google Display Network. Do you have any other examples? How long do you think it takes an advertiser to choose the websites they want to appear at?

Figure 2.- Source: Edmunds.com

Figure 3.- Source: Edmunds.com

As a skillset, I definitely know more how to not only target my ads but how to combine them. This is going to be extremely useful because I have been acquiring different display techniques to increase conversions, and be more effective using the budget Google gives us for the competition. Targeting is such an important tool, and if used correctly, we can be looking to a very successful campaign for our client.
The most difficult part this session was to absorb all the information we were given. I got really confused in some parts of the paper but I liked it because it has data, and I love data. Also, the Google video about cookies was damaged or something, because even though the speaker was explaining about how to set Google Analytics on a website, I could not see the codes she was referring to. Other than that, I think it was a productive and insightful session. I am ready for the competition to begin!


Sources:

Brooks Bell (2012, June 5). Unique Visitors: Where Everybody Knows Your Name (For a Little While) | Brooks Bell. Retrieved from http://brooksbell.com/blog/2012/06/unique-visitors-where-everybody-knows-your-name

Edmunds.com, Inc (2013). 2013 Tesla Model S Sedan Review | Edmunds.com. Retrieved from http://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-s/2013/?sub=sedan

Google (2014). About placement targeting - AdSense Help. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/32856?hl=en