Advanced: Expose you to more advanced features of Google analytics.

The Big Idea Behind this Lab
The free availability of a tool as powerful and robust as Google Analytics has lead to truly incredible economic growth and advanced the Internet ecosystem as the future of marketing, entertainment, and news/information. GA and similar tools are the logical step two once you have poured creative energy into making something that people want, pouring effort into a data-driven campaign strategy will make more people want more of your something.

Basic Requirements

• Make sure you have introduced yourself to Google Analytics through the analytics presentation page and advance material nuumber 46.
• Login to Google Analytics with the username / password = shiftlearning / [password contained in separate e-mail and posted on LMS]. Note: If you are logged in with your personal Google/Gmail account, you must log out first.
• There are 3 areas and 5 sites to choose from: (1) ethansen: contains data from the class website and an old website setup for the original workshop this class is based on; (2) Pete Kistler Analytics: contains data from a popular blog covering personal branding and a commercial website that offers a professional quality online brand webpage — thanks Pete! And (3) removemybox.com: a mildly-NSFW website that was setup as a class experiment and experienced the “Digg Effect” on 4/17/2008 and 4/22/2008.
• If you have never used analytics before, try a few things to get familiar: (1) click around, a lot — click on anything that looks interesting; (2) Click on anything that has a gray arrow — like the date range at the top, the “Visits” tab, the Visitors and Traffic Sources menu items on the left-hand side; (3) for each page you visit, click on the About This Report link on the left-hand side, under Help Resources — a little pop-up appears that gives you a quick explanation of the report’s significance.
• Pick a site (one or more) to analyze. Browse the various reports (Visitors, Traffic Sources, etc.), various comparison features (click on the date range, and try out the “compare to past” feature; click on the Visits tab and use the comparison features), and various metrics or maps to drill down into the data.
• Generate 3 insights about anything you noticed. Push yourself for interesting, non-obvious insights, but note that you will not be graded on the insightful-ness of your insight.

Advanced Requirements (Must be done in addition to basic requirement for credit)

• Install Google Analytics on your site
• Setup a Conversion Goal
• Setup an “Event”
• Create a Custom Report

Deliverables
Basic: Describe your 3 insights with the supporting data/metrics (screen-shots would be helpful).
Advanced: Add ethansen@gmail.com as a “View Reports” user to your Google Analytics account and add the domain use used for this lab to the ethansen@gmail.com user (skipping this step means that when I login, I can’t see what you created).

Here’s an example of 1 / 26 modules in the curriculum: Introduction to Google Analytics

Stanford Technology Ventures Program

By Bret Crosby of Google Analytics and Urchin

Stanford Technology Ventures Program

Moderated by Quincy Jones III

Panelists: MC Hammer, Mistah FAB, and Chamillionaire

by Common Craft