New research finds 80% of e-commerce businesses using web analytics package incorrectly, which is leading to inflated traffic analysis reporting and a host of other errors
New research finds 80% of e-commerce businesses using web analytics package incorrectly, which is leading to inflated traffic analysis reporting and a host of other errors
Many e-retailers are failing to maximise the potential benefits from using the online advertising reporting tool, Google Analytics (GA).
That’s according to DBD Media, which found 80% were missing out on the true value of GA because they have not implemented the package correctly.
The search and social media agency for clients including De Vere Hotels, IPC Media and Lyle & Scott conducted research across 50 online businesses into how effectively ecommerce businesses use GA.
Conversion, analysis and tracking
It found that only 50% of e-commerce businesses track main conversion points. This prevents marketers from measuring website performance against business objectives (such as purchases or leads) as well as end-to-end campaign effectiveness.
A further 73% of businesses were inflating traffic in their analytics reports, through self-referral issues. Self referrals are the result of user sessions being split, often due to gaps and/or conflicts in data tracking. As a consequence, traffic data is inflated and the original traffic source is overwritten and not retrievable.
And no e-commerce businesses in the survey had implemented the necessary tracking code required for cross-domain or subdomain tracking. This allows cookie information to be passed from one subdomain/domain to another without losing a unique user’s session data. For instance, websites using third-party checkout services without cross-domain tracking lose conversion attribution data, the agency said.
Axelle Ros, DBD Media conversion analytics consultant, said: “Google Analytics is today’s most popular web analytics package for ecommerce businesses. A wealth of companies and agencies rely on it to measure website performance. But GA’s ability to extract accurate and insightful data is deeply affected by its initial setup, both in terms of code and interface configuration.”
Return on paid search investment
The research also found that 60% of GA accounts were not correctly synced with Google AdWords, meaning paid advertising data is not being passed-on and is hampering accurate return-on-investment (ROI) measurements for paid search.
Two thirds (67%) of the websites researched had not integrated social media tracking, which can affect a site’s ability to identify how and where a piece of content was shared across social networks. And 73% do not track micro conversion goals such as newsletter sign ups or account registrations. This affects insight into user behaviour patterns that can lead to conversions or exits.
A third (33%) of sites with on-site search function did not track site search keywords, meaning these businesses were missing out on invaluable insight about what content is easy to find and what the consumer would like to find. And 87% were not measuring customer/visitor retention. Custom codes that can tie information to a user from session to session, for example tracking clicks on "Add to cart" buttons, will show users who have added one or more item to their shopping cart but abandoned the purchase.
A further 30% of also had incorrect e-commerce tracking implementation, which minimises a brand’s ability to tie purchase information with marketing channel performance. Meanwhile, only 27% of businesses were using the asynchronous snippet to record their Google Analytics data. Asynchronous tracking takes advantage of browser support for JavaScript to enhance the tracking code loading speed. In addition, the traditional syntax is composed of two snippets placed in the <body>, whereas the asynchronous syntax is a unique snippet placed in the <head> – as such, if a user exits a page before it fully loads, the asynchronous snippet has a better chance of recording the page view as it is quicker to fire.
Taking account of package limitations
The research discovered that 66% of businesses were using Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters incorrectly, including internal link tagging, unclear naming convention, leading to confusion between different UTMs. UTM parameters overwrite traffic source and medium to identify specific marketing channels, which are not automatically recognised by Google (like email and display for example). Nor did 87% measure on-site interactions such as video plays or whitepaper downloads. Tracking calls to action allow better understand of user behaviour and expectations.
The majority 82% of businesses do not backup data, making historical data impossible to retrieve. GA filters are applied before data is recorded, so any excluded or modified data cannot be retrieved. Because advanced filters can be difficult to configure, DBD Media recommended that businesses always maintain an unfiltered and non-configured profile for backup.
And 80% of ecommerce-tracked websites do not backup their ecommerce data with a funnelled goal. This restricts insight into the conversion funnel. Checkout processes should be backed up by a goal with funnel visualisation to better understand the user journey and shopping cart abandonment.
Ros added: “To help businesses understand GA better, and resolve the issues we have uncovered, we have developed a guide that will help brands set-up analytics correctly and obtain accurate and insightful data.”
RetailTechnology.co.uk readers can download the DBD Media Google Analytics guide in PDF format here.
