Basic Terminology

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Common conversion metrics

The basic terminology for all analytics reporting can be summarized as dimensions and metrics:

• Dimensions describe data. They are things like country, channel, location, age, gender, and device used.
• Metrics measure data. Metrics might include visitor numbers, revenue, goal completions, and so on.

We segment metrics using dimensions – for example, visits by device type – to get a complete picture. So we can see the total visitor metrics for a website segmented by the device category dimension – that is, desktop, tablet, or mobile users. This allows us to better understand the effectiveness and scale of each device in driving visits and conversions on the website.

Some common dimensions within Google Analytics include:

• Channel name
• Month
• Country
• Device

Some common engagement metrics within Google Analytics include:

• Sessions
• Users
• Percentage new sessions
• Page views
• Pages per session
• Average session duration

You should explore the metrics that are available to you, and see how they can be segmented using dimensions to get a deeper understanding of your website traffic and customers.

Just a note on conversion metrics. Conversion metrics are an extension of standard visitor metrics. They focus on telling the story behind the valuable actions that users can take on your website. These are generally actions that impact commercial performance, such as revenue totals, conversion rates, and so on.

There are a number of common conversion metrics within Google Analytics. They can all be viewed in the Traffic reports, so you can see how much value each of the different channels is driving. Common conversion metrics include:

• Goals: This is the number of valuable actions taken on the site, including sales, leads, or downloads.
• Conversion rate: This is the percentage of visitors that complete a goal.
• Transactions: This is the number of individual sales or shopping basket items sold on an ecommerce website.
• Revenue: This refers to the monetary value of the ecommerce sales.

You can start to determine the value of the campaigns from your different digital marketing channels by looking at the number of goals and transactions from each channel, the conversion rates, and the cost per conversion. With these three data points, you can decide if a channel is profitable in relation to its time and cost investment.