Performance Marketing with Google™ Analytics: Practical Strategies for Maximizing Online ROI

Introduction

"Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense."

—Gertrude Stein

The Web has done a remarkable job connecting users with a staggering amount of raw information. In many ways, it's done the same thing for marketers. The problem is there's now so much data out there that it is becoming harder and harder for businesses and consumers alike to sort out what's important from what's not.

This book provides strategies and techniques for getting past data overload to extract real business value from Google Analytics. Instead of being written from the perspective of a Web developer trying to collect more or different types of data, it's written from the perspective of a marketer trying to make sense of the data that's there. If you're trying to build a better Web site, maximize ROI on your advertising spend, drive repeat purchases, and get your message out to the world as efficiently as possible, this book has been written with you in mind. If you have ever glanced at your Google Analytics reports and wondered how to make them more useful and actionable, this is the book for you.

Staying competitive in online space demands an entirely new approach to marketing, one that puts empirical data about customer behavior at the center of strategy and decision-making.

We call this performance marketing — a philosophy of continuous improvement that challenges marketers to prove their contribution, to experiment with new approaches using testing and optimization, ...