How to get valuable buyer insight with Google analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful (and free!) reporting tool that provides information regarding website visitors and their behavior. As one of the most comprehensive applications available on the web, it can track site visits, referral traffic, buyer demographic info, and much, much more.  When viewed together, this data can help you to learn more about your customers and increase your sales.

But that’s not the best part.  It can quickly and easily sync with your Teespring account! Below we’ll explain how to get started and the 5 key report categories you should be monitoring. 

 

How to connect your Teespring + Google Analytics accounts

Follow these steps to get up and running. Keep in mind you don’t have to run Google ads to unlock this tool. 

Step #1:

Go to https://www.google.com/analytics. If you have a Google account, and are not already signed in, click Sign in. If you do not have a Google account, click Create an account.

Step #2:

Click Access Google Analytics, then click Sign up. Fill in your Account Name, Website Name, Website URL (your storefront or listing URL), and select an Industry Category and Reporting Time Zone.

Step #3

Under Data Sharing Options, check the boxes next to the options that you want. Click Get Tracking ID. The tracking ID is a string like UA-000000-2. More information on finding your ID can be found here.

Step 4:

Add the tracking ID to your Teespring Account. When signed in, select Settings, Conversion Tracking, and scroll down to the last box labeled “Default Google Analytics tracking snippet”. Copy over the ID, and select Update Info.

Note: It can take up to 24 hours for Google Analytics to begin collecting information.

 

Account structure

Google analytics is structured into Accounts, Properties, and Views:

Account: This is the top-most level of your account. This is what you created via the steps above.

Property: These are individual websites that live under the account. In this case, your property is your entire Teespring account. One tracking code can be used to track all storefronts, campaigns, etc. If you manage multiple storefronts, there is no need to create multiple properties.

View: A view is your access point for reports. When you add a property to an account, Google Analytics automatically creates the first, default view for that property. That first view has no filters and includes ALL the data for your account, broken down into categories. The view will be called All Web Site Data. You have the option to create multiple views, depending on your data needs. We’ll get more into that in future posts!

View categories

Once your account is created and your Tracking ID has been installed, you can finally begin to view your data! Sign into your account. Make sure All Web Site Data is selected at the top under your account name. If not, click the drop down and select it.

Here you can review the following reports, located on the left hand bar:

1. Real-Time

Review your performance in real time. Though not an indicator of overall performance, this is a good report to view following a new campaign launch or marketing initiative. Here you can view the following:

• Locations
• Traffic Sources (Where is the traffic coming from?)
• Behavior (What pages are buyers currently viewing?)
• Device (Mobile or desktop?)
• Pageviews per minute within the last 30 minutes

 

 

2. Audience

Gather information on fans visiting your page. View –

• Overall # of page visits
• Country, city, language demographics
• Browsers/operating systems used to visit your site
• Mobile vs desktop data
• Site behavior such as new vs. returning users and engagement (session durations)

This information can help you to better understand where your core audience is coming from and how to better position your campaign messaging. For example:

• You notice that there has been a recent increase in visitors from Europe. In response, you could launch a new campaign (or relaunch an existing design!) with EU fulfillment. This will give your European audience access to cheaper and faster shipping options. More info on Teespring EU can be found here.
• You notice that your number of ‘returning users’ has declined. Re-engage with previous buyers via the Teespring Messaging Tool. Instructions on how to use the tool are here.

3. Acquisition

This report provides more information about how visitors made their way to your site. Common channels that appear in this report are:

• Social – Click on this option to see a breakdown of each platform.
• Direct – This measures direct clicks, so the user could have manually typed in the URL or pasted it to their browser. But they did not click off from a social post, email, etc.
• Email – Clicked the link in a direct email.
• Referral – A recommendation from one website to another that is NOT a social media site.
• Other – Generally this is coming from some sort of paid advertising.
  • Clicking any of these options under the ‘Overview’ tab will give you more granular information on those specific sources!

This report allows you to better focus on the marketing channels that are most effective. Should you focus on Facebook, or Instagram? How effective was that email blast to your marketing list?  Understanding what other websites are driving traffic to your page may also unlock further promotional opportunities.

4. Behavior

Once buyers have landed on your page, you can view how they are interacting with your campaigns, such as:

• Time spent on site
• Top viewed pages
• User flow (If you have a storefront)
• Location data regarding each page.
  • Click Behavior -> Site content -> All Pages
  • Select the page you wish to view (i.e. /thank_you)
  • Select Secondary Dimension and then Country
  • This will populate a list of the countries that have hit this page.

Behavior reports are especially valuable for storefronts, unlocking key information regarding which campaigns buyers click first, and how long they spend viewing your site.

5. Conversions

You must set up a goal first in order to use the conversions reports. You can set up the following goals:

• Destination Goals: Treat a pageview as a conversion.
• Duration Goals: Measure engagement by treating minimum session duration as a conversion.
• Event Goal: Treat interactions on your site as a conversion.
• Page/Screens Per Session Goals: Measure engagement by treating the number of pages as a conversion.

These goals can all help supplement the reports above, allowing you to see how well your site meets your objectives – whether it be clicks, site duration, etc. More information on each goal type can be found here.

Curious to learn more? No worries, we’ll be following up with more content in the upcoming months that take a deeper dive into each view and more! Google Analytics also offers free (!) online courses to help users better understand the platform. You can explore those here.