Google Analytics provides data that can be further used for simple or complex reports. However, if you want to boost conversions and sales, then you need to delve deeper, and using custom segments is one way to get more from that data.
However, before you begin, you require reliable data and that can be achieved with correct attribution. You must make sure that only the right sources and mediums are attributed for sales, and need to avoid bad channels finding their way into this data. Google does provide categories such as referral, cpc, organic, etc., but you can customize channels to narrow down sources that deliver better traffic.
For instance, emails are put into referrals by Google, but you can instead create a new medium named email by way of tagging all possible links in the emails along with URL parameters. You will now be able to track emails in a far more efficient way.
Additionally, you can also track form errors in much more detail to learn why and where your visitors face problems during the checkout process. You can use tools like Clicktale that allow you to analyze your website forms, but do not allow you to correlate that data with other Google Analytics metrics including conversion rates.
Instead, you can use event tracking in Google Analytics, which will create an event as soon as a visitor faces problems while filling out different fields on any form on your website. For instance, you can create events for forms that encounter validation errors. You can achieve this by confirming if the error is from the server or client side.
You must add event tracking to get data on precise fields that created problems for visitors and users at your site. This can be added to the HTML that is delivered to the browser upon occurrence of an error. You can then use Google Analytics to further analyze the data to extract more information including browser OS and much more.
In case the client is doing the validation through JavaScript then the process will remain the same, although the events must get activated when the script results in an error. You also need to know specific reasons as to why your user unsubscribed. Most email management tools do not provide such data although they may display numbers regarding open rates and number of users that have unsubscribed.
You can use tools such as MailChimp that will allow custom coding to the unsubscribe page. You can add an event tracking or custom variable to your coding in Google Analytics along with goals that will allow for tracking over a specific time period and provide alerts in case of a sudden hike in un-subscriptions.
Furthermore, you can also look at conversion rates from users that are either logged-in or logged-out. You can then compare user behavior of logged in and out users. It is quite easy to do so and you may generally notice lower conversions among logged out users as they may need to follow more steps towards completing a sale.
You can use this data to make it easier for both logged-in and logged-out users, which in turn will boost conversions and sales. In case your logged-in visitors have not made a final purchase after adding an item to their shopping cart, you can also track the same and send them emails reminding them that they can still purchase that item with a single click.
Finally, you can track high volume customers that buy more products or buy products of very high value at your website. You need to create a segment of these high-volume or high-value buyers and track costs associated to acquisition in comparison to your other average buyers as well as analyze just how they reached your website. You can then modify your strategy to attract and extract a lot more business with this detailed data.
Google Analytics can certainly be a boon if you can use custom segments to get far more detailed data than other users, especially your competition. Use the above tips to boost conversions, sales, and revenues.