Importance of Segmenting in Conversion

In this webinar hosted by Convert Academy, we have Analytics Ninja‘s Yehoshua Coren discuss analytics strategies to improve conversion with Google Analytics as the main web tool. For the full presentation, you can watch it here. Previously, we talked about the use of Google Analytics multi-channel funnel reports and the importance of conversion segmenting in relation with these reports. Now, we’re going to tackle some segmentation examples and how analytics can really improve conversion rate.

“Every marketer wants to know which marketing channel has the bigger impact in their organization: SEO or PPC.” – Himanshu Sharma

According to Himanshu Sharma, there are 8 universal GA conversion segments you can use.

1. Effect of PPC on Organic Search Traffic
2. Effect of Organic Search on PPC Traffic
3. Effect of Organic search on Direct Traffic
4. Effect of Display on Organic search Traffic
5. Effect of Social Media on Organic Search
6. Effect of PPC on Direct Traffic
7. Effect of Social Media on Direct Traffic
8. Effect of Email on Direct Traffic

However, you can also make your own conversion segments. Segmenting enables you to find the holes affecting your conversion rate. This allows each website owner to make possible changes to improve their conversion rates and increase their overall traffic.

Cross-browsers and Technical Issues

Example #1. Internet Explorer seems to be doing much better than Safari. Why is that? By adding segments to slice and dice why IE fares better than Safari, you will be able to come up with actionables to optimize the latter. You found out that there’s a big difference between paid search and unpaid search. Again, why? So you keep on digging… Then you find out it’s because of screen resolution. Now, by using the screen resolution as a dimension, you will be able to segment the traffic. You can export the data and put it into Excel. Add a little bit of conditional formatting, and the different screen resolutions designed for your site will behave differently. Then it will all make sense — designers and site owners are often using different computer systems than their users, creating a different resolution for users with different browsers.

[Tweet “In terms of a takeaway for how analytics can improve conversion rate, analytics can help you find technical issues.”]

It can help you find issues you would notice through segmenting by browser or cross-browser. Even segmenting by mobile. These sorts of things can identify ways other people look at your site compared to the way you are looking at your site. By looking at these analytic reports you’ll be able to say whether your site has a responsive design or not. And now you will have a reason to take the lead in terms of development and make sure your site is appropriate for all browsers, all interfaces, and devices, including mobile.

Importance of Segmentation in Testing

Example #2. This time you have an A/B split test on a product page. You have a control version and a newer version. Through testing and looking at the analytics data, you saw some changes in conversion but not that much. However, when you start digging further (in this case, by country) you notice that a customer service center from a certain country is making a lot of purchases and all of it were from the old version. Now, you can segment that out and reveal the improvement in your conversion rate. Thus, segmentation can be crucial to understand even how you are testing. It can separate the statistics that really matter and show you information that is important.

Analytics Takeaway

The last point to remember is to discover what works for your users and what does not. That can be done via advance documentation. Do not be satisfied with just cut-and-paste Google Analytics snippets, because it would probably not be enough for your business. Observe how people are interacting with your site. Create conversion rate optimization testing hypothesis. And have the data to let you know what to test when you dig deep into your site to find out how people are using it. Do you want to know more about web analytics strategies? You can watch the full webinar here or visit Yehoshua Coren’s company: Analytics Ninja.