Archive for the ‘WA Tools’ Category
Posted on January 31, 2012 by Michael Harrison
If you’re not familiar with the Goal Copy Firefox extension, you can read the original post here.
It seems like everyone I know is using Chrome now. It’s fast, it’s simple, it has developer tools built right in. It’s a fantastic browser and it deserves every bit of browser share that it’s taking away from the Big Two (Firefox and IE).
That being said, I do almost all of my Google Analytics debugging in Firefox. I love HttpFox and you’ll pry Firebug (and, to a lesser extent, Firecookie) from my cold, dead hands. Maybe I’m just set in my ways, but it’s the way I do things, and while I love Chrome for everyday browsing, I do all my heavy lifting with the ‘Fox.
Which is why I keep updating GoalCopy. This latest version works with Firefox 9. It still only works with the old interface, but an update for GA v5 should be ready in a few weeks.
For now, just download the latest version of GoalCopy here and get to copying! You might encounter a weird glitch where only the Find/Replace toolbar shows and the Copy/Paste options are nowhere to be found. Just re-enable it through the new Firefox menu as shown below:
What about you? Have you made the switch to Chrome, or are you sticking with Mozilla? What sort of features do you want to see in a Google Analytics add-on? Please leave a comment below and let me know!
View Comments (1 Response) | Categories: Firefox, Uncategorized, WA Tools
Posted on August 30, 2011 by Michael Harrison
If you’re not familiar with the Goal Copy Firefox extension, read the original post.
To stay informed of future updates to the GoalCopy Firefox extension, join this email list for a notification of when to update your extension.
Firefox’s new rapid release schedule means new versions every couple of months. Now 6 is out, and you know what that means: a new GoalCopy!
If you’ve upgraded to Firefox 6, just download the latest version here and get to copying! You might encounter a weird glitch where only the Find/Replace toolbar shows and the Copy/Paste options are nowhere to be found. Just re-enable it through the new Firefox menu as shown below:
Note: GoalCopy currently only works with the old version of the Google Analytics interface.
View Comments (6 Responses) | Categories: Firefox, WA Tools
Posted on May 3, 2009 by Robbin Steif
An old friend, Jeff Turner (of Blogbeat fame, the package that was purchased by Feedburner, which itself was purchased by Google), called me the other day. He and his business partner asked me to do some user testing on a new product they are developing called Pointomatic.
I’m not supposed to give too many details away, so I will just say that it is not a full-service analytics package, but rather, a product that focuses on visitor loyalty/engagement. Some of the things it can do with ease are very cool. If you are interested — especially if engagement is a very high priority for you — you can contact Jeff and get into his free alpha/beta. You can send him email or follow Jeff on Twitter.
Robbin
View Comments (No Responses) | Categories: Industry News, WA Tools, Web Analytics
Posted on March 12, 2008 by John Henson
When looking at your web analytics reports, it is important to know what you’re looking at. What may initially look like errors in the data, could just be the result of not understanding how the report or the individual metrics are defined. Consultants, who frequently work with multiple analytics packages, must be especially careful. Here’s a short example of what I mean:
A client came to me with 2 reports. One was the product SKU report for a particular SKU. The other report was that same report, but segmeted by source.
In the report that was segmented by source, all of the summary data was considerably higher than on the non-segmented report. The client didn’t know which one was correct — why was the data changing when he segmented the report? (And when you see two different sets of data you think should be the same, you wonder if either is correct.)
Open up your own Google Analytics ecommerce report and follow along.
First go to the product SKU report by choosing Ecommerce -> Product Performance -> Product SKUs from the left sidebar menu in the reporting interface.
You’ll see a list of all SKUs that sold during your selected time period. Click on one to see a summary screen for just that SKU. It will look something like this:
Now use the pulldown menu to segment by source. Most of you will see the summary numbers jump up, like my example here:
In the example images, the Quantity went from 545 to 715, just from segmenting. And Product Revenue jumped from $14,385.33 to $19,585.61.
When Google Analytics displays the segmented report, it is pulling Quantity, Product Revenue, etc from the Transaction Level. That is, the Quantity is now the total number of items purchased in all transactions that included your selected SKU. Likewise Product Revenue is the total revenue for all transactions that included that SKU — not just the revenue generated by that product.
If you go straight to the segmented report, you might not even notice that the data is different, and you could be making decisions based on the wrong information.
It is not that the data presented is wrong, it’s not. But it may not be the data you are expecting, which can be just as bad.
Although my example is in Google Analytics, it’s important to consider regardless of your analytics package. Make sure you know how a report is defined and if you find something that doesn’t seem quite right, be careful of your assumptions and don’t always believe what the report tells you about itself.
-John
View Comments (3 Responses) | Categories: WA Tools, Web Analytics
Posted on January 21, 2008 by John Henson
We’ve updated the GoalCopy extension for Firefox – read about the latest updates.
To stay informed of future updates to the GoalCopy Firefox extension, join this email list for a notification of when to update your extension.
Ever need 30 profiles, each with the same 4 goals? Me too. Unfortunately, Google Analytics doesn’t include an easy way to manage goals.
So, here’s the Firefox extension I created to speed up the process of copying goals. We’ll just call it “GoalCopy”.
What it does
The Goal Copy extension records all of the values in a Google Analytics Goal Settings form. You can then navigate to another profile where you want to put that copied goal and paste all of those values into the new form. That way, you can get your goals from one profile to another without all the tedium.
When you install it, it will create a new toolbar with 4 sets of copy/paste buttons. Each set will copy and paste a different goal of your choice. The toolbar can be toggled on/off with View -> Toolbars -> GA GoalCopy
How to use it
1. After installation, navigate your Firefox browser to an existing Google Analytics Goal Settings form.
2. Click one of the four Copy Goal buttons on the Goal Copy toolbar.
3. The name of the Paste Goal button will change to show the name of the goal you copied. If the name of your
goal was “Subscribe to Newsletter” then the Paste Goal button will display “Paste: Subscribe to Newsletter”
4. Go to another profile and navigate to a Goal Settings form page where you’d like to use your newly copied goal.
5. Click the Paste button to populate the new goal form with the values from copied goal.
6. Remember to scroll down and click “Save Changes” on the form.
That’s it. You now have your new profile ready to collect goal conversion data.
Notes
Buttons are grayed-out when not on a Goal Settings page.
There are 4 Slots to save goals in. Each set of Copy/Paste buttons uses its own slot.
Clicking Copy Goal again overwrites the previously saved goal for that slot.
Goals are saved persistently. Closing your browser does not erase your saved goals.
When clicking from a tab that is still Loading to a Goal Settings tab, the buttons will not re-enable properly from their grayed-out state – just click on a tab that is fully loaded (or blank) and then back to the Goal Settings tab to enable the buttons.
Requires Firefox 2.0.*
Thanks
Thanks to everyone who provided testing and feedback, including Jason Green here at LunaMetrics, Justin Cutroni at EpikOne, Shawn Purtell at ROI Revolution, and Mike Plummer at POP (sorry for not getting it out earlier that day, Mike).
Installation
Open this link in Firefox
Then click Install Now.
Depending on your setup, Firefox may want to download the file instead of installing it directly. Just select “Open With. . .” and choose Firefox from the list of applications.
Alternate Version
If you’re having problems with the toolbar being greyed-out on the ‘Edit Goals’ form page, try this version that never disables the toolbar buttons.
These changes have been incorporated into the latest version and are part of the goalcopy.xpi file.
-John Henson
View Comments (108 Responses) | Categories: Google Analytics, WA Tools
Posted on December 13, 2007 by Jason
Tired of seeing “other” in your Top Content report? How about knowing how many times a page was viewed without having to wade through query parameters? If you’ve had enough of irrelevant query parameters making garbage of your Top Content report, read on!
When analyzing a website, it’s often helpful to view the core pages of the site
without being distracted by the query parameters. Identifying all of the parameters
also allows you to figure out which ones can be excluded. Thus reducing erroneous
pageviews.
Note: This post refers to Google Analytics, but the macro would work with any similarly-formatted
spreadsheet.
Why do I need a macro to identify the parameters? Why can’t I just use
a regular expression, \?, to find all pages in the Top Content report that contain
a question mark, and pull the parameters by hand?
If you have 10 or 20 pages with 4 or 5 parameters, this might be fine. However,
we’ve seen some sites with 80,000 unique pages that contain a question mark.
This would be a bit tedious to do by hand.
Step 1: Get the Macro
You can download the macro here as a .bas file. (findParameters.bas)
The macro has been tested in Office 2003 and 2007.
I would love to rewrite the details on how to install the macro, but Jeremy Aube
at ROI Revolution did such a great job, I’m compelled to point you there. (Instructions)
(Where he refers to Conversion.bas, replace that with
findParameters.bas)
This step is much more involved than I’m giving it credit for here. If you have trouble
installing the macro, leave me a comment and I’ll add more details to this post.
Step 2: Export your Data
2.1: Go to your Top Content report.
2.2: If you have this many, change the drop down box to show 500 rows.
(Yes. Unfortunately, GA only exports the data being viewed.)
2.3: Next, click Export, then CSV
2.4: Save the file, or Open it in Excel
Step 3: Prepare the Spreadsheet
- Basically, just get rid of everything but the URLs.
3.1: Delete all of the rows down to the headers above the list of URLs
- For a month of data, this should be around row 47.
- Select the rows above the headings, right-click, and select Delete.
3.2: Do the same for columns B through G (All columns after “A”)
When finished, your sheet should look something like this:
Step 4: Run the Macro
If you followed Jeremy’s instructions perfectly, you should have a button that you
can push to run the macro. Click that. *after reading the warnings below*
However, if you took a shortcut and just installed the macro, you’ll need to find
and run it manually:
- Press Alt+F8 to bring up your list of macros.
- Select “ExtractParameters”, and click “Run”
It will take about 1 minute to run.
When finished, you’ll have a new sheet named “Parameters” which will contain a list
of all unique parameters found.
Notes and Warnings:
- The portion of the macro which eliminates duplicate parameters takes about 1
minute to run. Your screen may flicker while this is happening. Don’t
try to use Excel during this time, lest you wish to visit the task manager.
- The macro will work with up to 500 urls (technically rows 1-505). If you have
80,000, I recommend you create a new profile that excludes all the parameters identified
here. Wait, and repeat after new data, and possibly more parameters, have
been collected. It took me 3 rounds to get all parameters from this example.
- There must only be 1 sheet in your workbook.
I look forward to everyones’ comments (and criticism). This is my first of
what I hope to be many more posts to the LunaMetrics blog.
- Jason Green
View Comments (9 Responses) | Categories: Google Analytics, WA Tools
Posted on April 29, 2007 by Robbin Steif
I’m hoping that a lot of readers will check out this post on the Benry blog — and comment on his blog. Benry (aka Scott) and I spent a while designing this KPI, in an effort to create a quick indicator of where to allocate scarce testing resources. We agreed that it wasn’t perfect, but that it was not bad at all. We’re both really looking forward to feedback from the WA community.
View Comments (1 Response) | Categories: WA Tools, Web Analytics
Posted on January 16, 2007 by Robbin Steif
After the Emetrics Summit in October, I wrote this post about Visual Sciences. Soon afterwards, Bob Chatham (who was then the CMO of VS and is now SVP – Education for purchaser Web Side Story) wrote replies to all of my comments. And there they sat for almost three months, in my inbox. (I have no excuses other than work and family — but better late than never.) My comments from the original post are in italics and Bob’s should be indented:
Yesterday at the eMetrics Summit, I saw a one-hour demo of Visual Sciences. The “demo-er” was Bob Chatham, their CMO. It is incredibly awesome.
[BC] Thank you, I have to agree – it’s why I came to the company. It took me three or four demos just to believe that it’s real
.
I walked into the presentation knowing that the product is black and probably visual. I walked out trying to figure out why, beyond budget, companies would choose a different solution if they could choose Visual Sciences. (I did come up with some, see the bottom of this post.)
[BC] Don’t worry, there’s a white-background version for “executives.” We just picked black based on UI research that shows that it’w easier to stare at a black background for long periods.
Even budget shouldn’t be an issue with a properly-sized system considered over a 3-year period. The TCO [total cost of ownership] usually works in our favor given the capabilities and expansion headroom. But you have to be willing to look beyond the short-term 1-year CPM rates that most ASPs charge.
I won’t speak much to the implementation or technology. Among other reasons, you can’t easily put them in a box. They aren’t a client-side solution (you pretty much have to have software), but they sure aren’t an old-fashioned logfile solution either. Instead, I want to speak just to the features/benefits.
[BC] Actually, we *are* a client-side solution…and a server-side one…and a hybrid of both, if you want. I’m assuming that you’re talking about data collection methods here. We can use just JavaScript tags like any other ASP solution, or combine tags with logfiles or server-side collection based on Visual Sensor. If you’re speaking about deployment/ownership models, there’s a lot of latitude here as well. While the majority of our clients choose licensed software deployed behind their firewalls (about 2/3 of the customer base) the rest are either using our managed services (they own the software/hardware, we run/operate it on our premises or theirs), or an ASP-like setup where they effectively pay a CPM charge. There’s no political statement here about one being better than the other, just an ability to accommodate a client’s data collection and deployment requirements.
First, they have developed the capability (a “visual sensor”) to capture data from all sorts of sources, not just the web. RFID, bar codes, text files, call center logs all qualify. So it is no longer just a web analytic package, it becomes a total analytic solution. I don’t think they like the phrase 360 degree view, but if that isn’t a 360, what is?
[BC] It’s really a combination of Visual Sensor (for real-time event collection at the source, e.g., a web server) and Visual Load (for importing log files, campaign codes/costs, lookup tables, etc.) that builds the 360-degree view. The customer has to supply the common key across the sources so that we can join them (we don’t provide data scrubbing or matching services, but others, like Group One Software, Axciom, or Experian do).
They have a proprietary database — and maybe that term is already too “boxy” — maybe data storage or “place to keep their data” would be more accurate. This seems to be their primary secret sauce, and enables them to relate data in any way you want. (They call this n-dimensional.) They aren’t working with a traditional relational database, so the number of fields aren’t constrained and it is no longer incredibly expensive to have someone crawl into the database and expand the fields (in fact, there is no crawling in.) I kind of dismissed this as Bob spoke – it’s an expensive solution so even if you pay for an extra 10 eVars from Omniture, you probably pay less money – but then, you might need that info now, not when the LiveSupport people get to it. In some ways, it is easier to compare it to Google Analytics, where you get one custom variable and no more, but the customer sets are so different that that becomes a senseless comparison (albeit easy to understand.)
[BC] I’m not sure I understand the Google Analytics comparison. With VS, you can have as many “custom variables” as you want (since the schema is completely open and tailorable, they’re effectively all custom…). You get a standard “web analytics” schema for W3C logs out of the box for Visual Site. As for expensive…well, it’w probably more expensive not to be able to answer the questions that you need to answer…;-)
It is amazingly easy to create whatever report you want. We were five people watching them demo, and we couldn’t come up with a single request for a report that Bob Chatham couldn’t create from scratch within 5-10 seconds.
[BC] Hey…if you think 5-10 seconds is fast, you should see how fast web analytics guru Eric T. Peterson can do it. I’m just the marketing guy.
{note from Robbin – I deleted all the screen shot chatter that was in this spot because none of my screen shots were real jpegs and will be just awful in a post}
It’s real time. Almost all the other page tagging solutions are real time, but unlike VS don’t change while you watch unless you hit reload and wait 60 seconds.
So why doesn’t everybody buy it? First, it is really expensive.
[BC] Let me know if you want to review a TCO [total cost of ownership] model for the product. We’re working on better comparisons to conventional solutions.
I don’t know exactly how expensive but I have a pretty good idea. So it’s not a solution you buy lightly, and you sure don’t buy it without a full-time analyst or a team of analysts or you won’t learn much. Plus, if you don’t have time or resources to learn everything from your standard high-end solution (SC, HBX, WebTrends etc), then it’s really not worth spending the money. And let’s face it (this is my usual soapbox) – most people aren’t getting as much as they should out of their free Google Analytics. In fact, most sites either don’t have analytics, don’t know that they have analytics, or don’t care (but I digress…)
[BC] Agreed about the need for analysts with *any* high-end solution. As to why folks aren’t getting everything from their “standard” high-end solutions, maybe it’s because they’re…standard. And then they give up in frustration
.
Second, I think that the company would be smart to sell the product on its merits and not sell it against the competition so much. Maybe that’s just the IBMer in me (I was taught to NEVER mention the competition by name), but I think their product, in the right situation, solves so many problems that they don’s need to have a negative campaign.
[BC] Aw, I’m just overly sensitive. We spent four years in stealth mode building the product, ignoring what other people thought. If we mention other vendors, it’s really to facilitate comprehension based on what people are more familiar with. Any suggestions on how to make the product concepts more accessible/believable to reduce the time that it takes to get it?
Thanks Bob for all that wisdom. Apologies for waiting so long to post this (and if any little gibberish marks from the email crept in, double apologies!)
Robbin Steif
LunaMetrics
View Comments (No Responses) | Categories: WA Tools
Posted on October 18, 2006 by Robbin Steif
Yesterday at the eMetrics Summit, I saw a one-hour demo of Visual Sciences. The “demo-er” was Bob Chatham, their CMO. It is incredibly awesome.
I walked into the presentation knowing that the product is black and probably visual. I walked out trying to figure out why, beyond budget, companies would choose a different solution if they could choose Visual Sciences. (I did come up with some, see the bottom of this post.)
I won’t speak much to the implementation or technology. Among other reasons, you can’t easily put them in a box. They aren’t a client-side solution (you pretty much have to have software), but they sure aren’t an old-fashioned logfile solution either. Instead, I want to speak just to the features/benefits.
First, they have developed the capability (a “visual sensor”) to capture data from all sorts of sources, not just the web. RFID, bar codes, text files, call center logs all qualify. So it is no longer just a web analytic package, it becomes a total analytic solution. I don’t think they like the phrase 360 degree view, but if that isn’t a 360, what is?
They have a proprietary database — and maybe that term is already too “boxy” — maybe data storage or “place to keep their data” would be more accurate. This seems to be their primary secret sauce, and enables them to relate data in any way you want. (They call this n-dimensional.) They aren’t working with a traditional relational database, so the number of fields aren’t constrained and it is no longer incredibly expensive to have someone crawl into the database and expand the fields (in fact, there is no crawling in.) I kind of dismissed this as Bob spoke – it’s an expensive solution so even if you pay for an extra 10 eVars from Omniture, you probably pay less money – but then,you might need that info now, not when the LiveSupport people get to it. In some ways, it is easier to compare it to Google Analytics, where you get one custom variable and no more, but the customer sets are so different that that becomes a senseless comparison (albeit easy to understand.)
It is amazingly easy to create whatever report you want. We were five people watching them demo, and we couldn’t come up with a single request for a report that Bob Chatham couldn’t create from scratch within 5-10 seconds.
Did I remember to say that the visualizations are to die for? Here is one from their website:
This screen shot shows paths through the site. The height of a bar is traffic to a page and the thickness of a connection from one page to another shows how much traffic flows from page to page (I wonder how you tell what direction the traffic is flowing?) I know that this screen shot doesn’t do justice to the visualization but it was the best I could do – hope you can see the three-D connectors in “the air,” I can barely see them in my preview of this post.
It’s real time. Almost all the other page tagging solutions are real time, but unlike VS don’t change while you watch unless you hit reload and wait 60 seconds.
So why doesn’t everybody buy it? First, it is really expensive. I don’t know exactly how expensive but I have a pretty good idea. So it’s not a solution you buy lightly, and you sure don’t buy it without a full-time analyst or a team of analysts or you won’t learn much. Plus, if you don’t have time or resources to learn everything from your standard high-end solution (SC, HBX, WebTrends etc), then it’s really not worth spending the money. And let’s face it (this is my usual soapbox) – most people aren’t getting as much as they should out of their free Google Analtyics. In fact, most sites either don’t have analytics, don’t know that they have analytics, or don’t care (but I digress…)
Second, I think that the company would be smart to sell the product on its merits and not sell it against the competition so much. Maybe that’s just the IBMer in me (I was taught to NEVER mention the competition by name), but I think their product, in the right situation, solves so many problems that they don’t need to have a negative campaign.
Robbin Steif
LunaMetrics
View Comments (4 Responses) | Categories: WA Tools
Posted on October 9, 2006 by Robbin Steif
I got tired of waiting for Crazy Egg to have FAQs so I just wrote them myself. I put them together based on the many questions Hiten Shah from Crazy Egg has tirelessly answered for me, as well as my own perceptions. No one from Crazy Egg has seen this or blessed this, and any mistakes are mine (mine, mine, all mine.)
Q: How is Crazy Egg different from other overlays?
A: Other overlays show you where people click on links. Crazy Egg shows you where people click, even if they are clicking on a picture that doesn’t have a link associated with it. This is very helpful because it tells you where visitors expect to be able to click — where you should have links . Also, some overlays give the same amount of “credit” to two links on a page that go to the same place, and Crazy Egg only counts a click where it happened. Finally, Crazy Egg has not one but three different kinds of overlay reports.
Q: What are the differences between the three reports that Crazy Egg provides?
A: The Overlay (#1) displays your test page with buttons next to the places where people click. When the buttons are close to dark blue, you have few clicks, and when they are at the other end of the rainbow — the reddest — you are getting the most clicks. You can click on any Crazy Egg Overlay button to see how many actual clicks came to that spot. Alternatively, you can use the Flower Marker (the tab next to Overlay) to show you all the results associated with all the buttons. The List (#2) is just that — a list of the different kinds of clicks you get and how many of each there are. And the Heatmap (#3) shows you exactly where on a page people clicked (did they click in the middle of the picture? At the end of the link?) so you can see if links need to be longer or easier to reach.
Q: Can you describe the List better and explain what “Type” means?
A: Even though your most common type will probably be “A,” you won’t see B or C or D — when you see A on the list, it stands for an “a tag” like a href. (A link.) Drop down boxes usually have type Select. Free form large boxes usually have type Text Area, and free form one-line text areas have type Input. IMG is an image.
Q: Why does my dashboard say, 1324 views, 649 clicks, 589 shown? Why can’t Crazy Egg show all the clicks?
A: This means that there are clicks on the page that Crazy Egg is not identifying in the overlay. Many times it has to do with Flash elements, ads and even elements that are not on the page anymore. Javascript dropdown menus often have this problem.
Q: If someone clicks into a field and then enters a name with five characters and then hits the tab or enter button, how many clicks does Crazy Egg count — one, five, six or seven?
A: It is supposed to count that as only one click.
Q: What does it mean when Crazy Egg says that they can archive up to a certain number of snapshots?
A: The snapshots are pictures of a test when the test is finished, since Crazy Egg archives the way the test looked right when it ends.
Q: I thought that I knew how long I needed to run my test, but there weren’t enough visits so the data isn’t interesting enough yet. Can I extend the length of my test without starting a completely new test?
A: No, you can’t. Sorry. (Wouldn’t it be great if everyone’s FAQs were written this way, they actually answered a question like this without marketing doublespeak?)
Q: I can put the Crazy Egg code on four pages at no charge, right? And Crazy Egg will archive four tests at no charge, right? So does that mean that after I have ended one of my four free tests, I can start a fifth test, but I lose the archived snapshot of one of my first four tests? Or does that mean that my fifth test will not allow me to archive the final snapshot? Or does that mean that I am done with my free stuff and now I have to pay?
A: Wow, what a great question.
Q: I noticed that the code Crazy Egg gives me is always the same for my site, no matter which page it is on. Why can’t I add the code to an include file and let it run on every page? I would be happy to pay.
A: True, true. Read the editorial part of this post.
Robbin Steif
LunaMetrics
p.s. If you haven’t tried Crazy Egg, you are missing out on a great analytic tool.
View Comments (4 Responses) | Categories: WA Tools
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