For Nonprofits Blog
You're changing the world. We want to help.
Analytics Demystified - Part 4: Scheduled Reports
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
With
Google Analytics
you can customize and view reports about your account. You can pull these reports manually or have them e-mailed to you at intervals you specify.
If you've been following
this series
and seen how Google Analytics can help you gauge your website's performance, you may be wondering how to organize all the information you get.
Scheduling reports allows you to receive regular updates on the data that matters most to your organization. If you'd like a step-by-step guide on hand for the setup process, feel free to download a copy of our
Google Grants Scheduled Report Guide
for reference. This guide also helps you set up scheduled reports to answer the specific questions in your quarterly analytics survey, if you are required to do so as a participant in our
Additional Services program
.
Scheduling a report
To view a report, login to
Analytics
and choose data to view from the choices on the toolbar. You can customize the date range for the data by clicking on the date in the top-right corner of your view and choosing dates from the drop-down box.
Once you've specified dates for your data, click the "Email" button above the data to have that report emailed to you as a PDF, CSV (for Excel), XML or TSV file.
From this screen, you can set scheduled reports to be sent to you on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis by choosing the "Schedule" tab.
To schedule reports:
From the Schedule tab in the Set Up Email screen, enter the email addresses that should receive this report. Check the box next to "Send to me" if you'd like the report sent to the email address on the account.
In the Subject field, enter a subject that will get your attention when it arrives in your Inbox, such as "Monthly traffic report from Google Analytics."
In the Description field, describe the report's content for easy reference—for example, "Monthly traffic to Donations page."
Choose the file format that works best for you. A PDF looks like the report screen in Google Analytics; a CSV is a spreadsheet you can manipulate.
Choose the schedule on which you'd like your reports: daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
Check the box next to "Include date comparison" if you'd like to see this month's data compared to another month's.
You can then add additional reports by choosing the "Add to Existing" tab the next time you choose to e-mail a report.
If you want to change your scheduled reports later, just click Email from the Settings menu on the left navigation bar and change, add or delete reports.
That's all for our series about Google Analytics for now. If there are other components of Analytics you'd like to have us explain in more detail on the blog,
let us know what you'd be interested in
and we'll put together a walk-through for all the Google Grants Analytics users to read right here on the blog. We're excited to see the use of Google Analytics data grow among non-profits and Google Grant recipients. To learn more about the program's benefits:
discuss it with your peers in the
Google Grants Help Group
review the
Scheduled Reports
and
Analytics
guides
visit the
Analytics Help Center
subscribe to the
Google Analytics Blog
Happy tracking!
Grants account tour: Reporting Center
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Posted by Taylor, AdWords Team
Once your Google AdWords ads are up and running, an important part of managing your campaign is reviewing their performance. A quick and easy way to review comprehensive statistics is to run a report, which you can do in the
Reports tab
in AdWords (next to the Campaign Management tab,
which we checked out last month
). This tab takes you to the Report Center, where you can create customized reports to help you track the performance of your campaign(s). To start, click on the blue ‘Create A New Report’ link.
The next page has four steps:
Choosing the Report Type
We recommend first running an Ad Group Performance report, which will give you more data than a Campaign Performance report but less than a Keyword Performance report. If you’re interested in how specific keywords are performing, run a Keyword Performance report. To learn more about the report types, check out
this article
on different kinds of reports.
Settings
It’s possible to run reports for specific periods, like yesterday, last month, or a customized date range. To select a customized date range, select the second radio button and choose the date range on the calendars. And if you’re interested in refining the campaigns or ad groups included in the report, you can select them in this section.
Advanced Settings
This is where you can select that data that’s included. The columns that are automatically included are usually relevant, but you may want to add some. For example, if you’re interested in the conversion rate of your campaign, be sure to add the conversions column and conversion rate column.
Templates, Scheduling, and E-mail
This is my favorite part of the Reporting Center, because you can set up reports to be e-mailed automatically to you. This is a great way to review your account’s performance and quickly check the clicks your Google Grant is sending to your website. To do so, simply schedule the report and enter your e-mail address in the E-mail field.
Try running a few types of reports with different settings and columns to figure out which ones have the best information for you. Then, to save time and ensure that you’re staying up-to-date with your account, schedule the report and have it e-mailed to you. And if you have any questions, the AdWords Help Center has some great
articles
for making the most of your reports.
Grant recipients helping victims of Central U.S. floods
Monday, June 16, 2008
Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
Many non-profits in the Google Grants program are taking part in the flood relief efforts in the Central U.S.
We'd like to call attention to these organizations here so that you can get involved, provide support, and learn more about the floods which have caused 24 counties in Iowa to be declared federal disaster areas (at the time of this posting).
American Red Cross
is currently providing shelter and food until the waters recede and recovery can begin. They are urging affected residents to register with their
Safe and Well
website so that loved ones can search for them and know their status. Details of the relief efforts can be seen
here
on their interactive map.
Read more
or
donate
to help.
America's Second Harvest
is providing food and resources to those affected by the floods. They expect relief efforts to top $150K.
Donate
to help.
If you are a Google Grant recipient providing relief to those affected by the Central U.S. floods and have questions about managing your AdWords account efficiently to scale with the traffic generated by the disaster, please
contact our team
so that we can make sure your information reaches those in need and those who can help.
Driving Traffic & Raising Money with Google Products
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
Back in February, I presented at a non-profit forum in Washington DC, hosted by our DC office and
Google.org
. This forum was geared toward international development NGOs and offered an opportunity for Googlers to discuss our non-profit offerings with interested organizations. In addition, we invited several non-profits using our tools to share case studies with the audience, encouraging other groups to think creatively about how to use the
free products
Google offers to non-profits.
The opening product session was focused on identifying ways for NGOs to drive traffic and raise money, specifically looking at
Google Grants
,
Google Analytics
, and
Google Checkout for Non-Profits
. During this session, I shared information about Google Grants and how to think strategically about maximizing your AdWords grant. One key element discussed was the value of incorporating Google Analytics with your AdWords account. Prem from
Google Checkout
then gave an overview of Checkout for Non-Profits and how this product can also be used in conjunction with other Google non-profit offerings. The session closed with
Maciek Gregorski and Timothy Lash of the
International Rescue Committee
offering a look at their successful uses of Google Grants and Google Analytics.
Feel free to check out the video of this session below. The first ten minutes or so are dedicated to Google Grants and Google Analytics, with the middle section looking at Google Checkout for Non-Profits, and the final section with the valuable case study from
the folks at the International Rescue Committee
. Hope you enjoy it!
Website Workout Contest
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Posted by AnnMarie, Google Grants Team
Are you looking to increase engagement with your audience online? Would you like to see an increase in donations or newsletter sign-ups?
Recently, the
Website Optimizer
team announced their new
Website Workout
contest to help businesses pump up their sign-ups, leads or donations. Any U.S. business, including non-profits, can enter to have a webpage optimized for free by Google's team of consultants.
In the coming weeks, Google will select four of the businesses that enter. Using Google Website Optimizer, Google's free website testing and optimization tool, the consultants will then work with the winners to test which combination of text, images, graphics and other content drives the best results.
We're accepting entries through June 17. I encourage you to enter by visiting the
contest website
.
Analytics Demystified - Part 3: Reports
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
Reports are the meat of
Google Analytics
. This is where the data about your site's performance lives and where you can see changes to and improve your ad campaigns and even your website.
You can access your site's reports by logging into
AdWords
and clicking on the Analytics tab.
To ensure the accuracy of your reports you should set up your analytics account to filter out internal IP addresses. This way traffic generated by people in your office as they work with your website isn't counted toward the total traffic and interactions on your site. Follow
these quick steps
to make your reports to filter your internal IP addresses and make your reports more meaningful.
Google Analytics data is divided into four main categories: Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content and Goals.
Visitor data shows you the traits of different visitor segments and examines the factors that comprise visit quality. You can see how long visitors were on your site, where they came from and where they went when they left.
Traffic Source data outlines the different sources that send traffic to your site: which sites and search engines refer traffic to your site, which keywords drive traffic to your site, and how your AdWords and other online ad campaigns are performing.
Content data shows you how well the content on your site is performing and which pages are most responsible for driving pageviews. As a good rule of thumb, check for pages with a high bounce rates and consider redesigning them for relevance: this is where your traffic tends to leave to seek information on other sites.
The Goals section shows you how well your site is performing against the goals you set. Goals don't have to be e-commerce-related and, in the non-profit world, might include:
newsletter downloads
mailing-list subscriptions
petition sign-ups
donations
volunteer opportunities
requests for information
Take some time to get familiar with your data. We suggest playing around by trying to find answers to a question you may have about your site: Where in the world does traffic come from? Which site refers the most traffic to your site? How many visitors come from your ad campaigns? If you have questions while exploring reports, you can always refer to the
Reports Central
section of the Google Analytics Help Center, or post a question to the
Analytics Help Group
or our
Google Grants Help Group
.
Next time we'll go through setting up scheduled reports for your account. Scheduled reports, which automatically send your pre-made reports to your inbox at intervals you specify, help you monitor your goals' performance. Then you won't have to build reports every time you visit Google Analytics and you'll get a regular reminder to check in on the performance of your accounts.
Labels
AdWords Basics
98
AdWords in the Curriculum
9
Google Analytics
9
Google Apps
25
Google Apps Highlights
10
Google Earth
18
Google Earth Outreach
28
Google for Nonprofits Blog
529
Google Fusion Tables
2
Google Maps
10
Google Products
63
Google Sketchup
2
Google+
16
Grantees
98
Grants Program
97
Optimization
59
Program Alerts
15
Resources for Non-Profits
179
Tracking Performance
35
YouTube
26
Archive
2016
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
Apr
Mar
Jan
2015
Nov
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feb
2014
Nov
Oct
Aug
Jul
Jun
Apr
Feb
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Feed
Google
on
Follow @googlenonprofit
Follow
Follow