Products and Keywords in Google Analytics

In Google Analytics, there are a couple different ways to match up the products you sell with the keywords that brought users to your site.

The first method is already built right in to Google Analytics. All you need to do is look under the Ecommerce section of your Google Analytics profile and expand the Product Performance section. There you'll find a report called Product Overview. In this report, you'll see a list of all the products that were sold for the given date range. You can click on an individual product and segment it by Keyword to see which keywords were responsible for the product sale. product-menu.gif product-by-keyword.gif

But what about when you want to see things the other way around? In other words, for each keyword, can you see which products were sold? Well, if you use the above method, you'd have to segment each and every product. That's not very efficient.

Luckily, you can use filters to find this information pretty easily. Here's how:

The trick is to include the keyword information right in the product reports. But before you go creating filters, you probably want to create a new profile first. Since we'll be modifying the information in the product reports, you'll want to keep your main profile clean.

So, first create a new profile. Then, include the following filter, called something like Keyword/Product Matching. The filter looks like this: keyword-product-filter-sm.gif

The filter includes the keyword (if there is one) with the product name. Whenever you look at any report that contains products, you'll now see the keyword right along with it.

Here's what the Product Overview looks like with the filter in place: prod-keyword1 copy.jpg

To find out which products were sold from a keyword, type the keyword into the search bar at the bottom of the report. The result will look like this: prod-keyword2 copy.jpg

There are a few additional notes here:

1. Not all products will have keywords. This is because not all visits have keywords. Direct visits, referrals, banners, and offline campaigns will not have a keyword.

2. This list contains both ppc(cpc) and organic keywords. If you want to make sure your list contains only cpc or only organic, you can use either exclude or include filters within this separate profile. You could also use an additional advanced filter that includes the medium in the product report.

3. The search box uses Regular Expressions. If you need to further refine your searches in this report (and all reports), you can use Regular Expressions. For example, typing in cheese will show you all keywords that contain the word 'cheese'. But if you type in the expression ^cheese -, then you'll only see the 'cheese' keyword exactly.

Thanks for reading and as always, I'd love to hear your comments about this approach.

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Analytics Seminars for Success: Chicago, June 2-3

We're proud to be one of only two companies chosen as  Google Analytics Seminar Leaders to offer an Introductory and Advanced Seminar all about Google Analytics.

The next seminar will be held June 2nd and 3rd (Monday and Tuesday), at the Westin O'Hare in Chicago. These live training seminars are scheduled on an ongoing basis in different cities around the United States. Help us choose where to present next by requesting your city.

We're so excited to share our knowledge of Google Analytics in person! You can see all of the topics we cover during the two seminars. June 2nd will be the Introduction and User Training Seminar and June 3rd is the Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar. Each seminar will be a full day from 8am to 5pm and costs $249. If you register before May 26th you'll receive a $50 AdWord Credit*. Attendees will receive one credit for each seminar they attend, so registering for both sessions will entitle you to two credits.

Join us for what one attendee referred to as "GA Bootcamp" and learn from the experts!

Learn more about Seminars for Success

*Promotional credit must be applied to an AdWords account within 30 days of attending a seminar and is valid only for Google AdWords customers with self-managed signup. Advertisers will be charged for advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the Google AdWords Program standard terms and conditions. The promotional credit is non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Google Inc. One promotional credit per AdWords account. New advertisers with self-managed signup accounts are subject to an $5 activation fee that will be deducted from the promotional credit. Expires 30 days after Advertiser's registered seminar session. Void where restricted or prohibited by law.

All About Historical Data

Everybody makes mistakes at some point, but there are ways to help prevent those mistakes from making their way into your Google Analytics reports.

With Google Analytics, you do not have the option to reprocess data like you do with log file analytics systems, so it's important that you are cautious with the changes you're making to your profiles.

If you set up a new filter incorrectly and no one notices for two weeks that you are collecting the wrong data, there is no way to go back and reprocess that data. It's gone and it's not coming back. Because of this, it is highly recommended that you make your filter, goal, and/or funnel changes to a test profile before making them to your main profile. By collecting the results in a test profile, you can gauge whether or not you are receiving the outcome you anticipated.

Read the rest of this article on historical data.