Public relations is a field where success can be measured in a number of ways. Maybe you’ve seen your organization mentioned in a local newspaper, or maybe you’ve seen your company’s number of Facebook friends double in mere days. These are all indicators of success, but if you really want to crunch numbers, a program called Google Analytics is a valuable tool. Using this program, you can detect how many people have visited your site on any given day and what links they clicked. Not only that, but you can also monitor how much time was spent on each page.
This program can show clients the impact of PPR Strategies’s services, and it will allow those of us here at PPR Strategies to monitor the success of any campaign. This paints a more objective picture of a campaign’s success, giving both the client and the agency hard data to compare and contrast. In addition to being able to monitor the immediate impact of a campaign, Google Analytics can show when the effect begins to taper off, signaling the need for new information to be published.
The Google Analytics webpage provides first-time users with several tools to get started. A product tour gives visitors an overview of the features available in Analytics and how they can use these tools to their advantage. The setup checklist gives specific instructions on how to get started, which provides users with step-by-step details on how to take full advantage of the service.
The screen shots provided show merely a fraction of what Analytics’ capabilities. As can be seen in the first, it is possible to look at the number of hits a website has taken on any particular day. Furthermore, Analytics allows users to take a specific time frame and compare it to another, showing either a drop-off or increase in site traffic, perhaps signaling the need for a new campaign or showcasing the success of a recent launch.
Another example of what makes Analytics unique is the ability for users to determine key markets. This example shows which states provide the most traffic based on a color coded system. For more specifics, users have the option of scrolling over any particular state to see the number of hits it has provided. What’s even more valuable is that by clicking a state, users can see city-by-city information. This gives users the ability to efficiently gauge market presence, with quantitative data to back them up.
These are just some of the tools available via Google Analytics. Sign up for free today and find out what’s really going on with your website.
– Written by Ryan Robison, PPR Strategies intern
