How to do a Google Analytics Audit: Example
This is an example of a Google Analytics audit that MeasureMinds did a few years ago. If you’re looking for how to do a Google Analytics audit, follow this example.
CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW
1. Requirements
- Set-up accurate Visit-to-Sale tracking.
- Set-up macro goal conversion funnels.
- Set-up micro form field conversion funnels.
- Display all relevant data on dashboards
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/brain-logo-150x150.png)
2. Issues
- Cross-domain tracking not working.
- Transaction counts not matching CRM system.
- Revenue not matching CRM system.
- Goal funnel steps were broken.
- Marketing Channel & cmpID not recording
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/issue-icon.jpg)
3. Solutions
- Audit and resolve GTM issues.
- Audit and resolve GA issues.
- Link Adwords.
- Link GoogleWebmasterTools.
- Add GA everywhere via Adobe DTM.
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/solution-icon.jpg)
4. Next Steps
- Phone Call Tracking.
- SEO optimisation.
- Adwords Optimisation.
- CRO & A/B Testing.
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/steps-icon.jpg)
AUDIT SCORE
MeasureMinds reviewed the GA setup and this presentation documents these issues impeding data accuracy.
Status | Issues | % |
---|---|---|
Critical | 11 | 31% |
Recommended | 21 | 57% |
Good stuff | 6 | 16% |
Total | 38 |
OVERALL SCORE 5/10 Poor
CORRECTLY SETUP
Items found within the account that have been setup correctly.
Item# | Comments |
---|---|
1 | 5 goals present |
2 | 3 filters present |
3 | Ecommerce enabled |
4 | Ecommerce Steps enabled |
5 | Edit Access was restricted to 2 people |
6 | Edit Access was restricted to 2 people |
FIXES
1. Process issues:
- No separation of DEV vs LIVE ga profiles – thus test transactions showing in LIVE
2. Setup Errors:
- Goal 5 for Van Sales was accidentally disabled
- Goal Steps were broken in all 6 goals
- Channel groupings had been artificially manipulated to ignore non-organic, non-paid or non-referral.
- Channel groupings did not split Brand PPC vs Non-Brand PPC
- CampaignCode field was not Enabled
- URL params were not removed
- Robot traffic was not excluded
- Site Search tracking not enabled
- UserID profile view not enabled
- Google Webmaster Tools is still not connected
- RegEx in goals had minor typos
- No changes had been made to the account for 6months
- No Shared Dashboards setup
- Annotations not used
3. External utm tagging:
- Email not tagged
- Bing auto-tag not enabled
- Only 1 of 4 aggregators (MSM) have enabled utm tracking
4. Usage:
- Only 2 members in the Client Team had view access to GA.
5. Privacy:
- PII safeguard filter to remove emails was missing (ToS requirement)
- GA is not mentioned on cookie policy & GA opt-out link is also missing (ToS requirement)
Feature Usage
- Shared Dashboards – 0/20 used
- Content Grouping – 0/5 used
- Custom Dimensions 0/20 used
- Custom Metrics 0/20 used
- Calculated Metrics 0/5 used
- Product Variation & Product Brand – not enabled
- Adwords >> GA cost data import – not enabled
- GA >> Adwords Conversion importing – not enabled.
- GA >> Adwords Dynamic Remarketing – not enabled.
- GoogleWebmasterTools >> GA impression importing – not enabled.
- Hosted YouTube >> GA pageview importing – not enabled.
- Custom Alerts for conversionRate changes – not enabled.
- GA >> Data Studio – not enabled
- CSV data append – 0/20 (e.g. CampaignCode >> source/medium)
Profiles Views to Audit
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img.jpg)
Tag Scan
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/table.png)
Tracking missing on server Error Pages:
https:// www.Client.com/AWE/Container.aspx?CurrentStep=Login
Traffic Check
Audience Overview
Historical view of site usage over 1 year. Traffic volume are consistent, with no radical changes in spark lines, indicate no recent drastic changes in cookie session tracking (with the exceptional of Yahoo news) story on 26th June
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/audience.jpg)
ToS Check
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ga-tos.jpg)
GA ToS PIIs
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is accidentally included in page query parameters. Use of PII violates the terms of service of the Google Analytics Agreement.
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ga-tos-pass.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ga-tos-fail.jpg)
GA has a requirement to declare that it is used on the cookie policy and provided a link to opt out of GA tracking.
Additionally, this line of text should be added…The Client website uses Analytics tracking code to support Display Advertising, specifically Remarketing & Google Analytics Demographics Reporting. Visitors can opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising Interest Reporting using Google’s Ads Settings here: https://www.google.com/settings/u/0/ads
This website server does not currently respond to the DNT signal, but you can enable DNT=on within your browser settings, and this will also opt out of Remarketing and behavioural ads. Additionally, You may opt out of all tracking by installing a browser plug-in here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Filters
Only 3 filters are present!
These were used to exclude/include Organic agency traffic.
Name | Type | Field | ExpressionValue |
---|---|---|---|
Include Organic Exeter | Include ▼ | GEO_IP_ADDRESS | ^83\.143\.243\.(6[8-9]|7[0-8])$ |
Exclude Organic Exeter | Exclude ▼ | GEO_IP_ADDRESS | ^83\.143\.243\.(6[8-9]|7[0-8])$ |
Exclude Virtual Pageviews | Exclude ▼ | PAGE_REQUEST_URL | /virtual-pageview |
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/filters.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/filters-2.jpg)
New Settings
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/host-name.jpg)
Test orders were showing in main
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/host-name-green.jpg)
Now fixed…
URL parameters
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-3.jpg)
Solutions:
1.setCampSource mapping patch of cmpid >> utm_id is due to be enabled on 1st Feb that will fix this
2. It’s recommended to ask Affiliates to update their destination URL with UTM tags.
?utm_medium=aggregator&utm_source=moneysupermarket.com&utm_campaign=landlord-listing&utm_content=q-b
Robot Traffic
Solution:
1. Tick box to exclude robots
2. Add exclude ISP filter for these bots in GA.
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-4.jpg)
Payment portal Referrals
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-5.jpg)
This was fixed in mid-November
Self Referrals
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-6.jpg)
0.3% of all sessions are internal traffic
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-7.jpg)
Tip: Once Cross-domain tracking is working and legacyHistoryImport is disabled… then this report should be empty
Error page tracking
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-8.jpg)
Solution:
1. Add GTM to server error pages
Tracking missing on server Error Pages:
Site Speed
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-9.jpg)
SiteSpeed is working and ga.js timmer is present at the top of the page
External Marketing Tags
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-10.jpg)
Once fixed Bing utm tags are fixed, then cost data upload can be enabled – to see CPA & ROAS for Bing using GA.
Campaign Tracking
It is recommended that the campaign tracking parameters campaign, source, and medium have a consistent naming convention.
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-11.jpg)
Solution:
1. Ask affiliates to use utm tags
2. Add a profile filter to change (not set) / (not set) …to… bing / cps
Direct Traffic
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-12.jpg)
Site Search
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-13.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-14.jpg)
- Tick 2 boxes to strip URL parameters from site search
- Add two filters to lowercase site search and site search category.
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-15.jpg)
Events
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-16.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-17.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-18.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-19.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-20.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-21.jpg)
Goals
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-34.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-35.jpg)
Goals should be aligned with your business objectives.
- 01. Quote – Landlords/AWE/Container\.aspx\?CurrentStep=QuoteSummary(.*)&ProductTarget=PropertyOwners
- 02. Sale – Landlords/AWE/Container\.aspx\?CurrentStep=Thankyou(.*)&ProductTarget=PropertyOwners
- 04. Quote – Tradesman/AWE/Container\.aspx\?CurrentStep=QuoteSummary(.*)&ProductTarget=Tradesman
- 03. Sale – Tradesman/AWE/Container\.aspx\?CurrentStep=Thankyou(.*)&ProductTarget=Tradesman
- 06. Quote – Van/CoreQuote/CoverSummary\.dq
- 05. PRE-Sale – Van (29th Dec onwards)/CoreQuote/(DirectDebit\.dq#SH3DSecure|SaleCompleted\.dq)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-22.jpg)
Before
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-23.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-25.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-27.jpg)
After
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-24.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-26.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-28.jpg)
Data Import
Google Webmaster Tools
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-29.jpg)
Adwords
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-30.jpg)
Link other Adwords Account(s)
Data Enrichment
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-31.jpg)
20 custom Dimensions / Metrics
- ga clientId
- userId
- loginStatus
- insurerPolicyNumber
- policyStartDate
- mainTrade
- premiumType
- tradeStatus
- tradeType
- cmpid
- CampaignCode
- quoteID
- dl_annualQuote (CartTotal)
- ProductTarget + ProductVariation (dynx_itemid)
- CurrentStep (dynx_pagetype)
- dl_annualQuote (dynx_totalvalue)
- GTM event
- containerID & containerVersion
5 content Groups
CurrentStep / quoteStep
ProductTarget / productName
ContainerID & ContainerVerison
Conclusion
Recommended Changes:
- Publish Adobe DTM to fix cross-domain tracking to Van and enable site wide customDimensions
- Update cookie policy page with opt-out link
- Link Google Webmaster Tools with GA
- Import GA transactions and goals into Adwords
- Tick the box in Bing Adcentre to enable autotracking
- Run a GA health check every 6 months
- Take the GA fundamental course & book a training session
- Add micro goals for PDF downloads and video plays etc.
- Add micro goals funnels for New Customer vs Returning Customer (retrieve quote)
- Add upload CSV with customerID attributes to aid analysis & reporting
Appendix
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-32.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-36.jpg)
![](https://measuremindsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img-33.jpg)