How to Use Google Analytics for Adjusting a Small Business Strategy

Are you working with or for a small business that’s struggling with a low-funnel ad? The good news is that you can use Google Analytics for adjusting a small business strategy. This tool by Google can help you redefine goals, so you can make data-driven and most importantly, informed decisions.

There is an incredible testament of this working. Steph Jimenez, Production Associate at Hanapin Marketing, has this to tell.

“One of my former clients sold exclusive, high-end items. Their business model was incredibly unique as their online shop was only open a few times a year. During times they weren’t open, they built up excitement for their product launch and encouraged people to sign up for their email list. Essentially, they operated as lead generation for part of the year and eCommerce for the other part.

“As an agency (and our client as well!), we were disappointed when sales were down. Our best practices for typical eCommerce clients weren’t working and with a limited budget, any solution required some extra creativity.

“With the help of Google Analytics, we determined their audience size was too small for effective low-funnel marketing. In order to increase sales, we needed to take a few steps backward and grow their top-of-funnel audience list.”

~ Steph Jimenez, Production Assistant at Hanapin Marketing

Their team presented a strategy that focused on building up the prospect base before focusing on purchases. Yes, it seems counterintuitive and time-consuming, but it ensures higher quality and quantity of customers.

Using Google Analytics for Adjusting a Small Business Strategy

Image Credit: Backlinko

If you can use Google Analytics for gaining insights into your business strategy, Google Search Console can also help you make SEO improvements. When you connect your account with Google Analytics, you can gather lots of information about your brand. Because the more data you have, the more confident you can be in delivering results.

There are some questions you need to ask if you’re going to use Google Analytics for adjusting a small business strategy.

Where are your customers coming from?

One of the challenges that come with working with small businesses is that there is a limited budget. You need to determine where the bulk of the customers are coming from. Are they from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, etc.? 

When you determine this, you can allocate more spend on channels that already show promising success.

Are some campaigns showing high CPA?

Optimize your spend towards campaigns that are most effective in alignment with your goals. Sometimes, in a brand, CPA is twice as much for Search than Display. If that’s the case, then you need to spend for Display while keeping the minimum spend possible in Search.

How is the Session Quality doing?

Find out if users are staying on your page or spending a few seconds on another. Are these users coming back to your page? If most of the users are new and not returning, then that means users are probably not thinking about your brand after browsing your website. 

Check the e-commerce conversion rate as well. It will let you know the percentage of sessions where an item was purchased.

If you can determine the user behavior on the website, then you can determine what you should do next.

One route you can take is by investing in conversion rate optimization.

Search For Industry Insights to Account For

Use Google to search for marketing industry insights for your field. There, you can find invaluable information like user behavior, spending habits, and user interests, etc. Most strategies can be applied across varying platforms.

Every digital marketing agency with experience in SEO services would recommend this too.

• Audiences: Target specific interests, remarketing lists, and demographics. 
• Search terms: Check your search terms report and exclude any irrelevant keywords. Add relevant keywords in order to attract users. Luckily, Google has a keyword planner you can use to predict how particular keywords will perform.
• Geo-targeting: Enable location targeting, and be as specific as possible. In addition, adding negative locations are also helpful for minimizing users from areas with low conversion rates.
• Ad copy: These copies need to have solid CTAs that align with the language you’re using in your own website. It’s good for maximizing the quality score too.
• Customizing UX: Use exclusive language. After growing your audience list, keep users engaged through emails, events, offering discounts, and more.

Make data-based decisions and present them to the small business you’re working with. This way, you can optimize sales and confidently present well-informed strategies that are backed by data.