Logging into Google Analytics and knowing where to start can be extremely terrifying! To start, ensure you have successfully setup your Google Analytics to make it easy to sort through all this data. Some of my past blog posts should help with this :)

I don't have a blog post yet outlining how to properly set up Google Analytics but I am in the process of creating an extremely in-depth checklist for how to get through the technical stuff! Sign up at the bottom of the page for my newsletter to stay tuned for this!!

Once you have your analytics set up, the next step is really learning which metrics to look for. In this post, I will be discussing the 3 most actionable metrics to track. There are of course more metrics you should look into, but many are not easy and actionable. Now, what do I really mean by actionable? When I think about the analysis someone has to complete to understand Google Analytics metrics, these are the levels I see:

Basic metrics: These are the metrics as you see them when you log in. They have absolutely no context until you dive deeper. You may see a bounce rate of 45% when you first log in, but that really means nothing because, where did that traffic come from that bounced, what pages did they leave from, what audience type bounced from your page the most? These are questions that can't be answered just yet. This is where level 2 comes in.
Metrics with some context: This is my favorite level because if you know which reports to look at, anyone can find these numbers and know how to act on them! These are just basic metrics with some context :)
Advanced analytics: This level is more advanced and requires manipulation of segments, filters, understanding attribution models, conversion paths, etc. I will have blog posts covering all these topics soon!

So by actionable, I really mean metrics with some context because really, ALL metrics are actionable either directly or indirectly but by adding some context, every metrics becomes directly actionable. If you would like to know the 3 most actionable metrics all e-commerce companies should know, keep reading!

Bounce Rate by Landing Page

Because bounce rate by itself has no context, one of the ways to create actionable insights from this metric is by looking at bounce rates for every landing page. Bounce rate is calculated by a single-page session, meaning anyone who lands on your website and then exits, is counted as a bounce.

For example, Reader A is on Facebook and sees a link to a blog post. He/she clicks on the link, reads your post and leaves. This would count as a 100% bounce from this reader.

To determine which pages and bounce rates to keep in mind, follow the steps outlined below:

In the right-hand navigation in analytics, click on Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages. You should see the following dashboard.

image source (edited to only show relevant metrics): https://www.hallaminternet.com/landing-pages-visitors-enter-website/

Click on the Bounce rate column to sort by highest to lowest. These are the pages that people are landing on and leaving without navigating throughout your site. Now you have a starting point when it comes to optimizing pages!
NOTE: Blog pages have a very high bounce rate! If you link to your blog posts a lot, there is a high chance a ton of your pages in this table will be blog posts. To analyze this, take a quick look at the avg. session duration. If there is a blog post with 100% bounce rate but a session duration of 5 minutes, that is great! That means someone stayed and read your post.

What could be causing a high bounce rate? (these are some general ideas, a website audit would help bring any issues to light)

Blog posts
1. As mentioned above, blogs tend to have the highest bounce rate because the reader had a specific goal to read your post and then leave. This would be cause for concern if along with a high bounce rate, blog pages also had very low avg. session duration rate. This means someone came onto the page, didn't stay to read the whole page and then exited off. The other issue would be if you have placed a call-to-action at the bottom of your post. This means someone read your post, saw your CTA and then exited anyway so you should re-think the offer you are placing.
Affiliate links
1. If your landing page has any affiliate URLs (links to other domains), you will usually see a high bounce rate but this usually isn't an issue if you make money from affiliates! One way to avoid this: if possible, make sure the link opens in a new window so that your page is still on your reader's browser. In this situation, that reader will have to browse the rest of your site or it will still count as a bounce.
No clear call-to-action
1. Because this is a landing page, this is the first touch point your customer has with your company. Whether is the home page, a product page, a services page or a blog post, if the goal is to keep someone on your site, make sure you have a clear CTA listed somewhere.

Shopping Behavior

This is one of the MOST ACTIONABLE metrics for e-commerce companies to know! The shopping behavior report shows your site's sales funnel. You can see the following steps of the funnel: all sessions > sessions with product views > sessions with add to cart > sessions with check-out > sessions with transactions.

Find the shopping behavior report here: Conversions > E-commerce > Shopping Behavior

image source (edited to only show relevant metrics): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6014872?hl=en

Knowing this information can be great because:

If the percentage of sessions that moved from landing on your site to viewing a product is low, you can re-think the customer journey and how customers land on product pages
If the percentage of sessions that moved from product views to add to cart is low, you know to re-visit product descriptions or something on product pages that is stopping people from continuing through the sales process
If the percentage of people that go from adding to cart with actually checking out is low, there might be an issue with the check-out process

In addition to the funnel, you can also learn about the type of customers from the table at the bottom of the page. Learn how the purchase journey differs from new visitors vs. returning visitors. For example, if the percentage of those who add to cart and checkout is much lower for new visitors, you can assume that this step might be a bit confusing for those new to the site.

Conversion Rate / Revenue by Acquisition Channel

No wants to spend unnecessary money on marketing efforts that don't work. Wouldn't it be great to see exactly which acquisition channels bring in the most revenue? Using this information, you can either put more money towards the channels that are preforming well or re-visit strategy for channels that are not converting.

Find this information here: Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels. Then click on E-commerce in the top left corner above the graph.

image source (edited to only show relevant metrics): https://megalytic.com/blog/learning-to-use-the-google-analytics-ecommerce-reports

Sort Revenue or the e-commerce rate columns by highest to lowest so you can easily see which channels are making you the most money! To see more details about each channel, click on the blue hyperlinked name (ex: Paid Search, Organic Search, etc.). Now you can see the source/medium within each channel that is converting the most.

As you can see in this sample image, even though Paid Search is bringing in the second largest amount of revenue, it only has a 3.28% conversion rate while Email has a 12.12% conversion rate! This means that though there are less people coming in through Email, they are more inclined to purchase than someone from Paid Search. Because of this, you now know to put more time and effort into growing you email list as it can yield higher returns!

These are just 3 of MANY metrics that are important for e-commerce companies!