We think any ecommerce store can track Google Product Search Traffic using two different methods. The first method is URL tagging. Google also recommends URL tagging for tracking Google Product Search Traffic. Erica Ronchetti explains about UTM URL tagging in details on another post in our Blog. The second option is using Google Analytics Filters to segment the Product search traffic.

UTM Tagging:

Google provides a URL Builder for tagging UTM tags. However, if you have a huge list of products and you already provide a feed to Google Base, you can ask your developer to add the following code on the ends of your URLs:

“?utm_source=google&utm_medium=Product_Search&utm_campaign=google_base” at the end of the URL if you already did not use “?”
For example:

http://www.boomtownig.com/sample-products.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=Product_Search&utm_campaign=google_base

If you already use a “?” in your URLs, please do not use “?” again just add the tags with “&“. For example, if you have URL like:

http://www.boomtownig.com/product.html?q=sample-product

Then Use the code like this:

http://www.boomtownig.com/product.html?q=sample-product&utm_source=google&utm_medium=Product_Search&utm_campaign=google_base

After the tagging is complete, please wait for one day, Google Analytics will begin showing the traffic from Google Product Search under Traffic Source> All Traffic Source as Google / Product_Search.

If you want to add the tags on a short list of URL’s and you upload a feed to Google Base Using MS-Excel, you can do UTM tagging by following these steps:

Download your Products feed and open it with MS- Excel.
Next insert one column next to your Product URL on the worksheet.
Write the following tracking code on the top cell of on the newly inserted cell:
“?utm_source=google&utm_medium=Product_Search&utm_campaign=google_base”. Please note there should not be any space in the start or end of the cell.

• Drag the cell up-to the last row of the product URL.
• Insert another column next to the URL tag column.
• Now use CONCATENATE (i.e. CONCATENATE(E2,F2)) formula of the MS-Excel to merge your URL with the URM tag.
• Copy the result of Merge cell into Notepad.
• Delete both the newly inserted columns.
• Again copy the data from notepad to the URL column.
• Save the file and upload again on Google Base.

Wow! You did add UTM tags on your entire URL and now you must a allow minimum of two days for Google analytics to begin tracking the data.  It will show the traffic from Google Product Search under Traffic Source> All Traffic Source as Google / Product_Search.

Google Analytic Filters:

A Google Analytic filter is a useful tool to track traffic from a particular directory on your website or traffic from a particular source. Because of this, Google Analytic Filter are also another good option that can be used to track traffic form Google Product search. Before starting to use this filter, you need to understand “what you are going to track” first.

If you search on Google with “Ceramic Orange Travel Coffee Mug”, the resulting Google Search will show the following URL:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGLL_enIN368IN368&q=Ceramic+Orange+Travel+Coffee+Mug

However, if you search specifically on Google Product search (Google Shopping) with “Ceramic Orange Travel Coffee Mug”, you will see the search result URL is:

http://www.google.com/products?q=Ceramic+Orange+Travel+Coffee+Mug&aq=f

Therefore, if you want to use Google Analytic Filters to track all organic traffic which comes from http://www.google.com/products? You can follow these steps: (Please note you are going to track only organic traffic and not the sponsored links on Google Product Search.)

• Login to Google analytic.
• Click on the Account Name on which you would like to track the traffic.
• Click on “Filter Manager” then “Add Filter”
• Name the filter on the given text box.
• Choose Custom filter > Advance Filter.
• Now select & add the following values:
• Field A -> Extract A Referral  google\.com/products
• Filed B – > Extract B Campaign Medium organic
• Campaign Source Product_Search

Filed A Required: choose yes
Filed B Required: choose yes
Override Output Field: Choose Yes
Case Sensitive: Choose No or yes as per server support.

• Now select and add the profile on which you would like to add the Filter and save the filter.

You have setup the filter. Now let try to understand why we choose above value so you can do use them as per your requirement.

• Field A will look for a referrer URL as google.com/products.
• Field B will limit the data from organic search. Remember Google Also show Adwords ads on product search result. This field is only mean to limit your traffic from organic result of Google Product Search.
• The Output to Constructor will help you show the data as “Google Product Search” on your Analytics referral results.

Again allow Google analytic two days to track your traffic. It will be shown the traffic from Google Product Search under Traffic Source> All Traffic Source as Product_Search / organic.

The answer: Google Analytics UTM Tags.  These UTM tags or “Urchin Tracking Modules” are necessary for tracking individual marketing campaigns, via the different values you assign them.  It can be a challenge to track and measure the success of an email campaign or other online promotion and identify which recipients followed your “instructions”, especially if you are running several at once or your campaigns are across different mediums.

Example: You create an email blast to promote your new website and mail it out to a few hundred people.  How do you measure its success?  Who’s clicking your email link and who’s simply a new visitor to your site?  That’s where the Google Analytic UTM Tags come in to play.  UTM tags allow you to add specific extra information at the end of a link and then view this information later as a report in “Traffic Sources”.  You’ll be able to see who followed the link on your email blast and measure the success of your campaign.  It’s also effective for ePostcards, banner adds, and other online mediums.  You’ll need to create a landing page for your campaign, then add UTM Tags to that URL.

Here’s an example of a link with UTM Tags Added:

http://www.yoursite.com/page1.html?utm_source=Partner-Domain &utm_medium=Mailer&utm_campaign=Product

Lets discuss the required UTM values:

Utm_Source indicates the search engine, email list or domain that is the source of the link.

Utm_medium is what medium you’ve chosen for your campaign, examples being postcards, banner ads, email blasts, etc…

Utm_campaign is the unique name you give your campaign, such as “Fall_Specials” or “Winter_Sale”.

To create your new link, add a “?” to the end of the URL you want to track.  Then, add on the other UTM values with “&” between each term.  Google Analytics has a UTM URL builder to walk you through this process.

Viewing Your UTM Tag Results:

After you’ve added UTM tags to your links and promoted them, set up a PPC campaign, or emailed them to potential customers, you can log into Google Analytics and view your results.  Keep in mind that it may take Google Analytics a few hours to collect the data.

Click on “Traffic Sources” and then view “All Traffic Sources”.  Locate your URLs with UTM values, filtering by report information if your website is traffic-heavy.  You’ll then be able to see how many individuals clicked a specific link.

Google Analytics UTM tags are a great way to measure the success of an online marketing campaign by allowing you to create unique links.  You’re not limited in any way the medium you distribute these links, be it email, banners, ads, and even marketing campaigns that run offline.

If you have any questions about Google Analytics UTM tags, we’d be happy to answer them.

High Level Segmentation:

You can create new custom segments with the flexible and easy to use segment builder in Google Analytics. You can then compare segment performance side by side in the report.

Report Management:

You have the option to generate custom reports from here. You can not only create, edit, and add information but also you can organize it in the way you want. Every segment is present as long as you want, making it one of the best ways to manage and organize data in efficiently.

Custom Variable

Custom variables provide you with the flexibility to customize your Google Analytic account and collect the unique site data in the way your business needs. These variables allow you to define simultaneous and multiple tracking segments. You can arrange your data on the basis of hits, segments, visit level data, and tracking segments

Data Manipulation Tools:

You can manipulate data right in the report table and the use analysis fast tools to analyze the data with multi dimension tables and filtering features.

Creating the new Report:

Before building the report, the first and foremost thing you should keep in mind what dimensions and matrices you want to show in your report.

Steps to Create a Custom Report:

1. First, log in to your Google Analytics account.
2. Select the account from the list of accounts present of which you want to create a custom report.
3. You can access your custom reports from any profile in your Google Analytics account. Now Click ‘view reports” from any of your profiles.
4. In the left navigation bar, select ‘Custom Reporting’.
5. On the Custom Reporting Overview page, click ‘Create new custom report.’
6. Provide the name you want. You can choose the title you want but it is not necessary.  We suggest making a simple and easily identifiable title for your custom report.

For More Information on Google Analytics Custom reporting and how to create a Google analytics Custom Report, please refer to our “Quick Start Guide for Custom Reporting”. We welcome your comments.

In addition, CTR depends on whether total or unique clicks are tracked. Sometimes a recipient will click on many links, driving “total” clicks much higher than “unique” clicks.

The following average CTRs are for permission-based house lists, based on unique clicks (only one click per recipient is counted):

• Newsletter CTRs should range from 5% to 15%. Reasons for lower rates are: poor or irrelevant content, or putting too much in the email, and not giving the recipient a reason to click-through to your site.
• Promotional emails should range from about 2% to 12%. Reasons for lower rates are: over mailing and using a list where recipients have not opted-in.
• CTRs for Highly segmented and personalized lists should range much higher, in the 10% to 20% range.
• The highest CTRs result from Trigger or behavior-based emails (email sent as a result of clicking on a product link, visiting a specific Web page) range between 15% to 50%.

Other reasons for low CTRs include:

• Your opt-in process does not make it clear what kind of email will be received. For instance, you should not automatically add someone to your newsletter list if they actually gave you their email only to buy a product.
• Your email subject line is not compelling.
• Your email is not delivered because it is blocked or filtered.
• Poor email design and layout.

You need more links, both text and graphic, to entice readers to click.