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How to smash
Google Analytics for
eCommerce
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
eCommerce
Webinars
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Today’s Webinar:
Handling Discontinued / Out Of Stock Products
Episode two coming soon...
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Paperchase.co.uk case study
Subscribe today and access all episodes:
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
lukecarthy.com/LTS
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
I’m an eCommerce
Consultant
I’ve worked with..
I want to share a
story with you..
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
The ‘I can’t replicate
the issue so I’m
closing the ticket’
story
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Meet Dave & Lucille.
Dave Lucille
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Who’s Dave?
✅ Digital Manager at an eCom store
✅ Uses GA almost daily
✅ Enhanced eCommerce whizz
⚠️ ‘Out of the box’ GA account
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Dave has a problem..
Google Analytics is cool at telling
Dave about the sales they’ve
won...
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Dave has a problem..
…but it’s not great at telling him
about the sales they’ve missed
and why.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Dave has a problem..
Dave’s GA only delivers indicators
and insights, not solid proof.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Dave has a problem..
‘I think...’
doesn’t get prioritised.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Who’s Lucille?
✅ Digital Manager at an eCom store
✅ Uses GA frequently
✅ Enhanced eCommerce whizz
🛠 Gone beyond ‘out of the box’ config
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lucille’s killin’ it.
Lucille can quickly get to that sweet,
sweet solid proof…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lucille’s killin’ it.
…and attach even more high res
data to strengthen her findings…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lucille’s killin’ it.
...which means Lucille has killer stats the
board simply can’t ignore.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lucille’s killin’ it.
Lucille is able to get tickets prioritised
higher and closed faster…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lucille’s killin’ it.
…She’s saving the devs major time and
effort by pinpointing the exact issues.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Payment failed.
Error 1007: Please
contact sales on…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Invalid card number,
please check and
retry
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Payment failed.
Error 1007: Please
contact sales on…
The results? Up to
£30k p/day sales
increase virtually
overnight
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
How to build a bad ass
GA rig like Lucille
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Custom definitions.
Why are they
awesome?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
They allow you to
send custom data in
to GA
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Custom dimensions
can be applied to
almost any dataset
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
After that, there’s a
bit of Google Tag
Manager tinkering
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
I’ve included some
helpful resources (links
at the end)
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Capturing error
messages in GA
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Error messages
Identify how many times every error fires,
the specific text and where
Answer
questions
like these…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
What errors are firing at the
checkout and how many visitors
see them?
Answer
questions
like these…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Are there errors that could be
rewritten to improve UX/CRO?
Answer
questions
like these…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
What pages display the most
errors?
Answer
questions
like these…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
What errors are hurting
conversions the most?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Capturing lost basket
value in GA
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
GA isn’t great at
reporting the sales
you’ve lost
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lost basket value
Where do we lose the most potential
sales?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lost basket value
What does slow website performance cost
us?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lost basket value
How much cash are we losing due to that
error message?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lost basket value
How does the lost
basket value
dimension work?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Capturing product
stock status in GA
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Product stock status
Is zero stock the reason why sales were
low for specific lines?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Product stock status
When an item has low stock, how does it
impact conversion?
Capturing
promotional statuses
in GA
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Product stock status
How does a price reduction or offer impact
conversion for these items?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Product stock status
Does 3 for 2 or 1/3 off work better?
A few bad bits re
custom definitions..
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
A few bad bits
They can’t be deleted once they’ve been
added.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
A few bad bits
You can only have a max. of 20 of them
across a property. Bastards.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
A few bad bits
Where custom
definitions get ugly,
events get sexy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Firstly, there’s no
limits on the number
of events
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
But there are
nuanced
differences...
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Some differences
Custom definitions tell you what, events
tell you when…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Some differences
Dimensions Metrics Events
Transaction type Transaction amount Purchase completed
Customer type Number of transactions Saved quote
Stock status Item price Added to basket
There are no hard
and fast rules
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Some differences
Events can also be used to power goals,
custom dimensions can’t.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Some differences
Custom definitions:
{Def. name} : {value}
Events:
{Category} : {value}
{Action} : {value}
{Label} : {value}
{Value} : {number}
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
How to Smash Google Analytics for eCommerce | Luke Carthy | DRINK :// Digital
Fire an event when a
search returns ‘no
results’
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
How to Smash Google Analytics for eCommerce | Luke Carthy | DRINK :// Digital
Fire an event
like this:
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Event params:
Category: Site Search
Action: no results
Label: {Search term}
Value: 1
So you can
confidently answer
questions like
these…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Answer
questions
like these…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
What are the items that
customers are looking for that we
don’t sell?
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
'No results’ event
Dalhua | Alhua | Dahau | Olhua | Dower | Dahooa
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Dahua
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Da-who-ah
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Answer
questions
like these…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
What misspellings are we not
optimising and how often are
they searched?
Answer
questions
like these…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
What non-commerce queries are
our customers searching for?
You can take this
further than just
search too…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Flag all empty
categories too
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Last but not least…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
A report that needs
zero dev and takes
mins to setup…
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
A 404 counter sorted
by customer impact
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
How to Smash Google Analytics for eCommerce | Luke Carthy | DRINK :// Digital
Plus some other cool
stuff and ideas
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Lukecarthy.com/
LoveInbound
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Links n stuff:
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
Step-by-step guide to setting up custom dimensions:
https://online-metrics.com/custom-dimensions/
GTM basics – rules in a nutshell by Simo Ahava:
https://www.simoahava.com/gtm-tips/gtmtips-rules-nutshell/
The official GA docs for custom dimensions:
https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6164990?hl=en
How does eCommerce tracking work? (Colouring In Department)
https://thecoloringindepartment.com/google-analytics/how-does-ecommerce-tracking-work/
Be more Lucille.
Lukecarthy.com @MrLukeCarthy
T
M
Thank you!
@MrLukeCarthy
/in/lukecarthy
lukecarthy.com

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How to Smash Google Analytics for eCommerce | Luke Carthy | DRINK :// Digital