google analytics for bloggers - step by step reporting on sponsored posts

Many PRs and businesses will ask for "your numbers" after a sponsored post has been published. To explain it better than I could, I asked Dana from Talk about Creative to share

OK, you’ve done a sponsored post for a new client. It went well, people chatted about the product and read your blog. Now what? You need to tell the client the good news about the sponsored post – and that means using Google Analytics. Oh dreaded Google Analytics – for bloggers this is the part of the process that most often holds you back. Giving a short Google Analytics report on the sponsored post will deliver you return custom time and again. So, here’s the step by step way to grab the data about your post. 

1. Where to find the main source of data

Scroll down the left hand side until you see Behaviour. Click it, and then click Site Content/All Pages. Choose the page you’re looking for. If there are just too many, try using the date box in the top right corner to narrow the list.

2. What you need to report

Once you have the right post you’ll be given the most basic data you need to report.

Most sponsors will want to know page views at a minimum.

• Page views: Number of times the post was seen
• Unique page views: The number of times it was seen in each unique session. This is not the number of unique users. If a user came to you blog twice and clicked on this page twice, it would be counted here
• Average time on page: How long they hung around. If this is very low, it means they didn’t read your whole sponsored post.
• Entrances: The number of times this was the first page they saw on your blog
• Bounce Rate: The percent of people who didn’t click any other pages on your blog. This can indicated they all clicked off to buy the sponsor’s product or it can indicate that the readers we’re interested in reading other content on your blog.
• %Exit – the percent of people who left your blog from this page
• Page Value – if you have ecommerce built into your blog, this is where you’d learn how much money the page had generated.

You can technically stop here. Give the sponsor that screen shot and then ask if they need anything else. Most will appreciate more data though!

3. Reporting about market segments

Do you want to show that your most loyal readers checked out the post? Or that the post is ranking in Google Search results? That an ad you ran drove traffic too? How about the number of people who saw it on their mobile? All these and more can be applied by slecting additional “segments’ in the section above the table you’re now looking at. Everything you do from then on will show you how that “segment” performed too!

4. Reporting on specific dimensions (variable thingys)

Above the table you’ll see a button that says Secondary Dimension. Click it. Here you can select “Users” to tell the client where all your traffic was located or apps to see if they used the client’s app to find you. There’s also never ending data on their behaviour and where they came from. You’ll need to have a play to best understand it all! Select Sources/Social Network to see which of your social platforms sent you the most traffic (so you can sell the client a shout out next time!)

Note that frequency and recency are scores used to assess the “touch rate” of a campaign, these are found in both the main menu and in this dimension breakdown menu under Users/Days since last session.

5. Click rates on client link

The client has access to this data at their end. How many “referrals” they received from your sponsored post. If you wish to show them, while in the same view select In-Page from the top menu (currently Explorer will be selected). This brings up a view of your actual blog post with data on each link and how many times it was clicked. A screen shot of this will stop any sponsors saying they had “no response” J

6. Optional: Create it all in a Custom Report

Google will allow you to create reports right there in Analytics, no screenshots, no explaining required via the customization tab at the top of the page. These can be a bit fiddly and don’t allow for some metrics. They’re ideal though if you’ve done the 101 and are now using more advanced tracking. For step by step set up of custom reports, check out this post on the Google Analytics help centre. 

Google Analytics for bloggers is about more than checking your traffic numbers and stalking readers in Real Time (who knew!). Once you’ve done this a few times you can begin to see patterns which you can then use to sell bigger and better packages to advertisers. You can also use it to figure out your CPM rate which gives an instant, accurate and justified dollar value to your writing. Google Analytics for bloggers means a more professional and profitable blog, long term.

About the Author:

Dana Flannery runs digital marketing company Talk About Creative. Talk About Creative creates connections between businesses and bloggers on all scales. Dana’s biggest challenge is finding smaller bloggers who want to be paid – so she’s on a mission to educate what business needs to work with you!