In B2B, marketers spend most of their time generating traffic for the website via different channels & then getting them into the sales funnel as early as possible.
Once a prospect lands on your website, there are multiple factors that affect its conversion into a lead.
This is where Google Analytics comes into the picture.
Google Analytics helps you analyse how well the website is performing in terms of generating traffic and lead conversion and by evaluating the reports, you can take effective measures to improve its performance for better results.
But without having a proper method of quickly reviewing your analytic reports, it can be very time consuming and confusing for you to evaluate the performance every single time before presenting it to your clients or superiors.
But no worries! In this blog, I’ve compiled a list of the 12 essential Google Analytics reports for B2B marketers. Yes, that’s all you need to understand your website and the visitors.
So, let’s get started with the most basic but valuable report.
How much traffic is driving to your website? (Basic Report)
As a marketer, the first metric that you’d like to know is how many people are coming to your website. Right?
Well, there are two key metrics on Google Analytics homepage that says a lot about your website traffic –
1. Users
This is defined as the number of individual people browsing your website. It means when a user lands on your website and no matter how many pages they visit, it is counted as one user.
However, if the same person visits the website again on a different browser or device, it is counted as another user.
2. Sessions
This is defined as a number of times an individual visits your website. A single visit to the website lasts for 30 minutes during which they can browse the website or they can stay inactive, it is counted as a session.
But if the same visitor remains inactive or leave the website and returns back after an interval of 30 minutes, it is counted as another session by the same user.
Where does this traffic is driving from? (Acquisition Reports)
Now, you know how much traffic comes to your website but that’s not enough!
The next thing you should be focusing on is from where these people are actually coming from.
Google Analytics covers such data under the Acquisition section. It provides you with information about the channels, sources and campaigns that are sending traffic to the website.
3. Channels Report
(Acquisition > All traffics > Channels)
This report provides information about top channels that are directing traffic toward your website like the below screenshot.
Analysing this report can help you determine how much organic, paid and other forms of traffic are coming to the site.
4. Source/Medium Report
(Acquisition > All traffic > Source/Medium)
This report highlights the top traffic sources or mediums that direct traffic to your website.
Using this report, you can analyse on which platform more active and engaging audience is available and thus inculcate it into your marketing strategy.
5. Campaign Report
(Acquisition > Campaigns > All Campaigns)
In this report, you’ll find the top social media campaigns that are sending traffic to the site.
Using this knowledge, you can determine which campaign is performing best in terms of driving traffic to the website and can be a deciding factor for your future campaigns.
Who are these people coming to your website? (Audience Reports)
By now, you must have known that how many people are visiting your website and from where but who actually are these people is what you need to find next.
In the Audience section, you can find various reports to help you understand and know your visitors better.
6. In-Market Segment Report
(Audience > Interests > In-Market Segment)
In-market segment report provides information about users who are actively searching for products or services in specified categories with a strong intent to purchase.
Now, in B2B, you don’t target the audience based on their gender & age but on the basis of the industries and other professional attributes. Right?
So, this is where In-market segment report can help you evaluate if you’re reaching right people who are searching for the services or products from the relevant industry or not.
Based on the report you can optimize your website content & SEO activities to boost your visibility among the prospects.
7. Geographic Locations Report
(Audience > Geo > Location)
This report provides information about the top locations from where the people are visiting your website as shown in the screenshot below.
As you can see in the above image that the report lists down the top countries from where traffic is coming to the website. Now, if you click on one of these links, you’ll get a list of top traffic generating regions in that country as shown below.
Knowing the geographic locations of your visitors helps you determine if the visitors are coming from the targeted market or not. Also, this information can help you decide the next location for business expansion.
Isn’t this cool?!
How are the visitors behaving on your website? (Behaviour Reports)
People are coming to your website and are browsing through different pages for resources available on the site or to learn more about your product and services. But how can you determine how they actually behave once they land on your site?
This is where the Behaviour section of Google Analytics comes into the picture. It comprises of several reports that can help you evaluate your visitors’ behaviour.
8. Landing Pages Report
(Behaviour > Site Content > Landing Pages)
This report provides you with information about the top pages through which visitors entered your site.
Using this data, you can analyse which page drives the most traffic and from which channel by adding “Default Channel Grouping” in the secondary section like the image below.
Similarly, you can determine source/medium from where the traffic came to get a deeper insight into the page.
9. Exit Pages Report
(Behaviour > Site Content > Exit Pages)
In this report, you’ll find a list of pages where your visitors exit your site. In B2b, you want your visitors to explore other pages like services, features and exit by submitting a contact form or download form.
10. Top Events Report
(Behaviour > Events > Top Events)
This report provides you with information about the top event categories on your website.
For example, in the above screenshot, Outbound-link is the top event category triggered on the website. It means the visitors are mostly clicking on the links that drive them to other sites.
Now, if you click one of the event categories, you’ll find the list of event actions triggered under that category.
Are you achieving your targets? (Conversion Reports)
Driving traffic to the website is good, knowing your visitors is awesome but are they converting into your leads? Are you achieving your website goals?
Conversion Reports is divided into 3 sections i.e. Goals, Ecommerce & multi-channel Funnels. If your website doesn’t provide any kind of online transactions then following are the two key reports B2B marketers should focus on –
11. Goals Overview Report
(Conversions > Goals > Overview)
This report provides you with a quick summary of the total goal conversions made on the website.
You can also view the pages where goal completions are made & the sources from where the converted traffic landed on the website.
Also, this report can be useful only if you have set up your Google Analytics goals from the admin panel.
- Read – How to set up B2B website goals on Google Analytics
12. Multi-channel Funnel Overview Report
(Conversions > Multi-channel Funnel > Overview)
This report provides you data about the total number of conversions happened on the website through the funnel and the contribution of different channels in the conversion path.
Multi-channel Funnel report helps you understand that no one marketing channel contributes to the conversion but multiple ones as you can see below.
Wrapping Up
Google Analytics reports are invaluable for B2B marketers. The insights you can gather from these reports can help you make better decisions for future marketing campaigns and content optimization on the website.
So, have I missed any other important Google Analytics Report for B2B marketers? Let me know via the comments below.