Google Analytics Individual Qualification Test Tips

I have been preparing for Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) Test for over a month. I think I am almost ready, though I am still too nervous to sign up and pay for the test. So I Bing searched the keyword of "Google Analytics IQ Exam"and found the following useful tips and guide at My Internet Corner Dot Com by Steve Sentosa on August 30, 2010. One thing to be concerned is Google launched the new Google Analytics V5 and new interface not long ago (Oct. 2011). I hope the GA IQ Exam doesn't include questions on new features.

Follows are useful guide and reference links I took from myinternetcorner.com. Thanks, Steve!

Google Analytics IQ Reference Links

GA IQ Test is an open book exam where you can gather all information from any source and use them while taking the exam, so I would like to list several links that would be really helpful both for learning and reference while taking the exam.

Conversion University Help. This is an absolute MUST resource that Google provided special for those who are preparing Google Analytics IQ Exam. It comprises close to 3 hours long video online tutorial of every topic that you would see on the exam. I would dare to say that this tutorial contains EVERYTHING you need for the exam, so focus on it.

Google Analytics Help. The “What can we help you with?” search bar is essential to find some reference material quickly. I used it a lot while taking the exam. Google.com is a good place to search Google Analytics materials, but it will lead you to other sites that might have unrelated Google Analytics content, so Google Analytics Help search would help you better since it will only refer you to Google Analytics support materials or user-submitted materials.
Google Analytics. Open your Google Analytics window. If you don’t have one, you would probably want to sign up for it first, and play around with it little bit before taking the exam, because you would need to know the kind of reports that Google Analytics has, how to access them, and what information would you get from each report.
Google Analytics’ Official Youtube Videos. If you want to learn more about the real application of Google Analytics and what’s the best practices for implementing Google Analytics for your site and business, Google Analytics Youtube channel is the perfect place.
Tool: URL Builder – Analytics Help. When you are asked to create a tagged-URL, this little tool will help you to construct a proper URL-tagged link.
Google Analytics Tracking Code API. This is a good place to get more detail information on some GA Tracking Code questions.
Regular Expression (Regex) IP Address Exclusion.
Metric Definitions

Google Analytics IQ – Learning Focus

The exam was pretty thorough in covering all materials about Google Analytics, so the learning focus here is more about topics that I wasn’t really familiar when studying for the exam. You might already know the topics below pretty well, but if you were a newbie like me, you would probably need to focus on these topics.

• E-commerce tracking – method used to track e-commerce transaction, when to use e-commerce value and goal value
• Filter setup – Regex for IP exclusion and link parsing, match type, order of execution
• Cookies – type of cookies, expiry
• Multiple domain and sub-domain tracking
• URL tagging – what tags being used and how to use them
• Virtual Pageview and event tracking – which one is better, how to set them up
• Google Adword integration

DONE & Passed on 11/20/2011!

Areas suggested to review:

• Interface Navigation
• Profiles in Google Analytics
• Goals in Google Analytics

Reading List for Ecommerce

This is the Reading List for Ecommerce Essentials I have read or will read and recommend to grow your eCommerce internet business.

I will try to add the book titles on a regular basis. The book order represents only the time I read the books. I might come up with a top ten list for certain categories, though it should be available much later.

#1. Google Analytics, Justin Cutroni. 2010. O'Reilly Media, Inc. 978-0-596-15800-2

#2. Web Analytics, An Hour a Day. Avinash Kaushik. Sybex

#3. Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity. Avinash Kaushik. Wiley

#4. Complete Web Monitering. Alistair Croll and Sean Power. O'Reilly

eCommerce Key Performance Indicators for Online Retailers

By Ralf VonSosen (the vice president of marketing for Infopia, a leading provider of multi-channel online selling solutions.)
EcommerceBytes.com

Gone are the days of selling through only a single online sales channel, such as eBay or your website. Here are the days of multi-channel online selling via a sophisticated collection of e-marketplaces and website stores.

For today's multi-channel online retailer, this multiplies the complexity of analyzing business performance. First, you would need to gather data from each one of your online channels. Next, you face the daunting task of not only analyzing a massive amount of data, but first stitching this data together for a unified view of your operations across all online channels. Without visibility into how these moving parts fit together, it's hard to see what your business is doing right, why, and where it can improve.

So how do you turn this chaotic jumble of performance data into actionable insights? Luckily, the field of analytics or business intelligence has also improved alongside the evolution of eCommerce. From our years of work with online retailers, here are a few steps in building a solid foundation for an analytics initiative, starting specifically with key performance indicators (KPIs) - the all-important dashboard needed to drive your business.

1. Define the Right KPIs.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable metrics that tie directly to a strategic objective your business wants to achieve, such as revenue growth, profitability, market expansion, cost reduction, and so on. Without measuring and analyzing performance, business strategy is a guessing game.
The trick, of course, is to first measure the right thing or create the right KPIs, and to do this, you need to answer two key questions: (1) what is my business trying to accomplish, and (2) what defines success for my online selling efforts? Our experience has enabled us to identify the most critical KPIs that online retailers typically need:

Measured Area	Best-Practice KPIs
Overall Business Performance	Most Profitable Products, Most Profitable Marketplaces, New vs. Returning Customers, Most Profitable Listings, Most Profitable Coupons
Online Sales Activity	Visitors & Conversions, Page and Listing Views, Orders, Shopping Carts, Up-sell Orders
Product Performance	Product Profitability, Top Sales Revenue, Top Close Rates
Listings Performance	Listing Turnover, Listing Profitability, Listing by Marketplace, Duration View
Marketplace Performance	Marketplace Sales Activity, Marketplace Profitability, Average Cost per Order, Marketplace Listing Turnover
Customer Insight	Customer Scorecard, Geographic View, Marketplace View, Lifetime Value
Campaign & Coupons Performance	Campaign Conversion Percentage, Campaign Activity - number of clicks, orders, Coupon Conversion Percentage, Coupon Activity - number of clicks, orders

2. Know How to Read Your KPIs.
Numbers don't tell you anything by themselves - they require context and interpretation. For instance, to determine whether it was a good year for a company with $10 million in revenue, you would also have to know how it performed in previous years, what the corporate goal was, how competitor companies of the same size or in the same geographical market had performed, and so on.
As with any other numbers, KPIs need interpretation too: Are they at acceptable levels? How are they trending? Are they going up or down? When read correctly, KPIs can answer questions such as:

• Revenues: Are they increasing at the rate you expect?
• Profitability: Are you making a good margin?
• Customer Growth: How many new verses existing customers?
• Product Turnover: How quickly are you moving inventory?

3. Diagnose Cause and Effect.
Now comes the hard part: determining the driving factors for a KPI's performance. Some causes for online selling KPI performance might include:

• Wrong Product: Is your product not wanted? Is it presented poorly?
• Right Marketplace: Are you focusing on the wrong marketplaces? Are you paying too much in fees?
• Ineffective Promotion: Are your promotions reaching the target audiences? Are they utilized in the buying process?
• Order Execution: Do customers abandon their shopping cart in the checkout process?

4. Take Action!
Ok, you have the right KPIs in place, you know what they mean, and you know what makes them go up and down...so now what? This is where the rubber meets the road, the raison d'etre for any analytics system: the ability to take needed action on the right information. Depending on your goals and evaluation of your KPIs, there are many possible actions you could take, such as:

• Marketplaces: Change your mix of marketplaces.
• Listings: Use different products and price mixes.
• Customer Service: Create better checkout processes and customer communication.
• Website: Coordinate your website in conjunction with other marketplaces.

With this basic understanding of KPIs, you will be better prepared to design and implement an effective analytics system to drive your business. Other considerations include the ability to: present data to different users in an easy-to-understand format, use both real-time and historical data, and pull data from all business processes, from inventory to cash. Online selling analytics is both an art and science: with some guidance, discipline, and vigilance, you can better compete in today's brave, new eCommerce world.

Google Analytics eCommerce Tracking Code for Yahoo Store

An important part of SEO for any Yahoo Store is to track your efforts by using Google Analytics tracking code; and Google Analytics eCommerce conversion code for key statistics on your SEO campaign.

You have to tweak a bit on the provided Google Analytics tracking code for e-Commerce purpose. Then navigate to: Store Manager > Checkout & Registration Manager > Page Configuration > Order Confirmation – Paste the following Google Analytics eCommerce code in "HTML Head Section" box and save changes. Publish Checkout Pages.

Check back your Google Analytics account for data streaming in over the coming days.

//Yahoo Store Order Confirmation Google Analytics eCommerce Tracking

Oops: JavaScript codes disappeared. Please contact me if you get to this page and have interest in the GA eCommerce tracking code.