Print Marketing Strategy: Google Analytics & Search Console
In the digital era that we live in, there is unlimited access to data that can help drive your decision making. And since we know your time is valuable, our goal is to help show print service providers like you, ways they can take the data available to them about their website and customers online and use that in their marketing strategy to turn online “window shoppers” into sales.
There are two Google platforms that provide an overwhelming amount of insight into your overall website performance. Both Google Analytics and Google Search Console are invaluable tools that print companies can use to monitor traffic, user behavior, the exact searches people are using to find their company, products or services, and more.
Since there is so much data available in those platforms, we decided to share some of the key metrics to look at in each to help guide you in the right direction.
How To Use Google Analytics in Your Print Marketing Strategy
Whether you’re just starting out using Google Analytics or have had an existing account for a while and know a little about it, it can be overwhelming when logging in and seeing all of the different reports Google is able to curate.
We should preface this section by saying we are going to be referencing different reports, views and insights that are available inside of Google Analytics 4 which is a newer version of Google Analytics that was rolled out in 2023.
One of the most valuable insights for all print websites that Google Analytics provides is User Behavior. This is a very broad categorization that we are using to talk about specific data about individuals that come to your website.
User Behavior
In Google Analytics 4, GA4, under the Life Cycle view, there is data on Users and Traffic and Pages and Screens that can be used to drive your print marketing strategy.
- Session/First Primary User (Default Channel Group) – This tracks the channel from which the user came to your website from. For example, if a user did a Google search looking for Direct Mail Marketing and clicked on your website, their session would be categorized under the channel Organic Search. Other Channel groupings include Paid Search, Organic Social, Paid Social, Direct, Referral, Display and Email.
This data can help drive your marketing strategy because by seeing where most of your existing traffic is coming from, you are able to focus your efforts on those channels while also working to drive traffic from the channels that are not generating as much traffic.
- Pages and Screens / Landing Pages – These reports showcase the pages that are most trafficked by the individuals visiting your website. The Pages and Screens view shows the web pages that are getting the most traffic overall. The Landing Pages view shows the top web pages that users land on first when coming to your website.
This data is insightful because it shows what pages are being seen as most helpful to your customers or which pages are performing best in the search engines or from your paid ads. You may find that your product pages are not getting as much traffic as your industry pages which tells you that people are more focused on seeing what work you’ve done for their industry. Or the opposite can be true where your product pages are getting a ton of traffic because they are showing up for product specific searches in the search results.
You can use these insights to create content that is relevant to what your customers or potential customers are already seeing as valuable or you can use it to create landing pages that will guide users to that content.
Events and Conversions
In order to track the exact actions users are taking on your website, you need to set up Events and Conversions in your Google Analytics account.
- Events – You can create Events that track when someone clicks a button on your website. For example, if you have a whitepaper or case study somewhere on your site that can be downloaded when someone clicks a link or a button, you are able to track that click. You can also track clicks leading into a shopping and/or checkout process if you have Ecommerce functionality on your site. Another easy event to track are form submissions from a Contact Page or Quote Form.
You can use this data to see exactly what actions are being taken on your website which can drive where and how you place content. You can also see where someone may be falling off in the purchasing process. If someone is abandoning right before checking out, it could signal there is a user experience issue with your Ecommerce site.
- Conversions – Conversions are similar to Events but in GA4, these are the most valuable actions you want to track. You can use Events to track the process a user may take, but you can track the final checkout as a Conversion for example.
If you find that you have 100 Events in a 7 day period but only 50 Conversions, it may indicate that website visitors don’t see what you’re offering as valuable enough to provide contact information in exchange for a Case Study or again, they may have issues with the checkout process.
How To Use Google Search Console in Your Print Marketing Strategy
While Google Analytics is good for overall website traffic performance, Google Search Console is able to provide different insights that can be helpful when determining your print marketing strategy. Google Search Console is solely focused on Organic Search performance which includes data only coming directly from the Google search engine, not paid ads, emails, etc.
It’s worth noting that in order to have access to the reports and data we’re sharing below, you’ll need to have verified your website inside of Google Search Console.
Performance on Search Results
- Search Queries – This report shows you the exact search query that was used when someone clicked on your website. To the right of this view, you can see the number of Clicks and Impressions for each query that was used.
This data can be used to figure out what your customers or prospects are using when searching for print products or services. Those findings can drive decisions on what keywords, or search terms, are included on your web pages.
- Pages – Similar to the Search Queries report, this report shows the pages that received the most impressions and clicks in the search engine. You can use this information and compare with what Google Analytics shows to create more valuable and relevant content for customers.
Indexing
In order for your website and all webpages to have the opportunity to even show in search results, your website needs to be Indexed. If your site is indexed, the Google crawler is able to “crawl” or scan your website and pages, store that information, and make decisions on how to rank and show the pages in search results.
If your website is not indexed, or you find that your pages are not showing in search results, this is an incredibly valuable tool to use because it will show you what pages are indexed, which aren’t, and the reason why it may not be indexed. If your marketing strategy includes driving Organic Search Traffic, you’ll want to make sure you’re telling Google to crawl your website.
Both Google Analytics and Google Search Console provide an incredible amount of data that we didn’t touch on here but we hope that looking at these key insights can help you make smart marketing decisions for your print company.