Everything in Google Analytics, from bounce rates to ecommerce, is geotargeted. What this means to you is that simply by setting up Google Analytics, you've created a global view of your business. There are some really exciting ways to apply this wonderful information. From the coolness factor of these reports to the rich benefits of discovering your most lucrative markets, Google Analytics has your back. Let's dive right in! To get started, log in and click any country right from the map overlay on your dashboard.
Alright, now you're instantly greeted with a report of your web traffic by state. Let's make this immediately more actionable by clicking the ecommerce tab. If you've set up goals, you can also view those goal completions by region. This is where things get really fun:
Wow, California is really valuable! In fact, it's generating more than 6 times the revenue of our second best state. If we primarily sell in California, this is wonderful. If we ship to the entire country (or world), this is an indicator that we may want to diversify our marketing efforts. Another interesting metric we find on this report is the per visit value. This is our revenue divided by total visits. For California, we're averaging north of $7 every single time someone visits our site. Finding out why California is so valuable is a great use of our time. Texas and Florida combined have more visits than California, not to mention the million other visits from the other 47 states. Unlocking the secrets to this geographic success will produce tremendous rewards. That will take time, effort, and careful analysis. For now, lets note our exceptional states and move on to the other great features of our geographic reporting.
Click on a state to drill down to the city level. Set the map metric to revenue. We instantly see our revenue on a per-city basis, and the size of the bubbles on the map correspond to our areas of greatest value. If we're launching a media blitz to expand to a new market, these reports are invaluable in evaluating and improving advertising performance.
Now you have the power to see how you're performing in every market. Don't settle for simply reporting revenue. Set date ranges to see trends for each important market and tie those revenue trends to marketing initiatives. We're just scratching the surface of geographic reporting -- this reporting can be combined with demographics, psychographics, product and seasonal trends, and a treasure chest of other data. How deep you dig is limited only by your business volume.
If you're wondering how this magic works, it's all tied to IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. Just like your street address, your Internet service gives your computer a unique address such as 173.28.39.19. Each address range is registered with your service provider, and a lookup service associates web visits and revenue with locations. No IP addresses or personal information are stored in Google Analytics. In fact, Google has taken a strong stand against storing Personally Identifiable Information. Modifying analytics to include Personally Identifiable Information is an easy way to get your account, and all of these wonderful and useful reports, cancelled for good.
IP address lookup services are publicly available. If you tie this to your website, you gain the ability to instantly provide visitors geo-relavant information. Some examples include:
- Showing an events calendar for the visitors city/region
- Displaying real estate listings close to home
- Letting your visitor know that you still serve their market, even if you do it remotely
Empowering your content with smart geo-targeting features is a great way to improve conversion rates. We all know its frustrating when we struggle to find what we need -- so take care of that for your customers, and they'll take care of you. Case studies prove geo-targeted smart content can dramatically increase online results.