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Deep Dive Into Google Analytics Account Uncovers Actionable Intel
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Case Study
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OPPORTUNITY
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital reached out to us with interest in an analytics audit of their website tracking. They were already collecting a large amount of data from their website but had concerns about their measurement practices. Most importantly, the Hospital wanted to make sure they were collecting the right data and that the data was accurate. They were looking for an analytics agency that could empower them to have confidence in the measurement of the value of their digital marketing efforts in real terms for marketing campaigns such as patient acquisition and retention.
Even an experienced internal analytics team like the one at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital has opportunities for growth.
When Cincinnati Children's Hospital approached us for a Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager audit, we were excited to put our tracking expertise to work for them. They had an internal team with the skills to both manage their Google Analytics account and also create tags in Google Tag Manager. But, like any smart team, they knew that they had gaps in their knowledge. They understood that their current measurement practices weren’t providing the sort of intel that could drive business decisions, like where to adjust the marketing budget to bring in new patients. They also weren’t completely confident that the data was accurate. Having an outside group — particularly one that specializes in custom Google Analytics projects — conduct an audit of their tracking setup was going to make them much stronger and enable them to use the data they collected to inform their business decisions.
That’s why they called us. The internal team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital understood that Google Analytics is a complex tool with a lot of hidden settings. If missed, these can cause major issues with data accuracy and precision.
SOLUTION
Our Decision Science team did a deep dive into the analytics setup of the Google Analytics account and Google Tag Manager implementation for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in order to identify any issues with these two tools. The most critical part of the audit process for us is strategic planning. We worked closely with the Cincinnati Children’s internal analytics team, along with key stakeholders on the marketing team, to fit the audit to the specific business objectives of our client. Our team was able to provide recommendations for custom goals and events in Google Analytics that would closely align with the Hospital’s objectives and marketing campaigns. Plus, we provided guidance on some of the other customized features in Google Analytics that the internal team had not effectively tapped into yet, like content groupings and custom dimensions and metrics.
One issue that many organizations face as they begin to grow their analytics initiatives is technical debt. The more advanced your tracking gets, the more time companies have to invest in maintaining it, which reduces the time they have available for analysis. We provided Cincinnati Children’s with a list of recommendations for their Google Tag Manager account that would consolidate their assets and future-proof some of their tags and triggers, allowing them to spend more time conducting value-driving analysis.
RESULTS
To meet the needs of our client, our Decision Science team created a fully encompassing measurement plan for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. After working to understand the Hospital’s goals and objectives, we helped develop KPIs to measure progress. Then we provided full-scale tagging recommendations for the entire site that would enable Cincinnati Children’s to track KPIs as custom data within Google Analytics. In addition, we capped the project off with an Opportunites Report to give insights into longer-term practices they could implement for a better understanding of marketing spend and consumer behaviors. Finally, we built a master account document where Cincinnati Children’s could easily access the findings and recommendations we created, including:
- 30
Key Google Analytics recommendations - 50
Unnecessary websites
removed - 17
Google Tag Manager tags
identified for removal
- 30 key recommendations to improve the accuracy of the Hospital’s Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager setup
- Removal of over 50 unnecessary websites tracked in the Hospital’s Google Analytics property
- Identification of 17 Google Tag Manager tags for removal/consolidation
- Creation of 4 customized process documents with best practices for implementation, such as how to set up a QA process for a Google Tag Manager container
- 5 common HIPAA & GDPR compliance concerns, including documentation of the steps the Hospital made to become GDPR compliant (a requirement for all organizations with more than 250 employees)
- Step-by-step instructions for dealing with complex issues, like a referral exclusion including incorrect data, when working with subdomains
Our work empowered the internal analytics team to focus on value-adding analysis for the Hospital. With our help, the client stopped expending time sifting through unnecessary data and started identifying valuable & actionable insights.
