I use Google Analytics & Etsy Stats a lot each day to help me decide what I should change with my marketing strategy and what marketing is working.
If you have any questions or have some additional methods that you use, please add to this discussion. I am going to post multiple discussions on this topic as it has a lot of sections.
The definition of Google Analytics is: Google Analytics not only lets you measure sales and conversions, but also gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site, how they arrived on your site, and how you can keep them coming back. Etsy Stats is somewhat similar (has extra features, but also lacks a lot of the features of Google Analytics).
You can set up Google Analytics for your Etsy Shop. Here is the link:
http://www.etsy.com/help/article/230This is very helpful insight. It is very important to know what happens when a person visits your sites. All the marketing efforts that you can do will be for no avail if you don't know what happens when they visit your site.
I use the Quicklytics APP for the iPhone to evaluate my Google statistics as well as my computer. The advantage of using the APP is that I can see results immediately at any time during the day as I am only on my computer once a day.
I am using the same tools for both my website and my Etsy Shop (but I have to admit, my website produces a considerable more sales than Etsy at the moment. I just joined Etsy 2 months ago). I receive a lot more valuable information from my own website as I enjoy a lot of traffic and sales each day.
Bounce Rate / Visit Duration / Page Depth (Google): These are very helpful pieces of information that I look at together. If my websites have a high bounce rate, short visitations (time spent on website) and low page depth (only looking at 1 page and leaving), I then know that possibly my home page is not strong enough to gain interest from my visitors. So, in the case of Etsy, I move different items to the 4 featured spots and rearrange my pages (moving products around to different locations on the page) to gain a stronger home page. With my own website, I might change the text to explain and describe my website better.
End Result: So no matter how hard I try to market my websites, the results will be ineffective as no matter how many visitors I receive, they will not be interested in my websites (possibly due to the organization of my products and my home page).
Location (Google): I divide the USA into 6 different areas (this might not pertain to you, but it also might set off a light bulb in your head). If a high percentage of visitors are coming from the Northeast USA, I will place more of my products that have an interest to the people in the Northeast.
Page Title Views: This can be done with Google Analytics or using your Etsy Stat Report. If you see that some of your highest items that people favorite are on not on the home page, I move those items from the back pages to my home page.
How Visitors Found Your Shop Or Website (Google and Etsy Stats). The following are listed on your Etsy Stat Report:
Your Listings Traffic from your listings to another page in your shop.
Your Shop Traffic from one page in your shop to another page in your shop.
Teams Traffic from Team pages and the Forums.
Search Traffic from Etsy search results.
Activity Feed Traffic from someone else's Activity Feed.
Favorites Traffic from someone else's Favorites.
Admirers Traffic from an Admirers page.
Another Shop's Listing Traffic from another shop's listing.
Someone's Shop Traffic from someone else's shop.
Your About Page Traffic from Shop About pages.
Your Shop Section
End Result: Depending on the amount of time I spend trying to market my website or shop (using Etsy Marketing), I look at the above results and evaluate the time spent and the results. If I spend a lot of effort in one particular section and gain small results, I will spend less time. If I spend little time and gain larger results, I will spend more time in that section.
Keywords (Google and Etsy Stats):
Depending on how visitors are finding my website and my Etsy Shop, I will eliminate keywords and add keywords based on their results. I will also use the helpful tool of doing my own search in the search bar on Etsy and Etsy will fill in the highest search terms immediately to give me hints on what my search terms should be. For instance: If I type in bird no in the search, Etsy will fill in 2 choices: "bird note cards" and also "bird notecards." This gives me the hint that note cards are spelled 2 different ways. If I didn't know that, I would be placing my products at a disadvantage right from the start. So, I add both bird note cards and bird notecards to my keywords.
That's a good start for now. I will be adding additional Google and Etsy Stat marketing again in another discussion post. If you have any methods that you use or have any additional ideas on the topics below, I would enjoy hearing from you. And... If you need further help on the information above, please ask and I will be happy to answer any of your questions.
Thanks for joining the team.
Mel
