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5 Steps to View Your Facebook Fan Page Stats in Google Analytics

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If you’ve had a Facebook Fan Page set up for any amount of time, you may have noticed a little thing called Facebook Insights. This “tool” is reportedly Facebook’s answer to analytics.

Most SEO and social media consultants will feel compelled to tell you that Insights offers very little insight. Aside from who has commented on your updates and the age, gender and geographical breakdown of your fans, there isn’t much other insight Insights can provide.

Almost makes you wish there was a way to use Google Analytics to see how your Facebook Fan Page is doing doesn’t it?

I’m happy to report, after finding a hack produced by the folks at Webdigi, a London-based Web Development company, there is a way to set up your GA account to retrieve Facebook stats.

Here’s how:

  1. Assuming you already have a Google Analytics Account, set up a new website profile, titling the new profile “Facebook,” “Facebook/URL” or something you’ll know is your Facebook analytics. Be sure to find and copy the UA code provided once you set up the new profile. (the code will look something like UA-#######-#)
  2. Because Facebook allows for limited Javascript (whereas Google Analytics required a more robust use of Javascript), you’ll need to create an image of each Facebook page you want to track. Luckily, Webdigi has a Google Analytics link generator for Facebook pages (http://ga.webdigi.co.uk/) available for free use (thus far, this is the only tool available that I can find that does this sort of link generation for Facebook to GA).
  3. Copy the entire Webdigi code provided into the part of the Fan Page you are tracking. (For instance, if you want to track your coupon tab, discount tab and special offers tab you’ll need a separate code for each page.) You’ll need to paste the code in an FBML on that page, below whatever HTML you may have used in the FBML (see image).

    4. Facebook-Google-Analytics

  4. To track your Facebook Fan Page Wall, you’ll need to create an FBML page which can be transferred into a box that appears on the left hand side of your wall. One of the best ways to do this is to post a list of resources or links, embedding the Webdigi below your HTML.
  5. Google Analytics will take approximately 24 hours to confirm your code and begin to report results. Once the checkmark appears next to the name you’ve designated for your Facebook Google Analytics, you will be able to measure metrics above and beyond what Facebook Insights provides.

How to use Google Analytics to Track Your First Time and Return Visit Buyers

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More on advanced reporting with Google Analytics here.

Because your website is only as good as your ability to convert visitors into buyers, the following two advanced segment reports in Google Analytics will help you capture your first time visitor/buyers into repeat visitor/buyers. Follow the selections on the screen shots to set up your own site-specific reports.

First time buyer
This particular report can help you understand what motivated visitors to buy on their first visit. What you learn from this report can help you to motivate future new visitors to purchase in as few visits as possible.

first-time-buy-1

Return visit buyers
You can use the return visit buyer reporting tool to understand your returning visitor’s behavior. If they didn’t buy on the first visit, use the data in the report to optimize your site or process to ensure you convert visitors to purchases sooner.

return-visitors

Google Introduces Custom Reporting

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While managing campaigns here the other day I was happy to see the addition of two new features within Google Analytics.

  • Custom Reporting BETA
  • Advanced Segmentation BETA

Each option enables the end user to have more flexibility in developing and then saving reports vital to the success of their business. You can develop reports by simply dragging and dropping metrics and dimensions into what I’ll call a “palette”.

Both items are in BETA stage at this point but I immediately jumped in and developed a few reports to see what exactly can be done with these, and was happy to find that you can generate some nice reports that typically you would have to dig for under normal conditions.

A few screenshots of the interface are below for reference.

The first image below shows the location of the new custom reporting link.
Google Analytics Custom Reporting

The next image shows the link result of a custom report that was generated and saved for easy access later.
Google Analytics Custom Reporting

The new advanced segmentation feature (link location shown below) enables you to segment your data by various visitor types, traffic types, and more. This flexibility can further help you narrow down those visitors or traffic channels which contribute most to the success of your business.
Google Analytics Advanced Segmentation

A complete breakdown of the current segmentation options available are shown in the screenshot below.
Google Analytics Advanced Segmentation

There is no doubt that the addition of this form of custom reporting to Google Analytics will further enable users to get at the data they need to make informed decisions about their business.