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ATTENTION!
You start collecting data when your GA account is made and linked to your Google Site. The sooner you set up your GA account & link it to your website, the better.
Table of Contents:
It's completely free to use Google Analytics (GA). If any site claims otherwise, they’re lying. In this guide, I'll teach you how to hook up Google Analytics and some basic business / data analysis points relevant to your art practice. I presume the majority of people reading this guide are not in the digital marketing field. I will be over simplifying the data given the overwhelming amount of data Google Analytics gives users.
Full disclosure: I am not experienced with utilizing analytics for marketing strategies or using GA. I'm sharing what I do know. GA is a complex tool to fully learn.
What can I use Analytics for?
What can I use Analytics for?
Everyone on the internet is vying for your attention - whether you intended it or not, you are too! The more eyes on your work, the better. The goal of analytics is to better understand the audience that views your artwork so that you can engage your audience better. This could mean catering your content to what’s popular, advertising more exclusively on specific social media channels, or even just better optimizing your website’s user experience.
For most people, these stats will lead to trying to improve sales. Artists are inevitably entrepreneurs who are trying to sell work to turn a profit. However, if your art is not the kind of work seeing sales but rather social action and change, analytics will help you see what things are causing people to take action (ex. A powerful webpage that motivates users to sign a petition, turn out for a rally, etc.).
Analytics will give you insight on:
Demographics: who your audience is and where they’re located.
Engagement: what keeps your audience’s attention, what sells / leads to action, how long they view your work.
User Acquisition: where people are finding your artwork from.
Tech Optimization: what devices & screen resolutions your audience uses.
More specifically, insights like:
Where people found the link to your website from.
+ Helps you prioritize your most popular social media feedsWhich pieces are most popular / most viewed by what webpages are viewed the most.
+ Helps you see what work potentially could sell for the most amount of moneyWhere the majority of your audience is.
+ See if your work sells locally or internationally. Do you need to make pricing for international shipping cheaper?Where large community centers for your craft might be.
+ If there's a huge amount of users from the UK viewing your work, there's probably a large real life community there doing whatever activity.How long users spend on your website.
+ Is your website or artwork engaging? Are they shop browsing?What your audiences' related interests are.
+ Helps you diversify products and understand what subjects or themes might do well with people.
... and so on.
Preface: Google Analytics 4
Preface: Google Analytics 4
As of October 2020, Google Analytics has been moving from Universal Analytics (UA, or GA3) to Google Analytics (GA4). GA4 is the default system for ‘properties’ in your Google Analytics Account. You are still able to use a UA system for properties if you desire. In your account creation, you can make both a GA4 and UA measurement / tracking id at the same time. (this step will be explained in the next section). You can read about additional releases / updates to GA4 here.
I am not an expert in this what-so-ever, but due to Google’s move toward GA4, I will be focusing my efforts in this guide on understanding GA4. While some features may be missing from GA4 that UA has, it is best to simplify what we’re working with here. I heavily encourage you to explore and experiment with the platform. I am teaching you what I know, but I’m learning as much as you are.
"HEY! THIS GUIDE IS OUT OF DATE!"
After June 2021, it’s entirely possible that some of this guide will fall out of date. Google has a habit of making new tools quickly and expecting others to explain most of it for them. Many of their tools simply become outdated over time as they rush to make new ones. When in doubt, search YouTube for a tutorial on Google Analytics 4 with the current year in the search terms.
How to Link Google Analytics to Google Sites
How to Link Google Analytics to Google Sites
I highly recommend watching this video in full.
It explains how to set up your GA account and teaches you what the menus mean. He is also dedicated to trying to help you find the most up to date information on GA. I have based the majority of the instructions on this tutorial. I have kept my written guide here in case video tutorials aren’t your fancy.
by Analytics Mania - Google Tag Manager & Analytics.
Disclaimer: As of June 2021, these steps are accurate. Not all terms will be covered in this tutorial. I will be doing my best.
a) Check that the right google account is logged in the top right corner. You should use the account that your Google Site is located on. Make sure that YOU own the google account you are using for analytics. Do not let someone make it under their name - if they leave, so does all your analytic information.
b) When you’re ready, click “Start Measuring”.
Step 2. Follow the account setup process & make a GA4 & UA tracking / measurement ID.
Step 2. Follow the account setup process & make a GA4 & UA tracking / measurement ID.
A) IMPORTANT! Set up a GA4 & UA property at the same time.
Under “2: Property Setup”, click “Show Advanced Settings”. Toggle on the option to “Create a Universal Analytics Property”.
As of June 2021, most tutorials on account creation recommend you do this because UA has features GA4 doesn't have (yet). While you will probably only use GA4 because it seems Google Sites only allows 1 tracking / measurement ID, it's best to have both on your account. I will be investigating how to add both to your site soon. The UA property can always be deleted in your account later.
b) “Account Name” is the overarching name your tracking ids (web domains, apps) fall under. For mine, I used “Printmaker’s Library” since anything on my Printmaker’s Library Account would have something to do with that. Can be a company name, artist name, your name, etc..
c) Account Creation Notes:
Business Information
For "How you intend to use GA", you don’t have to check any of this.
If you fill it out, supposedly it will cater your data toward your needs (probably machine learning).
Account Data Sharing Settings
Check mark all of this, especially the first box. If you do not tick the first box, you will not get access to advanced demographics - the age, gender, and interest of users. Advanced demographics will show you the information of users who have opted into Google’s Ad Personalization. It’s important for you as an artist to understand the demographics of your audience.
My Email Communications
DO opt in: "Performance Suggestions & Updates".
Google will send you status report emails monthly about how many visitors have been to your site.OPTIONAL: Feature Announcements
Lets you know changes to the platform. Google Promotional / Feedback testing. I don't sign up for these.
Step 3. Go to your Google Analytics page
Step 3. Go to your Google Analytics page
You should now be automatically redirected to a page that looks like this.
If you haven’t reached this page, go to Google Analytics again, check that the right account is logged in, and navigate to “Data Streams” (see Step 3.5).
Step 3.5. Navigate to “Data Streams”.
Step 3.5. Navigate to “Data Streams”.
a) In the bottom left corner, click the “Admin” gear icon.
b) In the second column click “Data Streams” (the red box seen here).
c) If you click anything in the first column, it’ll cause the second to disappear. If you’re lost, return to the full menu by clicking the back arrow to the left of the column, or the “Admin” icon in the bottom corner.
Step 4. Add your Website to your Data Stream
a) Click “Web” from the options.
b) In the next menu, add your website URL and name the stream accordingly.
Ex. I named www.kaitlyn hollander.com as "Kaitlyn Hollander"
Step 5. Copy the Tracking / Measurement ID for Google Site
Step 5. Copy the Tracking / Measurement ID for Google Site
The red box contains your website’s measurement ID. We will be inputting this into the Google Site so tracking can begin.
The red box contains your website’s measurement ID. We will be inputting this into the Google Site so tracking can begin.
Step 6. Add the tracking ID to your Google Site site in the Settings menu.
Step 6. Add the tracking ID to your Google Site site in the Settings menu.
a) Go to your Google Site. Make sure you’re logged into the correct account.
b) Click the “Settings” gear icon along the top bar. Click “Analytics”.
c) Enter the tracking ID from Step 6. It should automatically enable analytics from here.
Step 7. Check to see if your Google Site and Analytics are linked.
Step 7. Check to see if your Google Site and Analytics are linked.
a) Go to Google Analytics. You should now see this as your menu on the “Home” tab.
b) After some time, you’ll be able to see the results of your measurements! Take a look around the platform in the meantime.
Add Google Analytics Demo Accounts
Add Google Analytics Demo Accounts
It’s difficult to learn a tool when you don’t have a large set of data. Google has fixed this problem for you! They will give you access to their demo account which tracks data for the Google Merchandise store and the "Flood It!" mobile game app. There’s UA and GA4 properties to view in there.
1. To access the demo account, go to this help article.
2. Go to “Access the Demo Account”. Click the link at the bottom of the section.
3. The Demo Account will be added to the primary signed in Google Account.
If you only have one Google Account, you will have no issues.
If you have multiple Google Accounts and your primary signed in account isn’t the account you have your Google Analytics account on, you will need to do the following:
Open a new private browsing / incognito window.
Return to Step 1’s link. Click “Access Demo Account”.
Sign into the account you wish to add the demo account to.
Scroll back down to “Access Demo Account”.
Now the account should be with your desired google account.
Using Google Analytics 4
Using Google Analytics 4
Repeating from before... Analytics will let you answer the questions like:
1. Who's looking at my work?
Demographics: who your audience is and where they’re located.
Using the "Overview" tab
2. What are the most popular works on my website?
Engagement: what keeps your audience’s attention, what sells / leads to action, how long they view your work.
Using the "Pages & Screens" tab
3. How are people finding my work?
User Acquisition: where people are finding your artwork from.
Using the "User Acquisition" tab
4. How do people view my work?
Tech Optimization: what devices & screen resolutions your audience uses.
Using the "Tech Overview" tab
Who's Looking? | Demographics: Overview
Who's Looking? | Demographics: Overview
Under the “Demographics” tab we have “Overview”. This shows where in the world your users are from, as well as other demographic data IF those users have opted in to giving Google additional data.
This section helps you understand:
1. What country & city your users are from.
2. Where else you can locate demographic data (off Google Analytics).
For an artist portfolio, you will care most about:
Users by Country
Users by City
To get information on other demographics not collected by GA4, we can use the data collected from our other social media platforms. Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms all collect data and with the correct account type, you can access that data.
On instagram, a Business Account lets you see the age and gender of your users, as well as what time of day they are most active among other stats. You can change your account to a business account in the "Settings" of the App.
Disclaimer: GA4 does not automatically collect data about gender and age. Additional actions must be taken to add the proper tracking metrics. See the video in "How to Link Google Analytics" for more details about this issue.
On Generally Using Demographics in your Art Practice
Art is a strange commodity: buyers are not a heterogeneous group. The "Customer Profile" of art buyers varies drastically depending on the kind of art sold. Sometimes, it's just plain unpredictable.
I think once you're 'in art', you realize just how broad 'art' is. The outside tends to group it together, but it's really not categorically the same product. Unless the art market you're in is made up of distinctive people (for example, Gaming Fan Art Artists), chances are your audience won't fully fit into one or two neat boxes.
Analyzing demographics for your art will help you better optimize your social media, selling platforms, and messaging / advertising. You want to be where your audience is. Even if your audience is fairly unpredictable.
So what can we do with this information?
The customer profile of your buyers / audience determines your selling venue / platform & how you market / engage with your audience.
Case Study: "Fine Artist" vs. "Gaming / Pop Culture Fan Artist"
While both of these groups make art, they will use different platforms for:
Social Media
Selling Platforms (Physical Locations & Digital Stores)
Messaging / Advertising (what kinds of posts they'll make to their audience)
Fine Artist is defined as an artist looking to generally making conceptual art, or someone who produces art that follows in the legacy of the old masters. Usually original ideas (no copyright issues). Think of the art at your local gallery. Gaming / Pop Culture Fan Artist is defined as artists who tend to digitally create art that falls under the idea of 'fan art'. They operate in the 'grey zone' of legal prosecution where they are violating copyright laws, but don't make so much money for any given company to shut them down. Think of the art seen at comic / anime conventions.
Fine Artists likely will use:
Social Media
Facebook if they are over the age of 30
Instagram if they under the age of 29
TikTok if they are under the age of 25 (especially under 20)
Otherwise, they'll likely network more in real life through events, galleries, or friends.
Physical Selling Venues
Booth set ups at local art fairs, major art fairs,
galleries / artist run centers,
other arts related community events.
Wall space in coffee shops, vineyards, and other local businesses.
Digital Selling Venues
Gallery like: Artfinder, SaatchiArt, Partial.gallery, etc.
Craft sites: Etsy, etc.
Independently: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, their own website.
Messaging / Advertising
Progress posts in stories, sometimes on the main feed. Video reveals are popular. Exact messaging depends on the audience and the style of the artist. A person who sells a lot to moms might post a lot of inspirational posts about progressing as a person, or paint their children.
Gaming / Pop Culture Fan Artists likely will use:
Social Media
Instagram, TikTok with possible cross posting to Youtube.
Deviantart, Behance, ArtStation as portfolio and networking sites.
Physical Selling Venues
Anime / Gaming / Comic Conventions
Digital Selling Venues
Some digital marketplaces, usually ones linked to the social media platform of choice.
Often Independently: any of the aforementioned websites can lead to commissions.
Independent website selling prints.
Messaging / Advertising
Short 30 second progress stories with commentary. Speed paints on Youtube. Constant posting of content is required. Many digital artists will hop on trend trains (ex. Bowsette, other new gaming characters). Some original characters, but often draws and sells fan art of popular characters in pop culture. Sells digital prints of digital artwork. Some digital artists are entering the NFT market.
Users by Country & Users by City
Coming soon. Long and short of this section is:
Examine this part of GA4 to see where people are located.
GA4 can give a greater breadth of locations than instagram since not all people looking at your art will be using instagram.
What's Popular? | Engagement: Pages & Screens
What's Popular? | Engagement: Pages & Screens
Under the “Engagement” tab we have “Pages and Screens”. This shows which web pages users have visited the most, as well as additional data.
This section helps you understand:
1. What content is popular with users.
2. What specific content sharing actions give the most engagement time.
We will focus on the data table at the bottom of the page.
For an artist portfolio, you will care most about:
The views on the page, users, and new users.
The top listed pages.
Views per user.
Average engagement time.
The fourth one may not be relevant for you; if your page is not text heavy, likely people will surf through your images quickly and this time will not be high. If your webpage is text heavy, then you do want people to spend more time engaging with your content.
1. Views, Users, New Users
Views refers to the amount of times a webpage is seen by a user (including repeat visits). It counts every time that page is opened and seen, even if it’s a repeated page by the same user.
Example: You’re tasked with writing down how many people walk through a hallway. They tell you to mark down anytime a thing walks past. It doesn’t matter if the same person walks by twice, mark their second walk down as well. If a dog or robot walks by, mark it as well.
New Users refers to the number of recent, unique people who have been on that webpage. Currently, I don't know what amount of time Google quantifies as new (a month? year? till the end of your 2 or 14 month analytic storage?)
Real life example: You are tasked with recording how many unique individuals have walked down the hallway. You mark down that Sandra, Kevin, Jax, and Sophie walked down the hallway. You record 4 unique people.
Users refers to the number of people, returning and new, who have been on that webpage.
Example: Back to the hallway. You are tasked with marking down how many people walk by, even if it’s a repeat person. You don’t mark down when a dog walks past. You sometimes mistake a robot for a human walking past because they’re very convincing.
So what can we do with this information?
What's most popular on your site?
Views show you what is most popular. For a portfolio, the artworks toward the top of the page tell you what content your audience enjoys the most.Do you retain the interest of your audience?
Ratio of Users to New Users tells you whether or not people are revisiting your content.How many new people see your work?
New Users tells you how many new people you are reaching out to.
2. Top Listed Pages by Metric
The chart shows a simple ranked tier on the left side: the pages with the most amount of the metric measured goes to the top of the list, least amount of the metric goes to the bottom. By default, it's set to "Views" You can change the sorting criteria to one of the other measurements (ex. Users, Avg. Engagement time, etc.) by clicking the desired header.
So what can we do with this information?
Depending on what you measure, you learn different things about the habits of your users on site.
Views show what's most popular, but Average Engagement Time tells you what people are actually spending time on.Compare metrics against one another.
In comparing metrics against each other, let's say 'views' versus 'most engagement time', we can see if our popular content also keeps people's attention the longest or if it's something else unexpected. What are the correlations?
3. Views per user
Views Per User refers to the average amount of times that a user views the same page.
Example: There’s a painting in the hallway and each visitor stops to look at it. Some visitors view it more than once while they pass. Of the 4 people who have stopped in the hallway, the painting was viewed 6 times in total. The views per user average: 1.5.
So what can we do with this information?
Do you retain the interest of your audience?
A much better metric for seeing whether or not users return to view a specific piece of content regularly.
4. Average engagement time
Average engagement time refers to how long the user had a focus on the webpage for in their browser.
Example: Each time someone stares at the painting in the hallway, you record how long they spend staring at it. You take all the times, add them together, and divide it by the number of times the painting was viewed to get the average engagement time.
So what can we do with this information?
The more time spent staring, the better!
Usually, the longer someone spends actively looking at something of yours in their browser, the better. It probably means they’re admiring your work and are a fan of it.
Note: the browsing habits of most people on the internet: there is a constant flood of images online, so people don’t tend to stare at one image for long. A low engagement time would not mean your artwork is unloved. The amount of views would better speak to popularity.
Text heavy site? Longer engagement time equals more reading!
If there is a text heavy portion of your site, a longer engagement time is certainly what you want.
Note: Keep in mind the average reading speed of people is 200-250 words per minute. If your article is 1000 words, then people would only spend 4-5 minutes max. Most would likely only get through ¼-½ of it, so adjust your expectations for this metric on that.
Applying this information to the Printmaker’s Library in June 2021
From analyzing these metrics, I can change the way I advertise my content to people and what articles I take priority in writing.
I can think about where I might have advertised specific articles (pieces) and see if that's boosted their popularity.
By my View counts, I can tell the most popular article on site is the Cheap Online Portfolio. In the guide, the landing page, 1st, and 4th section are most viewed.
Comparing my Users to New Users, I can tell I am retaining some of my audience.
For the Cheap Online Portfolio, the user count drops off as it continues into the next sections. People aren’t following the guide in order, but rather picking what they want to read, or they aren’t getting further than the initial landing page.
Perhaps this is because it is text heavy? Or the guide I’ve made is a big commitment to do and people’s attention span on the internet is small?
Judging the Views Per User, I can see that users return to the Print Home Basics article the most viewed.
The page with the most Average Engagement Time is the “4. Web Design & Portfolio Features”. I had advertised this page on Reddit in response to a user who didn’t know what their online portfolio needed to include. Perhaps Reddit is a good place to advertise my library articles because the user base is more likely to engage with lengthy, text based content. Additionally, they are searching for answers which guarantees engagement. After all, this is the basis of the site Reddit itself. What Reddit communities could I leverage besides r/ArtistLounge?
While the above page has the most engagement time, users aren’t revisiting the page.
Actions I might take moving forward:
Create more printmaker specific content and test it against general artist content. Which fares better?
Actions I will take moving forward:
Test instagram engagement by posting more regular updates about the status of articles as they are written.
Engage with people’s specific questions on r/ArtistLounge and other similar subreddits on Reddit. Try printmaker specific forums as well.
How do people find me? | Acquisition: User acquisition
How do people find me? | Acquisition: User acquisition
Under the “Acquisition” tab, we have “User Acquisition”. By changing the criteria from “User medium” to “User Source”, we can see where people are finding the website from.
This can tell you whether or not your website is found through searches, social media, or by being directly accessed. You can also see which platforms more effectively keep users on your site.
For an artist portfolio website, you will care most about:
New Users by User Source
Engaged Sessions
Average Engagement time
1. New Users by Source
Changing to “User Source” as your viewing criteria will allow you to see which websites / social media platforms are bringing in traffic to your website.
Note: (direct) is defined as website visits that arrived on your site either by typing your website URL into a browser or through browser bookmarks.
So what can we do with this information?
Discover what channels are most effective for advertising your art on.
Are people Googling you? Typing your website name in directly? Is instagram where your audience lives? Is there a surprising amount of attention from another place?
Changing the Criteria to "User Source"
On the “User Acquisition” tab, you can change what measurement you see by adjusting the chart view:
1. Click the Top Left box under the Search bar in the chart.
2. Change to “User Source”.
This changes the display to all the web sources that brought people into your website. It also adjusts the charts on the page accordingly.
2. Engaged Sessions
On the chart, you’ll see “Engaged Sessions” to the right of “New Users”.
"Engaged Sessions" are the number of sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, or had a conversion event, or had 2 or more screen or page views.
We are examining “Engaged Sessions” instead of “New Users” because “New Users” doesn’t really capture people who are invested in your website. If they looked at the site for all of 5 seconds and left, chances are they’re not someone you can turn into a fan of your work.
So what can we do with this information?
“Engaged Sessions” lets you see how many real people are actually engaging with your website.
Understand whether or not our website is retaining the interest of visitors.
Understand what medium is really building audience interest. Or, we can see where engagement is flopping where it should succeed.
Figure out which platform is best for making a fanbase on for our artwork.
By comparing “Engaged Sessions” to “New Users”, we can understand whether or not our website is retaining the interest of visitors. While it’s entirely possible many new users are just web crawler bots looking for your email to send spam, it could also be that your website isn’t retaining the interest of users when they first land. If the scale is disproportionate, then you may need to adjust your website design.
By examining which user source creates the largest amount of “Engaged Sessions”, we can understand what medium is really building audience interest. Or, we can see where engagement is flopping where it should succeed. For example, if your newsletter isn’t engaging people as much as you want it to, perhaps the content or design isn’t interesting enough.
3. Average Engagement Time
"Average Engagement Time" is the average time that the website was in the foreground or had focus in the web browser. In this context, “Average Engagement Time” is how long users from each one of these web sources were spending on the website.
As mentioned prior in the “What’s Popular” section, usually the longer someone spends on your website, the better. However do keep in mind that artwork tends to be quickly browsed through.
So what can we do with this information?
See which outreach strategies / social media sites engage users for the longest amount of time.
Accordingly, increase efforts for outreach and engagement on those effective social media platforms.
Note: Tinyletterapp.com is my email newsletter link.
For the Printmaker’s Library here, I can see that Instagram and my email newsletter give the most engagement. Hence, I should focus my efforts on making quality content for these platforms.
Does my website look ok? | Tech: Overview
Does my website look ok? | Tech: Overview
Under the “Tech” tab we have the “Overview” tab. This will tell you what browsers, devices, and screen resolutions users are viewing your website on.
Knowing the specific browser or device your audience surfs your content on can help you optimize your website to these formats. At this stage, your website should always be mobile and web compatible.
For an artist portfolio website, you will care most about:
Users by Screen Resolution
Users by Platform / Device Category
Users by Browser
1. Users by Screen Resolution
When you’re building a website with Google Sites, it can be hard to tell what your website will actually look like across a host of devices (even if you use the preview tab). Ever been on one of those free flowing, endless websites that just feel terrible to navigate? We’re trying to avoid that.
If you have a high quality, high resolution screen, you might make assets bigger than most of your viewers can easily handle on their screen. Whatever the case is, you want to present your work in the best manner to the largest number of people.
Here, the majority screen resolution by far is 1366 x 768 pixels. I can change my screen resolution to this size and work on my site in these dimensions to create the best viewing experience.
Comparison: 1920 x 1080 to 1366 x 768
Things are more spaced here and the banner up top is stretched more. The text also appears smaller.
The text is now bigger and the banner is taller. The sidebar is bigger on screen as well.
How to Change Screen Resolution
Given that I have no way of knowing what computer and operating system you are using, it is best for you to search this up on your own. Enter the search terms “How to change screen resolution” followed by your operating system (ex. Mac, Windows 10, Windows 98, etc.).
For Windows 10, the process of changing your screen resolution is:
Left click your desktop background
Click “Display Settings”
Adjust the “Display Resolution”
Confirm changes.
2. Users by Platform / Device Category
Sometimes a desktop website layout doesn’t make for a good mobile experience. If the majority of users are on mobile phones for you, it’s essential you preview your website on mobile prior to publishing it.
For all web builders, there’s a certain way information is ordered. For Google Sites, web assets on the right side of the web version are translated to the top of the page on mobile phones.
So if this document was a webpage, while scrolling you would first see the picture to the right, then this following text.
3. Users by Browser
While this shouldn’t be an issue at this point in the internet, sometimes certain content shows up and works well on some browsers but doesn’t on others.
If users are complaining about website compatibility issues, install their web browser and see what it looks like! You can head over to the Google Site Forums and post about your issue there. Someone might be able to help you resolve it, or it will be alerted to the google team as a glitch.
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