[How To] Setup Cohort Analysis in 30 minutes using Google Analytics

[Alert: this article might be Startups-oriented and presume readers to have basic understanding on related areas. Still, no worry, it's totally okay if you're not one, simply skip directly to the "Solution" section and grab the insight as quick takeaway. Then just leave the rest as bed-time story later. ;) ]

Cohort analysis has been a very hot topics in Analytics & Startup era, especial after Eric Ries published his startup bible: Lean Startup. Need not to say, it's a powerful tool (otherwise why a hot topic?). For those who don't know anything about such methodology, originated from Medical field, a cohort means grouping certain subjects (usually people), based on certain common characteristics (says, user experience that we've delivered) within a defined period (ref: Cohort Study - Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/XZn5Fb); and a cohort analysis will be analysis performed across different cohorts. While it might be somehow confusing, simply speaking, cohort analysis allows us to understand behavior of groups of subjects, specified by time, over time.

Got it? No? Don't worry, since we've plenty of articles out there which talks about this topic (see the end of article), i might cover this area more later but not today. Today, we focus mainly on how to prepare proper installation for Cohort Analysis, using Google Analytics & client-side javascripts, in a quick and dirty way.

An Exciting Month Passed, yet Another is Coming...

Have gone through an exhausting yet exciting month....... and glad that i've survived. Orz

Long story short, i have attended two consecutive events as one of the public speakers, tested a few marketing concepts, played around with Twitter Bootstrap framework for my personal page, and preparing for the upcoming 2nd Startup Weekend in Hong Kong (and not to mention the on-going intensive studying for Omniture stuff.). Would love to share with you guys every single detail of each story, just so little time because of increasing responsibility in my analytic team (a good sign though!). Anyway, here's the list of the highlights of those stuff, do feel free to drop me a comment if anything within interests (or confuse) you, i could discuss more afterwards. :)

Here's today's menu:

[Public Speech] Effective Content Management Strategy

[Public Speech] Trends in Startup Analytics  

[Test] Play with Adwords for SEO 

[Toy] Have Fun with Twitter Bootstrap

..... and, let's get started. :)

Pinterest Analytics - From Strategic Planning to Tactical Measurement Part III

(Welcome to the last part of the series of "Pinterest Analytics - From Strategic Planning to Tactical Measurement" ! What? you haven't read the previous ones? Why standing here? Go read it now!! XD)


The Last Stop of the Journey

Pinterest Analytics - From Strategic Planning to Tactical Measurement Part II

(this is the second part of the series "Pinterest Analytics - From Strategic Planning to Tactical Measurement". If you haven't read the previous one, I strongly recommend you to go through it first... and no worry, I will wait you here. :) )

The Gateway

The first step of the cycle always happens on the platform

Pinterest Analytics - From Strategic Planning to Tactical Measurement Part I

Pinterest is now the star in the tech area, and some startups have already began to explore its potential in analytic field, such as Pinreach and the two-weeks-old Pintics, while the former one aims to recreate a Klout score for Pinterest, and the latter one (hopefully) focuses more in a Facebook Insights style. Regardless their approaches, have or don't have a tool for analytics is just a matter of how to gather the data, particularly the right one. Still, it's never a good idea to engage a platform without a proper measurement plan for business objectives, and of course not to mention the strategy that supports the plan - One could easily name a dozen of KPIs to measure anything, but the importance is the why and how behind. Hence, let's talk about how I would strategize for Pinterest Analytics in this post. :)

[Warning: long post ahead. this is a three-part series so better read this post only when you're in the mood of learning stuff. :)]

The Backbone Strategy

Let's start from something traditional but useful: a simplified sales cycle for online channel.

Old-school but effective. :)

How Marketers Should Engage with Fans on Facebook Timeline

On Facebook, Timeline for Brands has been here for a while, how much you have explored it? In the past, fan page engagement was all about conversions with fans, but with the new Timeline feature, along with some discontinued old features, Marketers should now take the proactive role to evolve their engagement strategy from now on. And here're the three major areas that matter most of Marketers or Community Manager.

1. Cover Picture Matters

I know, i know, this seems too obvious. Yes Cover Picture definitely the most fancy and eye-catching feature for your brand to demonstrate the character, but what make this beauty even more important is the discard of Default Landing Page. Simply speaking, your Cover Picture will always be the first impression that your fans have. Marketers who traditionally use landing page for fans acquisition would need to rethink their strategy for better engagement.

[How-to] Benchmarking Competitors on Facebook Timeline

Competitive Analysis is always a big topic in market research, particularly on Facebook landscape, companies like SocialBaker has been trying to provide analytical insights by clawing and massaging fanpage data automatically, such that they could help you to close the gap between your own Facebook Insights data and your competitors'. The problem is, they're usually not free. :(

True that all these solutions are affordable, but not every marketer may have the budget (or just ask for it) for similar service. Luckily with the new Timeline for Brand feature from Facebook, finally we could spy our competitors much easier.... Facebook has made some of those data opened to us!

Let's start Spying....