Data to Go, Please!
If you’re not yet comfortable with analytics for the mobile web, know this: you’re not alone! Monitoring onsite activity and customer interactions and then turning the resulting data into actionable suggestions to affect business KPIs is challenging enough, but the mobile web presents a whole other set of considerations and opportunities related to its special features and different
user interfaces (not to mention, different business goals!). Here at Springbox, we’re learning more about these every day, and we’re pleased to announce the launch of our first full, mobile web presence and analytics implementation: Central Market mobile!
When we rolled out the site, we wanted to be able to tell how well this new mobile presence met the needs of Central Market’s mobile community. So we put into place two sets of tags to track pageviews for all devices and more advanced engagement metrics for JavaScript-enabled devices.
Tracking Pageviews Across the Mobile Web
Most standard analytics packages leverage JavaScript to track online activity, but there are some mobile devices that do not support JavaScript, or users may have disabled it. To ensure we receive the most accurate pageview counts across as many mobile devices as possible, we first deployed tags from
Google Analytics’ Mobile Web sites package, which provides a set of server-side tracking methods. Using the ASP.NET server-side snippet, we’re now delivering pageviews directly back to Google — skipping the JavaScript middleman, which means traffic counts to Central Market mobile for all common handhelds.
Tracking User Engagement and Online Activity on the Mobile Web
The site contains many interactive features — including social media shares, single-button calling, and links back to the full site. In addition to seeing what content mobile users viewed, when, and for how long, we also hoped to see interaction with these features for as many visitors as possible.
To do this we used
Google Analytics’ Asynchronous Snippet, which, while not specific to the mobile web, does load the tracking code faster by placing all the API calls associated with custom tags in a queue. Such tags can include snippets to track on-click events, like those to “like” on Facebook or to “check-in” via Gowalla. Since these Google Analytics events are added to a queue, you don’t have to wait for ga.js to load before queuing them. This can greatly improve user experience on 3G and slower network connections, which keeps tracking on-site events for all JavaScript-enabled devices within scope.
Mobile Tracking: It Takes All Kinds!
By using this dual approach to data collection, we are able to better understand Central Market’s mobile user interactions, helping us and our client identify the pages, links, and downloads that are most important to mobile visitors. As you think about how to track the activities most important to your mobile community and business, remember:
- If you use Google’s server-side method of collecting analytics, then visit the Google Analytics for Mobile Downloads page and grab the correct source code. There you’ll also find a step-by-step tutorial to get you started.
- If you use the server-side method along with the JavaScript-based code snippets, then be sure to remove the initial page tracker from the JavaScript code. It’s the line that reads, “_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);” Otherwise, both the server-side and the JavaScript code will aggregate pageviews, and you’ll see double counts in your Google Analytics Dashboard.
- Be sure to use a mobile Google Analytics tracking number. This opens up the GA dashboard to all sorts of new tracking options and results. It’s the identifier that starts with “MO-.” (Simply replace “UA-” with “MO-” in all your tags.)
- Explore all the different interactions that can be tracked on the mobile Web. These are all new, from swipes to click/hold patterns. They can provide very explicit stories behind each user’s visit.
- Place the asynchronous JavaScript snippet at the bottom of the <head> section of the page. This increases the likelihood that the tracking beacon will be sent before the user leaves the page. See Set up the tracking code (asynchronous) for more information.