As a nonprofit marketer, you probably have a lot of questions about how to improve your organization’s digital presence. Due to the rapid emergence and evolution of new technologies, such as the rise of influencer marketing, the way that organizations operate has changed. Some of the key changes that have occurred include the shift from outbound marketing to inbound marketing.
Many nonprofits have already gotten used to some of the traditional tactics, such as email marketing and blogging, but there are still many effective strategies that are not yet widely used. One of the most common platforms that non-profit organizations can use is Google Analytics. This free web analytics tool can help them analyze their website traffic.
Although Google Analytics is only a part of a digital strategy, it can be very valuable for a nonprofit as it can help them identify areas of their operations that they can improve. With Google Analytics, you can easily analyze the data that your organization collects.
Table of Contents
Why Is Google Analytics So Important For Charities?
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Integrated Approach
Having a comprehensive view of your digital marketing efforts is the best way to ensure that you are getting the most out of your efforts. With Google Analytics, you can monitor all of your digital campaigns and see how they are performing. This can help you set aside some of your marketing budget for future use.
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Importance Of Data
Having the ability to donor data analytics helps nonprofits make informed decisions and improve their performance. It can help them improve their organic traffic and convert more donations into volunteers. You can also use the data to create event registrations and other call-to-actions. This is very valuable to nonprofit organizations with limited resources as it allows them to focus on their core mission.
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Return On Investment
Nonprofits can use Google Analytics to measure their return on investment. It can help them identify which tactics worked best and which content didn’t perform well. With this tool, you can also keep track of what’s working and what’s not so effective.
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Affordability
Analyzing web traffic through Google Analytics is free! It allows you to perform various types of tracking and segmentation, as well as conversion tracking. Unfortunately, it is estimated that around 60% of websites don’t use any form of tracking code. If you are a non-profit organization that would rather not use any form of tracking code, then follow the steps below.
Is Google Analytics Free For Nonprofits?
Yes, Google Analytics tool is free for all nonprofit organisations.
How To Make The Most Out Of Google Analytics For Nonprofits – Tips and Insights
Note: Let’s start at the beginning. To use Google Analytics, you need to install a tracking code on your website. Here you can see how that works.
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Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
Before you start using Google Analytics, it’s important that you create and implement KPIs and goals for your fundraising data. These are the key performance indicators that will help you make informed decisions and improve the efficiency of your organization. While there are many numbers that can be accessed through Google Analytics, only the context of these numbers can allow you to convert them into actionable insight.
To start, think about the actions that people will perform when they visit your website. Then, brainstorm with your team members about the metrics that will help you measure the effectiveness of your website.
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Know Where Your Visitors Come From
Knowing where your website visitors are coming from is incredibly helpful in determining your website traffic sources. Google Analytics defines a referral as a visitor who arrives at your website after clicking on a link elsewhere. For example, you can see if they came to your website through a Google search, an email, a Facebook page, or another website. This way, you can know more about your targeted audience and create fundraising strategies for the retention of your major donors.
How Can You Use These Insights?
A cross-reference between a certain type of post or email and a particular donation pattern can help you determine which fundraising strategies work best for your nonprofit organization. For instance, if you paid a professional photographer to create a video about your organization, you can see exactly how many people viewed it and how much of these were donated.
You can also check the historical data of people who have been forwarded to your various social media channels. This data analysis can be useful in determining which ones are performing well and which ones should be allocated budget allocations.
Note: You can find an overview of your referral traffic sources under All Traffic > Referrals.
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Adjust your SEO (search engine optimisation)
When you first came to your website through an organic search, you might have noticed that some of the words that your visitors used were related to your site’s content. To get more people to visit your site, you should regularly note down these keywords and adjust your search engine optimization (SEO) to get more people to visit your site. One of the most effective ways to improve your ranking is to use these keywords to create engaging content. Using online fundraising tools like this can enable you analyzing data in a more effective way.
You can also view the bounce rates of your keywords to determine which ones have high bounce rates. This will help you avoid using these words and ensure that your content is engaging.
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Understand Visitors’ Engagement
Through this process, you can see how visitors are interacting with your site and how long they’ve been on it. Nonprofit organizations can benefit from this type of analysis as it allows them to gain a deeper understanding of their marketing efforts. It can additionally help them improve their success rates and effectiveness.
- See which pages people donate to more often by focusing on donor engagement.
- Check how much information the site visitors read.
- Measure visitors’ engagement to your website through content viewed and time spent on the site.
- Add useful insights to encourage donors.
- While they are on your site, you can also track which of your users are logged into social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Powerful analytics tools are available to help organizations forecast and manage their fundraising outcomes. They can be used to analyse and visualize various factors such as predictive analytics and financial and geographic segmentation.
By thorough prescriptive analytics of engagement on your pages, you can tell more about your visitors’ behaviour, as well as which social networks to focus on, which content is performing better and much more.
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Increase Online Donations Through Donor Data Analytics
One of the most critical factors that a non-profit organization should consider when it comes to online fundraising is having a good donation page. Having a well-designed and effective donation page can help attract and convert potential donors.
According to a report released by Blackbaud, the number of donations made through online platforms by non-profit organizations increased in 2017. The report also noted that the number of donations made through mobile devices has additionally increased.
In order to make sure that your donation page is effective, you can view the Behavior tab in your analytics dashboard. This section will allow you to analyze the various elements of the page and identify which ones are most likely to lead to a click. You can also repeat the same strategy on other pages to improve the efficiency of your website.
In Google Analytics, you can also create a goal that will help you track the events that happen on your website after a user clicks on your donation page. This will allow you to identify the areas where you can improve the efficiency of your website. One of the most important factors that you can consider when it comes to designing and implementing a good donation page is having a well-designed and effective website.
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Valuable Insights About Your Pages
Some of the most basic metrics your nonprofit can track with Google Analytics are Pages Per Visit and Visit Duration. There is no ideal number for either, but a general rule of thumb is that you want more people to visit your pages and stay there longer. Such kind of data analysis for nonprofits is important as it can provide perspectives.
A high bounce rate is a sign that your visitors are not going to follow a page after clicking on it. Google data analytics can help you determine the overall state of your website’s bounce rate by analyzing the multiple individual pages or an entire site. If your bounce rate is high, you might want to consider adjusting the content or format of your page.
One of the most important tasks that a non-profit organization must perform is to keep its visitors engaged. The average duration of a visit is a vital metric that can help you identify which page is most attractive to them. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that a longer session time can make it difficult to navigate.
Watch your exit percentage. Just as it is valuable to know which of your pages are doing well, it is essential to keep track of the donor data analytics and know which pages have the highest number of exits. This information can also be found under the Behaviour > Site Content drop-down menu. Optimise your Exit Pages, especially if your donation page has a high exit rate.
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Set up E-Commerce Tracking
Nonprofits can also benefit from E-commerce tracking, as it allows them to keep track of donations. This feature can be used to set up conversion actions in order to collect data related to donations. For instance, you can see how many donations were made by type, the number of transactions that were sent, and the time that the donations took to reach the site.
Through E-commerce tracking, you can also see which users are most likely to donate to your organization. This feature can additionally help you identify which groups are most likely to support your campaign.
It can additionally be used to analyze the various trends related to a particular fundraising campaign. For instance, you can see which countries and cities have the most donations, as well as which search terms are most frequently used by users.
Conclusion
Due to the increasing pressure to prove their effectiveness, many non-profit organizations are stressed about delivering effective programs and maintaining their trust. These organizations must also improve their services and reach out to their communities.
Nonprofits can greatly benefit from the data analysis capabilities of Google Analytics, which can help them improve their operations and reach out to their communities. With the help of this tool, they can easily identify areas of their operation that they can improve and attract more donors.
With the help of Google Analytics, a non-profit organization can now develop effective strategies and improve its fundraising efforts. This powerful tool can also help them cut down on costs and improve their operations.
Although there are many features and functions of Google Analytics for nonprofits, what really matters is that you are still testing and learning from it. If you are not already using it, now is the time to start. Nonprofits need to be constantly analyzing and improving their data to ensure that they are able to achieve their goals. In addition to being able to analyze data, Google Analytics also comes with a variety of tools that can help them improve their website and marketing.
