Daniel Robertson: Data analytics for social impact
Demand for ecommerce reports in Google Analytics seems to be on the rise. Having recently consulted on a full Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce implementation, I thought I would share some straightforward, limited-jargon insights into how to best set up Google Analytics ecommerce tracking.
Robust, comprehensive digital and web analytics is now business-critical for any organisation with an online presence. Whether you want to evaluate your marketing and advertising efforts, see how people are using your website, or improve the layout or design of your online materials, digital data analysis is a must.
I am a web analytics expert with many years of experience working with tools such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics to derive a deep understanding of online users. I have done this for numerous commercial organisations, large and small, in sectors from retail and publishing to insurance and sports, as well as spending four years in the charity sector as a senior web analytics specialist. As a freelancer, digital and web is a core area of my services to charities and non-profits.
I can provide insights about who your users are, what they are interested in, how they behave on your website or app, what content they are engaging with, through which marketing channels they reach your website, how they behave on different devices, and much, much more. I work with a full suite of Google products – Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Data Studio, Google Sheets, Google Optimize, and Google Search Console – as well as a wide range of other digital analysis tools with aims like web analytics, CRO/AB testing, session recordings, and surveys. With Google Analytics, I like to push the tool to its limits with custom event tracking, goals, and Enhanced Ecommerce tracking closely aligned to your website’s customer experience and purpose.
In our transition to a new website, Daniel’s experience and insight in Google Analytics has helped us anticipate issues, resolve unexpected roadblocks and quickly understand technical challenges.
Daniel’s expert knowledge also meant he was able to deliver a flexible solution – ready for our transition to Google Analytics 4.
Among my digital analytics success stories comes from my time at the charity WaterAid. As the global lead web analyst, I was a core part of the project team to deliver a complete website rebuild and redesign, on an entirely new platform. My role was three-fold: strategic project adviser, provider of web insights, and implementation lead for Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics.
As part of this, I produced and implemented an analytics framework across various products and territories, culminating in reporting views of varying levels of detail in Google Analytics, Google Sheets, and Google Data Studio - for stakeholders at all levels. I captured the key tracking requirements in-line with a measurement framework and the needs of various teams across WaterAid globally, translating this into a GTM/GA tagging architecture that could be replicated across each territory's website.
To inform the content, design, and UX of the new website, we also brought in insight from AB and multivariate testing, Hotjar session recordings, and live user testing of user journey prototypes.
This project spanned the entire web analytics lifecycle, from tracking tag configuration and analytics architecture, to dashboarding, visualisation, insight, and training, thus providing substantial ongoing value across WaterAid.
Digital data can be almost limitless. However, I believe in simplicity and focus, and my digital and web analysis can be tailored to your specific business questions or organisational needs, selecting the right tools and data from those available. My iterative approach can identify some initial questions and, through data reviews, audits, and analysis, raise more questions or improvements to your data analytics strategy. Working together and through data-driven iterations, we can reach the insight that you need to understand, improve, and optimise all aspects of your digital and web presence.
You can find me on LinkedIn, or email me at [email protected]
I look forward to hearing about your exciting digital and web analytics projects!
Getting a hold of your data and doing some analysis is only one part of the equation. In data analytics – like most fields – communication is key. Presentation of data that is impactful, easy-to-digest, and conveys key analytical insights is essential if you want to to use your data effectively.
Visualisation of quantitative data, from simple bottom-line reports or analysis summaries, to in-depth analysis and discussion of insights, is extremely important to drive data-driven decision making.
In my opinion, the cliché of “simple, easy-to-read reports for directors or senior management” is a bit misleading. Executives are usually more than capable of appreciating complex insights from data, but like anyone they want clear, concise information that can be produced and understood without doubt or unnecessary effort.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with Daniel.
We needed a better way to access our face-to-face fundraising data from the Evergiving platform. The data reporting Daniel produced for us was of excellent quality and exactly what we were looking for, and has had a very positive impact on streamlining our processes.
The training he delivered was also excellent – he is very thorough and patient and we hope to work together again soon.
Modern tools such as Microsoft Power BI or Google Looker Studio can make data a joy to work with, although of course there is still a place for intelligent, effective use of basic tools such as Excel and PowerPoint. I have years of successful experience working in all of these tools to distil and present data analysis to audiences at all levels.
Many tools also allow an element of automation, for example exporting Google Analytics data to Google Sheets to take the pain away from regular web analytics reporting. My expertise in programming and broad experience with configuring and using business software enables me to set up useful automations with ease on a range of platforms.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to share complete examples of data visualisations and dashboards completed for my clients.
Here's a small snapshot of simple visualisations I've created in Looker Studio and Power BI, on various themes:
From reporting dashboards for wide consumption, to detailed reports for specific teams or stakeholders, I can add significant value to your data analytics through data visualisation and report automation.
You can find me on LinkedIn, or email me at [email protected]
I look forward to hearing about your exciting data visualisation and report automation projects!
Daniel has been a huge help to us at Link. Having recently launched a new website, we worked with Daniel to audit our digital analytics needs and capabilities.
Daniel was extremely flexible and responsive to our situation. He worked with us to deliver a package of work that was bespoke to our needs, in line with our budgets, and would give us maximum impact for our current situation. He kindly accommodated our tight timelines and always turned work around quickly and efficiently.
As a charity, we really appreciated his expert subject knowledge in our field as well as his clear expertise in analytics and we wouldn’t hesitate to work with him again in the future.
Your data is now so diverse and vast, coming from so many sources, that strong fundamental data analysis and statistical interpretations are crucial. I provide a range of data analytics expertise and support on data science projects, from working with SQL databases and qualitative datasets, to performing regression analysis and generating predictive models in statistical tools such as R. Often, even with basic digital data it is worth applying some statistical analysis to determine margins of error and confidence levels for the insights generated. I am always focused on understanding the context of the data too.
While my career has focused on digital and web analytics, I have the programming and statistical background as well as broad contextual knowledge that means I can add value on many analysis projects. I am not locked into any particular tools or platforms; for me, the fundamental techniques and principles are the most important skills, and I am happy to work with new or familiar platforms alike. Having worked as a client manager in a large technology agency, as an analyst at two large charities, and with experience in the social sciences as well as tech and data, I am well-placed to understand your organisational needs and provide the insight required.
Contact me now to find out how I can help you with data analysis beyond digital, or to discuss data science, modelling projects, and predictive analytics.
You can find me on LinkedIn, or email me at [email protected]
I look forward to hearing about your exciting data analysis projects!
Daniel is a fantastic analyst with a strong focus on conversion optimisation and user behaviour. We have worked together on a variety of projects including technical integrations, data science and delivering conversion and usability insights to our clients.
His work has been incredibly valuable to us as a business. He has delivered insights which have helped to generate significant increases in the conversion rates for our clients as well as carrying out data science projects which have helped the companies we work with to better measure their results and impact.
In any organisation, we are constantly striving to optimise and improve our efforts. Data and digital platforms make this easier than ever. The wealth of information at our disposal allows us to focus on the improvements with the biggest impact on online conversion rates, and evaluate that impact directly through results and continuous data analysis.
A major focus of my career has been website optimisation: ways to improve the user experience and persuasive power of a website, in order to encourage engagement, action, or conversion. There are no tricks or shortcuts here. I believe in a rigorous approach to website and content improvement which includes detailed data analysis, generating hypotheses, and testing these hypotheses on real users. Various tools make this job much easier, such as Google Optimize, Visual Website Optimizer, or Convert.
I have created, run, and analysed hundreds of AB and multivariate tests over my career. Improvements from these tests have generated hundreds of thousands of pounds for my organisations and clients. I have also won awards for projects in the charity sector with Oxfam GB.
From this experience, I can bring a wealth of learning and best practice optimisation suggestions to your website and digital communications. Of course, all organisations and users are unique, which is why we need to test our changes, from small changes to copy or imagery to radical page redesigns or the introduction of new functionality. All of this can be evaluated against a control, allowing us to generate reliable results based on statistics to inform decisions.
Contact me now about improving your website through proven digital data analysis.
You can find me on LinkedIn, or email me at [email protected]
I look forward to hearing about your exciting conversion rate optimisation projects!
With Daniel having experience working in the charity sector, non-profits and NGO’s – and with us being in the recycling industry – we felt Daniel would be well equipped to understand our online ecommerce business core values and its development needs.
It’s clear that Daniel has a wealth of experience and insight that is an essential asset to any committed website owner. It’s surprising that many webmasters seem to ignore the requirements for data analytics and CRO prior to website design and SEO campaigns.
In retrospect, we would have benefited greatly through working with Daniel some years ago, with data informing decisions rather than guesswork.
We’re really pleased to have discovered Daniel and we look forward to continuing working with him.
