STEP 1: From Audience, select Traffic Sources then Sources, then Referrals. This will show you WHERE your traffic comes from. You can use this information to create custom segments to dig deeper into the habits of visitors from your various social media accounts.
STEP 2: Once you decide what you want to track, create a custom advanced segment so you can isolate traffic from that referral source. Click “Advanced Segments” from the top of the screen you’re on.
STEP 3: Select “+New Custom Segment” from the lower right part of the screen.
STEP 4: Give your new segment a name. This one is “Facebook Referrals”. Then, change the drop-down next to “Include” to say “Source”.
STEP 5: Start typing the name of your Source in the field next to “Containing” – you’ll notice that GA will help you by showing sources that match what you type.
STEP 6: Click “Add ‘OR’ statement” to include more than one source – in this example, we include traffic from desktop and mobile Facebook users.
STEP 7: Upon clicking “Save Segment”, you are taken back into GA. Now you can navigate to any report in GA to get info just about visitors from the source you set up!
STEP 8: Here are some suggestions to get an understanding of how visitors from your various referral sources are interacting on your site. You can see how engaged these visitors are, and tweak your social media marketing appropriately.
- Go back to the Audience / Overview page. Are these visitors engaged? What is the Bounce Rate, Time on Site, Average Pages Viewed, etc.
- Go to Audience / Demographics /Location. Where are these visitors coming from? Are they in your target area?
- Go to Content / Site Content / Landing Pages. These are the pages that are attracting traffic from this referral source.
- Go to Content / Site Content / All Pages. What pages are they looking at while they are on your site?
Tip: Create a custom segment for each referral source you care about to track how well you’re engaging visitors from these sites.