How to Conduct Google Surveys

Google Surveys are digital marketing’s secret weapons. Because validation from a target market is key for any business, Google Surveys (sometimes called Google Consumer Surveys) provide the ability to survey a target audience for the questions you most need answered, which is why we at Crimson Advantage swear by it. We use it and many of our clients use it, and we believe it’s a powerful tool to strengthen your digital marketing presence.

 Some reasons that Google Consumer Surveys are a popular choice: 

• They’re cost-effective

• They can survey anyone in your target market across multiple geographical locations

• They’re easy for businesses and consumers 

• They take significantly less time than typical market research surveys

• They’re web based so no need for in-person surveys 

You may have seen Google Consumer Surveys pop up in your own time surfing the web, such as before a YouTube video starts. Multiple choice options guarantee ease in soliciting data, and pinpointing the ideal target audience can transpire easily to YouTube videos of choice.

Getting Started with Google Surveys

When looking to garner insights from the minds of your target market, first consider which insights are the most valuable to your company. The more your goals are at the forefront of the surveys, the more focused the action can be. At Crimson Advantage, we recommend the following example questions as a good starting point: 

• Who is our target demographic? (age, gender)

• Are they more price or quality conscious?

• What is our brand awareness? What is it for competitors?

• What are we looking to accomplish with the information?

Setting Up a Google Consumer Survey

Once the company goals and target demographic have been solidified, plug this information into the survey creation process. Google offers specific targeting measures such as general population targeting, iPhone or android specific targeting, website traffic targeting. 

Google also offers the option for “screening questions,” which are essentially qualifying questions to determine if the respondent is within your target audience. Respondents will first see the screening question, then depending on their multiple choice answer, may or may not be shown the main survey questions. This technique of filtering respondents helps to ensure that the survey responses are not diluted.

Budget plays a role, too: Google charges based on number of questions asked, but Website Satisfaction surveys (when you can survey your website visitors for their feedback) are free. Play around with the number of responses you want, too. That’s a personal preference, but Google also makes a few recommendations based on what’s worked best for their other clients.

Crafting Questions and Answers

It’s important to be as specific as possible when writing the survey questions. 

For example, rather than asking, “Do you buy kombucha?”, ask, “When’s the last time you purchased kombucha?” 

That way, you get the most out of your answers: rather than consumers choosing a simple “yes” or “no,” they’ll be prompted to choose a time period if they have purchased kombucha recently, or could select “never” if they never have.

Or, if crafting a question about brand recognition, invest some time in researching the other competitive names for your target market. Then, you can ask, “Which brands have you heard of?” and choose a multiple choice format that allows for the selection of multiple options. Make sure to also add an option for “none of the above.” The more inclusive and specific the possible answers are, the more valuable your insights will be. 

Additionally, make sure that the questions are phrased in a neutral fashion as to not bias the answers. For example, rather than starting a question with “How much do you like…?” which assumes the viewer likes something, start with something more open-ended, such as “how do you feel about…?” 

Final Tips

It’s also recommended to randomize the order of your multiple choice answers. Sometimes, consumers just want to clear the survey off their view or choose the answer closest to the top. If your answer order is fixed, you may find that the answers listed at the top get the most hits. 

However, you can fix the order of just one answer, such as “all of the above” or “none of the above” as the last option. 

As always, tweak as you get more data. If certain questions aren’t yielding specific enough answers and insights, make changes. Get feedback from consultants, your team members, or rely on Crimson Advantage when crafting your questions and answers to ensure you get the most out of Google Consumer Surveys.

What Most Companies Miss When It Comes to E-commerce Analytics

Hubspot recently shared an ultimate list of marketing statistics for 2018, and reported that only 22% of businesses are happy with their conversion rates. Only 22%.

Of course, most businesses desire astronomical conversion rates - but a well educated entrepreneur is aware of what a fair conversion rate looks like. There are many ways to try to tweak aspects of a website and marketing strategy to improve a conversion rate and increase sales, but most companies miss the following considerations when conducting the necessary analytics to make these educated changes. Here are the most frequent mistakes companies make when it comes to analyzing their ecommerce analytics:

1. Most companies place an emphasis on sales rather than tracked customer behavior.

It seems reasonable to analyze the performance of a company based on sales, right? But, solely placing focus on which products are doing best negates the role the website plays in the buying experience for a customer. Companies should instead install heat maps on their website’s pages to understand customer behavior when they online shop.

For example: If a cell phone case company is solely focusing on the recent increase in sales on their hard-cover case, they may promote it as a bestseller on their homepage. But, imagine that their heat map shows a majority of customers take time to look through the leather case options, but never add one to their cart. This is critical information that a company cannot find by solely looking at sales.

2. Most companies assume rather than research.

In the phone case example, there are a number of assumptions that the company may make about the behavior, such as, “Our customers must prefer hard-cover cases over leather cases in the summer months.” While this may sound like a legitimate reason, it’s only an assumption. Talking with customers to understand their behaviors beyond the analytics is a crucial step that many companies miss.

In this example, perhaps the customer base would prefer to buy a real-leather phone case at the price point of their other products, but the company only sells synthetic leather cases, which is negatively impacting the conversion rate. Analytics must go beyond assumptions and take companies into the field to speak to their customers. It’s the companies that listen to their customers that outperform the competition.

3. Most companies focus their attention on all potential customers rather than their few committed ones.

Many companies seek to cast a wide net to many potential customers, thus focusing their online shopping experience to appease first time shoppers. But, the lifetime value of repeat customers is significantly higher than the lifetime value of an average customer, so tracking repeat customers in e-commerce analytics is a must.

Understanding repeat customers’ motivations and behaviors in navigating the site can lead to masterful placement choices to ensure they have the best shopping experience and continue to up their lifetime value. It’s the repeat customers who are doing more than just browsing. They are most easily tracked through payment methods, coupon codes, and purchase history.

4. Most companies compute absolute difference instead of relative difference.

One of the most common e-commerce analytics mistakes is in the math! Imagine that the cell phone case company is analyzing their conversion rates on their wallet cases from April to May, and have noticed that it went down from 6% in April to 4.5% in May.

The analytical mistake is to call this a 1.5% decrease, because that would be the absolute difference, and truthfully, doesn’t sound that major. However, the relative difference is calculated by dividing the difference (1.5%) by the original conversion rate (6%) which would equate to a 25% relative decrease. The difference between a 1.5% and 25% decrease is significant, and this simple math error could incorrectly shift priorities away from analytics that should alert the company to potential red flags.

It can overwhelming to analyze the vast array of numbers and analytics when managing an ecommerce company, but by being conscious and aware of these typical oversights from most companies, you’ll be at an advantage in analyzing and re-adjusting your strategies for a more successful quarter.