Web event tracking is crucial for gaining a deeper understanding of user behaviour on your website or app. In this exercise, we will focus on the concept of event tracking, identifying relevant events to track, and setting up event tracking using popular analytics tools like Google Analytics and Segment. We will utilise a Google Sheet template to organise and manage the event tracking setup effectively.
Goal
The goal of this exercise is to guide you through the process of setting up web event tracking to gain valuable insights into user behaviour.
Instructions & Resources
Copy the Event Tracking Plan Google Sheet
- Open the provided Google Sheet template for web event tracking.
- Navigate to the "Analytics Strategy" tab in the sheet.
- In the "Flow name" column, identify and list the important flows in your product. These flows represent key user journeys or processes that are critical for achieving specific goals or conversions. For example, you might have flows such as "Onboarding flow," "Purchase flow," or "Content consumption flow."
- In the "Critical steps the user has to complete" column, outline the specific steps or actions that users must complete within each flow to achieve the desired outcome. Be as detailed and specific as possible. For each step, provide a clear description of what the user needs to do or accomplish. This will help you understand the critical points in each flow that require tracking and analysis.
- Once you have identified the important flows and their corresponding critical steps, return to the "Event Tracking Plan" tab.
- Familiarize yourself with the column headers in the sheet:
- Explanation of column headers
- Why?: This column describes the business question that the event and metric will answer.
- Metric: Specify the business metric or key performance indicator (KPI) associated with the event.
- Event Name: Enter a descriptive name for the event that represents an action a user takes within the product.
- Trigger: Provide a description of when the event should be fired or triggered.
- Property names: Identify the user or event properties that need to be passed along with the event. Ensure consistent naming conventions for similar properties across different events.
- Property values: Leave this column blank for now; it will be populated with specific property values later.
- Ready?: Use this column to indicate if the event is ready for installation.
- Installed?: After the event has been implemented, mark this column to indicate its installation status.
- Tested? (desktop): Use this column to indicate if the event has been tested on desktop devices.
- Tested? (mobile): Use this column to indicate if the event has been tested on mobile devices.
- Status: This column can be used to track the progress or current status of each event.
- Notes: Add any relevant notes or comments related to the event.
- Product comments: Use this column to capture comments or feedback from the product team.
- Developer comments: Developers can provide comments or notes specific to the implementation of the event.
- Testing comments: Use this column to record any comments or observations from testing the event.
7. Begin populating the sheet with your specific events from the critical flows:
- Fill in the "Why?" column with the business questions that each event and metric will help answer.
- Specify the appropriate metric or KPI in the "Metric" column for each event.
- In the "Event Name" column, provide a clear and readable name for each event that represents a user action within the product.
- Describe when each event should be triggered in the "Trigger" column.
- Identify the relevant user or event properties in the "Property names" column.
- Leave the "Property values" column blank for now.
8. As you progress, update the "Ready?" column to indicate if an event is ready for installation. Mark the "Installed?" column once an event has been implemented. Use the "Tested?" columns to track the testing status of each event on desktop and mobile devices.
9. If needed, collaborate with your team members, including product managers, developers, and testers, to gather their input and feedback on the events and their implementation details.
10. Once you have filled in the necessary details for each event, you can consider the sheet setup complete. The sheet serves as a reference and guide for implementing event tracking within your website or app.