In today’s data-driven world, it has become essential to find the data you need and make it work for you. For your marketing efforts to be successful, you need to have a good understanding of your target audience and how they behave. To help you with this, we have put together a step-by-step guide to Salesforce and Google Analytics integration.
You probably already have a customer relationship management (CRM) platform like Salesforce. You can use it to keep track of your sales pipelines as potential customers trickle through them. You can also use it to build a loyal customer base by personalising your user interactions. In short, Salesforce helps you deal with the people side of sales.
However, when it comes to raw data, Google Analytics is what you need. You can get details about traffic to your website and the different actions that people take. You can use Google Analytics to understand what kind of customers visit your website when they do and how they behave once they’re there.
As you can imagine, a Salesforce and Google Analytics integration can give you a powerful tool to help optimise your marketing and sales efforts. Here’s what you can do with such an Salesforce integration.
The first step to integrating Salesforce with Google Analytics is knowing why you are doing it. While the primary purpose of this integration is to fill in gaps in your data, it is up to you to figure out where those gaps are. You can define these gaps based on key performance indicators (KPIs).
Take, for example, the following two KPIs – engagement rates on social media and click-through rates on your website. If your engagement rates are much higher, people resonate with your content but do not visit your website. In this case, one of your goals could be to figure out why this is happening and how to change it.
There are three methods you can choose from: native integration, third-party integration, and custom API integration. If you choose native integration using Salesforce Marketing Cloud, your process will be seamless. Your Salesforce integration cost will also be lower. However, you might not have access to all the Salesforce customisation you want.
Third-party integration does give you some control over how to tailor your integrated system, and you will likely have some pre-built connectors to help you through the process. The custom API integration route gives you complete control. To effectively make use of it, you need some technical expertise. Also, keep in mind that this route will take you the longest to implement.
The first thing is to ensure you have access to the latest version of Google Analytics. Then, set up ways to track relevant user actions. For an e-commerce company, you would have actions like “Add to cart” or “Purchase”. You also need to capture Salesforce data, which you can do by creating custom dimensions.
This step is where the real integration begins. To begin your configuration, you need to create custom fields in Salesforce where you can store the data you get from Google Analytics. You then have to set up data validation rules and configure your data-sharing settings. Design dashboards and report types that give you a holistic view of data from both channels.
By now, you should have a fair idea of which data will be most valuable. You now have to capture this data, by setting up tracking codes on your website. In addition, you want to ensure that all your data is being sent to Salesforce and Google Analytics. If your data starts to get out of hand, you can always find some Salesforce integration services to help you out.
Now that you have established a data flow between Salesforce and Google Analytics, you can go to the next step – ensuring that the data you capture goes exactly where it is supposed to. The best way to do this is to simulate the different journeys that a customer might take with you.
Minuscule Technologies is a certified Salesforce consulting partner. Our job is to help you integrate your Salesforce CRM with other tools like Google Analytics. Soon enough, you will give all your customers the seamless experience they deserve. Write to us today to bring your marketing efforts into the spotlight!
Are you looking to harness the complete potential of Salesforce Solution? Have a free consulting session with our expert team. We are ready to lend our hand to examine your CRM, Consolidate the Current Data Management, and figure out the inefficiencies that lay as a hindrance in harnessing the Salesforce power.
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