When we encounter most pre-existing Google analytics accounts they have a similar trait in common – they do not have any filters set up. Filtering your analytics data is an easy first step to take in the direction of looking at clean data. It is also extremely easy to do. Here are the steps:

1.  Come up with a list of filters

When looking at your filtered analytics reports you want to get a clean look at what your potential and existing clients are doing on your site. Data showing what you, your staff, and your web designer or web master are looking at or potentially working on will only cloud the data.  A great list of starting filters is actual locations: your home location (if you work from home); your office location(s); and the location of your web designer or web master.

2. Gather IP addresses

To filter out the traffic from the above list of locations you will need the IP addresses for each. Getting access to an IP address is actually very easy to do. I recommend using IP Chicken at: http://ipchicken.com/. You simply visit http://ipchicken.com/ from the location that you want to filter and the website will give you the needed IP information.

3.  Add a New Website Profile

Before you actually set up any filters, it is good practice to create an additional profile in your Google analytics account. This allows you to store ALL of your web analytics data in one profile while looking at a filtered view in the next. Once a filter is set you cannot capture past data that the filter may have prevented, so this additional profile safeguards you from any mistakes that could result in data loss. The new profile you create will be the one that has the filters, and thus, the filtered data. To add this new profile simply:

• Go to the Analytics Settings screen and click on ‘+Add New Profile’ next to the appropriate website.
• On the next screen select ‘Add a Profile for an existing domain’ and name the profile (something with ‘Filtered’ in the name would be a good idea).
• Hit ‘Continue’.

4. Set the filters

• On the analytics settings page, click on ‘Edit’ next to the newly created Website Profile.
• Scroll down to ‘Filters Applied to Profile’ and click on ‘+Add Filter’.
• Select ‘Add New Filter for Profile’
• Name your first filter (i.e. Lynx Consulting Corporate Office)
• Select ‘Predefined filter’
• Select ‘Exclude’; Traffic from the IP addresses; that are equal to; enter the IP address in the slots.
• Select ‘Save Changes’

Do this for each of your locations and you will be looking at more accurate data in no time!

As a marketing consultant I live and breathe advertising while at work. When outside of work I find it fascinating, and good research, to watch the reactions – or lack thereof – that people have to the marketing efforts that they are seeing, hearing, and even partaking in. Whether it is studying the difference between the male and female response to the television ads running during our weekly football game gatherings (Go Pats!), hearing my grandmother’s reaction to a racy radio ad, or watching as strangers swarm tables at my neighborhood supermarket for free samples of the day’s special product the consumer reaction is always different and interesting. It is an intriguing study that I am constantly conducting.

As a mom to a toddler and a preschooler I find it particularly remarkable to watch my daughters react to advertisements that are targeted to their demographic. As most moms of young children experience, my girls need and want whatever is advertised on television during their cartoons. It doesn’t matter what the advertised toy does or what it looks like, or what the food in the commercial may taste like – once my girls see children playing with a toy or eating a snack on TV they have to have it. They immediately call me over to the TV to see the item that they want and ask me to buy it for them. You may think that this is a marketer’s dream and a parent’s nightmare. The reality is that once a new commercial comes on children have completely forgotten about the previous item that they needed. Their focus is now on the new need-to-have-it-for-60-seconds item. This cycle continues until the end of the cartoon. Once I turn the television off all memories of the advertised snacks and toys disperse: out of sight out of mind.
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Treasuring the Power of Teamwork, Talent & Friendship

For those of you that have been following my business partner, Rosa Bruno, and I throughout our professional journeys you know that our dream has been realized – we are finally out on our own, working for ourselves, our clients and each other.

Working for ourselves while doing something that we love is not only an exciting endeavor – it is one that we take extremely seriously. Over the years that we spent working for other companies – with or without each other – we have observed many great accomplishments and some unfortunate failures. We have obviously learned from these events, and taken valuable business and life lessons with us. In order to review and reflect on these real-life business coaching events we have engaged in many early morning lattes, afternoon salads, and late day espresso meetings discussing, planning, and prioritizing what we will always hold to be true to our business, our clients, and ourselves. The obvious result of these many conversations is the ultimate promise that at Lynx Consulting our clientele will always be our top priority. We will work day-in and day-out to bring our clients online marketing success while developing a strong and lasting relationship with them.
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Organize to Optimize

When starting to improve and optimize your AdWords account, or any pay-per-click advertising account, the first step should always be organization. You cannot enhance your online marketing results if your campaigns are not structurally sound.

For those who ultimately want to be in a position to optimize and are feeling overwhelmed by the task of setting up or re-structuring their AdWords account an easy place to start the organization of your online marketing efforts is to simply use the four P’s of marketing as your guidelines:
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