Demographic Grant Reporting: Guidelines For Using Google Analytics

The number one agenda of any grant-funded agency is to report the overall success of your education, as well as the collective outreach to your grantor. There are a couple of ways to carry out such demographic reporting, but an easier method would be the use of Google Analytics. Granted, obtaining a certification carries more weight, a base level Google Analytic reporting is possible if one employs ingenuity and discipline. 

How then do you show your grantor that you are indeed educating the targeted people? Well, Google Analytics grant users access to information in different formats such as age, gender, location, ethnicity, and language diversity. Obtaining such information from diverse standpoints will help streamline the required outcome, fine-tuning the entire operation to achieve the desired results. Overall, the types of details one can acquire through Google Analytics are vast and, needless to say, accurate. This article highlights some important demographic tips for using Google Analytics to report the success of your grant. That is, with respect to the information gotten from these reference points

Location

One cannot overemphasize the importance of location tracking as opposed to simply assuming where your audiences are coming from. Since a good number of grants receive their funding based on location, it is important to ascertain if the people of that are actually accessing and utilizing your site. Although it is impossible to negate the facts that people outside your location are trooping into your site, you must be able to ascertain that a good amount of traffic is coming from your location. 

One thing to note is that the percentage of people accessing your site in your location is not a singularity. That is, you cannot account for everyone in your area as a number of factors key into it. For starters, people tend to value their online privacy and, in order to do so, change their privacy settings. This makes Google unable to pinpoint the exact place they are. Furthermore, Google might be tracking down a Google account set up in another place as opposed to the current computer’s location. This means that although the person is currently accessing your site from the location your grant demands, the place Google is pinpointing is where they created their Google account, which is in another location. 

With all these variables in place, the only outcome you want is that Google Analytics shows that a higher percentage is coming from your location. That way, the demographic report sent to your grantor shows clearly that you are hitting the target audience in the predefined location.

Language Diversity

With Google Analytics, one is able to ascertain the language diversity of your targeted audience. This information is certainly first-class information as it shows your grantor the cultural appropriation of you the audience you are targeting. That is, you will be able to tell your grantor whether you are indeed reaching out to French-speaking people or Spanish-speaking people. To activate this setting, simply click on the menu button and select the language option. This will display the language of people visiting your website.

With a good knowledge of the acronyms Google employs in determining the language of people surfing the internet, you will be able to tell the different languages your audience speaks. Furthermore, if you intend on targeting people that speak specific languages, it will be paramount to have a working translation service that will enable them to navigate the site with ease. That way, you will be sure that those hitting your website are doing so because they find your content valuable and are interested in it. 

Age and Gender

These two aspects are extremely vital as they help ease the stress of grant reporting. They help by producing streamlined information pertaining to your intended goal. What age bracket do you intend on reaching, and how well does the content suit that particular age group? Well, this information is readily available on Google Analytics, but that is if you have successfully set it up.

To activate this setting, all you have to do is click on the demographic menu option. Afterward, click on the permission button and enable the setting by choosing “Yes, I want to gather this information.” Once you have activated the setting, you will begin to receive an influx of information pertaining to the age bracket, as well as the gender visiting your website. 

One thing to note here is that Google does not keep track of people below the ages of 18 so, the information you receive will only be that of people above the ages of 18. To know those that are under 18 accessing your website, you will have to fall back to the method employed in managing website traffic. Similarly, Google does not collect this information about every single individual visiting your website. The information collected is nothing more than a mere sampling of your website’s audience. One could say that the result gotten is simply an estimate of the actual result. However, the information still stands true when communicating it to your grantor. However low the overall percentage is, it is still enough to prove your point that you are hitting the target audience. 

Conclusion

In contrast to simply guessing that you are indeed hitting your target audience, Google Analytics shows, to a great extent of accuracy, the information required for successful grant reporting. Furthermore, getting knee-deep in utilizing Google Analytics will help you better access other features that will make grant reporting easier.

One thing about utilizing Google Analytics as a beginner is that providing the information is somewhat tricky. You can choose to obtain the information as media files and present them to your grantor instead. This way, you will be exposing your grantor with a report that they might find visually appealing. Conversely, it is important to arrange your files in order of importance as it shows your dedication to your work. Leveraging this purpose for good will put you in a situation whereby your grantor is willing to assign more to you. 

If you do find this base level Google Analytic reporting easy, you should make out time to get a professional course and certificate, which will enable you to stretch the limits of your boundaries. That way, you will be able to collect more information that your grantor might find necessary.

KidGlov is a boutique, full-service, advertising, branding and content marketing agency and certified B Corp, with offices in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, specializing in nonprofit marketing, healthcare marketing, financial services marketing, social impact marketing, and purpose-driven businesses.