Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website.

Google Analytics gives us key insights that help drive the evolution of our product on our mobile app and desktop. Get the data you need to make intelligent marketing and business decisions. Improve performance across your sites, apps, and other marketing channels. Google Analytics and related products can help you turn customer insights into actionable solutions for your business.

With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites. Their Premium offering has all the power and ease you expect from Google Analytics plus extras that help you optimize and get the most from its robust capabilities. All for one full predictable, flat-rate, everything-included annual fee.

Feature:

1. Collection and Configuration APIs help you collect data and manage your account in custom, scalable ways. With the Collection APIs and SDKs, you can measure how users interact with your content and marketing initiatives on any device and platform. The Configuration APIs let you explore flexible and programmatic ways to manage your Google Analytics account.

2. The multi-screen, multi-device world is the new normal. Google Analytics Measurement Protocol measures digital platforms beyond web and apps, so you can connect offline conversions with online activity.

3. Use Event Tracking to measure activities like downloads, video plays, and mobile ad clicks.

4. Native iOS and Android SDKs make it easy for you to measure user interaction with your app by tracking key events and activities.

5. User Permissions let you choose the right levels of access for different users of your Google Analytics account. Let some people manage your entire account, while others can simply view and analyze.

6. GA Data Import functionality allows you to join the data from your CRM, content management, and other systems with the data in your Google Analytics account for faster, more sophisticated insights.

7. Google Analytics monitors your website’s traffic to detect significant statistical variations, then generates alerts when they occur. A closer look will bring you insights you might have missed — for example, a spike in traffic from a particular city or campaign.

8. Eliminate the guesswork from website design. Test variations of your pages and learn which designs bring you the most conversions

9. Find potential and existing customers who, based on their usage of your site or app, are likely to have an interest in your products and services. Then show them relevant ads for those same products as they surf the web.

10. Reports can be segmented and filtered to reflect the needs of your business. Real-time views let you know which new content is popular, how much traffic today’s new promotion is driving to your site, and which tweets and blog posts draw the best results.

11. No matter what kind of app you’re building, implementing Google Analytics for Mobile Apps will help you achieve business objectives and set yourself up for success.

Pricing:

Google analytics offers feature packed tools in FREE of cost. It also has premium plans starting from $150,000/year. Below is the comparison of FREE and premium service.

pricing

Google Analytics as a solution:

Q: What is Google Analytics?

Christopher ODonnell answered it on Quora

Google Analytics (product)is a free software-as-a-service webanalyticsproduct developed, offered and maintained byGoogle. The product's origins lie inGoogle'sacquisition of Urchin, a webanalyticsproduct that remains in existence today; Urchin is a premium (paid) webanalyticsproduct that is not hosted (SaaS) but rather installed by the customer on the hardware of their choosing.

Google Analyticsexcels at showing visitor behavior on the visit level, which is to say that it offers spectacular counts of visits, visitors and completed events (as configured) for any date range.

Common uses of Google Analyticsinclude, but are certainly not limited to:

- learning where visitors came from (for that session)
- understanding the volume and trend of visitors coming from various search engines, through paid and unpaid means
- identifying the technology profiles of web site visitors: what browsers are visitors using? what are the common screen resolutions? (etc)
- tracking eCommerce trends, including cart completion, daily revenue, and more
- seeing what content on a site is most popular, and most engaging to site visitors
- exploring where in the world visitors to the site live, from country by country popularity down to the city level

Many users will also configure Goals. Goals denote meaningful moments in the visitor's interaction with the site, and commonly include signup and purchase. UnfortunatelyGoogle Analyticsonly support page view events (URL-seen) as Goals.

Advanced users ofGoogle Analyticswill often pursue more extensive integrations with the application and their site. ReadWhat are the most common customizations performed by Google Analytics consultants?to learn more about common customizations.

Another professional-level use ofGoogle Analyticsis the Advanced Segmentation feature. This feature allows you to filter the data in the reports you see to only include visitors meeting certain criteria. It is the tip of the iceberg, but to give you an idea of the power of this feature, such criteria might include:

- where visitors came from
- what content the visitors saw first during that visit
- what time of day they visited
- where the visitors live
- how many pages the visitors saw

Event tracking is a useful feature ofGoogle Analyticsas well. By configuring events, it is possible to see reports on the interaction behavior of site visitors without affecting the content reports. If it is important to see which features are most used on a single-page application that does not refresh, for example, event tracking is very appropriate. Other uses of event tracking include tracking forms, site errors, and so forth.

Google Analyticsarguably falls short in some regards as it takes a visit-level worldview, as opposed to a long-term person-level worldview. It is not possible, for example, to identify the original acquisition source for converting users inGoogle Analytics. The free application has a limit of around 5,000,000 pageviews a month per account as well, which a large site may easily run through.

Q: Google Analytics case studies ?

David Andersson answered it on Quora

There are official case studies from Google Analytics Certified Partners (GACPs) and their clients. They are posted on the official Google Analytics blog: Analytics Blog: Case Study

Many of the GACPs (listed here: http://www.google.com/analytics/...) provide case studies on their own websites. E.g. http://www.cardinalpath.com/work/

Q: How lagged is the reporting of Google Analytics?

Dan Leveille answered it on Quora

It depends on the amount of incoming traffic.

My Google Analytics account of a small site (<1,000 daily pageviews) updates about every 10 minutes.

My Google Analytics account of a very large site (50 million+ daily pageviews), it takes about 4-6 hours.

Q: How does Google Analytics generate reports so quickly?

David Andersson answered it on Quora

Others have provided good ideas about how the data is processed, and those specifics I do not know. I can add this about the 'fastness' of the reports:

The fast reports in Google Analytics are so called "pre-aggregated tables", i.e., they are already processed. All standard reports are already processed, thus fast, and alsounsampled.

As soon as you make a custom query, by adding a secondary dimension, applying acustom segment or generating a custom report, data is processed on the fly. If there are more than 250K-500K visits (depending on your setting of the slider) for the queried date range, GA will sample the data to your specified sampling setting, yielding the yellow box:

Once on-the-fly queries kick in, GA will base the query on theWeb Property data. So if you're looking ina filtered profile, andapplying a custom segmentGA will:

1. Choose a maximum of 500 K visits from the web property (the UA-ID), evenly distributed for the date range (not accounting for peaks).
2. Then apply the profile filter.
3. Then apply the custom segmentation.

Looking at standard (pre-aggregated) reports in a filtered profile, will yield unsampled data.

Googlerecently published this article on sampling:http://support.google.com/analyt...

Q: How can I track Pinterest in Google Analytics?

Ross Allen answered it on Quora

Their Javascript pinit.js file (http://assets.pinterest.com/js/p...) doesn't seem to add any callbacks, so the best you can do is track clicks on the 'Pin It' button in Google Analytics.

For jQuery:

$('.pin-it-button').click(function(){
_gaq.push(['_trackSocial','Pinterest','Pin']);
});

Review:

Kristin H. reviewed it on G2Crowd as “A great, free tool with lots of features.”

What do you like best?
Google Analytics is the gold standard for free web analytics. As clean as it is comprehensive, this tool allows you to track, organize, and report information relatively easily.

What do you dislike?
The interface is pretty intuitive, but that doesn't mean I would recommend just anyone diving in without checking the water first. Any tool this comprehensive is going to have a lot of different dials to turn, and it takes a skilled hand to know exactly how to operate each one. This isn't a complaint so much as a cautioning. To get the most out of G.A., at least a little research is required.

For which purposes do you use Google Analytics?
Digital Analytics

Raviraj R. reviewed it on G2Crowd as “IN & OUT scrutiny of your position in Webspace”

What do you like best?
There are many striking website analytic's features that google offers without a dime. The most interesting features are the seamless integration's of Adwords & Analytics. Audience Characteristics and behavior patterns interests me the most, as we need to be clearly understanding the patterns to enable better user experiences. Flow Visualizations features helps me understand the path the visitor takes to my website. The Traffic Sources helps me evaluate the effectiveness of my referrals, direct traffic, keywords and adwords custom campaigns.

What do you dislike?
There is nothing much i can think of. It provides all the basic features that an amateur/professional analyst would require for website tracking.

What business problems are you solving? What benefits have you realized?
I have had couple of websites www.fullonbaan.com; www.fullonmba.com; www.fullonyatra.com. I wanted to study the behavioral pattern of the audience, wanted to understand the current traffic sources, and other peripheral analysis which would have helped me in changing the dynamics and contents of the website to cater to the user's experience. Some of the features related to site performance in page analytics and site speed analysis really helped me counter the issues, fix it and be on road to drive more traffic.

For which purposes do you use Google Analytics?
Digital Analytics

Jonathan Miltimore reviewed it on TrustRadius as "Google Analytics: The Perfect Tool For Understanding How Users Engage Your Site"

Converting traffic to sales, perhaps. I say this because I understand how to analyze the traffic information Google Analytics (GA) offers, but I have not yet reached a point where I can analyze "conversions" or some of the other marketing data. Behavior of users is easy to understand to a certain point, but deeper dives into marketing data can get tricky.

Google Analytics Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our department uses Google Analytics (GA) to better understand what types of content, people, and practices are most important to clients and potential clients. We use it to see which attorneys at our firm have the richest SEO, what practice groups are found during searches, what blog content is being read and what is being ignored. GA gives us a wonderful breakdown of what content on our site is being read, what is not, how long users are engaged with the content, and how users are finding and accessing our content.

Google Analytics Pros

- It effectively identifies what pages on your site are generating your web traffic.
- It does a good job of telling you how these users arrived on your site (i.e. search, direct, social media, etc.).
- It exports data really well, so you can support and defend your communications and marketing strategies.

Google Analytics Cons

- I was bummed that they moved some of the functions (keyword data, etc.) over to Google Webmaster tools. (On the bright side, this has prompted me to become more familiar with Google Search Console.)
- A lot of functions are right there. But it's hard to tell which functions are most important or what they offer.
- Perhaps this is related to number 2, but the UX is fairly intimidating. All of these tools and subsets of tools are right in front of you, and it's difficult to understand what ones are the most important. A simpler, streamlined format might be a better approach.

ROI on Google Analytics purchase

- In my previous job (managing editor of a digital media site), GA helped me understand what types of content drove mass audience. You knew exactly what types of content was engaging users and where they were coming from. That type of information is crucial to strategy building.
- In my current position (communications and marketing for a corporate law firm), the data we get from GA is helping us streamline our web navigation, develop our legal blog strategy, and better understand what pages are the most important ones on our site.
- Direct ROI is easier to measure on item 1 than on item 2. But I will say I would feel rather blind in either role if I did not have Google Analytics to help me better understand how users, clients, and potential clients are interacting with our web content.

Google Analytics Alternatives Considered

Siteimprove A vendor that I had once worked with, Siteimprove, had an analytics tool that was very similar to GA. I used it a few times, but it didn't seem better to me than GA --which I already knew -- so I didn't see a need to learn a different tool.

Raviraj Raikar reviewed it on TrustRadius as "In depth Scrutiny aiming at propelling your position in WEB WORLD."

For any web analysis, Google Analytics is suited to carry out the following

a) Advertising and Campaign Performance

b) Analysis and Testing

c) Audience Characteristics and Behavior

d) Product Integrations

e) Sales and Conversions

f) Site and App Performance

Google Analytics Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Had used Google Analytics for my many clientele whose main focus were understanding current market trends and its product's or service's competitors, analyzing performances based on milestones and indicators which were constantly tweaked for better throughput and edge over competitors.

Google Analytics Pros

- Google Analytics Dashboard gives you a quick overview of how your site has fared with time horizon of hourly, daily, weekly & monthly.
- Very easy to install and implement. It gets you going as soon as its bots crawls through your web page contents.
- Gives you instant real time analysis of how many active users are currently accessing your site, their demographics, their location, the page they are accessing, source of traffic etc.
- Amount of reports that can be fired out of Google Analytics is humongous, thus enabling detail study and implementing new ideas.

Google Analytics Cons

- In Audience GEO location reporting, the level of source is restricted to the city. We need further drill down if possible with the exact places from where the hits have come for the site, thus helping narrowing down on the user base to be targeted.
- Keywords formed the backbone of the analytical tool, but its demeaning from analytical tool as its AdWordsrevenue taking a hit, may be good for the company but not beneficial for end user.
- There is constant upgrades and changes to the tool happening, it makes difficult for us to adjust to new changes frequently.

ROI on Google Analytics purchase

- It helped my client immensely, in understanding their user base, and running advertisement targeting the demographics and locations highlighted by the tool, thus helping in improved ROI.
- Using this tool helped nail down on expenses related to web analytical tool and resources. The free versions has rich features which can help take informed decisions.
- Having web insights helped my clientele in formulating an appeasement approaches to the customer, which meant delightful customer and increase in revenues.

Google Analytics Alternatives Considered

WordPress The inbuilt analytical tool is not as impressive and loaded with features as compared to Google Analytics. Google Analytics spoils us for choices.

Sam Gooch, Digital Marketing Manager at WooRank reviewed it on GetApp as "

An absolute must for any website"

Google Analytics is a tool that I use daily - checking in first thing in the morning to see the status of a number of website. I find it very useful when drilling down to understand whether traffic/conversions has increased or indeed fallen, allowing me to further investigate possible causes using a number of dimensions. Analytics is completely free (although I believe you can pay for the premium version), so it's a no-brainer. Several users can be added to any one account, with various levels of access to ensure your users only have access to what they need ton use. I would also recommend adding filters to your properties in order to filter out spam visits as well as IP filters to prevent traffic from your business from skewing the results.

Pros: Easy to use lots of support documents to help set up & manage your account It's free! Can be associated with your Search Console account to pull in additional data Lots of ways to track website performance across a number of dimensions & metrics

Cons: You can no longer access all information regarding the keywords that user searched for when they visited your website

Rhino reviewed it on bootstrapped.fm

Every time I look in Google Analytics they seem to have changed it and I seem to fall down a rabit hole for an hour or two but still end up with no good info or actionable insights.

Now that every man and his dog is following Dan Norris's playbook for productised services wondering if there are any recommendations for a service where someone would look (monthly/quarterly) at the Goog and give me a digest report with insights and actionable info

Oh - should specify that I am not after something that just repeats useless vanity info like "average time on page increased 12% to 1:45 from last month" - need human touch to decide what info is useful and actionable.

John Parker, CEO at Quipro reviewed it on GetApp as "The best way to start knowing your customers are: Google Analytics"

Google analytics starts as what the visitor counter was supposed to be back in the 90's. First thing you find is that you can see your traffic and its characteristics as easily as exploring a graph. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, Google Analytics allows you to do much more such as AB testing and Adwords integrations that will help improve your users experience.

Pros: Free Easy to get started

Cons: Difficult to use further Not easy to know all the possibilities

Resources:

Tracking Event - https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/eventTrackerGuide

Social Interaction Tracking - https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSocial

Detect Content Piracy - Segment contributed by Pamela Nelson

Track content and the length of the content - Advanced Content Tracking with Google Analytics

Creating custom dashboards - A PR Dashboard for Google Analytics

Segmentation in Google Analytics - Google Analytics Segmentation

Tracking keyword ranks in Google Analytics - Track Keyword Ranking using Google Analytics

SEO Customizations for Google Analytics - SEO Customizations for Google Analytics

Custom Variable in Google Analytics - Google Analytics Custom Variables for Publishers

Analytics Academy

Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik - Digital Marketing and Analytics Blog

Three Ventures Google Analytics Blog

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO

Analytics Talk - Digital Analytics for Business

50 Resources for Getting the Most Out of Google Analytics (Contains Resources For Beginners and also Tips & Tricks, New features)

11 Google Analytics Tricks to Use for Your Website

Google Analytics Resources for Beginners to Advanced Users | Distilled

Videos:

Google Analytics - Mobile, Premium and Free Website Analytics – Google