The Analytics Academy is back and better than ever! Ok, it didn’t actually go anywhere, but there are a few important changes with this update which will hopefully help you in your analytics education! There is a new URL, a new look and feel, TWO NEW COURSES, and evergreen certification opportunities! You can now access the Analytics Academy directly at https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/ We’ve updated the look and feel of the new site Two new courses are replacing the old Digital Analytics Fundamental and Platform Principles courses. The new courses are called ‘Google Analytics for Beginners’ and ‘Advanced Google Analytics’ Google Analytics for Beginners: teaches the the basic features of Google Analytics including how to create an account, implement tracking code, analyze basic reports, and set up goals and campaign tracking. Advanced
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Google Analytics
To begin using Optimize, you must first setup your account and container (see this post with a Step-by-Step of how to do that), and then link your Google Analytics property to your Optimize account. In this post, I’ll show you how to setup your linking. Step 1: After logging into optimize.google.com, and after having setup your account and container, you should see something like the below container, ready for you to create your first experiment. Before we do that, however, I’d recommend linking your Google Analytics property first (note: you can do this in any order, but to launch an experiment you must have a linked GA property, and the Optimize snippet on your page, so I like to do these steps first). On the right hand nav bard, on step number 2,
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A couple weeks ago I was in Australia for the Loves Data Analytics Conference and had a chance to chat with Jeff Sauer, better known as @Jeffalytics, about some of my favorite Google Analytics 360 reports. You may be familiar with Jeff’s Periodic Table of Google Analytics. I’m excited to say that I’ve added a new element, Custom Funnels. I’ve written about Custom Funnels before, and am always excited to share more about them, because they can be so powerful, especially for remarketing based on fallout from a determined path, such as a checkout funnel. Check out some of my thoughts in this video: Watch @kristaseiden explain how to 📈🚀💪 make your #business #data speak volumes with @googleanalytics 3️⃣6️⃣0️⃣ feature – Custom Funnels! pic.twitter.com/BoNkUPxEX4 — Jeffalytics (@jeffalytics) November 11,
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Better data enables better decision making, and it begins with how you track it – to provide more context to what’s already out there. Because by knowing more about the context, you’ll be better equipped and informed. When I’m interviewing prospective interns or senior roles for our marketing team and we get to questions about their knowledge of Google Analytics, I always ask them two questions to get a sense of their proficiency level: Have you worked with Advanced Segments Do you know how to use Event Tracking and can you explain how it works? To me, both are essential for getting a better sense of the data and the users on your site. With this post I’d like to explain the importance of Event Tracking and how we use
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Reflection is part of growth. Looking back and examining what has gone by, what has been accomplished, where I’ve fallen short, and where I still need to improve is an important exercise to move forward. This morning, I read back through my blog post reflecting on my first year at Google, and I was surprised to remember how much happened in that first year. It made me think about all that’s happened since, and most recently, this past year at the Goog. I’m writing this post while on vacation in the Philippines, at the tail end of a quarter long assignment to work in Asia. If that one sentence doesn’t sum up the adventure that the past 4 years has brought me, I don’t know what can. To hear more
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Over the past couple of months, I have spoken several times to a variety of audiences about Attribution, specifically about using the Attribution reports in Google Analytics. It’s a topic that doesn’t get a lot of spotlight even though the insights and findings can help you to significantly influence Return on Ad Spend (ROAS hereafter) for integrated ad campaigns from DoubleClick and AdWords. You might be questioning me when I say this topic ‘doesn’t get a lot of spotlight’, because yes, Attribution is a major buzzword and if you’ve been at any analytics conference in the past 5 years you’re sure to have had your fill of hearing it. What I mean though, is that we don’t often hear much about actually using these reports, from an analyst’s perspective. So
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Recently, a coworker brought back a bag of dried mangoes from the Philippines as a gift for me, telling me that they are the best dried mangoes in Southeast Asia (hereafter, SEA). This coworker happened to be from the Philippines and was for sure a bit biased in her opinion here… Another coworker sitting next to me overheard the convo and piped in, saying that everyone wants to claim that mangoes from their country are the best. Apparently, this was an ongoing and playfully heated convo in the office. I’ve been known to host data-driven social tasting events in Mountain View for the Google Analytics team, such as a Scotch tasting, Craft Beer and Guac-off, and Whiskey and baked goods. These events are always fun, get people talking and interacting,
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Some time ago, a few analyst friends tweeted about wishing new widgets in Google Analytics dashboards could be added to the bottom by default rather than the top. As an analyst who has made and maintained MANY GA dashboards, I couldn’t agree more. By adding the widget to the top, the analyst is forced to immediately re-organize their dashboard widgets as they likely already had a particular setup they liked and the new widget disrupts that. Adding it to the bottom of the dashboard instead allows for easier customization and less user frustration. <— this was the justification I used when I submitted this feature request/change. Well, I’m SO excited to report that after a short wait (ok, a decent wait, but hey, we were busy building the Google Analytics
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Following Krista’s excellent post on using secondary dimensions in Google Analytics, this post will explain the GA represents your data using its internal data model and why it’s important to understand this. You’ll see that certain combinations of metrics and dimensions don’t mean what you might think, and that some are actually completely invalid. We’ll cover examples of secondary dimensions and custom reports where seemingly sensible reports are invalid and how to spot and avoid these mistakes. Introduction We see the world through our eyes, we smell the world through our nose, we taste it in our mouths and we feel it in our finger-tips. We perceive the world using the same senses but, philosophically we have unique, individual perspectives when we think about the world and what it means
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