Here’s your summary of what happened over at Google Analytics in April, and how you can take advantage of these developments.
Make Smarter Business Decisions Without Using Data
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
The Gist: Google is offering a four-unit course on ways to avoid using data to make decisions. Instructor: Justin Cutroni.
Your Action Items: Start thinking outside the box if your team is currently stuck, or you have no measurement plan in place.
Get Going with Universal Analytics, Now Out of Beta
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
The Gist: Google Analytics announced that the long-awaited Universal Analytics is now in Phase 3 and incorporates Remarketing, Audience reporting, time zone based processing, and updates to the measurement protocol.
Your Action Items: Reach out to your developers or analytics team to see if upgrading now is best for you. Don’t get auto-migrated without proper review of your current analytics setup. SEER can help with this!
Link Your AdWords and Analytics Data for Better Data Management
Monday, April 7, 2014
The Gist: AdWords linking can now be done in bulk and at the property level, giving you greater control over who sees what data in your views.
Your Action Items: Review your AdWords linking settings in your Google Analytics accounts now, so you can ensure that the appropriate teams are accessing your information, and to double-check that you’re taking advantage of these rich insights from combined analytics and AdWords data.
Remarket Smarter and Faster with Smart Lists
Friday, April 11, 2014
The Gist: Segmentation via the API was never a part of the Google Analytics API, and now it is. These new sequences are simple to use and provide a more robust method of reporting via the API. Most importantly, segmentation can now be done at the user level, versus just the session level.
Your Action Items: Update any reports that pull from the Google Analytics API with these new sequences. If you’re using a third-party to build your reports, be sure to contact them immediately with the details of this post to get your next period’s reports built out with this new functionality.
Boost Your Data Quality Using Google Analytics Alerts!
Monday, April 14, 2014
The Gist: Google Analytics added internal notifications that will let you know if there’s anything you can do to make adjustments to get the most from your data. Alerts include incomplete or missing tags, conflicting filters, and more.
Your Action Items: Check to see if you have this access yet (it’s still in Beta and is rolling out slowly). If you do, review your alerts and talk to your analytics or technical team to make corrections!
Measure Web and App Performance in One Place
Thursday, April 17, 2014
The Gist: As GA gears up for the full Universal Analytics rollout, they’re making more changes to how your data can be viewed. Now, your mobile app data and your web data can be viewed in one report (if you’re sending data from both platforms to the same property in GA). Your data is now referred to in one consistent way.
BIG CHANGE: The metrics formerly known as Visits (see below).
As far as we have seen, none of the above changes have affected your data. However, if you have noticed anything different about your data, please let us know!
Your Action Items: Analyze your new data and adjust any reports that you may have to reflect these changes. If consolidation of your internal reports is necessary, consult with your team to come up with a strategy to accommodate for these changes moving forward.
A Great GA Primer for Newbies and Pros Alike
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
The Gist: GA published a good beginner’s post - or an old hat’s reminder - about some of the sharing features available for your reports. The GA team also called our attention to Custom Channels Groupings and Custom Attribution Models for assigning value to appropriate marketing efforts and teams.
Your Action Items: Share this post with anyone new to your team and who may be eager to ramp up their own analytics knowledge. Or, reexamine your own approach to data - do you have a gated mentality when it comes to who sees what, and why? It may be time to revise that approach, since, as GA said: “Innovation happens on every level”.
That’s it for this month! Check back next month for May's recap of Google Analytics’ monthly happenings.
