"Sophisticated marketers who deploy a complete marketing analytics stack are 39% more likely to see improvement in the overall performance of their marketing programs."
Enterprise businesses require enterprise-level analytics solutions - that’s just the way it is. If you’ve hit limitations within your free subscription to Google Analytics Standard, chances are you are looking for a more robust, enterprise-level analytics solution to better fit your needs.
With the introduction of Google Marketing Platform, Google is offering new product upgrades like Google Analytics 360 (GA 360).
Your biggest question is probably, what’s the difference between Google Analytics 360 vs Google Analytics standard? What are the benefits of using Google Analytics 360 over the free version of Google Analytics, and is it worth it to upgrade?
This post will introduce you to the benefits of GA 360 and how to upgrade to GA 360.
Benefits of Upgrading to GA 360 from Google Analytics Standard
No Data Sampling or Account Limits
The free version of Google Analytics Standard is subject to sampling when your Google Analytics property exceeds 500,000 sessions within the date range you are using.
Sampled data in Google Analytics can be highly unreliable, and can make a big impact on how to evaluate data to make business decisions. It’s not an actual sample of all recorded data in a given date range. Rather, an algorithm randomly selects the sample; meaning it is not a true representation of your data and therefore cannot be relied on to make decisions.
While default reports are not subject to sampling, true insights are derived from more purposeful, ad-hoc data querying using secondary dimensions, filtering, segmentation and custom reports or tables. This is usually where most sampling takes place based on the level of data processing available by subscription level.
One of the major benefits of upgrading to Google Analytics 360 premium is that reports can contain as many as 100 million sessions before sampling is reached, which for most customers, resolves any sampling in the interface. Should sessions exceed 100 million, Google Analytics 360 customers can create, manage, and export fully unsampled reports.
Read our comprehensive Google Analytics data sampling guide.
Roll-Up Reporting for Multiple Analytics Properties or Users
It is common for organizations to have data split across multiple Google Analytics properties. This may have been the result of strategic setup to separate data for individual stakeholder groups or web properties or due to tracking setup without strategic consideration for comprehensive performance measurement.
Either way, another benefit of upgrading to Google Analytics 360 is the option for customers to create a roll up reporting property where they may send data from multiple Google Analytics properties for a holistic view of performance.
360 customers can essentially create a single source of truth for all of their Google Analytics data, which can be used for holistic reporting for marketing teams or perhaps executive leadership overseeing organizational performance vs. say, performance in the North Americas.
Get more tips on roll up reporting and why it's valuable.
Data Source Integration for More Streamlined Analyses
Google Analytics 360 customers benefit from a native integration of several Google products not offered as part of the free, standard subscription.
Google Analytics 360 + BigQuery Integration
Specifically, Google Analytics 360 customers benefit from a native integration with Google BigQuery – a service for interactive analysis of very large, complex datasets with near real-time data freshness.
With Google BigQuery, users can join multiple datasets and then query (export) a single dataset from the user friendly Google BigQuery interface through an SQL-based syntax. There, users can preview resulting tables and then extract it through Tableau or another business intelligence tool for powerful visualization and insightful analysis.
Although users of BigQuery are able to access Google Analytics data within the BigQuery interface, BigQuery is not limited to Google Analytics 360 customers alone. It is a paid tool that can be used for $5 per terabyte.
Google Analytics 360 + DoubleClick Integration
Google Analytics 360 customers benefit from the full scale Google Marketing Platform.
This platform enables native integrations with other Google marketing products, including the revamped versions of programmatic display ad delivery and management platforms: Doubleclick Bid Manager (DBM) and DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM).
This can be a bit confusing, we know. Google rebranded a ton of their products last year, and it left some users scratching their heads.
DCM and DBM, currently known as "Display & Video 360", are most frequently used by enterprise level organizations to serve display ads on Google and non-Google networks and on specific sites. It requires higher budget and is centered upon Real Time Bidding.
With Google Analytics 360, GMP conversion and delivery data are accessible in the interface.
This includes metrics such as View-through and Click-through conversions, as well ads specs and where ads were served. This means your company can now view impression data from your display ads within the interface, and weight both interactions as touch points in the path to purchase or conversion on your website. It's this integration with digital marketing platforms that takes your data further. You can use these products for more advanced audience creation and targeting, and gauge the ROI of your efforts in real-time and at scale.
The integration with Google Analytics 360 allows campaign information to be available in Acquisition reporting so companies may easily report on performance comprehensively across all marketing channels.
Sales and Marketing Data Integration
The November 2017 release of the integration between Google Analytics 360 and the Salesforce Sales and Marketing Clouds means that companies can now seamlessly use lead data and customer lifetime value stored in their Sales Cloud to segment users and focus on their most valuable customers for audience creation, intelligent targeting and personalization.
Data will also be shared between Google Analytics 360 and the Salesforce Marketing Cloud so marketers can glean greater insight into campaign performance by accessing Google Analytics engagement metrics in the Marketing Cloud and vice versa.
This opens up opportunity for remarketing to users based on customer interactions stored in Salesforce throughout Google’s ad platforms. Google Analytics 360 and Salesforce customers will benefit from a holistic understanding of the customer lifecycle, from awareness to engagement, conversion and retention.
Marketers can take action by delivering timely, relevant messaging to high value customers with Google ad and marketing platforms.
Is GA 360 Worth It?
Yes, if your business is feeling the restrictions of Google Analytics Standard.
Upgrading to an enterprise-level solution can unlock advanced capabilities and help you discover insights into essential marketing metrics with powerful data analysis tools designed for businesses with more, complex data.
How to Upgrade
To upgrade to GA 360, you'll need to find a certified agency.
Seer is a GA 360 Reseller and Certified Partner, our Analytics team would be happy to discuss how GA 360 can support your business and marketing goals:
