By Charlie Cummins – bbmm.ie
Google continue with their monthly Breakfast Briefings. Today’s event (the 6th for 2015) took a look into the capability of the advanced data reporting options available within Advanced Google Analytics and explained the insight these advanced options can bring to website data analysis.
Evaluate Website Performance
A key point which was made within today’s presentation was that it is not enough to look at the basic aggregate data supplied by Google Analytics. Not all site visitors are equal – for example: how do new users engage versus repeat visitors.
The key to getting the most from Google Analytics is for companies to have a business objective. You must know what data to look for based on those business objectives. A measurement plan can be created to get data to addressing the objectives and key performance indicators (kpi’s) against which to measure data can be set.
Ideally, data should be used to identify trends over time: compare various audience cohorts, compare channels, and compare site elements. From the trends, actionable items can be identified. For example: does that data indicate that the website content needs to be tailored, that some elements of marketing should be amended.
Improve and Automate Data
There are a number of widgets and tools available within Google Analytics which can help to automate some reporting and segment the data to make it more meaningful and easier to read. These include: Add Segments, Custom Dashboards, Custom Reports, and Google Spreadsheet Add-ons etc.
Move Data Beyond the Web
At a more advanced level, data from any “connected” device can be imported into Google Analytics via their measurement protocol API. Data can be imported from POS, CRM’s and other such systems.
For more information on Google Analytics please email [email protected]
