About This Course
Course Overview
As of 2019, Google Analytics is the most widely used web analytics service on the web.[4] Google Analytics provides an SDK that allows gathering usage data from iOS and Android app, known as Google Analytics for Mobile Apps.[5] Google Analytics can be blocked by browsers, browser extensions, firewalls and other means.
Google Analytics has undergone many updates since its inception and is currently on its 4th iteration — GA4.[6] GA4 is the default Google Analytics installation, and is the renamed version for the (App + Web) Property that Google released in 2019 in a Beta form. GA4 has also replaced Universal Analytics (UA). One notable feature of GA4 is a natural integration with Google’s BigQuery — a feature previously only available with the enterprise GA 360. This move indicates efforts by Google to integrate GA and its free users into their wider cloud offering.[7]
According to a statement made by Google (March 2022) Universal Analytics will stop collecting new data on July 1, 2023, with Google Analytics 4 set to replace it. Users will be able to use Universal Analytics up to the July 2023 deadline, no new data will be added to UA after it has been sunset according to Google.
Features
Google Analytics is used to track website activity such as session duration, pages per session and the bounce rate of individuals using the site, along with the information on the source of the traffic. It can be integrated with Google Ads,[9] with which users can create and review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals). Goals might include sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file. Google Analytics’ approach is to show high-level, dashboard-type data for the casual user, and more in-depth data further into the report set. Google Analytics analysis can identify poorly performing pages with techniques such as funnel visualization, where visitors came from (referrers), how long they stayed on the website and their geographical position. It also provides more advanced features, including custom visitor segmentation.[10] Google Analytics e-commerce reporting can track sales activity and performance. The e-commerce reports show a site’s transactions, revenue, and many other commerce-related metrics.[11]
On September 29, 2011, Google Analytics launched Real-Time analytics, enabling a user to have insights about visitors currently on the site.[12] A user can have 100 site profiles. Each profile generally corresponds to one website. It is limited to sites that have online traffic of fewer than 5 million page views per month (roughly 2 page-views per second) unless the site is linked to a Google Ads campaign.[13] Google Analytics includes Google Website Optimizer, re-branded as Google Analytics Content Experiments.[14][15] Google Analytics’ Cohort analysis helps in understanding the behavior of component groups of users apart from your user population. It is beneficial to marketers and analysts for the successful implementation of a marketing strategy.
The latest version of Google Analytics, commonly referred as GA4, encompasses additional features focusing on predictions, customizability, and privacy. Some of these features can be listed as:
A new concept to allow the same property to be used both for website and mobile app,[16][17]
AI-powered predictive metrics supported by machine learning,[18][19]
A customizable, easy-to-navigate homepage,[20]
An Explore section to provide completely custom reports for specific business needs,[21]
A built-in DebugView to analyze and debug the upcoming data instantly,[22]
Anomaly detection,[23]
Improved e-commerce reports.[24]
History
Google acquired Urchin Software Corp. in April 2005.[2] Google’s service was developed from Urchin on Demand. The system also brings ideas from Adaptive Path, whose product, Measure Map, was acquired and used in the redesign of Google Analytics in 2006.[25] Google continued to sell the standalone, installable Urchin WebAnalytics Software through a network of value-added resellers until discontinuation on March 28, 2012.[26][27] The Google-branded version was rolled out in November 2005 to anyone who wished to sign up. However, due to extremely high demand for the service, new sign-ups were suspended a week later. As capacity was added to the system, Google began using a lottery-type invitation-code model. Before August 2006, Google was sending out batches of invitation codes as server availability permitted; since mid-August 2006 the service has been fully available to all users – whether they use Google for advertising or not.[28]
The newer version of Google Analytics tracking code is known as the asynchronous tracking code,[29] which Google claims is more sensitive and accurate, and is able to track very short activities on the website. The previous version delayed page loading, and so, for performance reasons, it was generally placed just before the </body> body close HTML tag. The new code can be placed between the <head> … </head> HTML head tags because, once triggered, it runs in parallel with page loading.[30] In April 2011 Google announced the availability of a new version of Google Analytics featuring multiple dashboards, more custom report options, and a new interface design.[31] This version was later updated with some other features such as real-time analytics and goal flow charts.[12][32]
In October 2012 another new version of Google Analytics was announced, called Universal Analytics.[33] The key differences from the previous versions were: cross-platform tracking, flexible tracking code to collect data from any device, and the introduction of custom dimensions and custom metrics.[34]
In March 2016, Google released Google Analytics 360, which is a software suite that provides analytics on return on investment and other marketing indicators. Google Analytics 360 includes seven main products: Analytics, Tag Manager, Optimize, Data Studio, Surveys, Attribution, and Audience Center.[35]
In October 2017 a new methodology to collect data for Google Analytics was announced, called Global Site Tag, or gTag.js. Its stated purpose was to unify the tagging system to simplify implementation. This new tag type is an alternative to the existing Analytics.js tag type or Google Tag Manager.[36]
In June 2018, Google introduced Google Marketing Platform, an online advertisement and analytics brand.[37] It consists of two former brands of Google, DoubleClick Digital Marketing and Google Analytics 360.[38]
In October 2020, Google released Google Analytics 4, under the acronym GA4.[39]
Instead of being “hit-based,” like Universal Analytics, GA4 is “event-based.”[40] In March 2022, Google announced that on July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits. Users will need to upgrade to GA4
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