Google Analytics: The Complete Guide

General Introduction to Google Analytics

• Understanding what Web Analytics can do for your web site
• Clarifying how Google stores and uses your data
• How Google Analytics works

Understand the Analytics Account Structure

• Overview of the hierarchy of Accounts, Users, Properties and Views
• Best practice for structuring and managing Accounts and Views
• Understanding when and how to create Views, edit settings and manage View assets
• Learn how to import AdWords data and edit settings
• An overview of common issues on the management of Google Analytics

Cookies

• Understanding how Google uses cookies and the information they track
• Know the differences between 1st party and 3rd party cookies, persistent and temporary cookies

Importance of Configuring & Customising Google Analytics Properly

• Understand the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC), where to place it and how it can be customised
• How to verify your Google Analytics setup and troubleshoot common mistakes
• Import cost date, performance metrics from non-Google search engine campaigns

Managing Google Analytics

• Best practice guidelines for analysing data and how to analyse data trends
• Creating accounts, setting data sharing preferences, exporting and emailing reports
• An overview of the Google Analytics dashboard and how to use data visualisations
• Understand how to create, use and share Dashboards
• Understand how to create, use and share Shortcuts
• Adding annotations to reports
• Create automatic custom alerts (Intelligence Events) to notify you of significant statistical variations in your analytics
• Explore and understand Real Time Analytics

Set up A GA Account for Your Site

• Create your first GA4 property
• Configure Analytics settings in the property
• Key concepts: data collection fundamentals
• Creating events and conversions

Update Property Settings

• Choose settings most relevant for your business
• Difference between Views in Universal Analytics and Data streams in Google Analytics 4
• Set up your data stream and select the sites and apps you would like to add
• Data Settings: Data Collection - set your data collection settings
• Data Settings: data retention – how to use it to determine how long to retain data for
• Data Settings: Data Filter – how to filter data in your property

Data Filters for View

• Best practices for using Filters - how Filters work, how to create them and when to apply them...
• Understand how to create Include and Exclude Filters, Search and Replace Filters
• How to use Filters and Views together to track certain kinds of traffic such as Googles Ads traffic
• A look at advanced Filters - cascading Filters, Filters for sub-domains etc...

Data Import: Adding custom data to your Property

• Why you should customise your data reports with imported data
• How to create a data source to import your external data
• How to import cost data from non-Google sources
• Import User-ID data to track visitors across devices and have accurate user journey data

Using Set up Assistant in Your Property

• Configure your data collection
• How to turn on Google Signals and how that helps
• Choose the important events and conversions to create
• Define audiences for your Remarketing campaigns in Google Ads
• How to manage users and add or remove users at the account and campaign levels
• How to link Google Ads and Analytics
• Link your Google Analytics and Merchant Centre accounts
• How to check property change history to see changes that have been made

Understanding dimensions and metrics

• What are dimensions and metrics and how do they work?
• What are sessions in Google Analytics 4?
• Deciding which metrics are important for your site
• How to update dimensions and metrics in Exploration reports
• Measuring traffic sources like Organic, SEO, Paid etc with the metrics you have chosen

Selecting Data to Include in Your Google Analytics Reports

• Setting date and comparison date ranges, changing the time graph by hour, day, week and month
• Segment your data and compare multiple metrics in the same report using Advanced Segments
• Exercise - Create an Advanced Segment
• View your data using primary and secondary dimensions in a single report and then use pivot tables to compare groups of data and detect trends
• Use Weighted Sort to show you the most actionable rows first within your reports
• Use Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics to collect and analyse data that Google Analytics doesn't automatically track like demographic data
• Learn how to customise standard reports to include information that may be missing
• Share templates of Dashboards, Advanced Segments and Custom Reports

Defining and Measuring Actionable Metrics - Visits, Unique Visitors, Pageview & Time Metrics

• How Google Analytics calculates Views, Sessions and Segments
• Understand the Length of Visit Report and how Time on Page and Time on Site are calculated
• Configuring segmented reports for New vs Returning Visitors, Pageview vs Unique Pageviews...
• Learn the meaning and causes of '(not set)' appearing in your reports
• Understand why discrepancies in numbers may appear - for example, Visits vs Entrances, Unique Visitors vs Visits in Custom Reports

Insights & Recommendations: Traffic Sources

• Understand the campaign Attribution Model, rules that determine how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touchpoints in Conversion Paths
• Understanding different kinds of traffic sources and how to identify quality traffic and drivers of revenue and conversions
• Determine the origin of self-referrals and solutions to remove them from your reports
• How to analyse cost data with Attribution Modelling
• Identify opportunities and prioritise your efforts to increase the number of quality organic visitors to your site
• In-depth reporting for SEO including Geographic reports, Search Query reports, Landing Page reports etc..
• The benefits of auto-tagging and how to verify if auto-tagging for Google AdWords will work with your website
• Importing data from an AdWords account into an Analytics account and importing Analytics Goals and Transactions into AdWords
• Optimise performance by targeting more profitable locations and parts of the day, improving the performance of your landing pages, leveraging Site Search etc...

Reports: Reports Snapshot

• How to use Analytics Intelligence to learn about your data
• How to customise your report and add and remove cards
• How to View additional insights about your card reports
• How to analyse your Real time reports

Reports: Lifecycle Reports

• Steps to customise your Acquisition Reports
• Steps to customise your Engagement Reports
• Steps to customise your Monetisation Reports
• How to use Analytics Intelligence to learn about your data
• How to customise your report and add and remove cards
• How to View additional insights about your card reports