Google Analytics

Powerful free analytics tool

Google Analytics (GA) is a robust analytics tool that allows you to track your website’s performance, monitor user behaviour, and understand your marketing campaigns. One of the key reasons for its popularity is that it’s free, which makes it incredibly accessible for any marketer, whether you’re just starting out or leading a large-scale operation. Google Analytics is a great entry point for those new to website analytics and helps you understand the basics of tracking user activity, conversion rates, and traffic sources.

The transition to Google Analytics 4

Over the years, Google Analytics has evolved significantly, with the most recent version, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), bringing a new focus on event-based tracking. GA4 is designed to provide a deeper, more flexible understanding of user interactions across websites, apps, and other platforms. For B2B marketers, GA4 is incredibly valuable as it helps you track cross-platform user journeys and gather more granular insights into customer behaviours. However, if you’re transitioning from Universal Analytics (GA3), there’s a bit of a learning curve involved, as the interface and reporting structure are quite different from its predecessor.

Google Analytics 4 limitations

While GA4 offers some powerful tracking capabilities, it’s not without limitations. As your website starts generating more data, you’ll encounter certain restrictions, such as data throttling and sampling. Google Analytics uses sampling when dealing with large datasets, meaning that instead of using the entire data set to generate reports, GA4 takes a sample of the data, which can result in less accurate insights. This becomes a problem if you need to track large-scale marketing efforts or track a high volume of website visitors, as you may end up with incomplete data.

Furthermore, while Google Analytics provides some useful funnel analysis tools, they are not as advanced or customisable as tools like Amplitude or Mixpanel. These tools are specifically built for product analytics and offer much deeper insights into user behaviour, which are essential for more sophisticated marketing strategies. In Google Analytics, building funnels is relatively basic, and it can be challenging to track more complex user journeys or segment your data as finely as you might need in some B2B marketing contexts.

As a head of growth and founder of two agencies, I’ve been using Google Analytics since 2010, back when it was still Universal Analytics. Over the years, I’ve watched Google Analytics evolve, and I’ve experienced both the good and the frustrating aspects of this tool. From simple website tracking to advanced data analysis, GA has been the cornerstone of most marketing strategies I’ve implemented. Here’s my take on the platform from the perspective of someone who's used it extensively for over a decade.

Strengths of Google Analytics

One of the key reasons I’ve stuck with Google Analytics for so long is its sheer power and versatility in tracking data. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced marketer, GA gives you all the fundamental insights you need to optimise your marketing efforts. You can track page views, traffic sources, user demographics, conversion rates, and more. For beginners, Google Analytics does a great job of introducing you to web analytics, offering a simple interface that gets more complex as your knowledge and needs grow.

What really sets Google Analytics apart is its integration with other Google services. Google Ads, Google Search Console, and Google Tag Manager all work seamlessly with GA, allowing you to gather data from multiple sources in one place. As a marketer, this integration is invaluable because it allows you to see how different marketing channels contribute to your goals.

Another strength is the wide range of reports and data that Google Analytics provides. It can help you track everything from high-level overviews of your traffic sources to in-depth behavioural data on how users interact with specific pages on your site. As a B2B marketer, this helps me optimise everything from paid campaigns to organic search strategies and content marketing.

Limitations of Google Analytics

However, there are some limitations to Google Analytics, especially with the new GA4 update. I think the most significant change with GA4 is the shift to event-based tracking, which offers more flexibility but also introduces complexity. Setting up GA4 properly requires a bit of a learning curve, and if you’re used to the older version of GA, it can feel overwhelming. The interface is different, and there are new concepts, like custom events, that take some time to get accustomed to.

As your data grows, you also start running into some restrictions with GA4, namely throttling and sampling. This is where the tool starts showing its limitations. In GA4, when your dataset becomes large enough, Google Analytics will sample the data to make calculations quicker, which can sometimes lead to inaccurate insights. As someone who has worked with large datasets, I’ve found this especially frustrating because it means I’m not getting the complete picture of how my campaigns are performing. For smaller businesses or those with less traffic, this won’t be an issue, but for larger operations, it’s something to consider.

Moreover, while GA4 does have some funnel analysis capabilities, they are fairly basic compared to dedicated product analytics platforms like Amplitude or Mixpanel. With these tools, you can dive deep into user behaviour, track custom events, and see detailed funnels that help you optimise the entire customer journey. In contrast, Google Analytics funnels are relatively rigid, and you may find yourself struggling to track more complex B2B sales funnels, especially when you need to account for multiple touchpoints across different platforms.

Ideal fit for B2B marketers

Google Analytics is an excellent tool for B2B marketers who need to monitor and optimise web traffic, track high-level metrics, and measure campaign performance. It’s also a great starting point for smaller teams or businesses that are new to data analytics. The integration with Google’s suite of products makes it particularly powerful for companies using Google Ads or working with paid media.

However, as your marketing efforts become more sophisticated, or if you need to track more complex user journeys, you might find GA4 lacking. For more advanced product or behavioural analytics, tools like Amplitude or Mixpanel provide deeper insights into user behaviour, allowing you to build custom funnels and track more granular data points. These tools are ideal for B2B marketers who need to understand how users engage with specific features or product offerings, as they’re designed specifically for this purpose.

If you’re a B2B marketer just getting started with Google Analytics, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set it up and use it effectively.

Setting up Google Analytics

1. Create a Google Analytics account: To get started, sign up for a Google Analytics account. You’ll need to link your website to GA using a tracking code. Once the tracking code is installed, Google Analytics will start collecting data about your website’s traffic.
2. Set up goals: Once your account is set up, the next step is to define your goals. Goals are specific actions you want users to take on your website, such as submitting a form, completing a purchase, or downloading content. You can set up goals in the admin panel under the ‘Goals’ section, and this will allow you to track conversion rates and measure the success of your campaigns.
3. Integrate Google Ads and Search Console: If you’re running paid campaigns, it’s essential to integrate Google Ads and Google Search Console with Google Analytics. This will allow you to see how your ads are performing and which keywords are driving traffic to your website.

Tracking user behaviour

1. Use events to track interactions: For more detailed insights into user interactions, set up event tracking in Google Analytics. Events are actions users take on your website, such as clicking a button, watching a video, or scrolling down a page. You can set up events in the admin section under ‘Tracking Info’ and use them to gain deeper insights into how users are engaging with your content.
2. Use enhanced eCommerce tracking: If you’re running an eCommerce store or offering any product-based services, enhanced eCommerce tracking can give you a comprehensive view of your users’ purchasing behaviour. You can track product views, add-to-cart actions, transactions, and more.

Building reports and dashboards

1. Create custom reports: Google Analytics provides a variety of standard reports, but you can also create custom reports tailored to your needs. For example, you can build a report that tracks the performance of your lead generation forms or see how visitors from specific referral sources are converting on your website.
2. Set up custom dashboards: If you prefer to have all your key metrics in one place, you can create custom dashboards. A dashboard allows you to combine multiple reports and see them all at once. This is helpful for tracking overall campaign performance or monitoring specific KPIs in real-time.

Using funnels in Google Analytics

1. Create a funnel visualization: GA4 offers funnel analysis, which allows you to track the steps users take on their way to conversion. You can set up custom funnels to track specific actions in your marketing funnel, such as form submissions, clicks on your CTA buttons, or product purchases.
2. Monitor and optimise your funnel: Once your funnel is set up, you can monitor the conversion rates at each step. This helps identify where users are dropping off and allows you to optimise your funnel to improve conversion rates.

Setting up alerts and notifications

1. Set up custom alerts: In Google Analytics, you can set up custom alerts to notify you when specific metrics hit a certain threshold. For example, you can set an alert to notify you if your bounce rate exceeds a certain percentage or if your conversion rate drops below a target level.
2. Use email reports: Google Analytics allows you to schedule email reports to be sent to your team or stakeholders. You can set up daily, weekly, or monthly reports, ensuring that everyone is kept up to date on your campaign performance.

Conclusion

Google Analytics is a powerful and cost-effective tool for B2B marketers who want to track website performance, measure campaign success, and monitor user behaviour. It offers a solid foundation for understanding how your audience interacts with your website and content. However, as your needs become more complex, tools like Amplitude or Mixpanel may be more suitable for advanced product and user behaviour analysis. By following this guide, you can start using Google Analytics to improve your marketing strategy and gain deeper insights into your audience’s actions.