Book Review: Google Analytics Breakthrough: From Zero to Business Impact

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If you have a business website, one of the first things you’re going to want to do is set up Google Analytics (GA). A great resource to learn how to use GA and to ensure you set up the proper parameters is Google Analytics Breakthrough: From Zero to Business Impact. I have put my GA into overdrive by working through the different chapters in this book. I can now better assess the success of my efforts on the internet.

Google Analytics Breakthrough is a clear and thorough book for using Google Analytics. Google Analytics Breakthrough is approximately 600 pages long. Its contents span 18 chapters. These chapters cover the following areas

Introduction
Google Analytics Reporting Overview: User Characteristics and Behavior
Measurement Strategy
Account Creation and Tracking Code Installation
Google Tag Management Concepts
Events, Virtual Pageviews, Social Actions, and Errors
Acquisition Reports
Goal and E-commerce Tracking
View Settings, View Filters, and Access Rights
Segments
Dashboards, Custom Reports, and Intelligence Alert
Implementation Customizations
Mobile App Measurement
Google Analytics Integrations–The Power of Together
Integrating Google Analytics with CRM Data
Advanced Reporting and Visualization with Third-party Tools
Data Import and Measurement Protocol
Analytics 360

The authors supported this book with a website that provides reports, checklists, and Google Tag Manager (GTM) integrations. This was a great addition to the book. The resources supported what was being referenced in the chapter and made it easy to install.

I was quite impressed with the clarity of each of the chapters. They explained how to access and use various features of Google Analytics. The authors used examples of how you would use GA in a business sense. Their examples made sense and provided me with ideas for how I may use GA for my business

Did you know that you can update your demographic and interest data rights?

Each chapter also had a guest spot. This is where an expert talked about how to best use GA as it related to the chapter. They offered interesting tips and strategies that will help yield better results.

The authors provided key takeaways, actions, and exercises at the end of each chapter. They synthesize the entire chapter into actionable items. You will definitely improve your GA if you apply them.

My Key Google Analytics Takeaways

Use Google Tag Manager to install Google Analytics and the Facebook pixel to all your websites.
Create views for your unfiltered data, a test area, and an area you will work in.
Ensure you are not collecting personal identification information on your Google Analytics. This would be a violation of Google Analytics terms of use.
Use campaign tags/UTM tags to track references to your site. Ensure you have a naming convention for creating UTM tags.
Set up event tracking in Google Tag Manager for PDF, video, email links, and other events.
Connect AdSense and AdWords to Google Analytics.
Connecting Google search console to Google Analytics.
Set up goals in Google Analytics. An implementation report associated with the book provided a great list of goal suggestions.
Create filters that exclude internal traffic by IP address and convert links to lowercase.
Review reports with secondary dimensions and segments. Also, look at the various report display types.
Create a series of dashboards and reports to view specific information at a glance. Additionally, email important reports on a specific schedule. This will help ensure you are reviewing data on a regular basis.
Set up alerts to notify you when your site exceeds certain parameters, e.g., if you have 10% or more increase or decrease in sessions.
Enable demographics and interest and update your privacy policy. Enable enhanced link attribution and update Google Tag Manager.
Integrate Google Analytics with your CRM and other third-party tools such as MailChimp and Tailwind.

I was working with my GA step by step as I was reading this book. There was still some enhancements that I had to make even though I was happy with the setup that I had with Google Analytics.

I am going to operationalize what I’ve learned and put it into a checklist that I will share with you.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of setting up Google Analytics for your business. I would like to also stress the use of campaign tags to ensure your efforts are being reported. Google Analytics Breakthrough is an exceptional resource if you want to learn more about GA. I encourage you to have GA open as you are reading the book. Test each idea as they present them.

If you’re in Rhode Island and have questions about how your Google Analytics is set up I would love to chat with you. Please feel free to contact me to help you get the reports you need.

Additional Reading

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