Why Should You Use Google Analytics

It’s not just a tool for tracking page views or patting yourself on the back when traffic goes up. It’s where you go to answer actual business questions, where are people dropping off, which channels are actually bringing in humans who stay and engage versus bots who bounce in 2 seconds, and what does the journey from “vaguely interested” to “ready to buy” even look like? With GA4 especially, it’s shifted from being a static report card to more of a behavioural map. You can see what people do, not just where they land. And yeah, it has a bit of a learning curve and sometimes you just want to throw your laptop out the window trying to find a specific report, but once it’s set up right? It’s the difference between guessing and knowing.

1.  It’s free of charge

Yes, you heard that correctly, this comprehensive tracking and reporting software from Google is completely free of charge.  Despite being free, it also offers similar and in some cases more data than paid tools you’ll find on the market.

2.  You don’t have to be a data analytics expert

Within the world of digital marketing, we find ourselves wearing many hats, but when it comes to using and understanding Google Analytics you really don’t need to be a data analytics expert.  Once you’ve got the basics of how Google Analytics works you can utilise the areas that you require from fundamental visitor information or more in-depth data such as customised reports and social media ROI.

3.  Easy to set up and install

Creating and setting up your Google Analytics account is straight forward, upon completion of which you receive some tracking code which will need to be installed on every page on your website.

4.  Understand your customers

To have a successful website, you need to know who your customers are and where to find them. Google Analytics collects and measures a whole of host of insights about your audience.  This includes basics such as the number of visitors your website is attracting through to languages, countries, cities, browsers, operating systems, services providers, and screen resolutions of visitors.  Google Analytics will also identify what pages, content or products your customers find most engaging, allowing you to capitalise on this vital information to boost sales.

5.  Set Goals and Track Conversions

Setting up Goals within Google Analytics lets you measure how often users complete a specific action and where this happened.  These are not only e-commerce purchases but can be form submissions, downloads or newsletter sign-ups. When a website visitor performs an action that you’ve defined as a goal, Google Analytics records that as a conversion.  You can even see the path that visitors took to complete a particular conversion.  Going a step further you can use Google Analytics reports not only to see where your where your traffic is coming from but tie specific data to your conversions, for example, you can see the number of conversions made by visitors from a certain location or from a particular social media network.

6.  Measuring ROI

How much is my ROI (Return On Investment) is the question that everyone wants to know.  A more advanced feature of Google Analytics is having the ability to measure your ROI.

7.  Standard and customised reports

Depending on the level you want to utilise Google Analytics, there are a number of standard, easy to understand reports. These give you a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t on your site. Not got the exact report you want?  You also have the ability to customise reports to your specification.

So what’s the catch?  The answer is nothing, you simply need to learn how to best use Google Analytics for your business.  In order to get the most out of Google Analytics, whether you’re a beginner or want to take your knowledge to the next level of Google Analytics, our courses offer training to ensure you can use Google’s comprehensive free tool to its fullest.