The digital strategy is essential to obtain important KPIs based on business objectives. But, to be aware of the efficiency of our digital strategy, it is essential to analyze the data of the website that allows us to know information about customers: how they interact with the content, sections or products.
The QDQ Group has developed a guide to use the tool that allows analyze user consumption data on the website of any company: Google Analytics. This web analytics solution offered by Google provides information about the traffic that is generated according to the audience, the acquisition, the behavior, as well as the conversions that are made on the website. All in all, the data necessary for making business decisions is obtained, making it possible to detect opportunities, improve SEM campaigns and create personalized groups, among others.
These keys are part of the second Notebook of the Manual of Good Practices that the company has prepared with the aim of helping SMEs to solve all their needs, doubts and queries associated with their digital transformation needs.
1. Why should SMBs use Google Analytics?
Bearing in mind that it is the main source of data collection on web pages, its use brings many advantages to companies. In addition to being an intuitive tool, designed for the daily use of any company, it is capable of analyzing a lot of documentation and sharing the account or sections of an account among users. Thus, Google Analytics is a standard tool to improve decision-making and that these are based on data.
On the other hand, this tool is compatible with other Google tools such as Google Ads and Search Console, which together increase the performance of the companies’ digital strategy. Thanks to the free Google Analytics tool, you can carry out a periodic analysis and get the most out of the data of an SME.
2. Why is it recommended to incorporate Google Analytics 4?
The migration to the new generation of Google Analytics has the advantage of being able to use it, both on the website and in an application at the same time or separately. In addition, the tool bases the information on machine learning that, through algorithms, identifies patterns in massive data that make predictions.
Using Universal Analytics creates user journeys from data associated with the same user ID. Therefore, from QDQ Group, it is proposed to incorporate the properties of Google Analytics 4 that incorporates user IDs in all reports, analyzes and statistics. Among the most significant differences are:
- Measurement: It is a flexible model based on events compared to the Universal Analytics model that is based on sessions.
- Reports: They focus on analyzing the user journey, the Universal version covers all possible data.
- Tracking: Multi-Device vs. Universal duplicate data with use of different devices.
- Automation: Machine learning, pattern detection versus a more basic process in Universal Analytics.
With Google Analytics 4 you can follow the behavior of the target audience so that there is evidence of what are the best times to take action, which devices users use when accessing your website and the reasons for the interaction within it. The installation of this new tool is simple, it is enough to fill in the data of the form that we can find in the Google Analytics account in the “Data flows” section. We recommend the Google Tag Manager installation mode. For information on the steps to follow in the installation, you can consult here.
3. Installation and data analysis
Once Google Analytics 4 is installed thanks to Tag Manager, the tag manager created by Google and that allows you to create custom events and configurations, it is activated on all pages. In short periods of time, the main thing is analyze results and identify patterns. Any point outside the curve or insight can suggest new ideas and solutions as well as make the company aware of the different niches and opportunities for optimization improvement.
Being able to analyze the correct data is not an easy task, for this it is important to measure the results carefully. We do not always focus on the business objective: the number of sales and customers must be above the visits to the web in order to obtain the true impact of an action. However, on numerous occasions the number of visits to the website also generates leads, although data on this will not be obtained until the sales process.
