Google Analytics 4 now offers benchmarking

Google Analytics 4 has introduced a benchmarking feature, enabling businesses to compare their performance against industry peers. While this functionality was previously available in the now defunct Universal Analytics, GA4 offers enhanced standardization through the use of reserved and recommended events, providing more accurate and reliable comparisons.

The process for enabling benchmarking in Google Analytics 4 is straightforward: just check the box labeled “Contribute to modeling” option in account settings to authorize Google to use your property’s data to feed the benchmarking model. In return, you gain a comprehensive overview of your position relative to competitors in terms of volume, conversions, and key behaviors.

It’s important to note that the quality of benchmarking results heavily depends on the participation of businesses & brands. The more data and the more consistent it is, the more meaningful the comparisons. Therefore, it’s crucial for businesses to accurately declare their industry, size, and correctly configure their conversion events.

The advantages of this new approach are manifold:

  • Standardized measurements: Reserved and recommended events allow for comparison of similar metrics across different businesses, reducing bias caused by varying definitions.
  • Focus on key events: By concentrating on industry-specific events (form submissions, purchases, bookings, games played, etc.), benchmarking provides more relevant insights for decision-makers.
  • Competitive positioning: The ability to position oneself relative to the industry average allows for the identification of improvement opportunities and the setting of more ambitious goals.

However, certain limitations should be kept in mind:

  • Dependence on declared data: The quality of results depends on the accuracy of information provided by businesses.
  • Comparative nature: Benchmarking allows for performance comparisons but does not provide explanations for the reasons behind differences.
  • Lack of in-depth competitive analysis: It’s not a tool for competitive intelligence but rather a means of obtaining a broader market overview.

In conclusion

GA4 benchmarking is a valuable tool for businesses seeking to assess their market position and identify areas for improvement. Nonetheless, it should be used judiciously and complemented by other analyses to make informed decisions.

Google Analytics eCommerce: upload product data with Google Sheets

In this post, I will show you how to streamline your eCommerce tracking implementation and upload product data to Google Analytics.
From a remote CSV file.
Over Google Sheets.
Automatically.

Sounds good? Here we go!

TL;DR: I have a Github project to help you upload product data for Google Analytics Enhanced eCommerce via the API

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Google Universal Analytics Cheat Sheet – Measurement Protocol Parameters

Google Universal Analytics Cheat SheetHere is a Google Universal Analytics Cheat Sheet to help you make sure you use the right parameters to track data on your websites and mobiles apps!

Working on Hub’Scan means I need to master every single aspect of Google Universal Analytics data collection. This means I get to maintain an accurate, updated list of parameters for the 500+ tags in the Hub’Scan library.
Don’t get me wrong, there are Google Universal Analytics cheat sheets out there but they are not complete and the official Google reference does not provide a list of all parameters.

 

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Tracking your dog with GPS and Google Universal Analytics

After posting on Google+ about my blog post on the measurement of offline stores with Google Universal Analytics, I got a dare by user Damion Brown from Melbourne, Australia, to track what his dog was doing using a similar method.

Damion: I’m sorry, mate. I’m afraid I have bad news and good news.

  • The bad news is: I don’t own a dog so I’m not sure as to what I’d want to track.
  • The good news is: I can give you pointers on how to do it. I have done enough tinkering in the last 2 weeks so I’ll let by blog readers do it this time around. You guys get to test (and prove) the concept yourself!

In this experiment, you will attempt the following: track your dog’s location (in 5 minute increments), in relationship to your house, with Google Universal Analytics.

I have a few ideas about that and I’ll be sharing them after the jump.

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(not provided) is here to stay – deal with it

Google logo

If you work in digital analytics or SEO, by now you’ve heard about the web tracking phenomenon that is (not provided).

Since the end of 2011, Google has implemented measures to respect the privacy of Internet users on the words and expressions they use on its search engine. Specifically, Google is gradually switching searches to secure mode (SSL / HTTPS) and no longer passes referrer information to the search result website, which means that keyword information is lost.

As of now you can still know the source and medium (Google organic search), but the keyword is replaced with a useless “(not provided)” label.

The impact for marketing and SEO agencies seems enormous. Entire business models based on Google search could collapse.

Or could they?

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