Kid Cudi dropped a song a couple days ago titled, Love. It is actually a really great song, and I love it (see what I did there). This could be the first single off of his Man on The Moon III album, which is supposed to drop this year (Praying emoji). Give it a listen below. It is very uplifting, and makes you, well, happy.

https://soundcloud.com/cudderland/love

You might be thinking, “What does this have to do with Google Analytics, Cody Hulsey!?!?!”. Well fellow reader, I love the analytic’s side of digital marketing. Google is the big homie when it comes to analytics. They decided to go out of their way to create a certification course called Google Analytic IQ Certification. They also went out of their way to get you prepped for the certification by providing you with the Google Analytics Platform Principles. I am going to talk about a few of the most interesting things that I learned while watching the informational clips.

When you use Google Analytics you can collect and analyze data across a variety of devices and digital environments. Companies use Google Analytics to understand what their customers find and interact with when it comes to websites and mobile apps, but Analytics can be used to measure behavior on other devices like kiosks, point-of-sale systems, game consoles, and even appliance.

There are four components of the Google Analytics platform:

1. Collection – this component is centered around the idea of collecting data, To successfully collect the data from your customers, you must paste the code on every page of your website that you would like to track.
2. Configuration – you can configure Google Analytics to import data directly into your reports from other Google products, like Google AdWords, Google AdSense, and Google Webmaster Tools. You can also set filters that allow you to remove any data from your own employees (once a filter is set, you will not be able to see your employee’s data again).
3. Processing – in this stage, Google Analytics transforms the raw data from collection using the settings in your Google Analytics account.
4. Reporting – once Google Analytics is done processing, you can view the results of the findings on the reporting interface.

On the reporting page you will see that there is a data model. There are three components to the data model that are crucial to know about:

• User:  a visitor to your website or app.
• Session: the time they spend there.
• Interaction: what they do while they’re on there.

I am going to paint a picture for you because I like coming up with stories. Also because people tend to retain knowledge and feel more connected when they hear a story.

Now close your eyes (not actually because you have to read this). Picture you are the owner of a small high-end fashion boutique. You have lot’s of customers, some who come in and look around at a particular pair of Raf Simons shoes, some that look at a Dries Van Noten Jacket, and some that purchase a Alexander Wang bomber jacket. You also have the customers that come in and ask if you have the most recent collection of the I Love Ugly S/S 15 menswear. When you tell them that you don’t carry that brand, they immediately leave. Think of each of those real life interactions in the same way when thinking about Analytics. You might have 5 interactions with a customer, or you might only have one (the I Love Ugly customer). Then however long a customer was in the store, is their session time.

So how does tracking work? 

Google Analytics uses tracking code to collect all of that precious data. The information that is collected, is shipped off to the Analytics servers via an image request. This image request is considered a “hit”, and it is the Maserati that speeds as fast as possible to Google Analytics.

<!– Google Analytics –>

<script>

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[GoogleAnalyticsObject]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){

(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),

m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)

})(window,document,script,//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js,ga);

ga(create, UA-12345-6, auto);

ga(send, pageview);

</script>

<!– End Google Analytics →

In the above code you will see 10 characters that are bolded. This is the tracking code. A lot of websites will ask for you to paste the simplified tracking code and not the whole entire JavaScript text. Simply go into your Google Analytics settings to obtain this tracking code. There is different tracking codes out there. There is tracking code to create hits for websites and then there is tracking code for mobile apps.

Mobile apps don’t use traditional JavaScript code, they use SDKs (Software Development Kit). There are different SDKs out there, it all depends on the operating system i.e. iOS, Android, and etc. These mobile apps have a different way of dispatching as well. Data from mobile apps is not sent out immediately. Instead is stores the data, and then when there is connection to the internet, it’s sent over. SDKs dispatch hits every 30 minutes. So don’t freak out if it doesn’t look like your data is being recorded.

I hope you have came to a better understanding on what Google Analytics is, and what you can do with it. Google Analytics allows you to understand the actions of your customer whether they are on a website, mobile app, kiosk, appliance, or much more. When you realize customers are not viewing certain pages, you can use your creative skills to direct them to that neglected page, possibly with A/B testing? Until next time fellow smarketer…