Matrix Group International

Tag: Google Analytics

What is Google Analytics 4 and Should I Upgrade?
As you may well know, Google Analytics is a digital analytics service from Google that helps you track and analyze your website traffic. It is the most widely used analytics platform on the web, and most of us would be completely lost without it. It allows us to see where our site visitors are coming from, how they move about and interact with our site and content, what marketing efforts are working or not working, and so much more.

Essentially, Google Analytics is the Holy Grail for most organizations, giving them the data they need to make more informed and strategic business decisions.

What is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4, commonly referred to as GA4, is Google’s 4th and newest version of their analytics platform. Pretty clever naming convention, huh?

While GA4 is not technically new – it officially launched in October of 2020 – Google has continued development on the live product over the last 18 months. While there have been some bumps and bruises along the way for early adopters, this version is now ready for prime time. So ready, in fact, that Google has announced that they will deprecate Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. This means, and this is really, really important, ALL of your analytics tracked under Universal Analytics will disappear in July 2023. Which means you’ll only have data for comparison starting from when you converted to GA4.

How is Google Analytics 4 different from Universal Analytics?

GA4 has turned Google Analytics, as we know it, on its head. While we could write a short novel about all of the differences between Universal Analytics and GA4, here are the biggest changes you need to know about:

The Data Model

GA4 shifts the way that data is collected, putting the focus on tracking individual user journeys, so you can more easily glean data about how a user flows through and interacts with your web properties.

Universal Analytics was based on a sessions model. User interactions were grouped together based on a time-frame, or session. GA4 employs a very different approach to data collocation and data structure, focusing on users and events. Now, each user interaction is tracked as a standalone event under the events model. This means Google Analytics is better able to de-dupe users. Ultimately, GA4 wants you to focus on conversions, rather than traffic.

User Interface Changes

GA4 touts a simplified reporting interface with a goal of making it easier for users to spot trends and irregularities in data than was possible in Universal Analytics.

While we’re all about the idea of this, we must warn you: the new interface has a steep learning curve. Since your data is now tracked differently, the reporting is different. The reports that you’re used to viewing are now in different formats and different areas within your Google Analytics dashboard.

Enhanced Event Tracking (More Granular Reporting)

In Universal Analytics, Google Tag Manager was needed if you wanted to track specific user behavior within a given page on your website. Without Google Tag Manager, Universal Analytics would only tell you that someone viewed a particular page on your website, but wouldn’t tell you if they clicked on a button, how far they scrolled, or clicked through a carousel, for example. You had to implement Google Tag Manager to collect the data about those specific events.

In GA4, events like file downloads, scroll depth, and external link clicks are now tracked natively. While you’ll still need Google Tag Manager to track custom events specific to your organization and data collection needs, it’s great to have more enhanced event tracking out of the box in GA4.

Finally, GA4 allows you to mix data from your apps and website. This happens through a single property and Google Analytics’ data streams. So yay, now you can have comprehensive reporting of usage on your digital properties.

Should I upgrade from Universal Analytics to GA4?

Yes. Today. Why?
- Because you’ll have to, eventually. Google recently announced that they will deprecate Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. Come July of next year, analytics in Universal Analytics will disappear, so if you want at least a year’s worth of data, you need to upgrade now.
- Because it will take time to redo your event tracking, update your Google Data Studio reports, and develop your new reports.
- The more data you have in GA4, the better, even if you don’t have all of the reports you need set up. You won’t be able to move your data from UA to GA4, so you need to start collecting it in GA4 now!
How to Transition from Universal Analytics to GA4

Transitioning to GA4 could be as simple as updating the Google Analytics javascript code on your site. In fact, you can run both Google Analytics codes on your site at the same time, so that you have access to both reports. But really, transitioning alone won’t be enough. Here are some other things you’ll need to do:
- Rebuild your custom Google Analytics reports or Google Data Studio reports, if you have them. Know that this can get a little complicated. If you need help, Matrix Group can assist, as can your Google Analytics partner, if you have one. (If you don’t, call us!)
- Get trained up. Google has a whole Academy devoted to GA4. The more you know about this new analytics platform, the better for your and your organization.
- Make a plan to download and archive your Universal Analytics data because this data will go poof! come July 2023. Download raw data, download reports, and take screenshots of your favorite reports. Even if you can’t integrate old data and reports into GA4, at least you’ll have the data for reference and comparison.
Once again, Google is making free, powerful tools available to the world. You might faint the first time you see the GA4 interface, but in time, you’ll come to appreciate the power that Google is now making available to all of us.

Need help making the transition to Google Analytics 4 or looking for a partner to help you make better sense of your Google Analytics? Matrix Group has a talented team of Google Analytics experts who can help. Fill out our contact us form, and someone from our team will be in touch!
May 25, 2022
Using UTM Codes for Better Google Analytics Reporting
It’s no secret that we’ve been seriously geeking out about everything Google Analytics here at Matrix Group. We’ve been endlessly exploring, experimenting and testing and have been blown away by the amount of invaluable data we’ve been able to collect for our clients, down to the granular who/what/when/where/how/why. We’ve said it before, and we’ll keeping saying it until we’re blue in the face: you simply can’t afford to ignore your analytics reporting!

Want to start digging deeper but not sure where to start? You’re not alone! Our clients frequently ask us for one or two simple things they can do to get started, and our No. 1 answer is: start with UTM codes.

UTM codes are code snippets that you can attach to custom URLs that track a source, medium, and campaign name. This information gets passed to Google Analytics and identifies where your traffic is coming from and what campaigns are driving the traffic. Invaluable data!

Here are a few of our top tips for using UTM codes:
- Create a spreadsheet to track codes and campaigns. Having everything planned out and stored in one place will not only help you visualize your whole campaign, but it will also ensure more accurate reporting, especially if you have multiple staff members working on one campaign.
- Keep your tags consistent. UTM codes are case sensitive, so make sure you stick to the same permutations of upper and lower case!
- Use dashes, not spaces, to separate words. While a UTM URL builder will allow you to use spaces, it makes the URL look a lot less clean. Example: “CEO blog post” will become CEO%20blog%20post. Instead, try CEO-blog-post. Doesn’t that look better?
- Use a URL Builder to create links. These tools are very easy to use and will save you time and heartburn over building the URLs yourself.
- Use a URL shortener, where appropriate. When you use UTM codes, the URLs can get quite lengthy and ugly. Use URL shorteners to make the links more visually appealing. There are tons of easy-to-use URL shortener tools out there (we like goo.gl), so make use of them!
- Never send out a link to your site without a UTM code in place!
Looking for other Google Analytics tips and tricks? Check out CEO Joanna Pineda’s recent blog posts on Google Analytics. There’s some great info there! If you want a little more hands-on guidance and assistance, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’d love to help you in any way we can.

Have any other tips for getting started with Google Analytics? What are your favorite reports and hacks?
June 5, 2016
Make Sure You Have Good Inputs Going Into Your Google Analytics
I was in a meeting with a client last week and he complained that their Google Analytics (GA) reports just aren’t that useful. I asked why, and he said, “GA tells me the top pages visited on my site and that Google is referring a lot of traffic, and that’s about it.”

Hmm… I decided to get curious.

So here’s the deal with GA. If all you do is put the code snippet in your header, you’ll get generic data from GA. But if you give GA better input about where people are coming from and why, you’ll instantly get better GA reports. Here’s how to do that:
- Never, ever send out a URL without UTM codes.
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. Urchin is the company that created what is now Google Analytics; Google purchased the company many years ago. A UTM tag is a tracking marker appended to a URL, and is recognized by Google Analytics as a dimension. For example, if you send out a link to a new item on your website in an email newsletter, you could use a UTM code for source = 04-17-2016-newsletter. If anyone clicks on that link, GA will report that traffic as having come from your email newsletter. Voila! All of a sudden, you have better tracking and you know whether or not your email newsletter is generating views on your website. Yes, your blast email provider probably gives you open and click data, but it’s most likely not connected to your overall website analytics reporting. Use this handy URL builder from Google to build data-rich URLs
- Create redirects for your print URLs.
So what about your convention brochures? You can’t exactly expect readers to type in a URL that has 100 characters. In this instance, you should create a vanity URL for each print piece (e.g., /2016convention for the brochure and convention 2016 for the postcard) and use your CMS to create a redirect for the actual page, with UTM codes that will attribute traffic to the actual print piece.
- Use Google Analytics Annotations.
GA lets you add little notes to your GA reports, attached to specific dates. For example, my marketing team enters annotations every time we send out an email newsletter, post a new event on Facebook, etc. This way, if we see a spike in traffic, we can look to see if that traffic might have been generated by something we did. Of course, we then verify using the Source dimensions in GA.
- Set up Google Tag Manager.
Google Tag Manager is an upgrade to Google Analytics and it helps you keeps track of the tags on your website and when they are triggered. For example, Tag Manager will let you track whether and how many people are clicking on the slider in your branding area, the number of downloads of your PDF annual report, etc. The best thing about Tag Manager is that once it’s setup, you don’t need to mess with the CSS on your site again; you then use a Google interface to setup tracking.

You don’t need to be a developer or a CSS wizard to do the things I mention above. I will be blogging in the future about more advanced things you can do with Google Analytics, enhancements that require some programming. But in in the meantime, if you improve your inputs to Google Analytics, your analytics will be better.

BTW, Matrix Group has an Analytics practice. If you need some training, help with a specific campaign, or help getting started, give us a call.
April 28, 2016
Data-Driven Decision-Making Through Analytics

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion with Tim Martin and Jessica Katz of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Tim is Digital Director and Jessica is Web Manager & Developer at Carnegie.

Carnegie has a well-developed analytics program, the organization respects data, and Tim and Jessica are committed to using analytics to guide their work. Some highlights from the webinar:

You’ve Got to Understand Your Goals. Tim and Jessica are adamant that you must first understand what your organization is trying to achieve and what constitutes success before embarking on an analytics initiative. For Carnegie, it’s all about getting people to read their publications: op-eds, commentary, analysis, etc. Carnegie isn’t trying to get people to join, donate or register, it’s all about reading the articles so in their analytics, they look at what drives people to the site, where they are coming from, what they are reading, how far down the page they’re scrolling, etc.

Most Visitors Go Direct to Content. Carnegie refers to their visitors as converted or unconverted. Converted visitors have signed up for something, they have provided an email, they have opted in to receive something. It turns out that for converted visitors, they don’t come to the website to surf randomly. Converted visitors rely on email and social media to direct their surfing and, what’s more, they go direct to content. Yep, they pretty much bypass the home page. Even the search engines drive visitors directly to articles and NOT the home page.

The Home Page is for the Unconverted. So who goes to the home page? The unconverted or the persons who want to know more about Carnegie, what it does, and what it represents. For this audience, the goals are to: educate them about Carnegie and get them to convert. But here’s the really big thing: by reducing the call to action, they vastly simplified the home page and created an elegant and bold home page that consists of about a half dozen stories with dramatic imagery. The home page is no longer the newsy page it used to be and that frankly looked like sister and competitor organizations. The bold home page invites exploration and conversion.

Optimize What’s Important. Since article pages are what the site is all about, Tim and Jessica are constantly looking for ways to optimize their article pages. Here’s a sample article page about Ukraine. Everything from the summary at the top, to the Comment and Share button, are researched and optimized. Every detail is intentional.

Go Beyond Yay! Traffic! Most organizations are content to look at their analytics, see that their traffic is growing, and never go beyond that. Tim and Jessica recommend mining GA to find out where people are coming from, what they searched for, etc. Jessica recalls doing a deep dive into a spike in traffic that resulted from a mention in a Polish newspaper. Careful cultivation of the newspaper and other organizations in Eastern Europe have resulted in a new digital series and healthy traffic growth from that part of the world.

Start with Event Tracking. Tim and Jessica closed the webinar by talking about how it’s taken time for the organization to get where they are today. It’s taken careful setup of the custom variable and reports and thoughtful cultivation of Carnegie experts and senior leadership. If your organization is just starting out, they recommend setting up Event Tracking, which is a method available in the Google Analytics (GA) tracking code (we recommend Tag Manager) that you can use to record user interactions with website elements. For example, you can track PDF downloads, clicks on related articles, clicks on the Print button, scrolls down lengthy pages, etc.

Check out the Carnegie Endowment website to see the fruits of all this intentional and well-researched design and development.

How about you? How are you using analytics to guide your decision-making? What do YOU wish you could track? What’s working? Please share!

December 1, 2015
The Promise of Universal Analytics: Custom Dimensions Can Show Who Is Visiting and What They Are Doing

Much has been written about about Google Analytics (GA), which is now Universal Analytics. When you upgrade your account to Universal Analytics, a whole new world of reporting becomes available, including enhanced e-commerce reports, a more flexible tracking code that lets you track visitors across their devices (e.g., when people visit your website on a laptop, tablet and phone, as long as they are logged in, you can see session info), and a greater ability to filter and exclude criteria.

But what I’m most excited about are Custom Dimensions. Custom Dimensions let you send custom data to GA. For example, some of my association clients are now sending the following to Google Analytics: member type, member status, special access levels, size of company, and special interests. Why is this valuable?

Previously, GA was great mainly for analyzing WHAT people were doing on your website. We created endless reports about what search terms are referring traffic, the flows through the site, top pages being visited, top downloads, top abandons, etc. But with Custom Dimensions, you can now see, for example, what percentage of overall traffic is coming from members, traffic to meetings pages by meeting type, downloads by member type, whether or not Board and committee members are visiting your website, etc. While Google’s custom variables feature allowed similar functionality, Universal Analytics will allow businesses to leverage this data across devices, making it more meaningful and accurate.

With Custom Dimensions, we now have more insight into WHO is visiting a website. Before you get too excited, remember that Google’s terms of service specifically disallows tracking that is personally identifiable. Which means an organization *could* set a tracking ID that is user-specific but that would violate Google’s terms of service. Instead, Google is giving us better tools to see which categories of people are visiting which pages and completing transactions.

If you have some type of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or Association Managment System (AMS), you’d probably benefit from sending custom dimensions to Google. You’ll need help from your web developer since this data is in your membership database and must be sent to Google via a custom cookie. One last tip: this coding must be very precise and very clean. Extra spaces will cause the reporting to fail. Once in place, however, this code works flawlessly.

Good luck finding new insights from your Google Analytics data!

September 9, 2014