SUCCESS IN GA REQUIRES 3 STEPS
Like all tools, GA is only as effective as the person wielding it. Take the time to get to know the tool and how best to use it within your business. These are 3 key steps you need to invest in to ensure success with GA:
- Setting up Google Analytics in the right way
- Creating a Google Analytics account
- Customizing the account
- Understanding the structure
- Understanding how you can create views and properties for your account
- Understanding how to distribute privileges
- Understanding how to activate features
- Understanding GDPR, privacy and Google Analytics
- Translating your data into insights
- Understanding metrics and dimensions
- Understanding data hygiene
- Knowing where to find relevant data
- Understanding what this data means for your business
- Understanding what is working and not working
- Getting the most out of the data
- Acting on your insights
- Applying learnings to your business
- Knowing how to react to data
- Optimizing for better results
Lessons from GA Consulting
When I work with companies, I always work on getting to know the client first, understanding their business and their goals.
After that, I aim to create a Google Analytics account setup that is fully aligned with their goals.
To go the extra mile, I also help them with reporting, insights and dashboarding.
So, the process goes like this:
- Understanding who you are and what you want to achieve;
- Customizing your account to gather and compile data that’s relevant to who you are and what you want to achieve;
- Creating reports and dashboards that give you easy-to-interpret visuals of what your data means.
But here’s the crazy part: even though the client is the person in this equation who best knows the business, they always want me to be there to act on their insights, data and reports.
What this taught me is that data is more than just marrying our minds with numbers. In fact, it’s not a marriage at all. It’s more of a master and machine relationship. YOU are the master. You need to make the machine work for you.
Every time I sit down with a client’s team to go over their data, we always end up with more than just the sum total. We always end up with genius ideas and actionable next steps. The data becomes an impetus to launch creative new ways to market and cater to customers.
The ability and drive to interpret and act on data is there, but for whatever reason, many people need to be led to the water, so to speak. Don’t ever play the passive or reactive role to data. Be involved at every level. Data will not act alone. It needs you in the driver’s seat. Get yourself in that mindset.
To bridge this gap between gathering the data and acting on it, I divide analytics consulting into setting up, researching and recommendations. For this, I like to use the metaphor of producing a Broadway play.
Prepare. Practice. Perform. Here’s how it goes:
Prepare
- Get to know the structure of your GA account.
- Learn how to create a Google Analytics account.
- Learn an alternative way of adding GA through a tool called Google Tag Manager.
Practice
- GA uses some terms you may be unfamiliar with. Learn the most important metrics and dimensions so that you are able to read the data on GA reports.
Perform
- Navigate the platform.
- Read and analyze GA reports.
- Act on the knowledge and insight they provide.
Takeaway
Having data without interpretation is like trying to perform in a play without a script.
Don’t ever play the passive or reactive role to data. Be involved at every level. Know the tool, learn how to wield it, then do it.
Learn More about analytics and how to capitalize on it: Get your copy of “The Secret to Capitalizing on Analytics” here