An intro to Google Analytics Universal Analytics. From my talk at the Portland Google Analytics Meetup in May 2013

1. Intro to Universal Analytics
April 2013

2. Agenda
• Overview of Universal Analytics & Its Purpose
• Diving into features:
> Key Technical Features
> Custom Dimensions & Metrics
• Ways You Can Use It
@swellpath | Universal Analytics Introduction 1

3. What is Universal Analytics?
"Universal Analytics helps
evolve Google Analytics into a
next-generation measurement
tool by moving the tracking logic
from the client to the server
side.”
- The Google
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 2

4. What does it mean, Google?
• Advanced technology,
• tracking focused on people
not pages,
• the ability to track across
everything,
• and some other really cool
capabilities
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5. Why is Google making these changes?
Remember: everything Google does is in some way tied to
increasing advertising revenue
UA tracking may speed up the internet by up
to 5%, = more ads served (especially mobile)
and
UA will gather more data to feed ads and
advertisers via better targeting
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 4

6. Why should you care if you’re an “average” user?
• This is what everything will
be built upon
• Eventually some standard
feature you need/want will
necessitate having UA
• All complex capabilities
trickle down – you’ll need to
be doing these complex
things soon. Why not now?
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 5

7. How it benefits the advanced user
You can get far more
advanced data on your
users and what they are
doing through online
and offline touch
points.*
*But you need to put the right
effort in, to get that data out.
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 6

8. Key Technical Features

9. Onsite Tracking Code
This has changed a bit:
<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-XXXXXXX-XX', 'yourdomain.com');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 8

10. Ahhh, code!
You may have to get
a bit more
comfortable with more
technical aspects of
web analytics.
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 9

11. analytics.js
Don’t want to go into too much
detail on this,
but it basically
changes everything.
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12. One Last Cookie
"Sometimes me think, what is
friend?
And then me say “a friend is
someone to share last cookie with."
-Cookie Monster
No longer 4 cookies, just one: _ga
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 11

13. Tracking Across Domains/Sites/Devices Anything
It will all be fair game.
If it can touch the internet, it can be tracked in UA
Via analytics.js, mobile SDKs, or the Measurement Protocol
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 12

14. Configuration Options
• Session Settings • Referral Exclusions
• Organic Search Sources • Search Term Exclusions
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 13

15. Custom Dimensions & Metrics

16. Dimensions & Metrics
• Dimensions are essentially replacing custom
variables.
• Think of dimensions as your rows – an attribute of
a
> hit (page, event, etc.),
> session (visit), or
> visitor (person).
• Metrics are numbers: an integer, a currency value,
or a duration of time.
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 15

17. Creating Dimensions
• Fairly simple to create these in the GA interface.
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18. Metrics
• Same thing – easy to create and utilize.
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19. Dimension Widening
Allows you to expand on customer-centric information by
keying off an ID in your backend system
All handled through CSV uploads
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 18

20. Bonus: Filtering on Dimensions
Finally!
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21. Considerations
• Limits
> Indices
> Concurrent Hits & Requests
> Characters
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22. Multi-Session Segmentation
• “Unified Segmentation” • Show me all users who
will let you perform first visited via mobile
segmentation around • and signed up for my
email list
different channels,
• Then came through an
products, and marketing email campaign to
campaigns. desktop main site
• And purchased kids
clothing
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 21

23. Lead Gen/B2B Example
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24. Potential Report – B2B Lead Generation
• Custom Dimensions from Webinar Registration:
Vertical
• Custom Dimensions from widening:
Deals, Revenue
Intro to Universal Analytics & Customer Centric Livin’ 23

25. Thank you!
SwellPath.com/Blog
@wheresitworking
adam.ware@swellpath.com