universal analytics

The User ID is definitely one of the coolest things about Universal Analytics, if used correctly. It might reveal some surprising insights about your visitors, since now you’re not restricted to analysing visitors as just browser or device instances as before, but rather you can build your stories around all the touch points the user might have had on their journey to and through your web properties. With this simple tip, you can extend User ID tracking to return users without them needing to authenticate. Read More…

There is a new version of this post for GTM V2 here. While going over my previous post about using weather conditions to segment data in Google Analytics, I started thinking about performance issues. Since I’m using a visit-scope custom dimension, it seems futile to have it send the weather details with every single page load. The odds of the weather changing drastically during one visit are slim (unless you live in the UK), and I have yet to come up with a good reason to change my on-site behavior because the weather changed from a drizzle to a downpour. Read More…

(Last updated June 2014) Google Analytics provides us with a nifty way of tracking social interactions. With a simple plugin, you can track how many +1s and Likes your pages accumulate. This guide shows you how to activate social interaction tagging with Google Tag Manager and Universal Analytics. The instructions are for Facebook Likes, Google+ +1s (now deprecated since Google Analytics tracks +1s automatically), Twitter Tweets and Pinterest Pins. Note that if you use a third-party API (e. Read More…

UPDATE 9 Oct 2013 - This works in Google Spreadsheets now as well! Feel free to make a copy of the sheet and work with the code. It’s still just a prototype, but I’m happy to see data bouncing from spreadsheets to Google Analytics. View the Google Spreadsheet here ORIGINAL POST Inspired by Daniel Waisberg’s excellent post detailing the use of Google Web Forms to send data to your Analytics account, I decided to create something similar. Read More…

There is a new version of this post for GTM V2 here. The Google Analytics Summit came and went, and thanks to the Live Stream, everyone could participate. We were treated to a rapid-fire selection of Google Analytics’ new features, and this post sheds light on one of these in particular: automated event tracking in Google Tag Manager. Auto-event tracking introduces a nice feature, which does what tag managers ought to do: it provides functionality without HTML template editing. Read More…

So here we are again. Universal Analytics and Google Tag Manager, the dynamic duo, ready to strike again. First, remember to check my previous two tips for UA and GTM use in custom scenarios: Weather as a custom dimension Tracking page load time In this post, I visit the idea of adjusted bounce rate, which I came across a year ago in the Google Analytics blog. Adjusted bounce rate basically refers to tweaking the traditional bounce rate collection method (single engagement hits / total visits) so that visits which only included a single page view would not count towards a bounce, as long as they met some qualitative requirements. Read More…

In Google Analytics, you can monitor your site speed and get a decent overview of what pages are contributing positively and negatively to site speed. The problem with page load time metric is that it’s an average based on a sample. You can modify the sample rate with setSiteSpeedSampleRate(), but for me that’s not bloody well good enough. (UPDATE 28.3.2014: This post is still valid, but an implementation with User Timings is a much smarter way to measure actual page load time. Read More…

There is a new version of this post for GTM V2 here. [Last updated June 2014] I’ve fallen in love with Universal Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Together they form an incredibly powerful tool for marketing professionals. In most cases, I no longer need to post recommendations to my client for yet another page template revision, since with the tag manager in place, I can just add custom code via the admin panel. Read More…