Understanding Cross Device Measurement and the User-ID

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A User-ID view contains only data hits in which the User-ID was set. Think of it as a filtered view.

One of the fundamental new features of Universal Analytics is user-centric measurement. This includes measurement across multiple devices – computers, smart phones, tablets, kiosks, etc. But this change introduces a number of new challenges for analysts and marketers. In order to do cross device measurement you need to understand some of the challenges and limitation. […]

Universal Analytics: Now out of beta!

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The User-ID feature let's you measure the user journey across multiple devices - and even in stores.

We’ve been talking about Universal Analytics for a long time – over a year. In that time Universal has always been in beta because it was not 100% compatible with the existing version of GA. Sure, various parts of the Universal platform have rolled out, like the Measurement Protocol and Dimension Widening, but we were […]

Advanced Content Tracking with Universal Analytics

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This technique uses Google Analytics events to track a user as they scroll down a page of content.

A while ago I wrote Advanced Content Tracking – a post about how to measure if users are actually reading your content. I’ve been getting a lot of requests to update this code for Universal Analytics. So here it is – an updated script specifically for use with Universal Analytics. This Google Analytics customization collects […]

Hits, Sessions & Users: Understanding Digital Analytics Data

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Digital analytics data is organized into a hierarchy of hits, sessions and users.

We talk about data every day – sessions, visits, conversions, pages, hits, etc. etc. etc. But sometimes we fail to understand how all of these metrics fit together and where they come from. Let’s take a look at how digital analytics tools organize data. All digital analytics data is organized into a general hierarchy of […]

How to Use Google Analytics Content Grouping: 4 Business Examples

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Use the selector to choose a specific content grouping in your Google Analytics Content reports.

Content Grouping is a useful feature that let’s you group your website or app content together and view aggregate metrics for each group. This is particularly useful if you have a lot of content to analyze. Rolling up your content, based on your specific business structure, is very helpful when creating dashboards and other custom […]

How to Set Up Google Analytics Content Grouping

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Each content grouping contains multiple content groups. A content group contains multiple pieces of content.

Today everyone is creating content – lots and lots of content. Measuring that content can be a challenge given the sheer volume that’s out there. That’s where Google Analytics Content Grouping can help. This feature let’s you categorize your content based on your own business rules. Then, rather than view your data based on page […]

Dimension Widening: Import data directly into Google Analytics

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The key links your custom data to the data in Google Analytics.

There are lots of different ways to put data in Google Analytics. You can collect data from a website with JavaScript. You can collect data from an app using an SDK (Android or iOS). Or you can collect data from any network connected device using the measurement protocol. But there’s another way to add data […]