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June 9, 2011
 

Google Analytics AHA's | Part V | Events vs. Virtual Pageviews

How do you track actions that don't prompt a page load? If the page loads, GA will capture it, but what about .pdf downloads, button clicks, exit links, etc.?

There are two answers -- virtual pageviews can be applied to the action to register a pageview. The downside is it can inflate your site's pageviews. The upside is those virtual pageviews can be used to build goals and funnels.

The other option is a custom event. This can also be applied to these actions. It will not count a pageview, but will register as a custom event and allow for more detailed information about that click including category, action, label and a value, which you specify. The downside is that events can't be used to build goals and funnels right now.  But ... the next update to GA in beta now, will allow this so it's not a significant concern.

Filed under  //   analytics   custom events   google analytics   tips   virtual pageviews  


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June 8, 2011
 

Google Analytics AHA's | Part III | Mobile Analytics

If you've spent time navigating the mobile analytics world, you already know there's no one-size-fits-all solution. We just walked through what a complete mobile tracking solution looks like and it includes the following.

·         To track smartphone visitors to mobile or desktop site -- standard GA will track visits

·         To track visitors to mobile apps -- GA SDK must be implemented as part of app development Android, iPhone (smaller data set -- pageviews, events)

·         To track feature phone (non-smart phone) visitors -- GA offers server-side deployment that supports PHP, Perl, JSP, ASPX that provides base level tracking (pageviews only)

Filed under  //   Jonathan Weber   analytics   google analytics   mobile analytics   tips  


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June 8, 2011
 

Google Analytics AHA's | Part II | Custom Variables

Although the default user segments and custom segments are very powerful in Google Analytics, it does not allow you to separate specific types of registered users without the use of a custom variable. We'll cover the coding requirement tomorrow -- but at least I now know I wasn't missing an easier way to do it.

In other words, if you're looking to track Gold, Silver and Bronze subscribers as separate segments -- it will require that a custom variable be set for those visitors. In fact, our presenter, Jonathan Weber, says that is one of the most common uses for custom variables.

Filed under  //   Jonathan Weber   analytics   custom variables   google analytics   mobile analytics   tips  


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June 8, 2011
 

Google Analytics AHA's

Ga_intelligence

Attending Google Analytics seminar today and tomorrow in NYC -- will try to feedback nuggets or AHA's throughout the day as we cover.

So far the coolest thing we've covered is the built-in alerting in Google Analytics [Intelligence] that tracks variations above or below the norm from a variety of data points including total pageviews, visits, new visits, referral sources, visit spikes from geographic areas.

You can build your own alerts, but it's neat that GA takes a crack at it out of the box to surface metric variations you might not notice otherwise.

Filed under  //   Jonathan Weber   LunaMetrics   analytics   google analytics   intelligence   tips  


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