Data & Analytics
Data Analytics is the art and science of collecting and interpreting data to make informed and insightful decisions. Analytics allow marketers to identify patterns and derive insights from data.
Like a race-car pit crew pouring over data in the pits, marketers use data analysis to make decisions. Otherwise they’d just be guessing. With the right data, decisions are usually pretty straightforward. Often, the hardest aspect of data analysis is setting up data acquisition properly, knowing what data is important and understanding what do do with it.
Best Way to Track GMB Traffic in Analytics – Detailed Walkthrough
What's the use of analytics?
Data analytics is about putting real world behavior into numbers that can be analyzed objectively. Skilled use of data analytics takes a range of skills, not just data science or math. Using computer skills, math, statistics, advanced decision making skills (often in real-time), an understanding of practical business goals and predictive models, data analytics helps you spot problems, identify trends, discover opportunities, tests ideas and measure real world behavior objectively to make a limitless number of business decisions. Its important to understand though that the data alone won’t do you much use. Its about decision making. The greatest data scientists, programmers, or Excel wizards aren’t necessarily good at using analytics to make decisions.
How does analytics work? (user behavior for a website)
What can Google Analytics be used for?
Google Analytics allows you to track, observe and analyze real world behavior users have with your website or app. With proper tracking, well-defined goals and a skilled analyst, it provides you with a foundation to make objective business decisions and inform your overall business strategy. It helps you discover opportunities, identify trends, spots problems and test an endless number of conversion optimization ideas.
How do I access Google Analytics?
Access your Google Analytics account https://analytics.google.com/ and click “Try For Free” or “Sign In” if you’ve already made an account. You’ll need access to the backend of your website to verify ownership and collect data. Its probably a good idea to create a Google Tag Manager account at this time since, in the long run, you’ll probably want to track behavior from tags created there rather than from the tag Analytics gives you to put on your site or app. Either way is fine, though. You can change how you implement your tags later.
Why is data analytics important?
Data Analytics help you make informed business decisions to achieve business goals, optimize operations around key performance indicators (KPIs), drive conversions, improve efficiency and increase profits. Its a massively important tool for maintaining the health of your digital strategy and growing your business. It lets you optimize your SEO, improve your Paid Media campaigns, test ideas, troubleshoot issues with your site and a million other things that you didn’t realize you needed it for until you use it.
My business is doing fine. Why do I need analytics?
If your business has a website, Analytics is going to improve performance by identifying technical problems, identifying opportunities, observing behavior over time and tell you where your customers are coming from. Strangely enough, Analytics doesn’t have a pre-built method of tracking Google My Business (GMB) traffic. There are a few extremely poor methods out there, but I actually developed a method that’s ultra-clean and I’m happy to share.
Should I just hire someone and how much should I pay them?
Honestly, yeah, you probably should. And how much you pay them should all depend on what they do. Since the value of the data you gather is to make informed business decisions, you should hire someone that can do something with the data. Hire someone (or a team) who can optimize your website (or rebuild a nicely organized and SEO friendly site), build & manage paid media campaigns, create great content, solve technical problems with your site and, most importantly, understands your business & goals.