9 Steps To Become A Google Analytics Pro

1. Setting up Google Analytics (GA)

Create a new Google Analytics account if you do not already have one. Then, set up a property in the account you have created as properties are where you send data and set up reporting views. Follow the instructions to set up the web tracking code.

Once you have successfully installed basic page tracking on your site, you’ll see data in most of your Google Analytics report; including traffic referral information, user characteristics, and browsing information.

It may take 24 hours for data to appear in your reports once tracking has been installed.

2. Adding GA tracking code to your site

There are two ways to collect page tracking data:

• Add the Google Analytics tag (Universal Analytics) to your website container using Google Tag Manager. This approach is recommended because using Google Tag Manager simplifies tag management on your site. Using Google Tag Manager makes it easier to add other tags (such as AdWords Conversion Tracking and remarketing tags) to your site and configure your Google Analytics tracking.
• Add the tracking code directly into the HTML of every page of your website. This is the easiest approach if you only want to add the basic Google Analytics tracking code to your site.

Google Tag Manager is great because it automates the propagation of tags throughout your site, making it easier to track, make changes to the site, and also implement the code tracking directly into your site or to the HTML of your website’s every page.

3. Setting up goals in GA 

This step involves two different processes. First, you need to use a Goal template. Goal templates are designed to help you set actionable Goals that meet standard business objectives.

The Goal categories (Revenue, Acquisition, Inquiry, Engagement) are the larger business objectives that motivate the Goal templates.

Try to create at least one Goal for each category to get a better understanding of how users interact with your content. Then, you need to create custom Goals, which are of four types:

• A ‘Destination Goal’ is a page on your website that users see when they complete an activity.
• An ‘Event Goal’ is triggered when a user does something specific like downloading a PDF or starting a video.
• A ‘Pages per Visit Goal’ is triggered when a user sees more or fewer pages than a threshold that you specify.
• A ‘Duration Goal’ is triggered when a user’s visit exceeds or falls below a threshold that you set.

4. Setting up and tracking UTM parameters

This step primarily involves tracking where your traffic is coming from and how your traffic is interacting with your site, using the UTM parameters set up initially.

Firstly, it is crucial to understand what UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tracking parameters are. These parameters are not strictly speaking tags, but are arguments that identify an incoming click from a campaign and enables attribution of a latent conversion.

These are added to a URL which can be tracked when clicked and gives you precise control over how to categorize your marketing clicks.

In simple terms, with the help of these parameters, you can track the amount of clicks you are getting from your emails, social media, search engines, phrases within them, etc.

There are a total of five custom campaign parameters, out of which the first three are recommended to be always used for every link you own, to keep track of your referral traffic:

• utm_source (Campaign Source) is used to identify the advertiser, site, search engine, newsletter name, publication, etc. that is sending traffic to your property. 
• utm_medium (Campaign Medium) is used to identify the advertising or marketing medium such as email, cost-per-click, banner, newsletter, etc. 
• utm_campaign (Campaign Name) is used to identify individual campaign name, slogan, promo code, etc. for a specific product promotion or strategic campaign and is also used for keyword analysis.
• utm_term helps identify paid search keywords, especially by specifying the keyword if you are manually tagging paid keyword campaigns.
• utm_content is used to differentiate similar content or links within the same ad, like two CTA links within the same email message. By setting different values for each, you can tell which version is more effective.

With UTM parameters, you can tag your links to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns and identify the best ways to drive more visitors to your website.

It is important to strike balance between putting enough UTM parameters to make the activity identifiable and skipping a few if it is unnecessary.

It is not mandatory to include all the five parameters, use only those details that you truly require. While the order doesn’t matter, be consistent in the usage of upper/lower case and leave other parameters in the URL alone.

A few examples of places where tracking parameters are used are in display ad banners, newsletters, social media posts like twitter tweets, offline vanity URLs and also in diagnosing problems with your data.

5. Monitoring key metrics

Google Analytics is good for highlighting the things that need to be addressed and tweaked within the SEO strategy of your website. Below is a list of key metrics that need to be monitored:

• # Sessions: A group of interactions that take place on your website within a given time frame.
• # Pageviews: A view of a page on your site that is being tracked by the Analytics tracking code. 
• # Unique Pageviews: Aggregates pageviews that are generated by the same user during the same session. 
• Bounce Rate: The percentage of single-page sessions (i.e. sessions in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page).
• Average Session Duration: Total duration of all sessions (in seconds) / number of sessions.
• % new sessions: The percentage of sessions by new versus returning users.
• Goal conversion rate: The rate your site fulfills your target Goals, which represent completed activities, called conversions, that contribute to the success of your business.

Also pay attention to the decision or traffic tree which can be accessed in GA and analyze components like geo, demographics, channel, source/medium, campaigns to get a better understanding of your site performance.

6. Master Google tag manager

As online marketers, we dread the to-do list. We want to get the task completed as quickly as possible.

When you begin to learn more advanced uses of Google Analytics it’s no secret that inserting, updating and consistently managing several tags, events and goals across your site can become a tedious task.

Google Tag Manager simplifies this process—it allows you to add the Tag Manager code once on your website and then you can add more tracking codes using the Tag Manager Workspace without needing to touch the code at all.

Automating with Google Tag Manager

That’s not all though, In Google Tag Manager, you can use a data layer to capture key data points while sending them to Google Analytics for conversion tracking.

For example, you may want to know if your website visitors are clicking on Telephone links, you can create a data layer event that monitors all clicks to “tel:” links across the entire site and have it trigger an event in Google Analytics. Find out more about tracking telephone links in Google Tag Manager.

Google Tag Manager has a direct relationship with Google Analytics and they go hand in hand in supporting each other.

While you might start with Google Analytics you might find that over time you want a faster process, ease the burden of management or more advanced data capture and that’s where GTM becomes a requirement.

The best resource for learning Google Tag Manager is Measure School.

7. Take the Google Analytics IQ exam

So far you’ve learned so much about Google Analytics. You’re probably feeling like a champion after taking all the courses I mentioned earlier. That’s good.

To further add a notch to your analytics professional belt, you may consider taking the free Google Analytics Individual Qualification test. It will add a boost and credibility to your portfolio.

How to prepare

If you want to pass the exam, you need to go through some preparations. And since you’ve gone this far, it’ll be a lot easier for you. Here’s how to prepare for the exam.

Revisit your Notes: Now the notes you took while going through the GA Academy training will be important at this point. Bring the notes out, dissect them and ensure everything sinks into your brain.

Read this blog by Jens Sorensen: It’s the most detailed note you’ll need to pass this exam.

Now you’ve got a lot of information at your disposal. It’s time to take some practice tests that are a bit harder than the main exam. Use this Digital Relevance test guide to practice very well. If you fail, try again to reactivate the knowledge which you got from it.

Finally, use this site to take more tests until you feel comfortable. Perhaps, when you start scoring up to 70%. And again note that these tests are pretty harder than the main test—so, if you can pass them, you’re guaranteed success in the main test.

Use this site to practice your questions and answers.

Next. Go take the main exam like a boss and devour it. You may want to open some of these resources in a different tab for reference purposes.

If you follow this article you’ll likely get certified in less than one week. Don’t panic when you start the exam, but rather, be confident in yourself.

8. Get real experience

Now that you’re being certified and you’ve gone through a lot of training, it’s high time you put what you’ve learned to practice. We’ve got some great tutorials on this site that you can use to get started

• Call Tracking – How To Track Phone Calls in Google Analytics
• Setting up Google Analytics Goals
• Phone Call Tracking With GTM
• Configuring Hotel Booking Transactions in Google Analytics

Google also has a demo analytics account. So whether you’ve got a website now or not, you can actually practice what you’ve learned. If you get stuck at any point, you can return to the resources you used while learning.

9. Follow experts and join support groups

Following experts is a great way to get insights and hacks on how best to play around and to get better results from Google Analytics.

There are many Analytics experts you can follow on social media and via their blogs to stay updated on the latest trends and new features in Google Analytics.

You can quickly find them by searching for the Hashtag #googleanalytics on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram or you might also want to try the /analytics group on Reddit.

You can also join Google Analytics Groups on Facebook and on LinkedIn and find people who can quickly and easily help you and point you in the right direction to solving your issues.

Side notes

It’s not very difficult to become a Google Analytics expert, however, it takes a lot of effort and consistency. If you keep at it, in about a month or two, you’ll be on your way to mastering Google or at least have a solid understanding.

More importantly, when you consider that data is always at the heart of every online business, your knowledge will be relevant to your business and to your client’s business for a long time.

For some business owners, you simply don’t have the time to learn and master Google Analytics. Hopefully, this article has taught you the importance of using real data to make the best decisions about your digital marketing spending.

If it’s all too much, and you’ve thrown your arms into the air, then get in touch with us today and find out how we can help you to set up your analytics and reporting for your business.