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Thousands of years ago, our ancestors understood the power of weaving flax fibers in a way that would turn long, disparate threads into cohesive pieces of cloth that could be used to warm and protect them. The process has changed along the years; we now have large and complex machines to do the work for us. The main principle is still very similar: A series of parallel threads (warps) is interwoven by another thread (weft) and pressed together.

This book similarly shows that Google Analytics can work very effectively as the weft that interweaves all your data sources, bringing them together as a whole in a cohesive data platform. Very often, you find data all over a company, but data sources run separate from one another, parallel as the warps in a loom, and integrating them may seem like an impossible endeavor. But it shouldn't be like that; all your data should be as tightly integrated as pieces of cloth.

The word integration comes from the Latin word integratus, past participle of integrare, which means to “make whole.” In that sense, we can define integration as the process of bringing together parts or elements and combining them into a whole. When it comes to the world of data, integration means combining all the data you have about one entity (a user, a campaign, a product, and so on) in a single place.

Using Google Analytics, you can integrate data from other Google products to be viewed alongside its reports; you can also integrate other sources of data through custom integrations (provided that you have a key to join them together). This means that instead of having to analyze data using several different tools, you have the power to centralize all relevant information into Google Analytics to make data analysis easier and quicker. Analyzing data generated by different products in one central place will also result in more meaningful and actionable analyses.

Many professionals are still analyzing only a single part of their users' interactions with their digital properties. They can't see all the factors (and data) that affect their business, online and offline. This happens mainly because data is scattered over multiple tracking tools, making it hard for professionals to integrate all sources of information in one place. As you will learn in this book, Google Analytics is an extremely good candidate for creating an analytics platform that will centralize the most essential pieces of information for anyone working online.

In summary, this book is a hands-on guide focusing on one very important thing, which I personally believe to be critical for success: integrating all your data into Google Analytics so that you can have a full picture of your marketing efforts and your users' behavior. This quote from a research paper by Econsultancy is clear and to the point (see http://goo.gl/VFFHKD):

“Integrating additional data into your web analytics provides a more complete vision of the entire marketing funnel. Your capability instantly expands from counting site traffic into a broader system that measures your effectiveness in advertising, sales online and offline, product usage, support, and retention.”

Who Needs Google Analytics?

To put it simply: every business on the Web! While this might sound like an exaggeration, very few professionals would disagree with the claim that Web Analytics is essential to succeed in the digital world. Google Analytics is a robust and comprehensive solution, which can be implemented to answer the needs of small bloggers, larger-scale websites, and mobile apps.

While large enterprises typically employ analysts and experienced online marketers, small businesses usually have Google Analytics implemented by a Jack-of-all-trades. So even though this book includes technical terms, I have attempted to explain the subject in a clear and down-to-earth manner, with screenshots that support the written explanations. Hopefully, both experts and occasional Google Analytics users can learn from the tips and tricks presented here.

Who Should Read This Book?

One of the important advantages of Google Analytics over other analytics solutions is the large and active user community on the Web, from forums to blogs to social networks. There is a vast amount of information on how to use and troubleshoot the tool. The aforementioned comes in addition to the official Google channels: Help Centers, Developer Documentation, Analytics Academy, and social channels. (See the links in the sidebar at the end of this section).

With that in mind, you might be asking yourself, “Why do I need this book?” That's a great question; thanks for asking!

Basically, this book centralizes everything you need to know about integrating data into Google Analytics, with detailed explanations and screenshots to guide you through this journey. In addition, the book is full of tips and tricks I've learned from many years of hands-on experience (I had a website running Google Analytics a month after it was launched in 2005!). So while some of the information will be available online, you will learn quite a few new tricks from this book!

Please note that while I provide links throughout this book to the Google Analytics Help Center and Developer Documentation, those links are largely here to help readers with specialized needs. Indeed, one of the advantages of using this book as a guide is that you don't have to go through all the details that aren't relevant to your particular situation. Instead, you'll be directed to the specific resources you need at the moment in the process you need them.

Check Out These Resources to Get the Most Out of This Book

Google Analytics is a robust platform that can be used by people just starting their Analytics journey as well as by the most advanced Analytics geeks. But there are a few concepts and resources that are extremely important to understand before you start. Luckily, there is plenty of educational material to get you up and running. Here is a short list you might want to check before, after, or during the time you spend with this book.

● Analytics Academy: This is certainly the best resource to learn Google Analytics available in the Milky Way. (I haven't gone beyond that!) It contains many courses, from basic to advanced and from technical to business oriented. Check out http://goo.gl/k9ejPt.

● Accounts, Users, Properties, and Views: Every Google Analytics Account can be divided into properties, which can be divided into views. Users can have different access levels based on this hierarchy. It is important to understand how your account is structured; check out http://goo.gl/A3lPhv.

● Universal Analytics: Throughout the book you will encounter examples using the Universal Analytics code only (analytics.js). If you are not acquainted with this term or if you are still considering the upgrade, make sure to read http://goo.gl/X9jJ0A.

● Dimensions and Metrics: In this book, you learn about dozens of metrics and dimensions, including how to organize them into reports and how to use them to analyze data. Make sure you understand their meaning; check out http://goo.gl/ldEv74.

● The Interface Map: This is a great visual summary of the Google Analytics interface. It will help you understand the names and locations of the capabilities offered by the tool; see http://goo.gl/PXjFe1.

How This Book Is Organized

During the writing process, this book's table of contents went through various iterations, mainly because there are many different ways to view the relationships between Google Analytics and other data sources. One hard decision I made was to include only the standard integrations that bring data into Google Analytics.

The reason behind this choice is that this book is intended to help any business use Google Analytics as a centralized data analysis platform. But please don't get me wrong! Integrations that are used to export data out of Google Analytics are also absolutely amazing, and they can be used to create powerful and customized solutions to businesses. They are just not in the scope of this book.

Since integrations are not that useful if the underlying data is inaccurate, I decided to start with an introductory chapter about implementation best practices. This chapter provides the most important information you need to know when implementing Google Analytics.

Following the chapter on implementation best practices, the book is structured in two main parts. Part I, “Official Integrations,” discusses the Google Analytics official integrations – AdWords, AdSense, Google Play, iTunes, Webmaster Tools, and YouTube. Part II, “Custom Integrations,” discusses ways to bring custom data into Google Analytics, mostly using the Data Import feature and the Measurement Protocol.

How to Contact the Author

In this book, I provide practical advice on integrating Google products and external data into Google Analytics, with detailed information and screenshots. As you probably know very well if you are reading this, the Google Analytics team is constantly improving the tool and adding new functionality to it, which means you might not see exactly what I saw when writing the book. If that is the case, feel free to send me a note through the contact form at http://danielwaisberg.com/connect.