Google Analytics is a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google Analytics is now the most widely used web analytics service on the Internet.
In other words, it allows you to measure your advertising ROI as well as track your Flash, video, and social networking sites and applications.
One of the things I don’t understand is marketers seem to be afraid of Google Analytics. Every time they are “in-charge” of a website, they don’t check if it is even installed.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
Peter Drucker
In today’s world, without the ability to measure the results of the things we do, is impossible to make informed decisions. This often leads to wasting corporate resources.
Most of the times, these marketers jump right in the “exciting” parts of marketing — like changing the design, creating social media accounts and posting on them. Yet, they forget the fundamentals.
My Amateur Basketball Career
I used to play competitive basketball back in the day. I was never good at it. But I didn’t suck as well.
I was never athletic. I couldn’t jump as high as my teammates; nor run as fast as the other guy; nor be able to dribble my way out of three defenders.
One thing I’m known for is defence. I can still remember the games where I have a marked man on the court. Kind of like how Bruce Bowen would always defend Kobe Bryant in the early 2000s.
Anyway, with that reference aside showing my age, I can only attribute that gameplay to one thing: I know the basics.
I know how people move based on what they do, how to look at their bodies instead of the fakes and fancy dribbling.
Even until now, when I play games with other people, I can still play with them (in short sprints because my body can’t keep up anymore). Not because I am better than them. Mostly because these players grew up watching a lot of NBA but didn’t really spend time training and developing their fundamentals.
Like drills. Running plays over and over.
When you watch NBA games, you’d see the superstars doing all these fancy stuff. So, young players often try to emulate and practice those.
Can they do it? Sure.
But can they do it in the game itself? Rarely.
Because the chances of performing spinning shots to avoid being blocked or an alley-oop to yourself don’t come often. And when it does, there are 9 other players on the court. It’s very different when you’re practicing it alone.
That’s why great players all have the basics mastered.
What Does Basketball Have to Do with Marketing
The same goes for marketing.
You can’t perform all the advanced techniques properly if you are not grounded on a strong foundation.
Optimization, A/B testing, figuring out which channels to double-down, where are leads and customers coming from, what types of content are resonating well, and many more.
All these are nearly impossible without Google Analytics installed on your website.
So, take the time to install it. It’s easy.
I provided a step-by-step guide on how to set it up properly with screenshots, so you can follow along.
It’s installed using Google Tag Manager (GTM). You can install Google Analytics directly by itself or through plugins. But to keep you sane, implementing it via Google Tag Manager is ideal. Check out that article to find out why this is the best way to install Google Analytics on your website.
