Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics Review

I got a copy of Advanced Web Metrics from Wiley last week to review and I was quite impressed – just want to go over some the highlights of the book.

The section on pg 104-105 on Importing cost data from multiple AdWords accounts I found very helpful – no so much because I’ve had to do it (I haven’t) but getting that level of data from Google is hard. The questions on pages 106-109 were also very illuminating in terms of what Google Analytics can/can’t do with the collected data.

In Chapter 7 – Advanced Implementation – a note on page 115 mentions the concept of “virtual pageviews” and how it could be used for forms (and that it would break the site overlay function) was helpful in deciding what needs to be done when you want to track Flash and Rich Media and what are the ramifications of that.

I don’t think “Segmentation”, as the author uses the term, really means the same thing as the way I use it – Advanced Web Metrics is very helpful, though, in figuring out how to use the segmentation capabilities that do exist in Google Analytics, limited as they are.

Also like the KPI section on page 219 which does a pretty good job of translating web analytics that can be collected by Google Analytics to Stakeholder questions; the table it called “Sample OKR-to-KPI Translation Table in the book.

From time to time the issue has come up for me of tracking a single site into multiple Google Analytics Reports using one Google Analytics tag; when I had asked Google about it two years ago, I was told that functionality was not supported and all I ever found out about that particular issue.

However, on page 97 in Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics I found the answer and it was simple.

Did I stop and try to do everything in the book? No – but I know the information is there, in Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics by Brian Clifton, when I need it.

I recommend this book highly for anyone who works with Google Analytics.