Google ads analytics (what is)

Google Analytics works via a piece of Javascript code placed on every web page the business wants to measure. If you have an admin account in your website’s Content Management System (CMS), it’s easy to install the Analytics tag following Google’s instructions, or you can ask your developer to help.

When a user visits the website, the code collects various data, including the HTTP request of the user, the browser they use and the first-party cookies they agree for you to collect. This may sound complicated, but essentially, this data is used to provide insight into user demographics and behaviours, such as their language, location, age and gender. The code sends this data to Google Analytics, which aggregates it into four levels:

• User Level (the actions of each user)
• Session Level (the individual visits)
• Pageview Level (the individual pages visited)
• Event Level (video views, button clicks and similar actions)

The aggregated data then appears in the various dashboard reports.

Once the Analytics tag has been added to your web pages, this process will take place automatically, leaving you to focus on reviewing and analysing the data collected.

Google Analytics is a huge platform that tracks how people interact with a website. The dashboard contains five standard reporting areas, each of which is split into further sub-sections that allow you to dive deeper into the data collected. These pre-set reports are listed in the left-hand menu of the dashboard. Analytics tracking code must be configured in order for Google Analytics to capture data.

Real-time reports show current activity on your website. They provide a snapshot of engagement with a website at any particular time. If a visitor has triggered an event or page view within the last five minutes, they will be included in this report. Sub-sections of this report provide further data on the visitors’ location, the traffic source (where they came from), interactions that lead to a conversion and more.

Real-time reports are a good way to test that Google Analytics is set up and working correctly. This is useful when you first use the platform and for testing whether the platform accurately records a conversion when you add a new Event. It’s also the most suitable report for real-time monitoring of campaign performance and identifying trending topics.

Google Analytics Debugger helps to identify deployment issues with Google Analytics.