Data-driven decision-making has become a key parameter in ensuring the growth of any business in today’s world. This is simply because there are a large number of platforms today that allow easy collection of data on the interaction of users with a business’ products. This data is then analyzed by that business to understand the behavior of users and plan future Marketing and Development strategies accordingly. One of the most popular platforms that large enterprises use to track User Engagement is Google Analytics 360. Google Analytics 360 provides the tools and support that enterprises need to get actionable insights from data.
With Google Analytics 360, your business can get to implement cutting-edge functionalities such as Unsampled Reports, BigQuery Export, and Data-Driven Attribution, along with all the standard analytical highlights and reports.
This article will help you understand what Google Analytics 360 is and also provide you with an in-depth analysis of all its features and limitations.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Google Analytics 360
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Google Analytics 360 is a web analytics service offered by Google as a part of its Marketing Platform. It can provide you with in-depth statistical and analytical information about your website. Google Analytics 360 gives you endeavor-level devices to quantify and dissect information from the entirety of your touchpoints, giving you more profound comprehension of your client experience. Also check out Google Analytics user explorer article.
Google Analytics 360 aims to help marketers get a holistic view of their online marketing efforts via fewer standalone tools.
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Benefits of Google Analytics 360
As a part of the Google Analytics 360 Suite, the six items pointed toward interfacing an advertiser’s day-to-day work are as follows:
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1) Google Analytics 360
Formerly known as Google Analytics Premium–the paid, endeavor level analytics platform for huge organizations.
2) Google Optimize 360
This item in the Suite permits advertisers to perform A/B test encounters without composing any code. From here, advertisers can pinpoint which site/promotion variety is best for various crowd portions.
3) Google Audience Center 360
Google Audience Center 360 is a data management platform that can help businesses collect and organize customer data as per requirements allowing them to reach their most valuable audience with the right information at the right time.
4) Google Tag Manager 360
Home to label the APIs and site code for smoothed out work processes and more proficient dynamic.
5) Google Data Studio 360
Tool for rapidly and effectively sharing constant advertising information representations and visualizations across organization offices.
6) Google Attribution 360
The cross-channel attribution device tracks all advertising spend data (on the web and disconnected) to decide in general showcasing execution by channel.
The Suite’s goal is to help advertisers interface the information across various stages, including portable, PPC, disconnected showcasing channels, etc.
Features of Google Analytics 360
Here are some of the features that you should know to understand Google Analytics 360 in a better way:
1) Seamless Integrations
With Google Analytics 360, you can appreciate incorporations with different items in the Google Marketing Platform, including Google Ads, Google Display and Video 360, Google Optimize, and turnkey mixes with various third-party platforms such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud.
Image Source: https://blog.google/products/marketingplatform/360/deeper-connection-between-google-analytics-360-and-salesforce-sales-cloud/
While Google Analytics permits bringing in information from custom data sources, including Advertising Cost Data, Content Data, and many more, Google Analytics 360 upgrades this usefulness with a component called Query-Time Import, which means you can take a look at your essential data in the interface and view the newly imported data, even if you have changed the import after the data was initially gathered.
2) Shared Audiences
In Google Marketing Platform, “audiences” are how you pass assortments of clients between apparatuses — like sharing a Google Analytics crowd with Google Ads, Google Display and Video 360, or Google Optimize.
The following image shows how Google Analytics 360 shares audience data with Google DoubleClick for Publishers which is Google’s free ad management solution for small businesses.
Image Source: https://www.adpushup.com/blog/audience-sharing-in-google-analytics-360-brings-new-insights-for-publishers/
While there are numerous approaches to achieve a similar target, utilizing basic crowd definitions in Google Analytics 360 can improve your adaptability and exactness when remarketing to clients through Google Ads. By keeping every crowd definition particular, and depending on explicit apparatus highlights, you can dodge circumstances that squander your cash and irritate clients.
3) Hit-Level Data
Image Source: https://electrik.ai/product/google-analytics-hit-data-extractor
Google Analytics 360 permits hit-level information to be naturally passed from Google Analytics into Google BigQuery, Google’s big data storage and querying tool. This considers more unpredictable investigation or can go about as a channel for sending out more granular information into an information stockroom. For organizations hoping to address testing inquiries with their data, such as characterizing the client venture, taking a gander at client conduct across meetings, or consolidating external information sources, Google BigQuery is the device you will be generally excited about.
4) Reporting Advancements
There are various progressed reports accessible just to Google Analytics 360 clients, including Advanced Analysis, Data-Driven Attribution, etc.
Image Source: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2018/03/01/a-guide-to-the-standard-reports-in-google-analytics-real-time-reports/
Likewise, there are improved custom pipes announcing alternatives accessible, empowering better stream detailing for on-location activities across clients and meetings. This element is extraordinary for envisioning various transformation ways through your website.
5) Full Services With a Certified Partner
When you buy Google Analytics 360 through a business accomplice, they work with you to make sure you get the most worth of Google Marketing Platform. In addition to the fact that you contact their best-in-class administrations and backing, you get their market-driving aptitude.
Limitation of Google Analytics 360
With its 85% piece of the overall industry, the free version of Google Analytics is the most generally utilized web analytics solution to date. Google’s Freemium Acquisition Model comprises free and premium (paid) clients. In case you’re not paying, you approach the device, however, with restricted highlights, use, storage, and support.
Despite its prevalence, Google Analytics has extensive limits. Let’s have a look at four that stick out.
1) Accuracy
Sometimes, Google can’t follow all that occurs on a website, so any numbers that appeared on reports ought to be treated as approximations.
Numerous individuals will quit Google Analytics; they may likewise hinder threats and switch off JavaScript, which is how Google tracks visitor’s behavior. Their movement isn’t followed, prompting under-reporting.
There are two sources of undesirable data that will prompt over-reporting:
- Internal traffic: The information coming from Google Analytics 360 includes traffic from internal and external clients. This can be considered undesirable because you are keen on the traffic to your pages from external sources only and hence, you should make plans to utilize the “External Traffic only” view accordingly.
- Bots: While the technique Google Analytics uses to follow client movement will generally avoid most bot activities, it can’t ensure that bot visits won’t pollute your reports.
4) Approximation
If you utilize the free version of Google Analytics, you don’t get 100% of each report’s traffic tracks. You can build accuracy on specific reports, yet this doesn’t utilize all traffic.
Google Analytics vs Google Analytics 360
Google offers two versions of Google Analytics. The standard form of Google Analytics (GA) is free, and the premium version Google Analytics 360 (GA360) is the paid adaptation of Google Analytics with a level-based evaluation.
This article will diagram a portion of the contrasts between Standard Google Analytics and Google Analytics 360. Google Analytics will give you a notice when you are a decent candidate to go premium, and this can likewise give you a thought of when to do the change to Google Analytics 360.
Differences between Google Analytics and Google Analytics 360 are as follows:
Parameter
Hit count per month
Custom Dimension/Metrics
Data Freshness
Google Analytics
Up to 10 million hits per month
20 of each
24+ hours
Google Analytics 360
1 billion hits per month
200 of each
10 min – 4 hours
Google Analytics 360 Pricing
Google does not follow a transparent pricing model for its Analytics 360 Suite.
Image Source: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/compare/
The final price for any enterprise depends on its business and data requirements and can be finalized after a discussion with the Sales team at Google.
More information on Google Analytics 360 can be found here and its pricing can be found here.
Conclusion
This article helped you understand what the various features of Google Analytics 360 are and how it can help you in performing an in-depth analysis of your application. Along with that, it also listed various limitations that you will face while using Google Analytics.
You can now load Google Analytics 360 data to any Data Warehouse such as Redshift, BigQuery, Snowflake, or a destination of your choice without writing code in just a few minutes for free with Hevo.
Although Google Analytics offers easy integration with other Google products, it is a complex process to connect third-party platforms with Google Analytics. These platforms can be connected to Google Analytics using its API or the user has to manually import all the data. This is a complicated process with a high possibility of errors. Businesses can instead use automated data integration platforms like Hevo which can help them generate a Single Source of Truth for all data allowing you to perform your analysis easily.
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Share your experience of understanding Google Analytics 360 in the comments section below!
Vishal has a passion towards the data realm and applies analytical thinking and a problem-solving approach to untangle the intricacies of data integration and analysis. He delivers in-depth researched content ideal for solving problems pertaining to modern data stack.