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Google Analytics

Google Analytics

Overview

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition…

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Recent Reviews
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Video Reviews

3 videos

Data Vs Information: Google Analytics Polarizes User
04:24
Easy to Train Clients: A Digital Consultant Gets the Most Out of Google Analytics
04:14
How Google Analytics Propels Marketing Capabilities to the Next Gen
02:43
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Pricing

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Google Analytics 360

150,000

Cloud
per year

Google Analytics

Free

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

The Most Useful Google Analytics Reports: My Top 6 GA Reports

YouTube

Path Exploration in Google Analytics 4 (practical examples and 4 ideas) || Path Analysis

YouTube

Google Analytics Tutorial (de) - Die wichtigsten Funktionen - Erklärt von einem Google Mitarbeiter

YouTube

Funnel Exploration in Google Analytics 4 (Funnel Analysis in Analysis Hub)

YouTube

UTM Tracking in Google Analytics | Lesson 13

YouTube

3 ways to view Funnels in Google Analytics

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics Video

Google Analytics Overview

Google Analytics Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Google Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.

Google Analytics starts at $0.

Adobe Analytics, Contentsquare, and Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued) are common alternatives for Google Analytics.

Reviewers rate Availability highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Google Analytics are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(3710)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-4 of 4)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
sandro merkvilishvili | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
In my organization, which is a grocery e-commerce company, we use Google Analytics to gain insights into our website traffic and customer behavior. The product addresses several business problems such as measuring website traffic and conversion rates, identifying where our customers are coming from, and which pages on our website are most popular.
Our use case for Google Analytics is comprehensive and covers all aspects of our online presence. We use it to track key metrics such as page views, unique visitors, time on site, and the sources of our traffic such as search engines, direct visits, and referral sites. This information helps us to optimize our website for better user experience and conversions.
We also use Google Analytics to set up and track goals, such as tracking sign-ups or purchases, to measure the success of our marketing and sales efforts. Additionally, we use the product's segmentation and reporting features to gain insights into the behavior of specific groups of customers such as mobile users or those who came from a specific referral source.
Overall, Google Analytics has proven to be a valuable tool for us in understanding the success of our website and e-commerce efforts and helps us to make data-driven decisions to improve our business.
  • Traffic analysis: Google Analytics provides a comprehensive analysis of your website traffic. You can see how many visitors come to your site, where they come from, how long they stay, and which pages they visit. This information is essential for understanding your audience and making informed decisions about how to engage with them.
  • Conversion tracking: Google Analytics makes it easy to track conversions, such as purchases or sign-ups, on your site. You can set up conversion goals and track how well your site is performing in terms of meeting those goals. This information can be used to improve your site's user experience and increase conversions.
  • Custom reports and dashboards: Google Analytics offers a wide range of customization options, including the ability to create custom reports and dashboards. You can create reports that are tailored to your specific needs and objectives, providing you with the information that is most important to your business. Whether you want to see which pages are most popular, which sources of traffic are most effective, or what types of products are selling best, you can create reports that give you that information in an easy-to-understand format.
  • Customization of reports and data visualization: Google Analytics offers a wide range of customization options to create custom reports and dashboards based on specific KPIs and metrics that are most relevant to your business goals. This helps you to gain a more in-depth understanding of your website's performance, allowing you to make data-driven decisions. The tool also provides a variety of visualization options such as line charts, bar graphs, and pie charts, enabling you to clearly communicate insights to stakeholders.
  • Integration with Other Tools: One area where Google Analytics has room for improvement is its integration with other tools. While it is possible to integrate Google Analytics with other tools such as Google AdWords or Google Tag Manager, it can be difficult for users to do so without technical expertise. Improving the integration with other tools would help organizations get a more complete picture of their data.
  • Customization: Another area where Google Analytics has room for improvement is in its customization. While Google Analytics provides many pre-built reports and metrics, it can be challenging for users to customize these reports to fit their specific needs. Improving customization options, such as the ability to create custom reports, would help organizations get the most out of Google Analytics.
  • Real-time Data: Finally, Google Analytics could improve its real-time data capabilities. Currently, Google Analytics only provides real-time data for a limited set of metrics, such as active users and pageviews. Improving real-time data capabilities, such as providing real-time data for all metrics, would help organizations make more informed decisions in real-time.
Google Analytics is particularly well suited for tracking and analyzing customer behavior on a grocery e-commerce platform. It provides a wealth of information about customer behavior, including what products are most popular, what pages are visited the most, and where customers are coming from. This information can help the platform optimize its website for better customer engagement and conversion rates.
However, Google Analytics may not be the best tool for more advanced, granular analysis of customer behavior, such as tracking individual customer journeys or understanding customer motivations. In these cases, it may be more appropriate to use additional tools or solutions that provide deeper insights into customer behavior.
  • Traffic Source Analysis: To understand where their website traffic is coming from, such as organic search, paid search, direct, referral, and social media.
  • E-commerce Tracking: To track sales and revenue, product and transaction data, and understand the shopping behavior of customers.
  • User Demographics: To understand the age, gender, interests, and location of their website visitors.
  • Behavior Flow: To understand how users navigate the website, what pages they visit, and where they drop off.
  • Mobile Analytics: To track performance on mobile devices and optimize the mobile shopping experience.
  • Site Search: To understand what customers are searching for on the website and how to improve the search functionality.
  • Goal and Conversion Tracking: To set and track specific website goals, such as form submissions, product purchases, and phone calls, and measure the success of marketing campaigns.
  • For a grocery e-commerce company, Google Analytics can have a significant positive impact on the business objectives by providing insights into website traffic, customer behavior, and conversion rates. This information can be used to optimize the website and the overall customer experience, leading to increased sales and revenue.
  • Additionally, Google Analytics can provide data on the performance of online campaigns and the return on investment. This allows the company to optimize their advertising spend and make data-driven decisions about future campaigns.
  • Google Analytics can help a grocery e-commerce company measure and improve their online presence, leading to a positive impact on their overall business objectives.
Ease of use: Google Analytics is known for its user-friendly interface and straightforward setup process, making it accessible for beginners. Adobe Analytics has a steeper learning curve and requires more technical expertise.
Features: Adobe Analytics offers a more comprehensive suite of features, including advanced reporting and segmentation, while Google Analytics focuses on delivering essential website tracking and analysis capabilities.
Integration: Google Analytics integrates well with other Google products, such as AdWords and Tag Manager, making it a good choice for organizations that use multiple Google tools. Adobe Analytics integrates well with other Adobe products, but may require additional setup for integration with other systems.
Cost: Google Analytics is a free tool with paid upgrades available for advanced features, making it a cost-effective option for smaller businesses. Adobe Analytics is a paid tool, with a higher cost of entry and ongoing costs, making it more suited for larger organizations with more complex needs.
Google Analytics is a good choice for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a cost-effective and easy-to-use solution, while Adobe Analytics is better suited for larger organizations with more advanced needs.
Semrush, Microsoft BI (MSBI), Looker Studio, Looker
10
Marketing: Marketing teams use Google Analytics to track and measure the effectiveness of their digital marketing campaigns, including website traffic, conversion rates, and revenue generated.
Sales: Sales teams use Google Analytics to track website traffic, conversion rates, and revenue generated to better understand their customer's buying behavior and make data-driven decisions.
Web Development: Web Development teams use Google Analytics to monitor website performance, including page load times, bounce rates, and user engagement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize the user experience.

5
To support Google Analytics, one needs individuals with skills in digital marketing, web analytics, data analysis, and technical expertise in web development and tagging. Knowledge of Google Analytics tools, metrics, and dimensions, and proficiency in data visualization tools is also important.
  • Traffic and User Behavior Analysis: This involves tracking the number of visitors, their sources, and how they interact with the website to understand the audience and improve the user experience.
  • Conversion Tracking: This helps track the conversion rate and the success of online sales, and identify areas for improvement in the purchase process.
  • Customer Segmentation: This enables the creation of customer segments based on demographic and behavior data, which can be used for targeted marketing and personalized experiences.
  • Product and Inventory Analysis: This helps track the performance of individual products and categories, and identify trends and patterns to optimize inventory and pricing.
  • Marketing Campaign Tracking: This helps track the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns and measure their impact on website traffic and sales.
  • Predictive Analytics: Google Analytics can be used to create predictive models based on historical data to forecast future trends and patterns.
  • User Experience Optimization: Google Analytics can be used to measure and improve website performance, load times, and overall user experience, through features such as A/B testing and funnel analysis.
  • Customer Journey Mapping: Google Analytics can be used to track a customer's journey from initial visit to conversion, providing insights into the touchpoints and interactions that drive customer behavior.
  • We hope Google Analytics might be used to track and analyze data from connected devices in the Internet of Things, providing new insights into customer behavior and preferences.
  • Also, Google Analytics might be used to track and analyze machine data to predict when maintenance will be needed, reducing downtime and costs.
  • Google Analytics might be integrated with conversational interfaces, such as chatbots and voice assistants, to provide real-time insights and recommendations for businesses.
It's a really useful and good platform for our scale
No
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
Product features are certainly a significant factor to consider when choosing Google Analytics.
Customizable Dashboards: Google Analytics allows users to create custom dashboards and reports to meet their specific needs and goals.
Data Collection and Processing: Google Analytics is capable of collecting and processing large amounts of data from multiple sources, providing a comprehensive view of website traffic and user behavior.
User Segmentation: Google Analytics provides a variety of ways to segment website visitors, including by demographic, behavior, and custom dimensions, enabling more targeted and effective marketing.
Marketing Campaign Tracking: Google Analytics provides powerful tools for tracking the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and measuring their impact on website traffic and sales
It would be the same
Usually the response time is a little late
It's not right plan for us according of its pricing yet
Yes
One day, we noticed that the data being reported is incorrect and doesn't match the actual number of website visitors. Upon investigating, we realized that the cause of the bug is a code implementation error in the tracking code on your website.
One day, we noticed that the sales data being reported in Google Analytics is incorrect and doesn't match the actual sales data from our website. We reach out to Google support for assistance and receive a response from a support engineer within a few hours. The support engineer works with us to understand the issue and provided a solution to the problem. The speed and efficiency of the support provided by Google, as well as the expertise of the support engineer in resolving the issue, was exceptional support
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Google Analytics is used as one of the main reporting engines for our company. It quickly gives us insight into where are traffic is coming from, breakdowns of who is purchasing, and detailed, itemized sales history. We also use Google Analytics to track individual marketing campaign performance, like ad hoc emails or social campaigns.
  • Gives detailed demographics
  • Allows you to segment out traffic to analyze
  • Shows where your traffic is coming from
  • Can't accurately track returns / fraud orders
  • Can be difficult to set up correctly sometimes (especially in the new interface)
  • Mainly uses last click attribution
Google Analytics is free, which is one of the best parts about it. Once set up, it provides access to a large portion of the information you would need to optimize marketing campaigns and your website overall. Knowing who is visiting your site is the first step to optimizing your marketing efforts and GA does exactly that.
  • Sales by Channel
  • Ecommerce Product Performance
  • Realtime visitor info
  • GA is free so there is a ton of value
  • Knowing your audience leads to better marketing
Google Analytics is free and also is a leader in the analytics world. The amount of data captured is remarkable and the ability to segment out different sets of traffic can provide much needed insight into your customer base and website traffic. We have not explored other analytics tools since GA accomplishes all the things we need it for - and does it at no cost.
50
Our users of Google Analytics are typically split between our marketing team (seven people), client services team (over twenty-five people), and Business Intelligence team consisting of four people. Engineering and creative also have access, but don't use it as much as the other departments; we are aiming to change that.
3
We have several admins of our over arching Google Analytics account(s) that help set up new accounts, add new users to existing accounts, and stay abreast of any day to day changes that may need to happen. In general, once it's set up correctly, it's mostly a set it and forget it use case.
  • Tracking Traffic Sources
  • Monitoring Campaign Performance
  • Seeing Sales Data
  • Identifying User Behavior
  • Focusing on specific platforms where the users are
  • Identifying Sales Trends
  • Following traffic sources
We will continue to use Google Analytics for several reasons. It is free, which is a huge selling point. It houses all of our ecommerce stores' data, and though it can't account for refunds or fraud orders, gives us and our clients directional, real time information on individual and group store performance.
No
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
The fact that Google Analytics is free was a huge factor. We have experimented with other data and analytics platforms, but ultimately these are just tools and it all depends on how you use them. For our needs, Google Analytics in combination with our in house reporting tools gives us all we need.
I would not change anything - I would stay with Google Analytics and not even bother with other analytics tools.
  • Implemented in-house
No
  • Linking all of our stores into one master GA account
I didn't have to do it personally - but our team can quickly launch Google Analytics for new accounts very quickly.
  • no training
You will need some guidance to get up and running. If there isn't anyone in house that can help show you around Google Analytics, there are plenty of YouTube videos that can teach you the basics so you will be up and running quickly.
It is just right for our ecommerce stores and since Google Analytics is free, there is zero complaining about the feature set. If we needed something else, we would have to go pay for it.
No
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
No
It mostly falls on us to correctly set up and support Google Analytics. That said, it is not a particularly daunting task to get it set up correctly, and once it is, there is little to no extra work to maintain that connection. Google does have some help offerings but we haven't had to use them.
We have not purchased premium support for Google Analytics; our in house team has been able to successfully navigate any and all issues.
No
I cannot.
Google Analytics is a great tool to give insight into your websites. That said, it is exactly that - a tool - so you will need to learn how to best use this tool for your specific needs. For our ecommerce sites, Google Analytics provides many ways to slice and dice our web traffic so we know what's happening in our stores.
  • Identifying marketing channel performance
  • Identifying Product Sales
  • Identifying web traffic demographics
  • Some segmenting
  • Honing in on specific user behavior
Yes
Some aspects work really well, but desktop is a much cleaner and easier to use interface. For real-time stats on the go, the mobile interface is a nice addition for us internally and clients externally. It is much harder to get specifics on mobile than it is desktop, but still a nice addition to the software as a whole.
Google Analytics runs 24 hours a day and rarely do we see any issues with going down or missing particular data.
There are rarely any outages or application errors. If there are errors, the vast majority of the time it is user error and not the fault of Google.
When creating segments, sometimes Google Analytics will take a bit or more than likely slow down older computers a bit. That said, in general google analytics is extremely reliable and is there when you need it.
  • Proprietary Ecommerce System
It was not difficult
  • No
N/A
N/A
Our team can quickly and easily set up Google Analytics for any new store in a matter of minutes.
If you are not technical, spend some time watching YouTube videos on how to set up Google Analytics or pay someone to knock it out for you.
Google makes it very easy to set up Google Analytics without their assistance.
This software is free so there was no sale.
N/A
N/A
No
  • Good for those who have Apps
  • App insights
No
No
Reita Silvis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our constant contact relies mostly on Google Analytics in regards to measuring engagement with our brokers and agents, especially when it comes to bonus opportunities to bring in new business accounts to underwrite. We noticed that since analyzing our outreach through Google, it's helped us pinpoint where we could improve in order to get more of a response and become more personalized to our biggest agents.
  • It's a great platform for mobile app analytics and not only on desktop/website
  • It's a good free option but also the paid version is not outrageous
  • There is a learning curve and not much support or guidance
  • The free version doesn't analyze as many data sources as our previous IBM analytics
In the free version, it's less helpful as the data it's using is limited compared to other software out there. It doesn't help us pinpoint where to focus our campaigns on, however, which has helped a lot in getting agent participation up.
  • We've gotten higher agent participation through constant contact analysis
  • We spent a lot of time with third parties learning how to use it
  • Its mobile functions save time that we can then use to focus on attracting more agents
We wanted to try out a new program as IBM analytics was a bit pricey and our company has been trying to cut in areas of our budget in order to provide service for recent hurricane claims and to upgrade offices in the Northeast. This was a good solution to the budget issue, but it's still a new implementation.
50
Marketing, Business Relations, Business Analytics, Public Relations
Patience and a good relationship with other IT/third party vendors to learn how to use the software and for support, leadership to help implement the software especially when transferring from another brand.
  • Constant Contact
  • Agent Participation
  • Business Relations
  • Finding painpoints in where we could improve on getting brokers to participate in contests
  • We could see how much we're reaching our audience and if a better method other than email or mail would work best
We were very happy with IBM Analytics, it was just the price that we were deterred by, but GA is a good alternative, even for the free version.
Yes
IBM Analytics
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Vendor Reputation
  • Analyst Reports
  • Third-party Reviews
The price was the highest selling point to us as we were using an expensive software beforehand.
We would have a team test it out before getting rid of our old methods before adopting a new, free one.
  • Don't know
No
  • Moving from our old program to this one as many people were comfortable with the other and there was a curve in getting used to this
I don't think we spent enough time work GA before switching from IBM
No
We typically have to go to a third party for support
No
Unfortunately, I cannot, as we've only dealt with third party support so far. But it's still early so you never know!
  • Participation Measurement
  • Rates of Successful Outreach
  • Getting access to reports is sometimes difficult
It's not as user-friendly, but I think it's just due to the learning curve from switching to a new product
Michael Baker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used mainly by marketing, but some aspects used by our web tech team. We evaluate our email sends, our CPC programs, our social media, and our display campaigns...along with website performance in general.
  • Great for tagging links
  • Good for monitoring traffic flow through website
  • Good for tracking goals, events and conversions
  • Ecommerce tracking presents some challenges
  • Not easy to track to our Pinterest and Facebook sites
  • "Not provided" is a horrible change!
For most SMB's I would definitely recommend Google Analytics. If a business sells a lot of 'complex' products with many attributes, then Omniture may be a better solution.
  • Better site usability
  • Better insight into online ad spend vs performance
We tested Webtrends and purchased Omniture (which we used for 2 years). Webtrends wasn't a good fit overall. Omniture was too cumbersome and expensive. The support was HORRIBLE and for a paid product it lacked some basic, no-brainer features.
25
Marketing, ecommerce, web technology, usability
4
3 from our web tech team and one from marketing. Web tech team uses coding knowledge and Google Tag Manager as well.
  • Online marketing tracking
  • Email tracking
  • Website usability
  • So far, nothing out of the ordinary or that we didn't expect
  • Universal Google analytics should help us better understand cross device usage
Good product overall. Free. We've spent a lot of time configuring everything properly, so there would have to be a very strong reason to switch.
Yes
Omniture
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Prior Experience with the Product
  • Vendor Reputation
  • Third-party Reviews
The features and usability were a better fit for our needs.
We were pretty thorough in our evaluation and had several meetings to discuss everything amongst our internal teams. I don't think we'd change anything.
  • Implemented in-house
Support is non-existent for this product (as well as most Google products).
No
Sadly, no. I have never been able to find anyone to answer a real question regarding Google Analytics...even Google people from different departments have no places to send you.
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