Item: Google Analytics
Rating: 7
Author: Ethan Galowitz

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use GA to track visits to our app and understand which pages are being accessed. We also connect the results to Amazon QuickSight data to better understand user behavior. Primarily, we use GA to track page views, certain events (although that hasn't been as successful) and number of users accessing who do not log in.
The data is used by Product (understand usage) and Customer Success (report on usage to clients).
The problem I use GA for is that I don't always have access to my users so it is helpful to see where in the app they are going. Beyond that, I feel we're missing a lot of the value to segment our users and understand behavior. I occasionally use the data to make a point/argument to support my decision.

Pros and Cons

Track usage for users who are not signed in.
Create visualizations of the data that are easy to manipulate and consume.
Access your data cheaply and without too much management/overhead.

It can be difficult to create the segment I'm looking for.
I don't always trust that the data is telling me what I think it is. Sometimes unsure how the data is being calculated or what exactly I'm looking at.
I know there are a ton of things I'm missing! Help me discover the features I need :)

Return on Investment

Tough to quantify this for us, but it has allowed us to make some better decisions.
GA also helps us keep customers happy because it makes reporting much easier.

Alternatives Considered

Amazon QuickSight

They are similar, but different. Both products help us understand our user behavior.

GA is much easier to work within as a non-engineer, but still requires an initial engineering setup. Once that setup is done, much of it scales across all new features/product areas we build as long as the domains remain the same. GA also works through the front end so it does a great job of measuring how a user is interacting with their screen.

QuickSight works through your backend data so it requires a lot more manual work for an engineer to get each dashboard configured. Ultimately, QuickSight allows significantly more flexibility but also means you need to know exactly what you're looking for and it has to be something you actually store in your DB.

One caveat between the two is it has proven difficult to track a single user across both platforms. I'm sure there's a way to do it well, but it requires exploration and engineering work to get that kind of tracking set up.

Key Insights

Do you think Google Analytics delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Google Analytics's feature set?

Yes

Did Google Analytics live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Google Analytics go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Google Analytics again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Jira Software, Amazon QuickSight, Google Drive, Atlassian Confluence, Mouseflow, UserIQ, Slack

Likelihood to Recommend

GA is well suited for understanding high level info about what users are coming to your site. It infers demographic information so you can actually get a sense of what your traffic looks like outside of the data you explicitly collect. It also creates visualizations and makes it very easy to manipulate them and adjust what data feeds in.

GA is less good (in my experience) for understanding user behavior because I have no ability to set complex queries to get different things. It also appears to work entirely based on front end activity so you can track what a user does, but not always the action they've taken (e.g., you don't necessarily know the current state, just the history of actions).

A good entryway into product analytics

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Google Analytics