I recently had a discussion with a client around adding a Google Translate feature to their website. Something we then wanted to split test to see if conversions could be increased. So before briefing the developers, we wanted to track how often users currently translate our website.
What is a page translation Currently, some of the major browsers have built-in tools to translate a page into a given language. Both Safari and Edge automatically detect if a page is in a language other than the users' default language settings. Read more →
Have you ever tried to setup a filtered view in Analytics for a whole bunch of different URLs? Only to realise that your regex pattern for including those URLs exceeds the 128 character limit? Well, I have. And I’m happy to say that there’s a pretty good workaround.
Wait, what’s the problem here? There are several pros and cons for using URL filtered views. For example, sessions not starting on an included URL will be treated as direct traffic. Read more →
Did you ever feel that the Website Retargeting in the LinkedIn Campaign Manager is just too simple? And have you wished for more advanced targeting options based on your first party data?
I, for one, have long wished for targeting options like those in Facebook’s Ads Manager. When it comes to website retargeting, Facebook lets you define audiences based on not only URLs, but also any custom events you might want to use. Read more →
Why is it that such a simple thing as external link tracking in Google Analytics is almost always done wrong? Just today, I even saw a tweet from the official @googleanalytics account promoting a post on external link tracking:
How to measure outbound clicks from your site using Google Analytics and Tag Manager https://t.co/U8jLdCIaSv /by @ThomasPetracco #measure pic.twitter.com/AaP8rGsfnI
— Google Analytics (@googleanalytics) May 13, 2019 And the post has it wrong. Read more →
The concept of sessions in Google Analytics is a strange one. Part of that strangeness is that a session times out on its own after exactly 30 minutes of inactivity. By default that is. Or that it expires at midnight. Or when the campaign source changes - even mid visit (which is why you should never use UTM tags on internal links).
Often times, the expiration of sessions isn’t that big of a deal. Read more →
Apple recently announced version 2.1 of Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP). ITP is a feature built in to the Safari browser. In short, it protects user privacy by restricting how cookies can be used and for how long they can stay active in the browser.
The first iterations of ITP focused intensely on third-party cookies. And rightly so. Third-party cookies are what ad tech companies have used to track individual users across different websites (cross site tracking). Read more →
One of the difficulties of working with a multilingual website is to decide on how to track it. Specifially, if you should use one single Google Analytics property for the entire site, or one property for each part (language) of the website. That’s what I’ll provide some thoughts on in this post.
Now, this is a huge topic in itself, so this post focuses on the Google Analytics Account Structure only - not on the actual implementation. Read more →
One full year as a freelance digital consultant just flew by. Yeah, I began the year calling myself an analytics freelancer. But I ended up doing much more than that. I know. I’ve been there. I even saved enough money before quitting my job to go six months unpaid.
So far, I’ve been working on so many interesting things. Like data strategy as a whole. Ecommerce strategy. Customer Data Platforms. Teaching and speaking. Read more →
Why is it that Google Analytics is reporting different sales and conversion numbers than your website backend? If you run an ecommerce website or a website with lead forms, you’ve probably noticed that your ecommerce and goal reports show different numbers than your backend. And by backend I mean your systems behind the website.
For instance, you might run a WooCommerce og Shopify store (or any other type of webshop). Whenever you compare your sales numbers and revenue from Google Analytics with the numbers in your CMS, there’s almost always a difference. Read more →
If you’re a regular visitor on this (and because I use Google Analytics, I know some of you are!), you might have noticed I haven’t posted anything for like three months. But I have an excuse. I’ve been insanely busy.
Well, I’ve been busy for years. But this time around, it was kind of my own fault. Back in September 2017, I actually quit my job as Head of Data Intelligence in iProspect. Read more →