With billions of people using the internet, marketers have to find new and creative ways to promote their products. One way they can do this is through online advertising campaigns, such as Google or Facebook ads. However, these ads are only successful if they are targeting the right people with the right ad at the right time.
In order to measure this success, many websites use Google Analytics for marketing purposes.
Google will record when someone accesses your site from a URL that contains UTM tags. These tags are used to track marketing campaigns that you’re running. You will be able to see how many visitors you have and what pages they are visiting, albeit with sampled data.
Google Analytics Uses Sampled Data
While this information is vital to understand which campaigns are working the best, there are some limitations to be aware of. As mentioned, Google Analytics uses sampled data, meaning they take an estimate of your traffic on your site. This is often why GA numbers don't match up with other analytic tools.
Google Analytics also has another main limitation that any business owner will have to face, and that’s the fact that it collects data on the visitor’s behavior, but it can’t supply any insight on who these visitors actually are. This is vital to understanding how marketing campaigns are performing.
One tool to consider that can more accurately track campaign performance and conversions is Woopra.
Data is never sampled and using their Attribution Reports, you can know exactly how many conversions were attributed to specific campaigns. UTM tags are also automatically tracked for any incoming users clicking on these links to your site.
While Google Analytics used to be the standard for website tracking, today’s modern tools such as Woopra give a much better view of your user’s behaviors.
Common Questions
- Can Google Analytics Track Individual Users?
- How Accurate Is Google Analytics?
- What Data Does Google Analytics Collect?
- Does Google Analytics Use Cookies?
Use Cases
- Tracking Facebook Ads in Google Analytics
- Google Analytics and Salesforce
- Google Analytics and Marketo
- Hubspot vs Google Analytics
Product Review and Costs