Google Analytics Setup and Reporting Through Google Data Studio
The Challenge
JACS Solutions was in the early stages of a full website redesign but lacked any sort of analytics platform or integration to capture and report on the effectiveness of the redesign. It also needed a way in which marketing leadership could quickly identify content and keyword success, as well as flags for metric anomalies. Additionally, the company had still not adopted the Google Analytics 4 protocol in preparation for the deprecation of Universal Analytics.
The Solution
In order to be sure all current and future site visitor metrics would be available for year-to-year comparison as part of the website redesign, and to future-proof analytics capture, I implemented GA4 across all domains and subdomains through Google Tag Manager. The setup also included Hubspot CRM and marketing automation data capture to ensure all future campaigns could be properly tracked not only in Hubspot, but also in GA4.
The Result
Using my experience in the Google ecosystem, I connected GA4 and UA data sources to Google Data Studio to quickly and easily visualize Google Analytics metrics in a recurring automated report. The preset monthly report also includes the option for date range selection, giving leadership the flexibility to select a date range of their choosing for comparison.
The report focuses on general metrics such as pageview and time-on-site, as well as session source and medium and top content pages generating most pageviews. The report also shows the breakdown of visitors by device and technology and national and international audience geography.
View the full JACS Solutions Website Metrics Dashboard →
NOTE: This report was built using UA so that leadership could compare year-to-year while the newer GA4 account populated metrics. It will be migrated to GA4 standards in the coming months.