Demystifying Google Analytics: Recap
Article posted February 5, 2009 in Speaking Engagements
I want to thank CHLA and CABBI for inviting me to their Annual Session in Monterey and letting me evangelize on Google Analytics. I am touched by the awesome attendee feedback I have received from attendees. Please keep your emails and questions coming!
For those of you who could not attend, I’d like to share the top 3 questions from my after-session Q&A.
Q: What’s more accurate: Google Analytics reports or server logs?
A: Server log files give you more data than Analytics, so you will always see a higher number of pageviews, visits, and unique visitors compared with JavaScript-based program such as Google Analytics. However, this information is not actionable because it’s not organized. Google Analytics rounds up the information a lot better than server logs, and presents it in a way that can inform real-time decisions.
Q: Can Google Analytics track multilingual PPC campaigns?
A: Google analytics synchronizes very well with AdWords. So far, it has given our international clients some pretty accurate data on all their multilingual campaigns.
Q: My boss is a HiPPO. He wants to add useless intro page and flash with his own mediocre photography… how do I deal with it?
A: The HiPPO (aka, highest paid person’s opinion) was described as “the egomaniacal decision-maker that rules the web” by me earlier in the presentation. It was great that someone could share their pain over not being allowed to do the right thing on the web. Google Analytics can be used as a weapon to tackle the unruly HiPPO: you can use it to present objective data, but even then the odds are always in his favor.
Question 3 was asked to me in private… I think the HiPPO was roaming somewhere in the audience there.
It was great to be in Monterey. I hope my attendees go out and become Analytics Revolutionaries!
