Google Analytics Breakthrough

3 Measurement Strategy

The future belongs to those who can collect, aggregate, segment, integrate, visualize, and interpret data.”

This core message was delivered by Web luminary Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, during a Google Analytics (GA) partner summit at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California.

In the first two chapters of the book, we discussed some of the principles of analytics and optimization, and we reviewed the range of reporting that GA provides. In this chapter, we take a step back and consider the measurement strategy needed for a GA implementation and reporting practice that will help us secure our places in the future that Vint Cerf evoked in his keynote several years ago and that is rapidly emerging as today’s data-driven reality.

Objective: Business Impact

The overall objective of a measurement strategy is business impact. By defining a sound measurement strategy from the ground up, and by following through on your implementation, measurement, and optimization tasks, you can:

• Better understand your customers.
• Improve your website and mobile app performance.
• Maximize ROI from your marketing initiatives.
• Gain insight and generate recommendations for business improvement.
• Begin to move analytics from a one-off, afterthought project to an established measurement practice.
• Foster a mind-set of ongoing optimization.

The last two points are perhaps the most critical and elusive. While the analytics and optimization concepts are quite ...