Performance Marketing with Google™ Analytics: Practical Strategies for Maximizing Online ROI

Foreword

There are many wonderful books on Web analytics. So why should you buy this one? One simple reason: It tries, really hard, to teach you how to think.

We live in a world where data is plentiful and often free. The key to real and magnificent success is not the ability to purchase a tool (Web analytics or otherwise) but rather the ability to ensure a clean implementation and bring to it a mental model that will rock this world. This book is focused, page after detailed page, on doing just that.

Among them, Justin, Sebastian, and Caleb have a thousand years of experience with Google Analytics (okay, so maybe that is a minor exaggeration, but they do have more experience than you or I will ever have!). You'll feel that experience whispering sweet wisdom to you as you read the thoroughness of the implementation instructions in Part II to ensure you get off to a flying start or the amazing ways in which you can extend Google Analytics explained in Part V. It will be a rare experience that you'll have a question that is not answered in this book.

At the end of the day, your success will come not from the tool. Instead, it will come from doing something with the data. Taking action. Taking calculated risks. Measuring success. The concepts you'll learn in Parts III and IV are really geared toward that. Helping you figure out how to best analyze data that you get from search engines or from e-mail campaigns you are running or even trade show booths you might have or — if you indulge ...