As you likely will have heard by now, Google's old Universal Analytics will finally stop processing data on July 1 2023, with the newer Google Analytics 4 (GA4) taking up the mantle.
And although most businesses use Google Analytics, most businesses don’t have a dedicated analytics specialist. (More often than not, Google Analytics is the reluctant responsibility of a business owner, or a Marketing Manager, who has countless other things to do.)
So this week, we wanted to share some smart ways you can use Geckoboard’s GA4 integration to get more from Google Analytics – with minimal effort required
Tip #1: Filter by country
By default, GA4 presents you with data on all users, globally. But this is a real pain if you operate locally, nationally, or need to track several key markets.
It means you're constantly double checking whether or not your user metrics are meaningful. Have they been inflated by irrelevant traffic from other locations? Or have you missed an important change to local traffic because it was drowned out by the global noise?
Use Geckoboard’s “filter” and “split by” view to keep track of the markets you care about.
Tip #2: Track Engagement Rate
Engaged Sessions and Engagement Rate are new metrics introduced by GA4. They record sessions which
- last longer than 10 seconds
- or have a conversion event
- or have at least 2 page views / screen views.
Now you might be thinking – big deal, 10 seconds isn’t a very ambitious benchmark.
But, consider the inverse – a session that lasted less than 10 seconds? That’s essentially a failed session. And worse, if you invest in advertising, it’s a failed session you paid for.
Use Geckoboard to visualize Engagement Rate, then filter by the campaigns you care about. A low Engagement Rate could indicate any number of things – spam traffic; a poor page experience (such as a long load time) or a mismatched user journey. Either way, you’re going to want to know quickly, so you can fix the funnel and save money.
Tip #3: Content leaderboards
If your team produces a lot of content – consider including a content leaderboard on your dashboard. This is a great way of keeping your team in the loop on which articles and blog posts are performing well this week or this month.
Plus it’s a great way to motivate writers by putting their achievements on display, for all to see.
Use Geckoboard’s leaderboard visualization to display ‘views’ using the “Page title” label. You can also create this leaderboard by selecting one of our pre-built widgets – ‘Views by page title’.
Video: How to build a GA4 dashboard
New to Geckoboard or GA4? Or just need a refresher?
Watch this step by step guide on how to build a dashboard in Geckoboard, using data from Google Analytics 4.
