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I am a data analyst with 10+ years of experience. I have setup uncountable GA1 - GA3 implementations, eTracker, Matomo, Adobe Analytics from s_code to Appmeasur

I am a data analyst with 10+ years of experience. I have setup uncountable GA1 - GA3 implementations, eTracker, Matomo, Adobe Analytics from s_code to Appmeasurement and via Adobe Launch, Snowplow and quite a few others. I also have setup three implementations of Firebase and GA4. I can't for the love of god use this tool. It is in my eyes nothing but a mechanism for upselling GCE (esp. Big Query). Answering basic management and marketing questions about marketing goals (or other conversion goals reached) is a PITA. Building basic dashboards with Google Data Studio also. Taken together with the EU data privacy regulators regarding GA I nowadays just recommend clients to just ignore GA. Even if the USP is "but I can see my advertising numbers in there as well". Do they want to push people away from using their product?

tootie 5y ago
What's a plausible alternative though? Plausible?
- sdoering 5y ago
  A plausible alternative depends on your use case. If you just want basic numbers (visitors, visits, page views, few interactions tracked) one can probably chose any of the myriad of alternatives like fathom, Plausible, Matomo, and so on. While with most of them you get what I would call "vanity metrics" (so not really actionable, more or less just "numbers go up or down") at least Matomo (self hosted) provides the ability to create essentially the experience of a free GA3 implementation. If you "just" had a code drop of basic GA3 code: just use whatever floats your boat. If you have custom dimensions, user interactions tracked as events, goals and stuff like that in the free GA3 version - go with Matomo (self hosted). Configure Matomo to have more than 5 custom dimensions (easy to do) and you can replicate (nearly) everything from your GA3 implementation. Only things you will be missing in any case is integration with Search Console and Google Ads.
  - Crazyontap 5y ago
    > While with most of them you get what I would call "vanity metrics" (so not really actionable, more or less just "numbers go up or down") This comment couldn't have come at a better time for me. I was just trying to compare the free analytics available and plausible looked okay to me. But since I haven't done anything actionable yet I think I'll research a little more. > so not really actionable What would you define as actionable metrics? Are you talking about the custom page triggers like scroll depth, click on obl, etc? Can you recommend what are the biggest actionable events for a saas site since you have experience with it? My source of knowledge on this is sadly a few youtube tutorials but if there is any resource you would recommend I'd highly appreciate the link.
    - sdoering 5y ago
      Actionable depends on your needs. As always the typical answer you receive from an analyst is: It depends. Sorry, couldn't resist the in joke of the team I am part of. But let me try an example. Visits as a global metric don't tell you much. They go up, they go down. And even if you do different marketing things (like SEA, newsletters, social media marketing, organic social and so on) and only look at visits from NY of these channels that doesn't tell you much (except for the volume). But if you look at what a visit from every one of these channels costs you on average we are getting somewhere. Add into the mix the conversion rate for every one of these channels (depending on your goals it could be e-commerce conversions, newsletter sign-ups, sign-ups for a platform and so on). Now you can already see cost per acquisition/visit and cost per conversion. So now you can answer the question about what marketing efforts bring more bang for the buck. That is one example of how I define actionable metrics. Metrics that help you/enable you to make better business decisions. How I would structure and report things depends on the business. But maybe this gives you an idea already.
      - Crazyontap 5y ago
        Wow that's such an insightful comment. Never really thought about that. Puts my whole thinking about website analytics in a new light. Really appreciate you taking the time to write this. After some initial research I see not using UTM tracking tags(1) in all my URLs (or redirects) is a big mistake. So duly noted. You're right about one thing though that since there is no direct integration with Adwords / GWM you're losing out on a lot of info using anything else other than GA. (1) https://plausible.io/blog/utm-tracking-tags https://plausible.io/blog/utm-tracking-tags
  - mekster 5y ago
    > alternatives like fathom, Plausible, Matomo I don't know why people classify fathom and Plausible in the same category as Google Analytics. There's a clear distinction between an analytics software and a counter. Matomo has some features but I can never like it's cluttered interfaces that don't lead to immediate actionable intels. PostHog is another alternative.
    - sdoering 5y ago
      There is a continuum of alternatives from tool like fathom, plausible on the more 'vanity metrics' side, GA4, Matomo and others somewhere around the middle and the fully custom corporate actionable solutions like the offerings from Adobe (and others) or custom built solutions. It depends on what the people needs or want. A smallish blog has different needs that a global company with multiple brands in different markets doing e-commerce, brand advertising and what not (think VW or BMW). And a medium sized B2B e-commerce shop has again differing needs.
celestialcheese 5y ago
What's your thoughts on Snowplow?
- sdoering 5y ago
  Sorry for the late reply. Evening with my SO and sleep. :-) Personally I like Snowplow. But I am a tech loving nerd. If you have the capacity to build and maintain the tracker, servers and (for reporting/visualizing) necessary ETL infrastructure you can build the perfect fit in terms of what data to collect in what way and how to use it for your org). The cost for building and maintaining it (with redundancy, stability and everything else) on the other hand probably would be in the same ballpark as solutions like parts of the Adobe Experience Cloud. Especially the new 'Customer Journey Analytics' offering is very intriguing. Having watched the summit I was a little bit blown away by the new capabilities for reporting they just announced. I have to admit that I actually like working with Adobe Analytics (and CJA) and the development of the solution over the last few years has been great to watch). Still it has its problems. For example using Audience Manager creates a tracking call with an unique identifier being sent to their data center in Virginia. Even if all your data resides in the European data centers this is happening. This currently is a problem for clients of mine as the explicitly choose Adobe over Google because sales told them their users' data would not leave Europe under normal circumstances. But back to Snowplow. You need some Form of visualizing and reporting infrastructure on top. So something like Apache Superset. Works well. But another thing to build, maintain and develop further. I like both. And I like to be able to fully own the data pipeline. Especially in cases where you are in a regulated industry or have potentially sensitive data. I know of at least on bank using Snowplow to not only track the website and online banking, but ATM usage, call center calls and visits to your personal consultant/teller. They build a real time dashboard from that data so that when you visit your bank the employee there can see in real time your last touch points and interactions. Also they build product recommendations on top of that data that in the cases known to me actually are beneficial to the customer. Like telling you when your behavior with getting money from ATMs of different banks could warrant an add on so that you would save on fees. Because they value the customer happiness as a way to generate less churn and additional WOM marketing (word of mouth). So it totally depends on your needs and the business in my book.

tootie 5y ago

What's a plausible alternative though? Plausible?

sdoering 5y ago
A plausible alternative depends on your use case. If you just want basic numbers (visitors, visits, page views, few interactions tracked) one can probably chose any of the myriad of alternatives like fathom, Plausible, Matomo, and so on. While with most of them you get what I would call "vanity metrics" (so not really actionable, more or less just "numbers go up or down") at least Matomo (self hosted) provides the ability to create essentially the experience of a free GA3 implementation. If you "just" had a code drop of basic GA3 code: just use whatever floats your boat. If you have custom dimensions, user interactions tracked as events, goals and stuff like that in the free GA3 version - go with Matomo (self hosted). Configure Matomo to have more than 5 custom dimensions (easy to do) and you can replicate (nearly) everything from your GA3 implementation. Only things you will be missing in any case is integration with Search Console and Google Ads.
- Crazyontap 5y ago
  > While with most of them you get what I would call "vanity metrics" (so not really actionable, more or less just "numbers go up or down") This comment couldn't have come at a better time for me. I was just trying to compare the free analytics available and plausible looked okay to me. But since I haven't done anything actionable yet I think I'll research a little more. > so not really actionable What would you define as actionable metrics? Are you talking about the custom page triggers like scroll depth, click on obl, etc? Can you recommend what are the biggest actionable events for a saas site since you have experience with it? My source of knowledge on this is sadly a few youtube tutorials but if there is any resource you would recommend I'd highly appreciate the link.
  - sdoering 5y ago
    Actionable depends on your needs. As always the typical answer you receive from an analyst is: It depends. Sorry, couldn't resist the in joke of the team I am part of. But let me try an example. Visits as a global metric don't tell you much. They go up, they go down. And even if you do different marketing things (like SEA, newsletters, social media marketing, organic social and so on) and only look at visits from NY of these channels that doesn't tell you much (except for the volume). But if you look at what a visit from every one of these channels costs you on average we are getting somewhere. Add into the mix the conversion rate for every one of these channels (depending on your goals it could be e-commerce conversions, newsletter sign-ups, sign-ups for a platform and so on). Now you can already see cost per acquisition/visit and cost per conversion. So now you can answer the question about what marketing efforts bring more bang for the buck. That is one example of how I define actionable metrics. Metrics that help you/enable you to make better business decisions. How I would structure and report things depends on the business. But maybe this gives you an idea already.
    - Crazyontap 5y ago
      Wow that's such an insightful comment. Never really thought about that. Puts my whole thinking about website analytics in a new light. Really appreciate you taking the time to write this. After some initial research I see not using UTM tracking tags(1) in all my URLs (or redirects) is a big mistake. So duly noted. You're right about one thing though that since there is no direct integration with Adwords / GWM you're losing out on a lot of info using anything else other than GA. (1) https://plausible.io/blog/utm-tracking-tags https://plausible.io/blog/utm-tracking-tags
- mekster 5y ago
  > alternatives like fathom, Plausible, Matomo I don't know why people classify fathom and Plausible in the same category as Google Analytics. There's a clear distinction between an analytics software and a counter. Matomo has some features but I can never like it's cluttered interfaces that don't lead to immediate actionable intels. PostHog is another alternative.
  - sdoering 5y ago
    There is a continuum of alternatives from tool like fathom, plausible on the more 'vanity metrics' side, GA4, Matomo and others somewhere around the middle and the fully custom corporate actionable solutions like the offerings from Adobe (and others) or custom built solutions. It depends on what the people needs or want. A smallish blog has different needs that a global company with multiple brands in different markets doing e-commerce, brand advertising and what not (think VW or BMW). And a medium sized B2B e-commerce shop has again differing needs.

celestialcheese 5y ago

What's your thoughts on Snowplow?

sdoering 5y ago
Sorry for the late reply. Evening with my SO and sleep. :-) Personally I like Snowplow. But I am a tech loving nerd. If you have the capacity to build and maintain the tracker, servers and (for reporting/visualizing) necessary ETL infrastructure you can build the perfect fit in terms of what data to collect in what way and how to use it for your org). The cost for building and maintaining it (with redundancy, stability and everything else) on the other hand probably would be in the same ballpark as solutions like parts of the Adobe Experience Cloud. Especially the new 'Customer Journey Analytics' offering is very intriguing. Having watched the summit I was a little bit blown away by the new capabilities for reporting they just announced. I have to admit that I actually like working with Adobe Analytics (and CJA) and the development of the solution over the last few years has been great to watch). Still it has its problems. For example using Audience Manager creates a tracking call with an unique identifier being sent to their data center in Virginia. Even if all your data resides in the European data centers this is happening. This currently is a problem for clients of mine as the explicitly choose Adobe over Google because sales told them their users' data would not leave Europe under normal circumstances. But back to Snowplow. You need some Form of visualizing and reporting infrastructure on top. So something like Apache Superset. Works well. But another thing to build, maintain and develop further. I like both. And I like to be able to fully own the data pipeline. Especially in cases where you are in a regulated industry or have potentially sensitive data. I know of at least on bank using Snowplow to not only track the website and online banking, but ATM usage, call center calls and visits to your personal consultant/teller. They build a real time dashboard from that data so that when you visit your bank the employee there can see in real time your last touch points and interactions. Also they build product recommendations on top of that data that in the cases known to me actually are beneficial to the customer. Like telling you when your behavior with getting money from ATMs of different banks could warrant an add on so that you would save on fees. Because they value the customer happiness as a way to generate less churn and additional WOM marketing (word of mouth). So it totally depends on your needs and the business in my book.