The User-Centric Approach – Google Universal Analytics vs. Mixpanel

About 6 months ago, Google released Universal Analytics, which – in a nutshell – offers 4 new key features: Measurement Protocol – an API that can be used for multi-platform tracking Improved Feature Configuration Management – through the GA admin screens, rather than the JavaScript agent Custom Dimensions and Metrics – very similar to the[…]

Linking events to a specific user in Google Universal Analytics

In this post I will show you how to send events for a specific user from both the JavaScript agent (Analytics.js) and the Measurement Protocol. I could not find any existing information about how to do so. After some research, I did, however, find a great presentation by @techpad that talks about improving e-commerce tracking[…]

Analyzing Visitor Paths Using Google Analytics

Are you able to answer the following questions precisely: What is the exact trail each and every visitor goes through on your site prior to completing a goal? How many visits, pageviews or minutes are required until the average visitor converts? A few months ago I published a post about Goal Analysis and Distance to[…]

Event Tracking vs. Virtual Pageviews

Straightforward page-tracking can be easily performed using Google Analytics, but what happens when we want to track more complex activities, such as watching a video, clicking on an external link, or switching between tabs on a single-page application?   Such activity tracking can be performed using one of the following two methods: Event Tracking: By[…]

Event Tracking vs. Virtual Pageviews

Choosing the Best Web Analytic Tools for your Web Analytics Suite

People often ask me what, in my opinion, is the best set of tools for a complete web analytic solution. Unfortunately, there are very few comprehensive solutions, and they are extremely expensive, such as Omniture or Unica, which provide almost all necessary tools in one package – for a “small” fee of just tens of[…]

Looking at Funnel Data Incorrectly…

“Over the past 7 days, 58% of users clicked X, 88% of those users checked in = don’t remove X!”   This is part of a tweet I recently read. I’m sure the guy who tweeted this knows what he is talking about. I, on the other hand, have no idea what X means. This[…]

Explore and Analyze Multi-Visit Funnels Using Google Analytics

Tracking funnels in Google Analytics – Part V   The last few posts discussed the issues of tracking a multi visit funnel where the order of events is important. I talked about solutions that exist on top of Google Analytics and described my solution for tracking, exploring and analyzing “real” funnels using Google Analytics, without[…]

Exploring Funnels

Tracking funnels in Google Analytics – Part IV   In my previous post, I described how I use Google Analytics for tracking multi-visit/session funnels when the order of the events/steps is significant. The solution is a small JavaScript code that stores the information about the navigation path in a custom variable. It does so in[…]

Tracking Chronological and Multi-Visit Funnels

Tracking funnels in Google Analytics – Part III   In my last two posts I described my research for finding the best way for tracking and presenting funnels in Google Analytics. I found that the current options provided by GA, and additional solutions such as John’s solution – which is excellent, do not address two[…]