Google Analytics is a platform that collects data from your website and apps to create reports that provide insights for your business. In the 17 years since its launch, the platform has become more and more popular with around 28.1 million websites (roughly 55.49% of all websites) using the programme, as of August 2022. The surge in popularity experienced by the platform is due to the many different features that it offers. These features range from traffic reporting and conversion tracking to proactive insights and Google product integration. Even after all these years, Google is continuing to update and improve the platform with newer and more developed versions, with its latest reincarnation, Google Analytics 4, being released 3 years ago in 2020.
GA4 collects more data, has more reporting capabilities, and is more customizable than its predecessors, allowing users to get even more detailed insights into their website’s performance. Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool that businesses and marketers can use to gain valuable insights into their website’s performance.
Whether you’re in a law firm or other professional services business, Google Analytics, when used correctly, can be extremely beneficial.
If you are unclear about why Google Analytics is a useful tool for your business the following points should shed some light on the subject.
Are My Marketing Campaigns Working?
When implementing marketing campaigns that promote your brand, product or service, it can be difficult to tell whether or not the campaign has been successful, other than by looking at the most obvious metrics – revenue, sales etc. Even though these metrics are important, they do not give answers as to why a campaign has or hasn’t been successful. Luckily, Google Analytics allows users to take a nuanced look at which areas of the campaign worked and which ones didn’t.
By collecting data on your website visitors, such as location and age, you can determine if your marketing campaign is targeting your desired audience. If it isn’t your target audience, then it might be worth adjusting your campaign to be more accurate. Furthermore, determining how people are getting to your website is also an extremely useful metric to measure. Digital marketing campaigns can be carried out through different mediums and platforms. If you implement an e-marketing campaign or social media campaign, you expect to see traffic arriving from these channels to your website. If this is not the case, then the campaigns have proven to be unsuccessful and will need to be adjusted accordingly.
A screenshot of GA4 showcasing the Acquisition section of the dashboard. Data being displayed shows how users accessed the website.
Website Performance
Another way in which Google Analytics can be invaluable to your business is the insight it provides regarding how the different areas of your website are performing. The data collected by GA which paints a picture of a website’s performance include; bounce rate, page views, session length, conversion rate and more.
Firstly, bounce rate refers to the number of people that leave your site after visiting one page. If you discover that there are pages on your site that have a high bounce rate, this could indicate that there is something wrong with the page itself. The issues could range from the page not being set out appropriately with an accessible layout, or there could be a technical fault with the page.
Another data metric which can be useful for assessing website performance would be the devices with which visitors are accessing your website. If they are accessing the site heavily via one type of device, it would be a good plan of action to make sure that your site is optimised to ensure a smooth experience via that device. It could also indicate that users are finding it difficult to access and navigate your site via certain devices, which should be immediately rectified.
A further feature that can highlight how well your site is performing, as well as an indication as to what content is performing well, would be the page views and session length metrics. If the content you’re posting manages to garner high page views and long session lengths, that’s strong evidence to suggest that the content is of high quality and your audience is open to engagement with it. This data allows you to streamline your marketing plan to include similar content that you know is going to continue to drive high engagement from your audience, increasing brand awareness and potentially revenue and profit.
A screenshot taken from Google Analytics depicting data based on average engagement time, engaged sessions per user and the most visited pages on the site. This is found in the engagement section of the platform.
GA in Practice
The benefits listed above are the reason why firms within multiple industries, including professional services, use Google Analytics in their digital strategies. One example of a situation where Google Analytics has been crucial in facilitating detailed analysis during a project that I was a part of, would have been the release of Byfield’s previous report that explored the things that were keeping law firm leaders awake at night in 2022. Google Analytics allowed us to determine how many individuals were downloading the report via our website, and if they had reached the website via the social media content that we were posting during this period. This allowed us to first determine how relevant and informative the report was to our audience, as well as what social media content did the best job of bringing people to the report. This then allowed us to mould our strategy to include more of this engaging content and bring more people to the report.
Conclusion
In addition to the points listed above, there are many more reasons why Google Analytics can be a hugely useful tool for any business, regardless of their size or the industry they are a part of. Essentially it comes down to having access to data from your digital channels which can be accessed and analysed efficiently allowing you to make the right decisions that allow your business to grow and develop.
If you’d like to gain a basic understanding of how Google Analytics works, and possibly work towards acquiring your google analytics certificates, follow the below link which will take you to their beginner courses.
https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/course/6
