Our expert Lisa explains how Google Analytics works and what can we learn from it

Hello Lisa! You’re an expert in online marketing at valantic. How did you come to valantic and what do you do in your role?

Through a personal contact, someone I knew from my previous job at a software manufacturer and who works at valantic. My first meeting with valantic took place in December 2020. I was excited about valantic as a company and the job itself right away.

My main topic at valantic is digital campaigns in the form of Google and LinkedIn ads. For example, I implement sales campaigns that introduce new valantic products. I am also working on a relatively large project to link two customer relationship management (CRM) tools.

That sounds exciting! What exactly is the Google Analytics tool and what benefits does it offer?

Google Analytics is a tool that is provided free of charge by Google in the basic version, which is why it is so widely used.

Theoretically, anyone who has a homepage could create a Google Analytics account and work with it. If there’s an account, the website owner can generate Javascript code. This code snippet that Google provides can be implemented on the company’s website. It allows the company to read out data about website visitors using Google Analytics. For example, it is possible to see how many users visited the website, but also how users got to the website. You can also see how many users are on the site, whether they are moving around the site or clicking on subpages.

For companies, this evaluation of visitors (web analytics) on their own website is very informative; they can learn from it to improve their web presence and offerings.

In which area(s) is valantic already using Google Analytics?

Once this code section that enables the tool to read data from the website is working, it can be implemented on all subpages. This is what we do, so that we can see visits to the entire valantic domain. Google Analytics provides us with a great deal of information.

What data can be collected during web analysis?

First of all, we can see a lot of standard reports. For example, there is a report called “real time.” As the name already explains, it allows you to see in real time how many people are on the site and where they come from. In addition, it’s possible to read out how visitors behave on the website, where they click, how long they stay on a page, and where they come from. However, the data about the users is not personal; it’s only figures.

How can I imagine such data for a user?

The person initially appears only as a numerical value, but you can also display general, impersonal demographic values: Where the person comes from, from which country, state, or city. It is also possible to see which device the user has, and, in some cases, the user’s age segment can also be determined. However, the data is always displayed in clusters.

How about the challenges of Google Analytics?

A major challenge at Google Analytics is the topic of data protection. Google Analytics is an American product and data protection is regulated differently in the USA than in Germany. In Germany, the individual user can decide which data may and may not be evaluated. This regulation applies to all German website operators. From the user’s perspective, this is the banner that appears at the beginning when a website is visited. For example, if you click “Reject All” here, this user may not be tracked via Google Analytics.

Back to the benefits. How do we use Google Analytics to optimize our website?

Among other things, we use conversion tracking. For example, someone is looking for a new job. Our goal is to bring this talent to our website and motivate people to apply. If an application process is completed on our website, this would be a conversion that could be evaluated using Google Analytics.
If we observe in real-time analysis that many users leave our website after a few seconds, we can assume that the page may not be interesting enough or it’s not user-friendly. The analysis is then a good basis for improvement.

Are there other tools that work with Google Analytics?

Yes, Google Analytics now has an entire portfolio of products. In addition to Google Analytics for evaluation, there are also Google Ads for the ads and the Google Search console. These products can be linked to generate a more accurate evaluation.

The Google Search console evaluates which search queries in Google were used to generate the page visitors. This tool is very useful for optimization and ad delivery.

Is there a trend in Google Ads right now?

One trend is that Google is increasingly automated. Classically, as a company, you place ads on specific search terms. However, in the meantime, Google is using artificial intelligence to assist advertisers. In this case, Google specifies the company’s own domain valantic.com, and the algorithm decides with which search query an ad appears.

In general, the entire Google landscape is changing constantly. Old functions are always being replaced by new features.

Thank you for your insight into this complex topic, Lisa! Do you have any final advice when it comes to Google Analytics?

From the user’s point of view, it is always important to handle your data carefully on the Internet and to think carefully about whether you agree to complete tracking or whether you place restrictions on it.
From a company perspective, it is exciting to see which visitors are on our site, how they behave and to what extent they find the right content. This data is an important basis for improving one’s own digital offerings. The key question should always be: Do we have the right content on the page that offers added value to the users seeking it, and is our page content sufficiently searchable?

Web analytics is a continuously evolving topic that is never finished. Thanks to constant changes and improvements to Google tools, it always remains exciting.

Thank you for this informative insight into the world of web analytics.