Google Analytics is probably the most recognizable self-service business intelligence (BI) platform on the market.
It's free to use and highly popular with companies looking to use both BI and data visualization features.
In fact, it's so popular that other BI apps, including our Editors' Choice winners Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Desktop, offer connections to the platform.
In an age where companies survive off of click-throughs and other metrics, Google Analytics has become something of a household name in the BI space.
Still, you'll want to think ahead before simply deploying Google Analytics in your organization.
While Econsultancy.com's research found that over 70 percent of companies now use Google Analytics systems to report online performance, they also noted that "frequently, once the tool is in place, there seems to be a 'what next' moment."
That lost feeling isn't surprising considering Google doesn't offer nearly the same level of customer support as most of the smaller players I reviewed.
Deploying Google Analytics leaves training mostly in your hands, which is justifable considering it's a freemium tool.
But, while there are plenty of tutorials available on websites such as LinkedIn or YouTube, you should keep training in mind during deployment and preview these before relying on them for your employees.
Next to its support issues, Google Analytics also doesn't ingest as many data sources as do our Editors' Choice winners IBM Watson Analytics (360.00 Per User Per Year for the Plus Edition at Software Advice) , Microsoft Power BI, and Tableau Desktop.
However, that shortfall can be remedied by stepping up to Google Analytics 360 and Google BigQuery, which is Google's Big Data storage and querying tool.
However, both of these have a slightly different concentration than freemium Google Analytics, which is laser-focused on mobile and web analytics.
Multiple Versions
The aforementioned Google Analytics 360 is the enterprise version of Google Analytics, but I didn't test that version as part of this review.
I didn't test it primarily because the main difference between freemium and premium at the time of this writing is the amount of data you can access.
Google Analytics allows a maximum of 50,000 rows of exported data and 10 million "hits" per month.
Hits are defined as pageviews, events, e-commerce transactions, and social actions on a website or mobile app.
Meanwhile, Google Analytics 360 allows up to 3,000,000 rows of exported data and over 500 million "hits" per month.
Data refreshes differ, too: For Google Analytics, the data can be refreshed every 24 hours or longer whereas the Premium version allows for more frequent refreshes at four hours or less.
Most companies will find the freemium version suffices.
However, if you're looking to scale to enormous data volumes, then the enterprise price tag may be worth it.
But know it's a pricey option, rumored to start at the same price as its predecessor, Google Analytics Premium, which is about $150,000 per year according to a Quora discussion.
Rumor is all we have at this point as Google hasn't published official pricing for Analytics 360 yet (since it's still in beta).
Based on the response I received from Google's press team when I asked for enterprise pricing, if you want a true price, then you'll have to contact Google for a quote.
Getting back to my review of Google Analytics freemium, let's elaborate on Google's Big Data lineup.
There's Google Analytics, the wildly popular and free tool.
Then there's Google Analytics 360 (formerly known as Google Analytics Premium) for enterprise use, which is sometimes bundled into a suite along with one or more of these: Attribution 360, Audience Center 360, Data Studio 360, Optimize 360, and Tag Manager 360.
Then, there's the rest of the Google Big Data universe: Google BigQuery, Google Cloud Storage, and Cloud SQL, which are part of the Google Cloud Platform (Visit Site at Google Cloud) .
The last three are good choices if you're looking to ingest and work with seriously big data sets, but they are not part of this review.
Again, since the focus of this roundup is the business analyst and not advanced data scientist types, this review is limited to Google Analytics, the freemium version.
Overall, it's a superior return-on-investment (ROI) measurement tool for determining who your audience is for a website or mobile app, what path they took to arrive at your website, their behavior while they were on your website or using your app, and whether they bought something or abandoned the shopping cart.
This is highly useful information for e-commerce and content marketers alike, as it helps fine-tune and refine efforts to reap higher web traffic numbers and revenue.
Because of this laser-like focus, Google Analytics is often categorized as both a BI app and as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) software.
Getting Started
The Google Analytics sign-up process is relatively easy.
First, go online and sign up for Google Analytics, and then get a tracking code to paste on your website or mobile app pages.
Shortly thereafter (usually a few hours), relevant data becomes available.
When you sign up for the service, you'll be asked about data sharing—which, in this instance, means sharing your data with Google, not your coworkers—and those actions are selected by default.
Carefully read and consider them before proceeding.
Note that opting out doesn't necessarily opt you out of sharing any of your data.
Google clearly states: "If you disable this option, data can still flow to other Google products explicitly linked to Analytics."
You'll also be presented with a Terms of Service agreement as part of the sign-up process; read it carefully.
The primary thing to watch out for is the limit of 10 million hits per month, per account as any overages result in penalties that amount to you losing access to future data and current reports.
Google is deadly serious about policing data limits and clearly states: "There is no assurance that excess hits will be processed." Further, Google warns: "If the property's hit volume exceeds this limit, a warning may be displayed in the user interface and you may be prevented from accessing reports."
The Discovery Process
Once you've signed up, the system will give you a Tracking ID code to add to the webpage or mobile page you want to analyze.
If you're using a third-party web hosting provider such as GoDaddy, Wix, or WordPress, then you'll have to ask for instructions on how to set up Google Analytics on your website there.
Google Analytics will also present you with additional session settings as well as a Universal Analytics tracking code that you can elect to implement as Dynamic Content or PHP, but both are optional.
You'll also be offered the free Google Tag Manager tool.
Use it if you're using multiple analytics or ad performance tools that need site tags as Tag Manager will allow you to quickly update tags and code snippets on different web sites or mobile apps.
But be forewarned: Tags are a drag on marketing campaign speed.
To be safe, install the Google Tag Assistant Recordings tool to instantly check to see if Google Analytics is working correctly on your website.
You can also link to a Search console to analyze search traffic to your website or mobile app and filter out activity within your organization so that information doesn't warp your analysis.
An important note, however, is that this review is of the user interface (UI) as of this writing.
Google says that Google Analytics will soon publish a UI update so things will likely change, presumably for the better.
Google remains mum on any details so we'll need to wait for the update to see.
As it is, customization of dashboards, reports, shortcuts, and alerts are a matter of simple clicks on the UI as are specific reports ranging from real-time reads to audience, acquisition, behavior and conversion numbers, and trends.
Drill-downs are found in menu pulldowns.
These can all be used by simple clicks to discover insights once you have everything set up and the data starts coming in.
Data Visualization
There are a lot of visualization options.
First on the list is the free version of Google Data Studio (currently in beta), which is limited to creating five reports per account.
If you want to make more reports than that, then you'll need to pay for Data Studio 360.
Both versions support connecting to numerous data sources, and offer unlimited report viewing, editing, and sharing (collaboration).
However, what Google currently means by "data sources" is connectors for Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Sheets, and some other Google services.
Data Studio adds a connector for BigQuery and promises to "soon have connectors to SQL databases that will let you access first party data." But, as far as data sources go at the moment, think Google sources, websites, and mobile apps.
Another option is to use Google Analytics in Microsoft Power BI (Visit Site at Microsoft Power BI) or another Google Analytics-friendly BI app to add more data sources and build more sophisticated visualizations.
As I mentioned in the Microsoft Power BI review, Microsoft is tough to beat in visualizations, plus it's easy to use and oh so open source-friendly these days.
In short, Google Analytics is all about analyzing websites and mobile apps that can be tagged and loaded with an assigned tracking code.
If that's what you're looking to do, then Google Analytics is the superior tool.
But, for now at least, if you're looking to do more, then you'll need to either step up to more advanced Google tools or move to a different BI app brand altogether.
Cons
Customer support has way too much automation.
Focus on marketing and advertising can be frustrating to users.
Relies mostly on third parties for training.
The Bottom Line
Due to its brand recognition and the fact that it's free, Google Analytics is the biggest name in website and mobile app intelligence.
It has a steep learning curve but it is an awesome business intelligence tool.
Google Analytics is probably the most recognizable self-service business intelligence (BI) platform on the market.
It's free to use and highly popular with companies looking to use both BI and data visualization features.
In fact, it's so popular that other BI apps, including our Editors' Choice winners Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Desktop, offer connections to the platform.
In an age where companies survive off of click-throughs and other metrics, Google Analytics has become something of a household name in the BI space.
Still, you'll want to think ahead before simply deploying Google Analytics in your organization.
While Econsultancy.com's research found that over 70 percent of companies now use Google Analytics systems to report online performance, they also noted that "frequently, once the tool is in place, there seems to be a 'what next' moment."
That lost feeling isn't surprising considering Google doesn't offer nearly the same level of customer support as most of the smaller players I reviewed.
Deploying Google Analytics leaves training mostly in your hands, which is justifable considering it's a freemium tool.
But, while there are plenty of tutorials available on websites such as LinkedIn or YouTube, you should keep training in mind during deployment and preview these before relying on them for your employees.
Next to its support issues, Google Analytics also doesn't ingest as many data sources as do our Editors' Choice winners IBM Watson Analytics (360.00 Per User Per Year for the Plus Edition at Software Advice) , Microsoft Power BI, and Tableau Desktop.
However, that shortfall can be remedied by stepping up to Google Analytics 360 and Google BigQuery, which is Google's Big Data storage and querying tool.
However, both of these have a slightly different concentration than freemium Google Analytics, which is laser-focused on mobile and web analytics.
Multiple Versions
The aforementioned Google Analytics 360 is the enterprise version of Google Analytics, but I didn't test that version as part of this review.
I didn't test it primarily because the main difference between freemium and premium at the time of this writing is the amount of data you can access.
Google Analytics allows a maximum of 50,000 rows of exported data and 10 million "hits" per month.
Hits are defined as pageviews, events, e-commerce transactions, and social actions on a website or mobile app.
Meanwhile, Google Analytics 360 allows up to 3,000,000 rows of exported data and over 500 million "hits" per month.
Data refreshes differ, too: For Google Analytics, the data can be refreshed every 24 hours or longer whereas the Premium version allows for more frequent refreshes at four hours or less.
Most companies will find the freemium version suffices.
However, if you're looking to scale to enormous data volumes, then the enterprise price tag may be worth it.
But know it's a pricey option, rumored to start at the same price as its predecessor, Google Analytics Premium, which is about $150,000 per year according to a Quora discussion.
Rumor is all we have at this point as Google hasn't published official pricing for Analytics 360 yet (since it's still in beta).
Based on the response I received from Google's press team when I asked for enterprise pricing, if you want a true price, then you'll have to contact Google for a quote.
Getting back to my review of Google Analytics freemium, let's elaborate on Google's Big Data lineup.
There's Google Analytics, the wildly popular and free tool.
Then there's Google Analytics 360 (formerly known as Google Analytics Premium) for enterprise use, which is sometimes bundled into a suite along with one or more of these: Attribution 360, Audience Center 360, Data Studio 360, Optimize 360, and Tag Manager 360.
Then, there's the rest of the Google Big Data universe: Google BigQuery, Google Cloud Storage, and Cloud SQL, which are part of the Google Cloud Platform (Visit Site at Google Cloud) .
The last three are good choices if you're looking to ingest and work with seriously big data sets, but they are not part of this review.
Again, since the focus of this roundup is the business analyst and not advanced data scientist types, this review is limited to Google Analytics, the freemium version.
Overall, it's a superior return-on-investment (ROI) measurement tool for determining who your audience is for a website or mobile app, what path they took to arrive at your website, their behavior while they were on your website or using your app, and whether they bought something or abandoned the shopping cart.
This is highly useful information for e-commerce and content marketers alike, as it helps fine-tune and refine efforts to reap higher web traffic numbers and revenue.
Because of this laser-like focus, Google Analytics is often categorized as both a BI app and as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) software.
Getting Started
The Google Analytics sign-up process is relatively easy.
First, go online and sign up for Google Analytics, and then get a tracking code to paste on your website or mobile app pages.
Shortly thereafter (usually a few hours), relevant data becomes available.
When you sign up for the service, you'll be asked about data sharing—which, in this instance, means sharing your data with Google, not your coworkers—and those actions are selected by default.
Carefully read and consider them before proceeding.
Note that opting out doesn't necessarily opt you out of sharing any of your data.
Google clearly states: "If you disable this option, data can still flow to other Google products explicitly linked to Analytics."
You'll also be presented with a Terms of Service agreement as part of the sign-up process; read it carefully.
The primary thing to watch out for is the limit of 10 million hits per month, per account as any overages result in penalties that amount to you losing access to future data and current reports.
Google is deadly serious about policing data limits and clearly states: "There is no assurance that excess hits will be processed." Further, Google warns: "If the property's hit volume exceeds this limit, a warning may be displayed in the user interface and you may be prevented from accessing reports."
The Discovery Process
Once you've signed up, the system will give you a Tracking ID code to add to the webpage or mobile page you want to analyze.
If you're using a third-party web hosting provider such as GoDaddy, Wix, or WordPress, then you'll have to ask for instructions on how to set up Google Analytics on your website there.
Google Analytics will also present you with additional session settings as well as a Universal Analytics tracking code that you can elect to implement as Dynamic Content or PHP, but both are optional.
You'll also be offered the free Google Tag Manager tool.
Use it if you're using multiple analytics or ad performance tools that need site tags as Tag Manager will allow you to quickly update tags and code snippets on different web sites or mobile apps.
But be forewarned: Tags are a drag on marketing campaign speed.
To be safe, install the Google Tag Assistant Recordings tool to instantly check to see if Google Analytics is working correctly on your website.
You can also link to a Search console to analyze search traffic to your website or mobile app and filter out activity within your organization so that information doesn't warp your analysis.
An important note, however, is that this review is of the user interface (UI) as of this writing.
Google says that Google Analytics will soon publish a UI update so things will likely change, presumably for the better.
Google remains mum on any details so we'll need to wait for the update to see.
As it is, customization of dashboards, reports, shortcuts, and alerts are a matter of simple clicks on the UI as are specific reports ranging from real-time reads to audience, acquisition, behavior and conversion numbers, and trends.
Drill-downs are found in menu pulldowns.
These can all be used by simple clicks to discover insights once you have everything set up and the data starts coming in.
Data Visualization
There are a lot of visualization options.
First on the list is the free version of Google Data Studio (currently in beta), which is limited to creating five reports per account.
If you want to make more reports than that, then you'll need to pay for Data Studio 360.
Both versions support connecting to numerous data sources, and offer unlimited report viewing, editing, and sharing (collaboration).
However, what Google currently means by "data sources" is connectors for Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Sheets, and some other Google services.
Data Studio adds a connector for BigQuery and promises to "soon have connectors to SQL databases that will let you access first party data." But, as far as data sources go at the moment, think Google sources, websites, and mobile apps.
Another option is to use Google Analytics in Microsoft Power BI (Visit Site at Microsoft Power BI) or another Google Analytics-friendly BI app to add more data sources and build more sophisticated visualizations.
As I mentioned in the Microsoft Power BI review, Microsoft is tough to beat in visualizations, plus it's easy to use and oh so open source-friendly these days.
In short, Google Analytics is all about analyzing websites and mobile apps that can be tagged and loaded with an assigned tracking code.
If that's what you're looking to do, then Google Analytics is the superior tool.
But, for now at least, if you're looking to do more, then you'll need to either step up to more advanced Google tools or move to a different BI app brand altogether.
Cons
Customer support has way too much automation.
Focus on marketing and advertising can be frustrating to users.
Relies mostly on third parties for training.
The Bottom Line
Due to its brand recognition and the fact that it's free, Google Analytics is the biggest name in website and mobile app intelligence.
It has a steep learning curve but it is an awesome business intelligence tool.
