Google Analytics

monitoring platformweb analyticstraffic analysisuser behavior analysisconversion trackingmarketing analytics

Monitoring Platform

Google Analytics

Overview

Google Analytics is a website and app traffic analysis platform providing user behavior, conversion tracking, and marketing effectiveness measurement as the industry-standard analytics tool. As the de facto standard for web analytics, the GA4 transition provides privacy-focused measurement and more advanced analytics capabilities, maintaining overwhelming market share due to comprehensive free version features.

Details

Google Analytics serves as the de facto standard in web analytics, particularly with GA4 (Google Analytics 4) adopting machine learning-driven predictive analytics and a privacy-first approach.

Key Features

Traffic Analysis: Basic metrics including page views, sessions, and user counts
User Behavior Tracking: User journey and behavior flow analysis
Conversion Tracking: Goal setting and conversion path analysis
E-commerce Tracking: Revenue and product performance analysis for online stores
Custom Reports: Flexible report creation and dashboards
Real-time Analysis: Live user activity monitoring
Audience Analysis: User segmentation and behavior patterns
Attribution Analysis: Multi-channel attribution modeling

GA4 New Features

Event-based Measurement: Shift from page view-centric to event-centric tracking
Enhanced Privacy: Reduced cookie dependency and server-side measurement
Machine Learning: Predictive metrics and anomaly detection
Cross-platform: Unified web and app analytics
BigQuery Integration: Raw data export and advanced analysis

Pros and Cons

Pros

Completely free with powerful analytics features
Industry standard with abundant support resources
Full integration with Google Ads
Real-time analysis and reporting
Rich integration options and APIs
Intuitive interface
Mobile app analytics capability

Cons

Limitations due to privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)
Accuracy issues due to data sampling (with large datasets)
Customization limitations
Dependency on other Google services
High learning curve (especially GA4)
Data retention period limitations

References

Setup and Monitoring Examples

Basic Setup

<!-- GA4 Basic Configuration -->
<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX', {
    anonymize_ip: true,
    cookie_flags: 'SameSite=None;Secure'
  });
</script>

Metrics Collection

// GA4 Custom Event Tracking
gtag('event', 'page_view', {
  page_title: 'Homepage',
  page_location: window.location.href,
  user_id: 'user123'
});

// E-commerce Event Tracking
gtag('event', 'purchase', {
  transaction_id: 'T_12345',
  value: 25.42,
  currency: 'USD',
  items: [{
    item_id: 'SKU123',
    item_name: 'Product Name',
    category: 'Electronics',
    quantity: 1,
    price: 25.42
  }]
});

// Custom Events
gtag('event', 'video_play', {
  video_title: 'Product Demo',
  video_duration: 120,
  video_current_time: 45
});

Alerting Configuration

// Server-side tracking with Measurement Protocol
const measurement_id = 'G-XXXXXXXXXX';
const api_secret = 'YOUR_API_SECRET';

const payload = {
  client_id: 'unique_client_id',
  events: [{
    name: 'custom_event',
    parameters: {
      event_category: 'engagement',
      event_label: 'newsletter_signup',
      value: 1
    }
  }]
};

fetch(`https://www.google-analytics.com/mp/collect?measurement_id=${measurement_id}&api_secret=${api_secret}`, {
  method: 'POST',
  body: JSON.stringify(payload)
});

Dashboard Creation

// Google Analytics Reporting API v4 Example
const {google} = require('googleapis');

const analytics = google.analytics('v3');

// Retrieve report data
const response = await analytics.data.ga.get({
  auth: auth,
  ids: 'ga:VIEW_ID',
  'start-date': '30daysAgo',
  'end-date': 'today',
  metrics: 'ga:sessions,ga:pageviews,ga:bounceRate',
  dimensions: 'ga:date',
});

// Custom dimension configuration
gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX', {
  custom_map: {
    'custom_parameter_1': 'user_type',
    'custom_parameter_2': 'subscription_status'
  }
});

Log Analysis

// Enhanced Ecommerce for GA4
gtag('event', 'view_item_list', {
  item_list_id: 'related_products',
  item_list_name: 'Related Products',
  items: [
    {
      item_id: 'SKU001',
      item_name: 'Product 1',
      category: 'Electronics',
      list_position: 1,
      price: 29.99
    },
    {
      item_id: 'SKU002', 
      item_name: 'Product 2',
      category: 'Electronics',
      list_position: 2,
      price: 39.99
    }
  ]
});

// User properties configuration
gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX', {
  user_properties: {
    subscription_status: 'premium',
    user_type: 'returning_customer'
  }
});

Integration Setup

// Google Tag Manager Integration
<script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':
new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],
j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src=
'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-XXXXXX');</script>

// React Google Analytics Integration
import ReactGA from 'react-ga4';

// Initialization
ReactGA.initialize('G-XXXXXXXXXX');

// Page view tracking
ReactGA.send({ hitType: "pageview", page: "/home" });

// Event tracking
ReactGA.event({
  category: "User",
  action: "Clicked Button",
  label: "Header CTA"
});

// E-commerce events
ReactGA.gtag('event', 'purchase', {
  transaction_id: 'T12345',
  value: 25.42,
  currency: 'USD',
  items: [{
    item_id: 'SKU123',
    item_name: 'T-Shirt',
    category: 'Apparel',
    quantity: 1,
    price: 25.42
  }]
});