Google Analytics Accounts for Web Peeps

Posted on January 10, 2011 by

A friend/colleague was asking about timezones in his Google Analtyics setups and wondering why he couldn’t apply a timezone for each website instead of just for his account.

To the best of my knowledge, you can’t really change this, and even if Google is getting better at their Customer Service (meaning they reply to my emails now… even if it’s not always helpful) I don’t see this one being fixed up.

Best idea is to follow the Best Practices that I use, which is probably why I consider them "best" and maybe not you.  But you’re not me and if you were I’d be pissed off that you were wearing my favourite underwear.

Google Analytics Account Setup Methods:

  1. You do it as them – If possible, sign up for a Google Account for the client using an email that they actively check.  Get them to verify the account and then log in, as them, and sign up for that sweet, sweet tracking code.  Once you’ve got it, go into the "User Manager" and add yourself as an admin.  BANG, you’re set and can now do almost everything from your account.  Big benefit of this one is that this website profile doesn’t count against the Google-imposed limit of 25.
  2. You pretend to be them – For non-tech-savvy clients, or one’s you simply don’t like to talk to, if you’re the website manager, set up an email alias for them.  annoyingclient@yourdomain.com.au can be a Google login, and have that email addy forward to yours.  Then follow the method above and rock like socks.
  3. Get them to do it – AAAAUGH!  Fraught with peril, but still doable.  Walk them through it if you can, and don’t forget that all-important step where they add you to their "User Manager".
  4. Get someone, ANYONE, to do it - Worst-case scenario is actually something I did the other day.  Emailed client’s web people (the ones that don’t like to give access to anything other than their crappy CMS that won’t even let you change page titles and menu titles separately) and gave them links to "Setting up Google Analytics Tracking Code".  Worst-case is that they only give you "view" access and you can’t set goals or anything cool, but still.

Have YOUR websites as YOURS – Try to limit setting up what really amounts to website profiles inside your own account.

And don’t get me started on Connecting AdWords to Analytics properly.  Uffda.

Category: Analytics | No Comments

Connect Google AdWords to Analytics – PROPERLY

Posted on August 14, 2010 by

I’ve gotten so much traffic from that last blog post, where I rant and offer up little of value, that I thought I’d actually document the proper way of Connecting your Google AdWords account to your Google Analytics account.

And the various and inevitable pitfalls along the way.

Firstest and Easiest

If they’re on the same Google Account then:

  1. Log in to Google AdWords
  2. Click on the Reporting tab > Google Analytics
  3. At this point Googs will ask if you want a new account or to connect to an existing account.
  4. If you want to keep the data separate (and I don’t know why you would) you can set up a new account.  Otherwise, you can choose to connect to the existing account that (if you’re lucky) you’ve already set up.

Secondest and a bit Harder

You’ve got a My Client Centre account or are setting up a Google AdWords account separate from the original Google Analytics account, then you’ll follow the above until Step 4, in which you’ll find that you either don’t see the Analytics account profile in the dropdown or this message:

Although this AdWords account is linked to an Analytics account, your AdWords login email address is not listed as a user on that Analytics account. Please contact the administrator of the Analytics account and request that they add you as a user to this Analytics account.

Which is the one I freaking HATE, and prompted my last blog rant.

Your options now consist of:

Simply logging into the existing Google Analytics account, as an admin, and giving at least "View" access to the email address showing for the AdWords account…

OR trying to ferret out the account that actually DOES own the connection between this AdWords account and an existing Analytics account and then going back to the previous step.

Which is where I’m at.  And is frustrating.  And makes me want to kick things.  A lot.

Thirdest and probably not even really that difficult but really shouldn’t have to be this way goddamit Google

  1. Back away slowly.
  2. Take the AdWords account and data dump it. A backup method if you will.  Save it down for later uploading.
  3. Find a different email address that you haven’t really used before.
  4. Sign up to Google.
  5. Set up AdWords.
  6. Set up Analytics through AdWords.
  7. Install a whole other set of tracking code on your website.
  8. Import your old AdWords account data.
  9. Curse an organisation composed almost entirely of Engineers.

Boogers

So there you go.  No real satisfactory solutions if you’re confronted with certain things, and I patently refuse to accept forum posts and blog entries that suggest that I "ask Google for help" because if I ever get an actual human at Google returning my emails and directly answering the questions I’ve asked, then I’ll eat this laptop.

Cheers, and Have a Good Website.

Category: Analytics | 2 Comments

Google Referring Query Variable – “The OQ”

Posted on August 2, 2010 by

Since I have to use StatCounter in addition to Google Analytics, just so that I can get some more detailed user data (on a user-specific basis) I was able to find a potential client in my stats and view how he’d come onto the site and where he went after.

Pretty cool to get that insight into the user’s mind in seeing what he was most interested in before he eventually rang me.

Then I found this in his Referring URL Query String Variables, "&aq=0h&oq=marketing%20&ie=UTF-8&q=marketing%20experts%20perth"

I quickly jumped onto Teh Googs and saw how this li’l bit of data is gathered.

Google Suggest is undoubtedly a very powerful tool, seemingly doing the thinking for me sometimes (I can frequently be heard exclaiming to wife, “Hey, how’d Googs know that I wanted guitar tips for a Powderfinger song when all I typed was ‘pow’?!?”) and it would appear that the “oq” part of the referring query string above shows how much the user typed in before selecting something from the Google Suggest list.

Pretty slick.

So, a nice bit of insight into the mind of a searcher, available right there in your referring URL query string.

Category: Analytics | 2 Comments

Connecting Google AdWords to Analytics

Posted on June 24, 2010 by

…in short, is a Giant Pain in the Ass.

I’m a pretty sharp guy, and not a lot of things confuse me for too long because I either figure them out or stop caring about them.

This one though, has me utterly perplexed.

Google Analytics and Google AdWords are Two MAJOR features and I think I’ve been able to successfully hook in a new AdWords account to an existing Analytics account about 1 out of 5 times.

20% Googs.  That sucks and I’m not happy.

The latest attempt was made while I was logged in as the client even and not just using My Client Centre.  I logged in, made sure that Analytics was all set up, went into AdWords, made sure that was all set up, and then went to connect the two.  Every profile on that account was available but the main one I wanted.

So I went into the User Manager, to see if there were any other pimps in there trying to ho it up.  With client approval, I deleted them, and then went back in to try and connect Analytics through the AdWords interface.  Nup, no go.

WTF Google?

This isn’t meant to be a cry for help, it’s just a rant.

Though help would earn a beer, for certain.

Have a good website.

Category: Analytics | No Comments