Limitations of Google Analytics

When it comes to getting the best results from digital marketing campaigns, Google Analytics is key. With Google Analytics, digital marketing professionals can analyze a broad range of website data, including:

• Number of Visitors: See how many people are viewing a website over the course of a day, week, month or year.
• Unique Visitors: Discover how many visitors are viewing a website for the first time.
• Page Views: Learn which website pages are hitting the mark with visitors, along with which website pages may need to be improved.
• Bounce Rate: Find out whether website visitors are leaving a website on the same page they entered, or whether they are interacting with a website across multiple pages.
• Traffic Sources: Understand whether website visitors are coming from social networks, search engines or other web traffic sources.

Perhaps best of all, Google Analytics requires a simple setup process, making it easy for digital marketing professionals at companies of all sizes to use this technology.

To start using Google Analytics, a digital marketing professional will need to use the following process:

1. Sign up for Google Analytics. It is free to sign up for Google Analytics from any location, at any time.
2. Add a tracking code to a website. Google Analytics provides business users with tracking codes they can add to websites quickly and effortlessly. With a tracking code in place, business users can monitor website data consistently.
3. Review website insights. Once a tracking code is incorporated into a website, a business user is good to go. He or she will be able to collect and monitor website insights day after day and use these insights to uncover website patterns and trends.

Google Analytics is a difference-maker for digital marketing professionals around the globe. It even provides business users with dashboards that they can use to analyze website data like never before.

How Do Google Analytics Dashboards Work?

Google Analytics dashboards illustrate website data in a reader-friendly format. They visualize website data via charts, graphs, and other illustrations, ensuring digital marketing professionals can analyze website insights with ease. Furthermore, Google Analytics dashboards are accessible via any internet-enabled device.

This means digital marketing professionals can review Google Analytics dashboards on a smartphone, tablet, desktop computer, or laptop. Google Analytics dashboards are exceedingly valuable because they present website data in an easy-to-understand layout. On the other hand, dashboards have some limitations.

For digital marketing professionals who want to share Google Analytics dashboards across an organization, it is virtually impossible to provide quick, easy access to anything more than basic reports. Standard Google Analytics dashboard templates do not provide business users with the option to brand their own dashboards.

As a result, if business users want to send a report to colleagues or superiors, their charts are limited to Google’s own branded color fonts and layouts. In addition, Google Analytics dashboards can only be converted into basic PDF reports. And if business users want to access interactive dashboards that display website data in a visually appealing format, they will need to log in to a Google Analytics account from an internet-enabled device to do so.

The Bottom Line on Google Analytics Dashboards

Digital marketing professionals are constantly searching for state-of-the-art technologies to analyze website data. Although Google Analytics provides digital marketing professionals with a wealth of website data, technology fails to deliver the reporting capabilities that business users need to succeed.

Google Analytics dashboards take the guesswork out of website data analysis. At the same time, they are only available to business users who can access Google Analytics from any internet-enabled device. Moreover, the dashboards are difficult to share, as business users are limited by PDF reporting capabilities available via Google Analytics.

At PPCexpo, we understand the pros and cons of Google Analytics dashboards and reports. We want to help digital marketing professionals get the most out of Google Analytics and plan to offer an innovative solution that provides business users with interactive dashboards on the go.

In the near future, we plan to introduce a “dashboard in a file,” a free service that complements Google Analytics dashboards. With a dashboard in a file, business users can retrieve interactive PDF (iPDF) reports that provide anywhere, anytime access to Google Analytics dashboards. Dashboard in a file also helps business users create custom Google Analytics dashboards instantly. Stay tuned for additional details about the dashboard in a file.