According to Google’s perception on its Analytics blog, a typical customer employs multiple devices to interact with a business, so mastering data on a website is no longer sufficient. Larger clients increasingly demanded a cross-platform view of their data in Google Analytics. And it is no secret that some of the savviest companies study their analytics data religiously in an effort to satisfy their users and customers alike.
Google Analytics is designed to provide useful information about how online visitors interact with a website. Hence, with this release, enterprise-level Google Analytics users would have some new integration tools at their disposal with enhanced capabilities that empowers enterprise marketers and webmasters to customize metrics and integrate their cross-channel marketing data into the platform.
According to the announcement, demand for more powerful analysis of devices used to access a site and the rise of the multichannel conversion funnel inspired Universal Analytics’ development. However, Universal Analytics is intended to extend that view to smartphones, tablets, game consoles, and digital appliances. It also allows the importation of data from offline sources such as marketing campaigns, sales calls, call center logs and store visits.
The company describing the services’ feature said, “Measurement today is evolving from technology that counts site traffic into a broader system that measures your effectiveness in advertising, sales, product usage, support, and retention,” said Manav Mishra, group product manager for Google Analytics, in a blog post.
In fact, using a new API from Google, marketers can configure Analytics to incorporate their relevant datasets into their dashboards. As such, companies can view detailed metrics based on consumer behavior on specific devices and various channels. Moreover, Mobile App Analytics is now integrated into Universal Analytics to help admins assess performance.
As such, the feature is being tested for Premium customers, but the new metrics remind marketers to think holistically about their campaign analysis. “Ultimately, such kind of integrated measurement can help you deliver the best service, products, and experiences for your customers,” Google says.
In addition, syncing data from various devices and web channels will help companies make more informed decisions in relation to consumers paths through a site. Traffic from social media marketing campaigns, for example, often results in leads and conversions.
Thus, it is highly important for marketers to understand their goals when launching any web marketing strategy. The service does not create any new reports; it integrates the new data and metrics into existing GA reports.
Universal Analytics is currently only being offered to a limited number of beta users for companies that sign up through Google’s website.