To use Google Analytics for your website, online shop, app, or social media channel, you can either create a new account on the Analytics homepage, or link an existing AdWords account with the service. In this case, the tracking tool can be easily located under the tab ‘Tools and Analysis’. Both of these methods require a Google account first.
In the Google Analytics menu, you can enter certain properties about your website, app, shop, or social media platform and define which users should receive access to the data. If you want to obtain information about a specific type of conversion, then you can choose a goal. There are five types of goal to select from:
- Target: a specific URL is loaded
- Duration: sessions that exceed a certain time period
- Pages/screens per session: sessions in which a certain number of pages are viewed
- Event: a defined action, like playing a video or clicking on an ad
- Intelligent Goal: top-rated visits defined by Analytics are measured as a yardstick for conversions.
If you have the tool set up, you simply have to enter the Google Analytics tracking code into your web project. To do this, you can use the Google Tag Manager, which is especially useful for adding other tags to your website. If you’re just using the analytics tracking code, it’s also possible to carry out a manual integration directly in your HTML code. Content management systems like WordPress or Drupal have useful modules that integrate the code within the requirements of the system for you.
For app tracking, you need Google Analytics SDK for Android or iOS. You can get this from the same place in your account settings as the tracking code. Alternatively, you can simply download the Google Tag Manager for Mobile SDK for Android or iOS.