In brief: Google Analytics is an analytics service for measuring traffic, events, user journeys, and selected results on a website or in an application.
How I use Google Analytics in practice
First I create a measurement plan: a business question, event, parameters, owner, and method of verification. In GA4, I distinguish an ordinary event, a key event, and a conversion used for advertising. I test duplicates, currency, value, internal visits, and consent. I build a report only on verified data, and always account for the fact that analytics does not see the whole world because of devices and privacy protection.
What to watch out for
Simply inserting measurement code is not finished analytics. Automatically collected events may not correspond to the business objective, and importing an incorrect conversion into advertising can damage optimisation.
Questions for the decision
- Which decision should measurement support?
- Is the event technically verified without duplicates?
- Do we collect only necessary data with the correct consent?
- Can the person who must act understand the report?