Data & Analytics Archives - CSP Commerce https://cspcommerce.com/category/data-analytics-ecommerce-agency/ Reach More Customers Through Amazon and Google Shopping Wed, 10 Jul 2024 16:10:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://cspcommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CSP-Commerce-vml-favicon-150x150.png Data & Analytics Archives - CSP Commerce https://cspcommerce.com/category/data-analytics-ecommerce-agency/ 32 32 The End of an Era – Google UA is Going Away https://cspcommerce.com/google-ua-going-away/ Wed, 26 Jun 2024 12:46:41 +0000 https://cspcommerce.com/?p=22491 The day is finally here… It’s time to say goodbye to Google UA! Are you ready to wave goodbye to all your hard work? Will your business survive having to start learning about customers again from scratch? Can you continue to improve without having YOY & MOM comparison data? No one wants to be in…

The post The End of an Era – Google UA is Going Away appeared first on CSP Commerce.

]]>

The day is finally here… It’s time to say goodbye to Google UA!

Are you ready to wave goodbye to all your hard work?
Will your business survive having to start learning about customers again from scratch?
Can you continue to improve without having YOY & MOM comparison data?

No one wants to be in the position where they need to answer these questions but if you don’t get ready for the end of Universal Analytics, you won’t have a choice.

Google Analytics tracks significant metrics which can be compared to past performance, such as user sessions, engagement rate, key events and revenue across all of your channels. 

You can also see whether customers are new or returning, what device they are using, lifetime value, and demographics like country, age, gender and interests.

These things are essential to businesses as they can be used to determine whether a specific campaign has been a success, look at what’s worked well and what hasn’t so that you can identify key areas of improvement.

You need to be able to understand who your customers are, how they behave and the best way to target them in order to succeed (and bring in revenue!) Data is an essential for growth, scaling and perfecting your marketing strategy  – can you really afford to lose something that important?

What’s happening to Universal Analytics?

Google started phasing UA out back in March last year, and has been gradually moving accounts over to GA4. The search giant says that this is “the next generation of Analytics which collects event-based data from both websites and apps.”

In July 2023, Universal Analytics stopped processing data so the chances are that you have been using GA4 for up to a year already.

However, what some people don’t realise is that on the 1st July 2024, Google will remove its UA services and APIs completely. This means that you will lose all of your historical data and crucial information ( like past product performance, user behaviours and conversions) if you haven’t downloaded it or set-up GA4.

Still not sure? Here’s a quick overview from Google themselves:

So, how will this affect your business?

Once UA is turned off, you will no longer be able to access any of your past data including events, conversions, product performance and user metrics. 

The data likely shapes how you identify trends over time and how you view your customers, for example, giving you the information to remarket and market your products. From your findings, you can target customers at the right time, on the right platform, identify which products are producing the highest ROI, so without this, you will have lost valuable data and insights.

What should you do next?

We recommend that if you haven’t switched over to GA4 yet, you should look at this as a priority. 

The first step would be to export data from UA before the cut off date to ensure you still have all of your data. 

There are a few ways you can do this, which include:

  • Exporting individual reports into CSV, TSV, TSV for Excel, Excel (XLSX, Google Sheets, or PDF.
  • Using the Google Analytics Reporting API to export data to Cloud storage, before pulling it back into Looker Studio.
  • Installing the Google Sheets add-on for Analytics and follow Google’s step-by-step instructions for archiving the data.
  • If you are a Google Analytics 360 customer, you can easily export your data to BigQuery.

There are lots more articles out there to help you, including one that Code (which operate within the same group as CSP Commerce) has put together. We recommend you read their GA4 migration article here.

How can CSP Commerce help?

Our Performance Marketing team can support you in migrating across to GA4, whether it’s by offering advice on the best way to back up data or setting up your new properties. 

If you have any questions or would like guidance with anything from this article, please do get in touch here.

The post The End of an Era – Google UA is Going Away appeared first on CSP Commerce.

]]>
Google Analytics Four (GA4): Final Checks For Ecommerce Advertisers https://cspcommerce.com/google-analytics-four-ga4-final-checks-for-ecommerce-advertisers/ Fri, 16 Jun 2023 12:55:02 +0000 https://cspcommerce.com/?p=21346 In the ever-evolving landscape of ecommerce and digital analytics, the winds of change blow relentlessly, leaving no platform untouched. Such is the case with the imminent demise of colossal Google Universal Analytics (UA), as it bids farewell to its data-processing days on July 1, 2023. As the shadows of obsolescence loom over UA properties, a…

The post Google Analytics Four (GA4): Final Checks For Ecommerce Advertisers appeared first on CSP Commerce.

]]>

In the ever-evolving landscape of ecommerce and digital analytics, the winds of change blow relentlessly, leaving no platform untouched. Such is the case with the imminent demise of colossal Google Universal Analytics (UA), as it bids farewell to its data-processing days on July 1, 2023.

As the shadows of obsolescence loom over UA properties, a new era dawns upon us the reign of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Join CSP Commerce as we encourage you to carry out some final checks before for the final moments before the transition.

Google Quote:

“On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data. You’ll be able to see your Universal Analytics reports for a period of time after July 1, 2023. However, new data will only flow into Google Analytics 4 properties”

A quick check for advertisers who rely on UA for conversion tracking in Google Ads:

Two Key Last-Minute Checks for Ecommerce Advertisers

Conversion Tracking

Remember to import the new GA4 conversion action into your Google Ads accounts. We’d recommend that this is done in advance of the 1st of July deadline. This will give you enough time to check that the GA4 revenue is tracking accurately in comparison to the UA conversion action you’re already using. Any big data gaps can be fixed before switching to GA4 as a primary conversion action.
Set the new GA4 Conversion Action as the Primary conversion action for Sales in your account. This will ensure your bid strategies optimise using the new conversion tracking and will prevent any major performance drops when UA data stop feeding into the account.

Audiences

If you have any campaigns currently using Remarketing audiences based on Website Visitors and/or Optimised Targeting – reviewing the audiences in your account is a must.
If audiences were created in Google Ads using the Google Ads tracking tags, you won’t need to change anything. However, if you imported audience lists from UA, you’ll need to ensure these lists have been recreated in GA4 and have been imported into Google Ads.
After this, you should run through all the campaigns in your account and check the audiences applied have been updated. This is especially important for any Performance Max campaigns using remarketing lists for Audience Signals.

Why Google Analytics 43 (GA4) is Better for Ecommerce Businesses

  • Built for Ecommerce: GA4 has been designed with ecommerce businesses specifically in mind, and therefore includes tools to measure shopping behaviour more accurately and how users are interacting with your digital platforms, such as your website, social media platforms and apps.
  • Customisable Reports: Another advantage of GA4 is that it’s far more customisable than its predecessor. Every business will be different and have its own unique priorities and goals, so you can tailor the tool to track the metrics you want to measure and produce bespoke reports.
  • Smarter Forecasts: In addition, GA4 makes use of machine learning technology, using historical data to forecast what might happen in the future. That means you could, for instance, make revenue forecasts or predict people’s purchase activity in the future.
  • Detailed Reporting: Ultimately, you’ll get more detailed and accurate insights into the ecommerce experience you offer than ever before, see where your store is performing strongly and identify barriers and shortcomings that are stopping people from converting into paid or repeat customers.

Need additional help with GA4 configuration?

Still finding GA4 difficult to use? We’re creating a user-friendly reporting dashboard just for our Google Ads clients to make getting insights from how your ad campaigns and your website overall are performing. Did you know that GA4 will only store data for up to 14 months? We can store data long-term to help clients spot trends and record growth.

Contact us to learn more.

CSP Commerce | Manchester Ecommerce and Shopify Agency

From brand through to demand, we support and manage ecommerce growth at each stage of the commerce journey.  Our extensive knowledge and experience in ecommerce have established us as industry leaders for our capabilities in performance marketing, marketplace management, social commerce, and Shopify, Shopify Plus and WooCommerce web development.
We’re a Manchester ecommerce agency that works with retailers as committed to growth as we are. Our performance and platform-first approach is tailored to the ambitious brands and online retailers we partner with. As part of Wunderman Thompson Commerce, we are uniquely positioned to support businesses to scale nationally to globally.
We’ll hand-select a team of specialists to work with clients and operate as an extension of their ecommerce department. We are accountable for delivering measurable results that grow reach and revenue. Together, we will work to scale and sell your products across online channels.
If you’re serious about growth then start your journey with us. Let’s succeed and scale together.

Why not visit us in person?

WPP Manchester Campus,
1 New Quay Street,
Manchester,
Greater Manchester,
M3 4BN.
#shopifyagency #shopifyplus #manchester #ecommerceagency #ecommercegrowth #marketplacemanagement #performancemarketing #googleads #socialcommerce #manchestershopifyagency #amazon #ebay

The post Google Analytics Four (GA4): Final Checks For Ecommerce Advertisers appeared first on CSP Commerce.

]]>
The Future of Ecommerce Data https://cspcommerce.com/the-future-of-ecommerce-data/ Tue, 21 Mar 2023 14:05:02 +0000 http://cspcommerce.com/?p=20191 The current go-to tool for ecommerce businesses is being phased out and replaced. We explore how the latest version of Google Analytics (GA4) enables for a more comprehensive view of the customer journey to benefit ecommerce businesses. As an ecommerce business, you’ll regularly be poring over data to inform your marketing campaigns and wider business…

The post The Future of Ecommerce Data appeared first on CSP Commerce.

]]>

The current go-to tool for ecommerce businesses is being phased out and replaced. We explore how the latest version of Google Analytics (GA4) enables for a more comprehensive view of the customer journey to benefit ecommerce businesses.

As an ecommerce business, you’ll regularly be poring over data to inform your marketing campaigns and wider business strategy. Web analytics data in particular is vital, so you have a clear idea of how people are engaging with your brand online.

But Universal Analytics, which may be your go-to tool to get insights on how your website is performing, is being phased out and will disappear for good this summer.

It’s being replaced with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) tool, which takes a completely different approach to data gathering, so you can take a much deeper dive into the customer journey.

So what does the upcoming removal of Universal Analytics and the introduction of GA4 mean for you and your ecommerce business?

What impact will it have on the data you collect, how you engage with your target market, and how you operate in the future?

Well, we’re here to answer the key questions and let you know how we can help.

What is GA4?

Google is to remove Universal Analytics from service on July 1st 2023, and it’s being replaced by Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

There are several key differences between the two, notably:

  • It’s based on a different concept. Whereas Universal Analytics generates data based on page views, GA4 is based on the concept of events, which includes page views but also metrics such as clicks and form submissions.
  • GA4 lets you track analytics on applications as well as websites, thereby giving you a more detailed picture of the customer journey.
  • GA4 makes use of artificial intelligence technology and machine learning algorithms. That gives you the ability to carry out more detailed, evidence-based forecasts than ever before, on everything from average churn rates to revenue predictions.
  • Ultimately, GA4 means your business can collect more detailed information and data than you could previously, and get an unprecedented insight into how customers are engaging with your website and app.
  • That, in turn, could fundamentally influence key decisions regarding your business strategy and how you market your brand.

Why has Google introduced GA4?

Universal Analytics has been in use for many years, so you might be wondering why Google is making this change.

The tech giant believes the existing tool hasn’t kept pace with significant changes in consumer behaviour, as well as privacy-driven changes to long-standing industry standards, notably the introduction of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In a post announcing the new tool, Google cited a study from Forrester Consulting, which revealed that marketers believe existing solutions make it hard to get a complete view of the customer and gain insights from the data.

The company hopes this new tool will therefore make a meaningful difference to brands, at a time when they consider improving their use of analytics to be a top priority.

How will GA4 be important for ecommerce businesses?

GA4 has been designed with ecommerce businesses specifically in mind, and therefore includes tools to more accurately measure shopping behaviour and how users are interacting with your digital platforms, such as your website, social media platforms and apps.

Whereas the previous tools generated insights based on individual sessions and page views, GA4 allows you to observe how users interact with your brand across different devices and time-periods, including in real-time.

So if, for instance, you find that people are often browsing your online store more than once but don’t ultimately make a purchase, or abandoning the transaction near the end, you can take a closer look at what’s driving this decision. Is it the site user experience? The time it takes a page to load? By identifying issues in this way and addressing them, you can offer a better site experience to users, potentially drive more conversions, and create a far more accurate and comprehensive picture of the customer journey.

Another advantage of GA4 is that it’s far more customisable than its predecessor. Every business will be different and have their own unique priorities and goals, so you can tailor the tool to track the metrics you want to measure and produce bespoke reports.

This can include metrics linked to specific items in your online store, such as their name or product ID, transaction and revenue-specific events – for example, items added to cart, checked out and data on average purchase revenue and average revenue per user. This gives you the ability to monitor and drill down into the information you want quickly and easily.

GA4 also boasts a far more intuitive search function, so you can ask it simple questions and get answers via a dropdown menu – similar to if you were using the main Google search engine. So if you have a specific query, such as how many people who visited your website didn’t check out, you can just ask the tool to show you the answer with the relevant data.

In addition, GA4 makes use of machine learning technology, using historical data to forecast what might happen in the future. That means you could, for instance, make revenue forecasts or predict people’s purchase activity in the future.

Ultimately, you’ll get more detailed and accurate insights into the ecommerce experience you offer than ever before, see where your store is performing strongly and identify barriers and shortcomings that are stopping people from converting into paid or repeat customers.

How will GA4 affect my Google Ads data?

Marketers have long been frustrated by Google Ads and Google Analytics being separate tools, particularly as there were apparent discrepancies between the data each tool was producing.

However, GA4 takes the long-overdue step of integrating the two platforms, so you’ll have more accurate data at your disposal and spend less time obtaining the information you want to see.

As an ecommerce business, you’ll be promoting your brand across countless platforms, from paid search and social media to email and influencer marketing campaigns.

But it’s often been difficult for businesses to track what’s driving organic traffic. By having more detailed insights into the customer journey, across different sessions, platforms and devices, you will have a much clearer picture of where people are coming from and what ads are generating the best returns.

Why should your business migrate to GA4?

The first key point to make is that Universal Analytics is being retired at the start of July, so if you wish to continue using Google to get valuable insights into your online performance, you’ll have to make the transition anyway.

But we would strongly recommend that you don’t wait until July and use the next few months to get to grips with this new tool.

This is partly because you can’t migrate data from Universal Analytics to GA4, which means you’ll only be able to compare data against the figures for previous years after you’ve been using GA4 for at least 12 months.

You could therefore use this time to get a headstart on accruing new data in GA4, and of course, you can continue using Universal Analytics to access historical data until the transition is complete.

Another reason to get started on GA4 sooner rather than later is because it has the ability to learn and continually improve. That means the earlier you start using GA4, the greater its potential for your business will be.

This new tool represents a significant step forward from Universal Analytics, boasting greater accuracy and flexibility than its predecessor, and better insights into the journey a customer goes on as they engage with your brand.

These insights can be crucial as you’re developing or refining your business plan and marketing strategy, so why delay?

Of course, getting used to a new web analytics tool can be time-consuming, particularly when it uses a different approach and methodology to what you’re used to, which in turn changes how you use the data the tool generates.

Thankfully, Cloud Seller Pro is available to help you with the migration. Get in touch and we can audit your current GA implementation and identify what steps you need to take to ensure data success.

Be sure to ask about our latest data visualisation capabilities that leverage the power of Google Looker Studio (previously known as Google Data Studio) which incorporates data feeds from Google Ads, Shopify and WooCommerce integrations into customisable dashboards that provides valuable insight to help you to make data-driven decisions.

CSP Commerce | Manchester Ecommerce and Shopify Agency

From brand through to demand, we support and manage ecommerce growth at each stage of the commerce journey.  Our extensive knowledge and experience in ecommerce have established us as industry leaders for our capabilities in performance marketing, marketplace management, social commerce, and Shopify, Shopify Plus and WooCommerce web development.
We’re a Manchester ecommerce agency that works with retailers as committed to growth as we are. Our performance and platform-first approach is tailored to the ambitious brands and online retailers we partner with. As part of Wunderman Thompson Commerce, we are uniquely positioned to support businesses to scale nationally to globally.
We’ll hand-select a team of specialists to work with clients and operate as an extension of their ecommerce department. We are accountable for delivering measurable results that grow reach and revenue. Together, we will work to scale and sell your products across online channels.
If you’re serious about growth then start your journey with us. Let’s succeed and scale together.

Why not visit us in person?

WPP Manchester Campus,
1 New Quay Street,
Manchester,
Greater Manchester,
M3 4BN.
#shopifyagency #shopifyplus #manchester #ecommerceagency #ecommercegrowth #marketplacemanagement #performancemarketing #googleads #socialcommerce #manchestershopifyagency #amazon #ebay

The post The Future of Ecommerce Data appeared first on CSP Commerce.

]]>