Google Analytics is an amazing tool. It enables you to make the data work for you, get a broader picture, and understand your visitors better.

The problem comes when you expect more from this ‘reporting’ tool. I will tell you why you should consider leveraging BigQuery (or a similar tool) along with your Google Analytics data.

Table of Content:

A. Why Leverage BigQuery with Google Analytics Data?

B. Query Google Analytics Data with BigQuery

I. How does it work?

II. Pr-requisites

III. Let’s Query

A. Why Leverage BigQuery with Google Analytics Data?

3 Reasons Why:

1. Handling Changes over time:

Every website gets experiential changes over time. Along with this, the way you store data will also change. Hence, for an apple to apple comparison, you will need to transform the data into a common view.

2. Data Sampling

Ifyou are dependent on Google Analytics, you would know that GA samples its data often. As long as you are not molding the data enough or you are using the out of the box reports, GA will give you 100% accurate data. It’s only when you start filtering your data or increase its cardinality, Google Analytics will start sampling the data proportionally to maintain its speed.

*Sampling: During Sampling, GA returns you the metrics based on a smaller sample space instead of the whole pool of data.

#web-analytics #bigquery #google-analytics #google-tag-manager #digital-marketing