Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics [Paperback]

Brian Clifton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2012 | ISBN-10: 1118168445 | ISBN-13: 978-1118168448 | Edition: 3

Get the latest information about using the #1 web analytics tool from this fully updated guide

Google Analytics is the free tool used by millions of web site owners to assess the effectiveness of their efforts. Its revised interface and new features will offer even more ways to increase the value of your web site, and this book will teach you how to use each one to best advantage. Featuring new content based on reader and client requests, the book helps you implement new methods and concepts, track social and mobile visitors, use the new multichannel funnel reporting features, understand which filters to use, and much more.

• Gets you up and running with all the new tools in the revamped Google Analytics, and includes content requested by readers and users especially for new GA users
• Covers social media analytics features, advanced segmentation displays, multi-dashboard configurations, and using Top 20 reports
• Provides a detailed best-practices implementation guide covering advanced topics, such as how to set up GA to track dynamic web pages, banners, outgoing links, and contact forms
• Includes case studies and demonstrates how to optimize pay-per-click accounts, integrate AdSense, work with new reports and reporting tools, use ad version testing, and more

Make your web site a more effective business tool with the detailed information and advice about Google Analytics in Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, 3nd Edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Master Google Analytics with This Complete Guide

Covering the very latest version of Google Analytics (GA), the third edition of this bestseller features more ROI-building tips and techniques than ever. Want to become proficient using all of Google Analytics' powerful capabilities and reports? Measure the performance of your campaigns in real time? Discover the best way to track social and mobile visitors? Evaluate the impact of multichannel marketing? You'll find all this and more in this complete practitioner's guide. Learn how to use GA's new features, why to use them, and how to apply everything Google Analytics has to offer to improve your website, your brand, and your bottom line.

• Become quickly productive with the new user interface and exciting new tools such as Multi-Channel Funnels

• Discover new capabilities, such as how to track mobile and social media visitors to your site and track embedded video usage

• Learn super workarounds and advanced techniques and tactics you can put to use immediately

• Follow best practices and learn from compelling, real-world examples

• Optimize your search engine marketing, monetize a non-e-commerce site, and track offline marketing as well as online

• Integrate Google Analytics data with third-party systems and applications, including your CRM system

It would be a cliché to say Brian Clifton knows Google Analytics like the back of his hand. But he does. So if there is only one book you can buy on Google Analytics . . . buy this book and you'll be on your way to being an analysis ninja!"
—Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 and Digital Marketing Evangelist, Google

A must-read if you're playing in the big leagues."
—Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

A great practitioners resource that not only covers the technical details for a best practice setup, but also ties it back to the business objectives."
—Sara Andersson, Founder of Search Integration AB and Chairperson, Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMP), Scandinavia

With a good mix of concepts, examples and how-to's, the book structure and writing style will please both marketers and technically inclined analysts, and even help reconcile both universes."
—Stéphane Hamel, Director of Strategic Services, Cardinal Path

Inside: Your Google AdWords gift card worth $50!

About the Author

Brian Clifton, PhD, is an internationally recognized web analytics expert who specializes in performance optimization using Google Analytics for a variety of high-profile brands. He formerly led the Google Web Analytics team for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and he initiated and helped launch the online learning center for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ). Brian regularly speaks at industry trade shows, maintains the popular blog Measuring Success (www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog/), and wrote the previous two editions of this book, which are used by students and professionals worldwide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Sybex; 3 edition (April 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118168445
• ISBN-13: 978-1118168448
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development & Design > Website Analytics
  • #11 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development & Design > Web Services
  • #11 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Data Mining

More About the Author

Brian has been involved in web design and SEO since as far back as 1997, when he built his first website and started defining best practise to advise clients. He was the founding Head of Web Analytics for Google EMEA (2005-8), building the first pan-European team of product specialists. A legacy of his work is the online learning centre for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification.

Brian is now Director of Data Insights & Analytics at Search Integration AB - a company specialising in strategic search and social marketing. He is also the Founder and Senior Strategist for GA-Experts.com - a company specialising in performance optimisation using Google Analytics for global clients.

Some Deeper Background (i.e. older!)

Brian received a BSc in chemistry from the University of Bristol in 1991 and a PhD in physical and theoretical chemistry in 1996. Further work as a postdoctoral researcher culminated in publishing several scientific papers in journals, including Molecular Physics, Colloids and Surfaces, and Langmuir. During that time, he was also an interna- tional weightlifter, representing Great Britain at world and European championships.

Studying science at university during the early nineties meant witnessing the incred- ible beginnings of the Web. In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist working at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, launched the first web browser and web server to the academic community, thereby sowing the first seeds of the World Wide Web.

Although the communication potential of the Web was immediately clear to Brian, it took a little while for ideas to formulate around business opportunities. In 1997 he left academia to found Omega Digital Media, a UK company specializing in the provision of professional services to organizations wishing to utilize the new digital medium.

Since leaving the field of chemical research (and weightlifting), Brian has continued to write--on his blog, Measuring Success (www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog); as a guest writer on industry forums, and via white papers.

Brian holds the title of associate instructor at the University of British Columbia for his contribution to teaching modules in support of the Award of Achievement in Web Analytics. He was born in Manchester, United Kingdom, and now lives in Sweden.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read for Online Marketing Professionals March 29, 2012

By Ken M

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just got my hands on the 3rd edition of Advanced Web Metrics, and I am happy to say it is a great update to the book. I have said for a while that anyone interesting in online marketing should start by reading Advanced Web Metrics. They then should go learn about all the functional areas of online marketing (e.g., paid search, SEO, email marketing, etc.) and then come back and read Advanced Web Metrics again. Metrics are the cornerstone of online marketing, and Brian Clifton just nails the subject. He does a great job of weaving high level concepts together with real world implementation.

The 3rd edition keeps the book fresh and tackles a number of areas that have changed since the 2nd edition (e.g., the new Google Analytics interface). This is a fast moving area after all!

The only topic I would like to see Brian cover in more detail is privacy. The theories on privacy are pretty clear, but the tools are moving so quickly that there are some gray areas in the real world. Hopefully we will see that in the 4th edition!

The 2nd edition of Advanced Web Metrics has been the only book sitting on my desk for the last 12 months (because it is so darn handy). Now the 3rd edition will have to take its place.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only Google Analytics Book You Need June 20, 2012

By Joseph J. Seidler

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book somehow is perfect for both newbies to Google Analytics as well as experts. I read Brian's 1st Edition of his book about 4 years ago when I was just learning Analytics, and it not only brought me up to speed, I discovered I knew things others who had been doing Internet Marketing for years didn't know. I then read his 2nd Edition and relearned things I had forgotten. Now with the 3rd Edition (the best one of all) I am fluent in the new Analytics interface and reports, and I like the color reports he included. This newest edition has many more pages and the content not only shows how to do things, but more importantly it explains why.

IMO there are two great Internet Marketing book writers in the world, and Brian Clifton is one of them.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best edition yet - Worth every penny! May 16, 2012

By Adrian Speyer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

When this book was released in March, I already owned Brian's two previous editions, so I was a little on the fence about buying the third edition. Eventually, I broke down and bought the 3rd edition, because my second edition was so worn-out. To my surprise the 3rd edition was much larger than the 2nd edition, so I quickly saw this was not just a re-hash of the same. Not only was this book chock full of new information, it had some great code examples for the new version of Google Analytics. This is what I expect in a book titled "Advanced Web Metrics." I can get the basics online, in blogs, but Brian's books really help as a guide to going to the next level. Don't get me wrong there is a good balance here, with plently for those new to Google Analytics as well, including a lovely "Google Analytics in Color" section for those unfamiliar with GA. In short, this book I keep handy as my reference for the right answer on most questions and I cannot recommend it enough for those who are serious about analytics. It was worth every penny.