Differences between GA and BigQuery data

In the article “Bridging the gap between Google Analytics UI and BigQuery export” Minhaz Kazi, a developer advocate for Google Analytics, provides an explanation for why the numbers in BigQuery event export data may not match the standard reporting surfaces in Google Analytics. The article clarifies that while the intended purpose of BigQuery event export data is to provide users with more customized options for data analysis, the standard reporting surfaces use pre-processed database tables, which include Google Analytics’ value additions such as modeling and traffic attribution, and thus these two data sources are not always expected to be reconcilable....

Business Undercover podcast

"Να είσαι θερμοστάτης, όχι θερμόμετρο" είναι μια φράση που άκουσα πριν μερικά χρόνια από έναν guru του χώρου και μου έχει μείνει καρφωμένη στο μυαλό από τότε! Το θερμόμετρο είναι μια συσκευή η οποία μόνο καταγράφει δεδομένα, ενώ ένας θερμοστάτης μετατρέπει τα δεδομένα και σε ενέργειες. Αν καταφέρουμε να έχουμε περισσότερους "έξυπνους θερμοστάτες" στην διάθεση μας όταν αναλύουμε δεδομένα, θα μπορέσουμε να διαχειριστούμε και πολύ μεγαλύτερο όγκο αλλά και να επιταχύνουμε τις αντιδράσεις μας σε αυτά.

Tracking Pageviews in Analytics using page visibility (by Philip Walton)

I came across an interesting alternative approach from Philip Walton. He explains clearly why all websites cannot work with the default definition of a page view in Analytics and how we someone could start using the page’s visibility state (using the Page visibility API). Unfortunately this post was originally published in 2017 and still until today, even though Single Page Application (SPA) websites are widely used, we reply mostly on complicated implementations to virtually create page views for analytics tracking. Another alternative to this problem is to use an Event Driven Data Layer (EDDL), but I like the simplicity of...

Scalable website audit for analysts using the cloud

Scalable website audit for analysts using the cloud – Dev fest Hellas 2020

Enterprise websites split across many regions and locales are huge, but every page matters. Keeping track of the website’s quality, across all pages and on different devices, is a complicated and time-consuming process. It requires the constant evaluation of page performance, web analytics implementation accuracy, accessibility, and SEO audits.Baresquare developed an automated solution to keep track of website changes and website quality. This is a scalable solution built on GCP, with cost and resources customized to the website’s size. The solution utilizes a customized version of Lighthouse SDK and a BigQuery database for keeping track of results. Analyzing results is...

50 things I believe about data

A new trend is rising in the analytics and web marketing community! Lists of 50 things you believe about your industry. This list was created based on my experience working in digital analytics projects since 2008 and from numerous conversations I had while organizing the Digital analytics meetup, Thessaloniki since 2017.