Drawbacks and limitations of Google Analytics 4

The free version of Google Analytics, Universal Analytics, is the most widely used web analytics solution. The platform is so popular that it dominates 86% market share, making Google the market leader. But even though many consider Google Analytics the standard, there are reasons to ask if it is the perfect choice for your marketing setup—especially since Google announced the sunset of Universal Analytics.

On July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits, forcing users to switch to its successor, Google Analytics 4. While this may seem like a natural progression, marketers should not be fooled.

The learning curve will be steep—Google Analytics 4 is almost an entirely new platform and still developing. On top of that, Google Analytics risks losing the users’ trust due to gray areas around the likes of privacy and data ownership.

With a privacy-focused future ahead, now is the time to seek alternatives that better balance data collection with compliance. With a proper analytics platform, marketers make your data collection as it should be: predictable and sustainable. After all, marketers and analysts want to process user-level data while building trust with their visitors.

In this article, we will dive into the issues with Google Analytics 4 from a user perspective and from a privacy and compliance standpoint, so you can make an informed decision before switching platforms.

From a user experience perspective, many find GA4 challenging to navigate. But beyond that, there are a host of challenges with the feature sets. Let us dig deeper into those limitations:

• There is no simple way to migrate your data
• Not-so-intuitive user interface
• Limits on custom dimensions
• Lack of custom channel grouping

Unlike Universal Analytics, GA4 does not allow you to create custom channel groupings in the new interface. Instead, marketers will only be able to use their default channel groupings.

Motivations behind the short deadline:

The deadline Google has left the analytics community to act is startling. There are many speculations as to why this might be, including:

1. Google may have been disappointed with the speed of adoption for Google Analytics 4 and decided to act decisively.
2. Google circumventing some of the legal heat that Universal Analytics is facing in the EU.
3. Google wanting to cut costs and rid itself of technical debt associated with thousands of websites with legacy solutions installed. Since GA4 is designed to support Google’s advertising network, it guarantees more revenue than the competition.

Now there is a concrete deadline to make the switch, marketers will need to decide whether they want to start adjusting to Google Analytics 4 or start afresh with a new platform.

Source: SEW

Using Google My Business (GMB) To Generate Leads

Google My Business (GMB) is a free and very useful tool that allows you to manage how your business is getting listed on Google. This lists on Google Search and Maps.  Google hols currently the 78 percent majority in the search engine market and it offers a massive platform to gain potential leads with a number of benefits. You can use GMB to manage the details such as your business name, address, contact details, hours and location, as well as monitor reviews, add photos and gain insight on how people are searching for your business.  You can also post on your GMB page and even download the app to manage your listing wherever you are. You can also set up messaging so that your customers can always stay in touch with your business. 

Generate Leads With GMB

Once you create your business listing on GMB, you will increase your business’ exposure online. Please consider the below steps to ensure you get more qualified leads-

1. Connect your GMB with Google Analytics
2. Track your leads through GMB Insights
3. Optimize a listing for lead capture

When you use Google Analytics, you can accurately track how many leads you receive from your GMB listing. You can also use Insights to track customer actions, like reservation requests, directions, and more. You can keep an eye on the trends and see how customers reach your website by looking at how they interact with a listing.

GMB is a great platform to promote your blog content, product specials, webinars and more; you can also add specials and coupons for customers to benefit from. This is why you should think of your GMB listing as a ‘mini-website’ of sorts, that will need regular content and updates to stay relevant and be published in front of potential customers. 

Always make sure to make regular updates to your listing to allow your business to stand out as much as possible and to show on search engine results.

How to Set Up Google My Business

If you are ready to list your business on GMB, here are the steps to follow:

Step 1: Log into your Google Account (or the one you want to associate with your business). If you don’t already have a Google Account, create one.

Step 2: Go to google.com/business and click on ‘Start now’ in the top right corner.

Step 3: Enter your business name.

Step 4: Enter your business address.

Step 5: If you deliver to your customers instead of them coming to you, check the box “I deliver goods and services to my customers”. You can also choose ‘Hide my address (it’s not a store) if you are working from home and don’t want your address shown. Finally, select your delivery area. 

Step 6: Choose a suitable category for your business. Try to be as accurate as possible as you are basically telling Google which type of customers you want your business listing displayed to.

Step 7: Add your business website or phone number.

Step 8: Select the type of verification option you want to use. You can also choose to do this later by clicking “Try a different method" - "Later”.

Worried about Google tracking? Tips to protect your privacy

We all love Google, sure their results are awesome, however if you're concerned about privacy follow this post to know how you can modify the data of yourself that Google already has. Google is the number one search engine in the world now. Yes, it is and Google can snoop into your lives, build a huge profile over your connections and sell them. That's how it has amassed a fortune of making Google a top MNC in the world. Literally, Google is almost owning the internet. 

They read/scan your emails, have built a profile based on you by tracking your web usage activities and advertising preferences of yours linked to a unique advertising id and sells them to the highest bidder at a great price. But unknowingly we take risk on losing our important data, ignoring how should we protect sensitive data from loss or theft.

How and where your data hides?

 Go to https://myaccount.google.com and you will find the shit you have done over the internet. You can delete them and disable all the things.

If you actively use Gmail, Google Drive, Google Assistant and what not? They are free because they aren't selling you the product. It's we the consumers who are the victims or so-called products.

In fact, they are making billions out of your crush's romantic messages, your cute kids pictures or even some of the weird and wild imaginary things your searched for on their website. Google maintains huge archives with a mammoth amount of data.

There have been several instances recently based on racial profiling and discriminatory hiring practices. For this, Google has been warned by several privacy and security agencies for alleged snooping into everything out their on the internet as if they own it! European Union has alleged Google a lot of times.

How to prevent security & privacy breach?

Even if you are a great Google lover, there are few steps that can be followed to be safe while using email/search/cloud services over internet by controlling or avoiding few Google products.

· Opt out of advertising based on your preferences.

· Stop using Gmail and switch to Protonmail/Tutanota.

· Avoid Google Drive and instead use Tresorit/SpiderOak. Else use BoxCryptor or other services to pre encrypt your files before uploading to Google Drive etc.

· If you're concerned about privacy switch to DuckDuckGo/StartPage/Qwant immediately.

· In case, you want an alternate safe search engine then switch to Privado (It doesn't store search history or IPs).

· Undoubtedly chrome is a great browser. Install extensions like Ublock origin, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger and Disconnect. If not switch to Firefox!

· If you're using an android device do this as soon as possible: Navigate to Settings >Google>Ads and opt out of personalization and reset your advertising id every month.

· Try avoiding apps called Allo/Duo.

Along with the above steps, open the URL https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols and make sure you are signed in to your Google account. Then, make sure all the slider/toggles are to the left ("paused"). If a confirmation box pops up asking you to confirm that you want to pause an activity, confirm it by clicking "Pause". Toggle to pause for Location history, Voice & Audio Activity, YouTube Search & Watch History. Additionally, under "Web & App Activity", uncheck "Include Chrome browsing history and activity from websites and apps that use Google services."

There are aspects of Google, both good and bad, that this article hasn't covered because the company is simply too big, and too complicated to comprehend. I'm not anti Google, however being concerned about how our data is used, who uses it and what pros and cons it holds is a consumer right. I am writing this post and sharing my opinion on the basis I learnt and experienced while using several popular products of Google.

Just remember one thing, if you're not paying for the product, you are the product! There is no such thing as a free lunch. I’m not sure how many people are aware of this. But the next time while you’re browsing the internet for finding some information or enjoying a video on YouTube, always remember that Google is watching your every move; because that’s the price you pay for that free service.

I would love to hear from you more on this.

How Google Analytics Can Help Business [Infographic]

Google Analytics can always track your website data. These data can be used to analyze and help strengthen your marketing efforts. There are different areas to look at inside the Google Analytics report, here are five areas which small businesses should focus on to get a better understanding on their website: 1. Traffic Sources, 2. Demographics, 3. What Draws People To The Site, 4. Audience Engagement, 5. Identify Problems Area.

When you have a better understanding of how your keywords work, you also gain a better perspective of your customers. Soon, you will begin to notice behavioral patterns based on their keyword usage and page visits. With this information, you will be able to segment your customers as well. You can find out which of the websites that lead users to your site churn out the most conversion rates. You can also learn about all the different ways that visitors are brought to your site, and may even learn a surprising thing or two about these funnels.

Source : Orbit Media Studios