Module 3- Create Account & Profiles

Creating Your Account and Profiles

Now that we have completed the website Pre-analysis it’s time to move into setting up your Google Analytics interface.

Google Analytics Training Video Series

How Does Google Sign up Work?

Google really wants to get to know you as a user of their products. In a perfect world one user name and one password is all you need for all Google products. If you decide to have more than one account with Google it can get a little pain in the a#$ sometimes. Google has lots of free products available. Many of them are free for use that require only your unique username and password to access. So, for joining up with a Analytics or AdWords all that is needed is the current user name and password you are using for other Google products. If you do not have an account with Google then it’s time to make one. This can be done by entering Google AdWords or Google Analytics and simply signing up for a new account OR using existing login.

Creating Account Using Google Adwords

If you decide that you are going to use Google AdWords to get targeted traffic to your web site, register your account with Google AdWords. Once you register your account you can simply check your auto tagging on and apply cost data in Analytics. This tells Google Adwords to talk to Google Analytics. Once you turn on the tagging on, Google Analytics and Google Adwords are now communicating. With one more step found in the Google Analytics interface “cost source for AdWords” checked on you are ready to go. So there are, only a few simple little steps you will need to take to ensure Google Analytics will report on Google Adwords cost data.

AdWords Auto-Tagging

Google Analytics Training Video Series

Analytics Cost Source Applied

Create Google Analytics Account Only

If you know for sure you will never use Google AdWords, then you can simply enter Google Analytics with an existing username and password to create your account. Once again, if you do not have an existing username and password for other Google products then you can create a new account in Google Analytics. Understand that the username and password you use in creating your Google Analytics account can also be used for any other Google product… most of which are free.

Setting Up Your Profiles

Google Analytics profiles work like channels. If you turn on your TV and watch a specific TV show on channel seven you are still watching the same TV set. Profiles work like channels on a television set. They allow you to see the projected view presented differently. What makes profiles present data differently is the use of filters. Filters can be applied to each individual profile in order to give you data that is uniquely enhanced. For example, you may setup one profile to track paid traffic only. This means when you tune into the paid only channel all you will see is the traffic coming to your site through paid sources. The use of filters and profiles is limitless. Use your imagination and you’ll find ways to create many channels that give you a different view of data. You can create a master profiles to log website data specific to each web property. Then, within each profile you can create site specific profiles.

Adding Profiles

Because you can create so many profiles it is a wise decision to make use of each and every profile that will be useful to you. This will largely depend on the campaigns you are running to drive traffic to your website. During profile creation I like to create three or four profiles for each domain. In the video I show you how to create for profiles; master, paid only, raw, and sandbox. The video describes why you would create these profiles and how to filter them.

Google Analytics Training Video Series

Purpose of Profiles

Master

Logs are all data from all traffic sources completely

Paid only

Logs all data from paid sources only

Raw

Has no filters or goals applied. The purpose of this profile is to have a reference of an unfiltered profile in case you need to reference changes you have made that don’t seem right

Sandbox

Filters and goals are also applied to the sandbox profile. In this profile we use it to test new advanced implementations before initiating them in your master profile. In a sense it is a playground.

In The Next Video

As we move into the third module we will begin to see how to configure the Google Analytics interface with goals and filters. In the meantime why not practice what you have learned so far by a applying this knowledge to your Google Analytics accounts? Practice makes perfect. Google Analytics is an extremely powerful, enterprise class web analytics program. The true power is in setup and data interpretation. Anybody can put the code on a site and just let the data collect. Very few people have the ability to interpret the data and provide actionable recommendations. This is where the real money is.

Google Analytics Training Video Series

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