Google Analytics Breakthrough: From Zero to Business Impact

by Feras Alhlou, Shiraz Asif, Eric Fettman

A complete, start-to-finish guide to Google Analytics instrumentation and reporting Google Analytics Breakthrough  is a much-needed comprehensive resource for the world's most widely adopted analytics tool. Designed to provide a complete, best-practices foundation in measurement strategy, implementation, reporting, and optimization, this book systematically demystifies the broad range of Google Analytics features and configurations. Throughout the end-to-end learning experience, you'll sharpen your core competencies, discover hidden functionality, learn to avoid common pitfalls, and develop next-generation tracking and analysis strategies so you can understand what is helping or hindering your digital performance and begin driving more success. Google Analytics Breakthrough offers practical instruction and expert perspectives on the full range of implementation and reporting skills: Millions of organizations have installed Google Analytics, including an estimated 67 percent of Fortune 500 companies, but deficiencies plague most implementations, and inadequate reporting practices continue to hinder meaningful analysis. By following the strategies and techniques in Google Analytics Breakthrough , you can address the gaps in your own still set, transcend the common limitations, and begin using Google Analytics for real competitive advantage. Critical contributions from industry luminaries such as Brian Clifton, Tim Ash, Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Jim Sterne – and a foreword by Avinash Kaushik – enhance the learning experience and empower you to drive consistent, real-world improvement through analytics.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology, Google, Reference

624 pages, Hardcover

Published September 6, 2016

About the author

Feras is Chief Technology Officer of Cardinal Path, a global consultancy in analytics and marketing intelligence. Feras is passionate about enabling individuals and organizations become more data informed. Feras is a co-author of Google Analytics Breakthrough, speaks at industry conferences and has traveled the globe educating businesses on analytics and optimization. Feras is married with three children, enjoys reading, skiing, aikido and volunteering. He serves on the board of the Red Cross-Northern California.

Reviews

[Marko Pacar · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only problem with this book is that it tries really hard to be useful both for complete newbies and intermediate-level folk. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, more often than not it's done a bit sloppy. Google Analytics Breakthrough is a fantastic intermediate level book on Google Analytics but it's not really suitable for complete beginners as it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. This poses a problem, as a large (about 30%) portion of the book is kind-of useless for people with prior experience and it's not really beginner friendly. I would much rather prefer the authors to write two separate books - GA basics and GA advanced, "GA advanced" being this book, maybe with a bit of extras included to cover the loss of basics.

Other than that, it's a great book - a lot of practical examples and tips from experts. It has a nice logical structure and is easy to read. Best of all, it covers some of the most important points of digital analytics - why to use it, how to use it and how to interpret the data.

It's a must read for everyone who is serious about digital analytics and is looking for a good book to cover a wide range of relevant topics.

[Sassan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tedious but vital read

[CT Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent in-depth coverage of Google Analytics that not only covers all the features of this powerful tool, but gives practical advice on gaining insights from the data and best practices for getting the most out of it.

The only reason I deducted a star is because some of the information is out of date. The book was published in 2016 so some of the GA screens have changed and Data Studio is not mentioned at all.

Still, I found this to be a great resource which I'm sure I'll reference often in the future!

[Ecky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionally interesting for this kind of subject.

[Carole Skees · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a few have stated, this book would be more digestible and approachable should it be split up by skill level.

[Cy Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on mastering Google Analytics. I would recommend to anyone interested about measuring data for their websites.

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even thou this is "old" book, there is lot to learn if you're beginner or have learned about GA.

[Gabriel Adamante · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great book, both for pros and newbies.

[Stan Skrabut · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a business website, one of the first things you're going to want to do is set up Google Analytics (GA). A great resource to learn how to use GA and to ensure you set up the proper parameters is Google Analytics Breakthrough: From Zero to Business Impact . I have put my GA into overdrive by working through the different chapters in this book. I can now better assess the success of my efforts on the internet. Read more

[Stephen Rynkiewicz]

Excellent resource in configuring Google Analytics to track events, tags and other data that help decision makers.