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How to use BigQuery without GA360: insights from Measurefest 2019

Adam Englebright12 September 20191 min read
How to use BigQuery without GA360: insights from Measurefest 2019

Speaking at Measurefest

For the first time in a few years, I took to the stage at Measurefest to talk about how to get your data from Google Analytics into BigQuery, and what you can do with it when you get there.

Affordable BigQuery solutions

Obviously, Analytics 360 can do this, but it costs $$$ per year. I outlined some more affordable methods, including third-party connector solutions, and provided a detailed example of how we would use our own Pipelines solution and what we could achieve with it. Sadly, unlike last time, there wasn't a central Garfield-based metaphor—Calvin and Hobbes put in several appearances, but as visual flair only.

Speaker presenting about BigQuery Without Analytics 360 at a Measurefest conference

The impact of App + Web

I ended the talk with a brief overview of the changes that App + Web will bring to the analytics landscape - both in general and specifically pertaining to this question (since Firebase plugs into BigQuery directly, it changes the game somewhat!) - Mark has talked more about that here.

Slides and next steps

My slides are below, and if you're interested in talking more about our pipeline solutions, App + Web or BigQuery/Google Cloud services, please get in touch!

https://www.slideshare.net/AdamEnglebright/bigquery-without-analytics-360-measurefest-2019-adam-englebright/edit?src=slideview&type=privacy

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