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The latest news, provocative views and some handy how-tos from the world of data, analytics, cloud and AI.

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234 results · Page 9 of 13

Google Analytics 4

The new future version of Google Analytics has been announced - now branded as Google Analytics 4. Building on the "App + Web" property that was released last year, this sets the direction for Google Analytics going forwards. It is now the default experiences for all new properties and is where all product developments will be focussed. Google Analytics 3, commonly known as Universal Analytics, was released in October 2012. This next product iteration for Google Analytics is a major step on fro

Mark Rochefort-

Three popular GTM server-side tagging misconceptions

With the recent release of server-side tagging for Google Tag Manager, a whole new woooooorld of possibilities has opened up. But on that, some people have got the wrong idea, so with that in mind, here's three popular (but wrong!) things people believe about server-side GTM. 1) You still need client-side GTM to make it work This is slightly unfair, as I can see why this misconception arose. You do need something to send your hits to the GTM server, and in many cases the easiest and best thin

Adam Englebright-

Life as a new starter: remote edition

In the analytics industry, everyone I have had the opportunity to work with is so passionate about their role and always thrives on learning and sharing techniques. So when you're starting a new job at an analytics agency you know you'll have the opportunity to learn lots of new tricks and experiment with new types of datasets, which is very exciting. Excitement is one of the two feelings you experience when starting a new job. Then comes the unknown, the nerves - What if I'm not what they expe

Jacob Birch-

We are going BIG on DATA

See what we did there? Okay, so maybe a tad too much on the title. It is catchy, so hey. Firstly - we are pretty chuffed to welcome Lace to our team. She joins us to spearhead our offering in all things DATA science and data engineering, which (to be completely frank) is where all roads point in this analytics game. With the advent of App plus Web (from Google Analytics), and particularly the opportunity to access raw data through BigQuery, this is an exciting place to be right now. Secondly -

Mark Rochefort-

Google Tag Manager form field tracking: capture pre-populated form changes

This is part 5 (and my first contribution, so bear with me) to this "semi-regular" series, dedicated to reusable GTM solutions for scenarios or issues we’ve encountered more than once. Last time, we looked at how to capture existing classic Google Analytics calls with GTM, and this time we'll be exploring how to track changes in pre-populated HTML form fields. Why I did it I was recently approached with a request from a client who wanted to know which fields were updated in a form that was pa

Victor Sarker-

Emergency Analytics Support

It can be tricky judging how to pitch a new offer in times of crisis. There’s a fine line between being genuinely helpful and appearing exploitative. Sometimes you have to just jump in and try things, knowing they may be misinterpreted by the minority. In business, indecision can be crippling. While people’s lives are undoubtedly the most precious thing, livelihoods are worth saving too. A number of our clients - particularly those in the retail sector - have been hit hard by recent events.

Steven Elliott-

Life moves pretty fast: navigating the remote work transition

Realising change was coming On Thursday, 12 March, advice about the coronavirus was still unclear. We did what we do best, we looked at the numbers. The modelling made it clear that, for the health of our team and community, we should move to remote work and begin social distancing. Adapting to remote work overnight It was a sudden change. Yet, being a digital (and people) business meant that this transition was a relatively easy one. We don't exactly have a factory to dismantle and move. Ou

Mark Rochefort-

Allowed to recommended: Week 1 – Remote work challenges in the UK

Last week the government's coronavirus advice moved from "contain" to "delay", and Measurelab moved from "allowing" to "recommending" that we work from home. As people left the office, one at a time, I couldn't help but feeling that I was saying goodbye to people for what would probably be quite a while. It's been a week since I've seen any of my colleagues in person and while we've been trying our best to continue to foster office camaraderie remotely, it's been a bit of a learning curve for al

Adam Englebright-

Working From Home: An Alternative Blog Post

I wouldn't really consider myself a writer and to my knowledge I've only ever written one blog post in my entire lifetime (which was more like a sarcastic Dry January Facebook post). But when Adam said he was writing a blog post about their experience of Working From Home during this Covid-19 pandemic and was asking for input from others - it sort of turned into it's own blog post anyway, so here goes: Every day I wake up and I'm full of energy.  In fact, I find myself with enough extra energy

Victor Sarker-

Google Tag Manager setup: how to create your first tag

Creating your first GTM tag This is the third of a series dedicated to introducing you, faithful reader, to the wonders and delights of Google Tag Manager. Last time, we took a high-level look at GTM and how it works, and today we'll be looking at how to set up a simple tag. Setting up a Google Analytics pageview tag We're going to set up a Google Analytics pageview tag. This replaces the old hardcoded GA that you'd used to have to put on every page of the site. We start by going to tags and

Adam Englebright-

Audience activation in 5 simple steps

Amidst news of cookies crumbling and third party cookies eventually becoming obsolete, there is even more emphasis on identifying visitors who arrive on websites and providing users with a reason to remain loyal to your brand. Here is a simple user case on how to effectively personalise your customer experience using the Google Marketing Platform. According to Econsultancy: “50% of consumers are likely to engage with a brand when they receive an interesting offer.” So how can you demonstrate

Aimée Hart-

Capturing existing classic GA calls with GTM – Solutions Corner #4

This is part 4 of a semi-regular series, dedicated to reusable GTM solutions for scenarios or issues we’ve encountered more than once. The challenge with pre-GTM classic calls Last time, we looked at how to turn on-page classic Google Analytics calls to data layer pushes, and this time we'll be looking at a supplement to that—what if the classic GA call you're looking to capture is before GTM loads? This pretty much only matters for ecommerce, so that's what the solution focuses on. We start

Adam Englebright-

Google Tag Manager basics: a closer look at GTM’s core concepts

Exploring GTM core concepts This is the second of a series dedicated to introducing you, faithful reader, to the wonders and delights of Google Tag Manager. Last time, we were looking at just what a tag manager is anyway? This time, we'll be taking a look at GTM itself. We're going to go through the three key components of GTM: tags, triggers and variables. We're not going to touch on the other things in the GTM sidebar, folders and templates, for the time being—they're useful extensions but n

Adam Englebright-

Google Tag Manager Basics #1 - What Is A Tag Manager?

This is the first of a new series dedicated to introducing the uninitiated to the wonders and delights of Google Tag Manager. Before we start thinking too closely about GTM itself, though, we'll pull back a bit and ask: What is a tag manager? A tag manager is a service that allows you to remotely insert and manage small pieces of code, or “tags”, onto a site by means of a Javascript snippet placed across the whole site. There are a number of different tag managers out there—Tealium, Ensighte

Adam Englebright-

Turning classic GA calls into dataLayer pushes with GTM

This is part 3 of a semi-regular series, dedicated to reusable GTM solutions for scenarios or issues we’ve encountered more than once. Last time we looked at how to track clicks on iframes using GTM, and this time we’re looking at how to turn on-page classic Google Analytics calls to data layer pushes. The problem with hard-coded GA calls Say you still have hard-coded calls to classic GA on the page, but the library code itself was being delivered via GTM. It's now been removed, but there are

Adam Englebright-

A day in the shoes of an Insight manager: Andrew Fowkes at EDF

For our regular "A Day In The Shoes" feature, Andy - Senior Research Executive at EDF - talks about delivering a fresh insights perspective and tells us about the skills he needs to be effective in his role. Here’s what his day-to-day looks like. Aimée: Can you start by telling me your job title and responsibilities Andy: I manage Customer Insight projects of all types at EDF . My view is that the role of an insight manager in a big organisation has changed massively. It’s moved away from jus

Aimée Hart-

How to Conduct an Exceptional Training Session

So… you’ve been asked to conduct a training session and you don’t know where to start. Or, you’re looking for a way to take your current training process to the next level. Whatever your level of experience, the following tips will help you make your next training session exceptional. 1. Know the subject The first step in giving an exceptional training session is being deeply familiar with the subject matter. In the words of Albert Einstein: You may think you know a subject through and throu

Dave Beatty-

Team weekend outing: Measurelab’s Dorset adventure

Measurelab hits the Dorset coast for a team weekend Last Friday we all put our "out of office" notifications on our email, ditched the computers and headed off to Bournemouth and the beautiful Dorset coast for a couple of days. It was time to reflect on how the company is evolving and a chance for us all to get to know each other a little bit better. Reflecting on our journey together It was really lovely for us to all be able to get around the same table and share our thoughts. Throughout t

Mark Rochefort-