Conversion Tracking

Ecommerce and conversion setup (203 posts)

BigQuery AI.GENERATE tutorial: turn SQL queries into AI-powered insights

BigQuery just got a major upgrade, you can now plug directly into Vertex AI using the new AI.GENERATE function. Translation: your analytics data and generative AI are now best friends, and they’re hanging out right inside SQL. That opens up a whole world of new analysis options for GA4 data, but it also raises some questions: * How do you actually set it up? * What’s it good for (and when should you avoid it)? * Why would you batch the query? Let’s walk through it step by step. Step 1: H

Katie Kaczmarek•3 Sept 2025

Data pipeline optimisation with Google Cloud and Dataform

In our recent engagement with a client, we went on a journey to transform their data pipelines, tackling inefficiencies in performance and cost within their Google Cloud BigQuery environment. Our efforts culminated in a comprehensive optimisation strategy that used Dataform, improved SQL practices, and implemented tailored solutions for significant performance gains and cost savings. Here’s a deep dive into the highlights of our project. Identifying inefficiencies in BigQuery workflows We beg

Prasanna Venkatesan•22 Apr 2025

How to extract GA4's event sequencing in BigQuery using the new batch fields

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) exports event data to BigQuery, enabling detailed user behavior analysis. However, GA4 batches events before sending them, making GA4 event sequencing in BigQuery more complex. Fortunately, three fields—batch_event_index, batch_ordering_id, and batch_page_id—help provide precise sequencing information. For a full schema of the GA4 export, head over to google documentation. This article breaks down these fields in a clear, practical way and shows how to use them togethe

Katie Kaczmarek•24 Feb 2025

2024: Measurelab's year in review

Same same but different At the beginning of the year, I wasn't quite sure what Measurelab would look like by the end of 2024. Altman's assistants had just been unleashed. The robots were on the march. Would the analytics arena be conquered by AI? Would we all be replaced by intelligent agents? As it turns out, no. Things are pretty much the same - on the surface at least. And that's no bad thing. After the tumultuous ups and downs of a rollercoaster 2023, I'll take steady, deliberate progress

Steven Elliott•27 Dec 2024

What is offline event data import in GA4?

Offline event data import in Google Analytics 4 allows you to upload event data that was acquired outside of your website or app, such as in-store purchases, contact centre interactions, or CRM data. This can be critical for businesses seeking to bridge the gap between online and offline user actions, resulting in a more complete picture of customer behaviour. How to import offline event data into GA4 You can upload event data into GA4 through a process called Data Import. This can be done ma

Nasima Khatun•22 Nov 2024

The modernisation of marketing and the role of marketing analytics

Navigating the ever-evolving landscape of marketing technology, I've come to terms with a key realisation: marketing analytics is marketing. This acknowledgment hasn't always been easy. Years ago, as a humble web analyst, the lines weren't as blurred. However, with the advent of tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4), stringent privacy laws such as GDPR, and changing browser policies like those of Safari, the role of a web analyst has transformed significantly. In the old world - us web analysts

Daniel Perry-Reed•19 Jul 2024

Grand Designs: "The Warehouse to CDP conversion"

Opening scene: A large meeting room at BigCorp. A systems architecture diagram with lots of boxes and arrows flowing from left to right fills a large whiteboard. Kelvin joins Jan (marketing director) and Joe (head of data) at the table, earnest expression, hands clasped in front of him. Kelvin: So, Jan, Joe, tell me a bit about the history of the warehouse. Joe: Well, going way back, it was originally an on-prem system, which was replaced back in 2019 with an Oracle data warehouse as part of a

Steven Elliott•14 Mar 2024

GA4 content performance reporting: Howard Kennedy success story

Howard Kennedy LLP is a London based, full-service law firm with nearly 200 lawyers in one location. They specialise in providing straightforward advice to entrepreneurial businesses and individuals on domestic and international matters. The challenge Howard Kennedy creates various ‘Hot Topic’ campaign pages featuring videos, podcasts, and articles. Despite tracking these pages with Google Analytics 4, the performance data was not directly available to campaign managers or lawyers. The object

Mark Rochefort•7 Feb 2024

GA4 app attribution case study: Pret + Adjust integration

Pret a Manger is a brick and mortar chain of coffee shops serving freshly made food and good organic coffee. They have 600+ stores distributed globally and their analytics team is responsible for over 30 million events every month collected across both web and app.  “Measurelab have been a key partner to us as we’ve undertaken a complete overhaul of our app and web analytics. Having access to the wide range of skillsets within the organisation has been invaluable as we’ve embarked on this journ

Mark Rochefort•1 Nov 2023

GTM’s new Google tag: one tag to rule them all

Goodbye to the GA4 Config Tag Anyone who’s spent any time implementing the Google Analytics 4 (GA4) tracking in Google Tag Manager (GTM) over the past few years will be familiar with the GA4 Configuration tag. Essentially the top level of tracking within GTM for configuring GA4, this is where you would specify your Measurement ID, configure server requests and specify things like event parameters and user properties. The GA4 Config tag would then typically act as a reference point for all your

Nick Roberts•8 Sept 2023

How to set up GA4’s custom insights and email alerts

What are custom insights? Sometimes the data available in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can seem a bit overwhelming especially if you have a complex site with lots of users coming and going every day. It can often seem difficult to quickly identify the most important trends or anomalies. Thankfully GA4’s Analytics Intelligence is here to help bring some much needed clarity. This is a group of features that uses modelling to help you understand your data. Insights is one such feature and it comes in

Timothy Gorringe•17 Apr 2023

How to create events in GA4 using the UI

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) now gives users the ability to create new events or modify existing events through the use of the GA4 user interface. This is a fantastic add-on available to all and will be welcomed by those who are not familiar with their existing tag management system or do not have the relevant tech resources available to make some changes in a timely manner. Why would you create an event? First of all, creating a new event keeps you safe from interacting with existing events that

Olade Honvo•11 Apr 2023

Customer segmentation: how to get to know your customers better

In marketing, it’s vital to know your customers and how they interact with your brand. You need to know what they buy, when they buy, how often, how much... But why? Because if you know their habits and behaviours, you can tailor your marketing tactics and even personalise your customers’ journey. In doing so, you can maintain and even raise engagement between your customers and your brand. So how do we do this? Before thinking about any targeting strategies, you need to get to know your cus

Oli Paterson•22 Jan 2021

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•23 Sept 2020

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•22 Jun 2020

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•7 Feb 2020

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•4 Feb 2020

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•29 Jan 2020

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•17 Jan 2020

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•9 Jan 2020

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•6 Jan 2020

Three Small Recent GA/GTM Improvements

Google are always making small unannounced tweaks and improvements to their products—here are a few of the more noteworthy ones we've spotted recently! Scroll Depth Tracking I gave out at length last year about the fact that you can't specify the trigger conditions for the listener dropping on the scroll depth trigger—meaning the page length couldn't be calculated accurately and causing scroll depth events to fire early. I suggested that they might want to let you select the listener conditio

Adam Englebright•20 Sept 2019

Next‑Generation measurement with Google Analytics 4

Why GA4 has us excited This announcement has us rather excited at Measurelab. It has been a long time coming and represents the beginning of a completely new shift in how we use and think about digital measurement with Google Analytics. Leaving the old pageview model behind What we are effectively looking at here is a move away from Google Analytics as we know it, which inherited its underlying data collection schema and methods from Urchin Analytics; the analytics software product Google bo

Steven Elliott•2 Aug 2019

GTM iframe tracking – Solutions Corner #2

This is part 2 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 fire Google Analytics event to keep track of your Google Optimize experiments in GA, and this time we're looking at tracking clicks on iframes. We have encountered, several times, the situation of a client wanting to track clicks on an iframe. While we can't do much about interactions with stuff within the iframe without having GTM a

Adam Englebright•2 Apr 2019

Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce tracking with Adobe DTM

Here at Measurelab, we work predominantly with the Google stack but that doesn't stop us using other tools. As there's not much documentation available in the public forum on how to implement Enhanced Ecommerce in Google Analytics using Adobe Dynamic Tag Manager (DTM) formerly know as Satellite, I think this blog post would be useful. As good introduction to the tools itself, below there’s a useful overview of Adobe’s Dynamic Tag Management architecture, which is from their learning resource pa

Alex Cirstea•21 Jan 2019

What is a Data Strategy and do I need one?

Let’s assume you’ve been using Google Analytics in your organisation for some time and your digital marketing endeavours at least are data-driven. More and more people are starting to see the benefit in using data to get their jobs done and now everyone’s talking about Data Science or Big Data or whatever. To be clear - when we say “data” we are not talking about just Google Analytics but the proliferation of this tool means that it is very likely a starting point for your data analytics. Alongs

Mark Rochefort•13 Dec 2018

Overcoming the limitations of Google Analytics

Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are used by around 30 to 50 million companies worldwide. The tools are great for basic web analytics but restrict the user to aggregated data unless a substantial fee is paid (reported to be £90K per annum). This presents a large obstacle for small to medium sized businesses who want to develop a data-driven strategy. Let’s imagine a small retailer wants to implement a recommendation engine. Not a bad idea given that Amazon estimates that around 35% of sal

David Kane•5 Nov 2018

GTM event tracking best practices – Solutions Corner #1

This is part 1 of what I hope will become a semi-frequent series on here, dedicated to reusable GTM solutions for scenarios or issues we've encountered more than once. This particular entry is a companion to Mark's piece from a couple of years back, but for Google Optimize rather that Optimizely. In short, it sends data layer pushes so you can fire Google Analytics events when there are Optimize experiments running, which saves you from using custom dimension slots etc in the course of ordinary

Adam Englebright•1 Oct 2018

Adding Firebase Analytics to your React Native app

<span style="font-weight: 400;">This article describes how to integrate Google Analytics for Firebase (formerly Firebase Analytics) to a React Native app. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">In order to do this, you need to use a JavaScript bridge called </span><a href="https://github.com/invertase/react-native-firebase"><span style="font-weight: 400;">RNFirebase</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. &nbsp;</span> This is lightweight layer sitting on top of native Firebase librarie

Alex Cirstea•23 May 2018

The Problem With Google Tag Manager Triggers: Those Shiny New Built-In Options (And a Possible Solution)

Hey folks. The shiny new Built-In Triggers for things we used to have to use big old Custom HTML tags to track before—Youtube tracking! Scroll depth! Element visibility!—have had a bit of time to bed in now. We had a look at changing over to the new built-in solutions everywhere we were using Custom HTML—if it's being done by Tag Manager itself, it has to be better, right? Right? Wrong. This issue is related to a fact that I've discovered through experience but not seen actually documented exc

Adam Englebright•18 Jan 2018

Activist analytics: using digital analytics to drive change

Hey folks, Adam here. I had quite a busy weekend last week - one that has now been documented in the national press! - and thought I'd share some thoughts about it on here. My journey into activist analytics I've been a member of the Labour Party and the related grassroots movement Momentum for several years now, but beyond a bit of leafleting here and there social anxiety has kept me away from the phonebanking, street stands and doorknocking that lie at the heart of party political activity.

Adam Englebright•26 Jul 2017

Free Google Analytics Health Check Template by Measurelab

Hey Folks, It's been a while since the last time I wrote anything on the blog so I thought I'd make it up to you with a little freebie. Why GA health checks are important One of the most common tasks at Measurelab (and I'm sure in many other analytics agencies) is to run a "health check" of the main features and configurations of the Google Analytics user interface. How the template works This varies in depth and level of detail depending on various factors but we do find it quite helpful

Juan Barros•17 Feb 2017

When GA just isn't enough - my #measurefest talk

<span style="font-weight: 400;">I spoke at <a href="http://www.measurefest.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">#Measurefest</a> in the Barbican last Friday. Here are the slides from my talk but I wanted to write a quick summary to give a bit more context as the slides on their own don’t tell the story. </span> When GA just isn't enough from darafitzgerald The title of the talk was "When GA just isn't enough". For some that know me this might sound like an unexpected title. I sp

Dara Fitzgerald•24 Nov 2016

How to integrate Optimizely with GTM & Universal Analytics

If you want to integrate your Optimizely experiment and variation data with Google’s Universal Analytics via Google Tag Manager, you will soon see that the official documentation assumes a custom‑coded implementation. It then instructs you to edit your GA pageview tag directly. If you are using Google Tag Manager, then you obviously will not want to follow this guidance as you probably have the Google Analytics pageview tag in a tag template. It is always advisable to keep custom JavaScript an

Steven Elliott•16 Sept 2016

Bounce rate vs. Exit rate part one

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Many companies consider a high bounce rate an issue that needs to be addressed quickly. Others support a high bounce rate. The truth is that most people don’t understand what “bounce rate” really means.</span> So what is a Bounce rate? According to Google: Bounce Rate is the percentage of single-page sessions (i.e. sessions in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page). A better definition would be: Bounce Ra

Alex Cirstea•12 Sept 2016

The Measurelab Year of Self Betterment

As Measurelab, we have been running bi-monthly Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager training sessions up in London for nearly 18 months now. We like to keep the groups small enough (under 10) to be personable and really help each attendee out with their questions and unique&nbsp;requirements. Due to the success of these training events, we are now running them every month (see all the dates for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.measurelab.co.uktraining/google-analytics-training/">GA Training</a>&n

Daniel Perry-Reed•27 May 2016

GAIQ: How I prepared...and passed it!

It’s been exactly a month since I started to work at Measurelab, and so far it has been an amazing experience. Much of the industry jargon and tools are starting to sound familiar and I can make tea or coffee for almost anyone in the team without having to ask how they take it. In order to celebrate the fact that I had survived for a whole month, Mark suggested me to have a go at the Google Analytics Individual Qualification, (which I did..and passed!) For those of you that are not familia

Juan Barros•2 Dec 2014

Google Analytics health check: Part 2: third week guide

Continuing the GA health check Last week, I covered the first few steps of our Google Analytics Health Check, as one of the first, and most important steps when putting together a measurement plan. To recap a bit, the main aim of a Health Check is to ensure that we are collecting the right information, filtering out any undesired data, to allow us to create actionable reports for the stakeholders that, at the same time, help them to make informed business decisions. Checking goals and funnels

Juan Barros•24 Nov 2014

Google Analytics health check – Part 1: second week guide

Diving into GA health checks Right, now that some of the basic concepts and industry jargon are starting to sound a bit more familiar, things are starting to get interesting – not that last week was boring but this week I’ve been having a go at one of the most important parts of a piece of “initial discovery” for a client: A Google Analytics Health Check. Our approach to health checks In this document, which the team creates for every single one of our clients, we run a detailed audit of the

Juan Barros•17 Nov 2014

Floods, Scroll Depth, Bonfire and lots of coffee: My first week at Measurelab

<p class="p1"><span class="s1">It’s been, without a doubt, an unusual first week. Upon arrival to the mind-blowing <a href="https://www.measurelab.co.ukcontact/"><span class="s2">Old Candlemakers</span></a> building in central Lewes, I walked into the office to see the team running up and down trying to clean up the mess: one of the roof windows was left open during the weekend and we ended up with a meeting room that looked more like a fish pond than a place to catch-up or meet clients. Fort

Juan Barros•10 Nov 2014

Enhanced Ecommerce & Data Import - #BrightonSEO slides

On Friday the Measurelab team attended <a href="http://www.brightonseo.com/">BrightonSEO</a>&nbsp;and I did a talk on two exciting features of GA: Enhanced Ecommerce and Data Import. Here is the deck for those who are interested, as well as the Twitter feed that followed the talk. Enhanced Ecommerce & Data Import for GA - #BrightonSEO Sept 2014 from darafitzgerald The advanced Google Analytics training course was an eye opener and really helpful! thanks @darafitzgerald #BrightonSEO — Man

Dara Fitzgerald•15 Sept 2014

Key universal analytics insights: lessons for a GA4 transition

The conference bit of BrightonSEO is happening tomorrow, and for those who aren't going along we thought it might be nice to post the little piece I wrote for the newspapers they're distributing at the conference this year. If you are going, look out for us and say hi, and make sure to come along to Dara's talk in the afternoon! When Universal Analytics came out of beta earlier this year, many were overwhelmed by the plethora of new features. Not a day goes by without a client asking us "how do

Adam Englebright•11 Sept 2014

Adam's Analytics Adventure: Week 1

<h1>Day One</h1> Upon alighting from the bus as I arrived for my first day of work, I found myself crossing the road next to a group with whom I immediately felt a degree of kinship – casually dressed (but not overly so), a scattering of black-plastic-rimmed glasses – the sort of people who, upon immediate visual inspection, you might peg as the employees of some kind of dotcom, web 2.0 startup. Such proved to be the case, in fact, as they all funneled into the shared office space where I w

Adam Englebright•4 Jul 2014

How to set up Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce (5 easy steps)

If you are anything like me, you will have seen the fandangled new “enhanced” e-commerce reports that are starting to become available in Google Analytics accounts (N.B. - Universal web properties only) and thought “yes, I’ll have some of that”. The reports allow for much deeper analysis of shopping behaviour - to understand things like influence of product impressions on conversion - as well as providing much anticipated refund and voucher/ affiliate code support. In the spirit of catchy blog

Steven Elliott•30 Jun 2014

Universal Analytics is out of Beta... So What Now? #brightonseo talk slides

Yesterday, at BrightonSEO, <a href="http://measurelab2.wpengine.com/blog/author/dara/">Dara</a>&nbsp;(our Analytics Director) gave a talk on the state of Universal Analytics now that it is out of beta. It was well received by all (see Twitter feed below). Here's the slides (on <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/darafitzgerald/universal-analytics-out-of-beta-brightonseo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Slideshare</a>) from the presentation in case you missed it or wanted to view them

Mark Rochefort•25 Apr 2014

Universal Analytics is out of Beta...BrightonSEO talk (coming up)

In line with the announcement on Wednesday that Universal Analytics is <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/universal-analytics-out-of-beta-into.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">coming out of Beta</a>, I changed my upcoming talk at <a href="http://www.brightonseo.com/agenda-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrightonSEO</a> to focus entirely on this. When I spoke at events previously about Universal Analytics, there was still a lack of parity with Class

Dara Fitzgerald•4 Apr 2014

Google Tag Manager auto-event tracking - useful Tags, Macros and Rules for Google Analytics events

The recent introduction of <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/no-code-required-auto-event-tracking.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">auto-event tracking</a>&nbsp;for <a href="http://www.google.com/tagmanager/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google Tag Manager</a>&nbsp;was a welcome piece of news for many of us keen to remove custom jQuery from within the container. But it quickly became apparent that, to make real use of the auto-event tracking feature,

Mark Rochefort•25 Nov 2013

Analytics planning: the heart of a truly measurable digital strategy

Google Analytics is free and that’s a wonderful thing. But it does mean people can often undervalue the reports and the benefits that a truly structured approach to analytics brings to a business. Sadly, more often than not, a developer or webmaster adds the default Google Analytics tracking code to a website and leaves it at that. Trawling through the reports to find any kind of insight is left up to an analyst or marketing executive – who, later, attempts to find some kind of meaning in this

Steven Elliott•21 Nov 2013

Migrate jQuery event listeners to GTM auto‑event listeners: a better way

Tag Containers are great. In a former life I was developer and I can really appreciate how much help they can be to people wanting to just add a "bit of code" to a website. But, as said former developer, I can also appreciate what a potential disaster it is to give the marketing guys the ability to add code to a website - outside of your carefully considered source control mechanisms and deployment routines. So - the recent announcement (there's quite a few on that link) from the team at Google

Steven Elliott•10 Oct 2013

GA Summit 2013: Key Google Analytics updates & insights

The theme of this years summit is a focus on helping customers in three areas: Access, Empower, Act. The slide above was shown by the GA team to summarise the 3 part theme. Babak Pahlavan (Director of Product Management, Google Analytics) let the crowd know that GA have made 70+ releases in 2013 so far, which makes sense on reflection given how busy the year has been. This has included major updates such as the global roll out of Universal Analytics, the introduction of the Attribution Modellin

Dara Fitzgerald•2 Oct 2013