Using SQL-modeling to tell different stories about user behavior A bit over 7 months ago, Jules (our Head of Data Analysis and Conversion Optimization) sent me a message in Slack letting me know that he just published a blog post: “Session modeling in BigQuery SQL“. It’s a really fine post, and I recommend that you […]
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Fixing Shopify’s Broken Data Layer with Server Side Google Tag Manager
At Analytics Ninja, we find ourselves ever more and more excited about using Google Tag Manager Server Side containers (SSGTM). While Google is certainly not the first vendor to introduce Server Side tag management technology, SSGTM it is quickly gaining wide adoption because, well, you know…. Google. I digress… It is important to note that […]
Weighted Sorting in Google Data Studio using BigQuery
Finding the diamonds in the rough… One of my favorite features in the Google Analytics UI is the ability to do weighted sorting. With more and more Google Analytics reporting being done in Data Studio, being able to do weighted sorting is something I have felt is sorely missing. (Spoiler Alert: it still is […]
Google Analytics UserID Views and Visitor Back Stitching
Google Analytics and UserId Backstitching For a few years now I’ve been obsessing about how Google Analytics treats UserIDs. There are quite a few posts out there for how Google Analytics UserID feature allows you to “Measure Real Users Instead of Devices” or “Understand People’s Behavior“. I’ve always complained argued that the UserId functionality in […]
Advanced Page Load Speed Measurement with Google Analytics
One of the most common needs that have come up for Analytics Ninja’s clients in 2019 has been measuring page speed. The marketing industry seems to be very heavily focused on the topic with a wide range of articles and presentations at conferences focusing on the need for a fast site. There is a widely […]
Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention and Google Analytics
I’ve tried not to think too much about Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Platform (ITP) lately. The topic tends to get me worked up and grumpy. For those of you who don’t know much about ITP, I’ll link to a few resources here as this post is not meant to be an introductory description of the issue. […]