The Data Driven Newsletter
​Harnessing Data to Drive Growth
​Volume 11.9.4
September 22, 2023

Reading time: 6 minutes

​

Hey Reader,

The dust is starting to settle from the GA4 migration, and we’re starting to clearly see what’s working and what’s not working for many of us.

⏲️ The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Google Analytics 4

We’re almost three months past the July 1 cutover.
​
This didn’t turn out the way I expected it would go, and neither did a lot of GA4 experts. Even we could tell that there were internal tensions within Google itself on how to implement GA4 and migrate everyone over to it.

Then when the cutover date passed by, many of us continued to get streaming data into Universal Analytics. A last-minute announcement from Google clarified that the cutover would take several weeks longer than originally thought.

Another recurring theme was that many marketers and agencies complained that there were many data inconsistencies in their GA4 reports.

Now I know there were several factors that contributed to these inconsistencies, and I’m going live on a webinar next Thursday, September 28th at 1 PM Eastern time to shed light on the “why’s” behind this.

In this webinar, my goal is to provide clarity on the root causes of data discrepancies, how to reconcile your reports, and help you make better marketing decisions.

If you haven’t already signed up, click below to do so.

​Register to attend and get my Analytics ROI Calculator for free

SPONSOR ​ 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Turn Your Audience Into a Thriving, Revenue-Generating Community Want to deepen relationships with your audience while increasing revenue? Discover Skool - the dynamic community platform that adds life to your brand. Say goodbye to static landing pages and transform your audience interaction with engaging content, lively virtual events, and comprehensive on-demand resources, all housed in one place. With Skool, your audience becomes a thriving community. You're not just promoting. You're creating memorable experiences that resonate with your members, encouraging them to share. But that's not all - Skool lets you capitalize on your community with subscription payments and on-demand content. Plus, with the power of SEO and a rewarding referral program (40% monthly commission!), your community will continue growing organically. Learn more

🎙️ Business Unfiltered Podcast EP #20: Working With a Bookkeeper

Drowning in paperwork on business finances? As an agency owner, it's tempting to DIY on your own.

But there's a better way.

Hiring an expert bookkeeper was a total game-changer for my agency. They brought order to the fiscal chaos in just 30 days. I went from scrambling to keep up… to having a clear financial picture and reliable forecasts.

No more unpaid invoices or forgotten expenses. The ROI was immediate.

Within the first quarter, we uncovered profit leaks equivalent to the bookkeeper's entire annual salary.

Don't wait until errors and inefficiencies are costing you big. The right bookkeeping partner pays for themselves 10x over.

Chris Mercer and I recently chatted about working with bookkeepers on our new Business Unfiltered podcast episode, so have a listen!

​Listen here​

📊 [Analytics] Research Shows Dark Social Incorrectly Attributed as “Direct” Traffic

If you’re using GA4 (or any other analytics platform) to see where your visitors come from, be careful when you interpret “direct” traffic.

Traffic attributed as “direct” may come from many sources, and you may want to reclassify these sources as social, email, SMS, offline campaigns, etc.

Rand Fishkin at Sparktoro showed that most traffic from social media and private messaging platforms showed up as “(direct)/(none)”. However, public posts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter provided more accurate referral data.

So what’s the takeaway here?

When dark social traffic shows up as “direct” in GA4, it drastically underreports the true impact of social media, especially private messaging channels.

While there will always be some inaccuracies with dark social attribution, the best way to deal with this is to not attribute all direct traffic to non-social channels.

Check this article out for more details on how this research was conducted, and other actionable takeaways:

​Read more​

💡 Blog Post: Google Analytics 4 Benchmarking - What We Know Now

Google Analytics benchmarking reports allow you to see how your website is trending in your industry.

The problem, though, is that these reports currently don’t exist.

Don’t panic though.

GA4 doesn’t collect benchmarking data by default, but you can activate it inside of 10 seconds. And you can use alternate resources to fill in any gaps.

Our article walks you through how to do this, step by step:

​Read article​

🎥 YouTube: Bots, Keep Out Of GA4!

Sick of bots screwing up your analytics?

GA4 promises automatic bot filtering, but some still slip through the cracks.

So how can we catch these rogue clickers and kick them to the curb?

Turns out some metrics are better bot detectors than others. Session duration, for one. Bots work at lightning speed while humans… not so much. If your "users" are smashing track records, something fishy is going on.

Here’s another sneaky tactic: You can track engagement time in milliseconds. Bots don't think twice about exposing their inhuman speeds when you've got a stopwatch on them!

Watch this video exposing bots hiding in your GA4 data, and how to deal with them:

​Watch video​

See you next week!