Update to Adwords Cost Data Import
If you’ve read my previous post about the GAIQ exam tips, you’ll notice in the section called Adwords Information, I talked about how the initial update by Google on how their cost data import update affected traffic reports in Google Analytics and how we’ve been debating in the GAAC forums about accounts that don’t have cost data import enabled treat Adwords traffic as direct instead of cpc. This will affect the traffic reports by over inflating direct traffic and slowly diminishes cpc traffic.
This really isn’t good as it doesn’t give you an accurate representation on how your online marketing activities are performing. With high direct traffic, you’d probably think, “Holy cow! My website brand really rocks and I don’t have to spend much money on online advertising anymore. Thus, you decide to cut down your Adwords spend or other forms of online advertising.”
One way to overcome that was to manually utm tag your destination URLs which would’ve been a big pain in the butt if you’ve got a large Adwords account with many campaigns and adgroups.
So finally Google made a post about a week ago about another update to the adwords cost data reporting that reverts back to how Google Analytics originally reported traffic from Adwords.
Now if you’ve got your Google Analytics account linked to Adwords, have auto tagging enabled but don’t have Adwords cost data applied, your Adwords traffic will now show as google/cpc, as it was originally.
What you should expect is a drop in direct traffic and a gradual increase in cpc traffic in your traffic reports.
Google Analytics Individual Qualification Tips – I Just Passed My Test
I just passed my Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) test today and scored 94%! Not bad eh? The passing score is 75%. So thought I’d post some tips here while the exam questions are still fresh in my mind.
You have 2 hours to complete the exam (more than enough) and there’s 70 questions that consist of multiple choice, true/false and select all that applies type questions. Basically the trickiest one I found was the select all that applies type questions.
Materials To Go Through – Conversion University
Before you start the GAIQ exam, make sure you go through the materials at Google‘s conversion university – especially the ones that you don’t know much about. I didn’t go through all of them, just the ones I thought would be handy to refresh myself with.
The ones that I think will be handy are:
- Profiles in Google Analytics
- Filters in Google Analytics
- Cookies and Google Analytics
- E-Commerce Tracking
- Domains and Sub-Domains
Knowledge To Learn
In my opinion, these are some of the things you should’ve had some experience implementing before doing the test. If you haven’t, go play around with it!
- E-Commerce Tracking (addTrans, addItem methods)
- Cross Domain / Sub-Domain Tracking (link, linkByPost, setDomainName, setAllowLinker, setAllowHash methods)
- Goal Setup (note: Multiple same goal conversions within a session are unique)
- Profile Setup (note: What are the benefits of creating more than 1 profile? What can/can’t you do with profiles?)
- Filter Setup (predefined, include/exclude, search & replace and custom – advanced)
- Integration with Google Adwords (cost data import, auto-tagging)
- Google Analytics interface (reports, user/filter management)
- Regular Expression (note: You don’t have to be a pro, but it definitely helps)
- Cookies (note: Google uses first-party cookies and you cannot identify an individual through it)
Handy Links
Here are some handy links that you should have open during the test: Continue reading »
Google Analytics Qualified Individual Qualification
Google has finally made available individual qualifications for Google Analytics called well, Google Analytics Individual Qualification. This is great because before, there were only qualifications for companies called Google Analytics Authorised Consultants (GAAC).
All you have to do is pay USD$50 to sit for the IQ test and you’ll need a passing mark of at least 75%. Once you’ve passed, you’ll be registered as Google Analytics qualified and this qualification lasts for 18 months.
If you fail, you’ll be able to re-take the test (max twice within 30 days).