This article is about Universal Analytics properties, which will stop processing data on July 1, 2023 (October 1, 2023, for Analytics 360 properties). If you haven’t already, start using a Google Analytics 4 property.
Introduction:
We all know that there are 2 versions of Google Analytics in the market for digital businesses. The standard version of Google Analytics is free of cost whereas the premium version, Google Analytics 360 is the paid version. For those of you searching for the cost of this data analytics tool, the Google Analytics 360 pricing is tier-based.
There is certainly a massive difference between the two but it all boils down to the one that best addresses your business requirements. This infographic blog draws an ideal comparison between Google Analytics Standard and Google Analytics 360.
Data Collection:
You may want to know the number of server calls the tools can handle for data collection. Custom dimensions/metrics help enrich your data, the number of views, properties, and segments you get to apply to the collected data. The free version is most suitable for digital businesses in their early stages. The ones that are just about starting their digital journey.
Businesses with a team of above 10 people in digital, spending a considerable amount (>$1mn per year) on customer acquisition should get Google Analytics 360. The data collection size & freshness limits are more suitable for small start-ups in the case of Google Analytics Standard.
Importing advertising and other data:
No analytics tool lives in a vacuum and all are expected to handle advertising tools. It is highly expected of such tools to be able to manage advertising campaigns. Know how your analytics tool handles Google stack integrations like Google AdWords, AdSense, and DoubleClick. Because this is the key to how most companies advertise today. Google commands 55% of the global search market. Our experience suggests that all of our clients use search engine marketing. This is why the connection to search engine data sources is hard to ignore. GA 360 enables connections with the DoubleClick platform which is a unique strength of the Google stack’s offering.
Such integrations bring value owing to their innate nature of breaking the silos of data & converting to a single view of a customer. This helps digital businesses to harness value by measuring customer acquisition. Also, businesses can focus on activities that newly acquired customers perform.
Reporting:
The sort of reports you get from each kind of tool is vitally important. Custom reporting will always be a quintessential asset for businesses. Adding value to it is the ability to see, at a glance, reports across multiple mediums and devices. Reports based on Custom Funnels and Machine learning algorithms are available in Google Analytics 360. This makes Google Analytics 360, a product that is more actionable. These two features help understand attribution & Customer Journey in a detailed way to optimize marketing decisions.
Sampling:
Sampling & APIs limit the usage of the Google Analytics free version. This holds true for small digital businesses or early-stage start-ups. Businesses serious about measuring their media spending must consider opting for Google Analytics 360. Measure the response of customers accurately, and in a meaningful way.
Application programming interfaces (APIs):
APIs as they are commonly referred to, are important when you’re implementing them across enterprise accounts. Consider you want to administer 10000 users of an analytics system. Now, looking at hundreds of filtered views report suites or profiles is a total nightmare. Considering the fact that you need to administer everything through a single interface. Thankfully, all tools have open APIs.
Sure you can query standard reports and data extracted from other tools for instance. But an added advantage is that you can configure your systems and access rights. If there’s any limit to the offered solution, we’ve observed, that it is that of a quota limitation. Across GAP’s real-time data API there is a quota limitation that demands higher efforts in configuring queries.
Service:
Google Analytics 360 and Google Analytics come with a 99.9% service level agreement (SLA) on data collection. All the tools have online customer support available during working hours. Usually, the SLAs say that any query made to online support is answered within 24 hours. Since services & consulting are bundled into the pricing, the client may not have to budget separately for the servicing needs. This also makes the overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) a very competitive rate.
Google Analytics Pricing:
For Google Analytics Standard users, the consultation rates are mentioned above. But since Google Analytics 360 users have a wider scope and Google Analytics 30 pricing is tier-based, the cost for GA360 may vary based on requirements.
Get in touch with us to avail of Google Analytics Standard consultation or Google Analytics 360 license, and consult with our GAIQ Certified consultants to make the most out of your available data.
