In late 2018, Facebook began appending “fbclid” query strings to the ends of all outbound URLs originating from Facebook’s site. These URLs take the format &fbclid=IwAR0Ylspg9Zo1-4JLuy5L3N7RhNTHg5BETDMlsQkUST8QC1JCo3iC6-54_PQ, and are appended to all outbound content, both FB ads as well as organic posts. This post will show you how to remove this parameter from your Google Analytics … Read more
Google Analytics provides a super-easy method of tracking onsite search keywords: simply identify which query string (aka parameter) holds the onsite search term for your site, and enter that value at Admin > View > Site Search Settings. You can find your search query string by performing a search on your site and checking the … Read more
This post shows some useful Custom JavaScript Variables for Google Tag Manager. #2 and #3 require modification for your own site, while the others can be plugged in directly. Add Custom JavaScript Variables by navigating to Variables > New > Custom JavaScript. CONTENTS #1 Value of the Closest Parent ID#2 Text of the Closest Specific … Read more
Here we are again with another look at the top Google Sheets Add-Ons for spreadsheets. Other posts in this series: Top Google Sheets Add-Ons for Spreadsheets (+User Counts) [Oct 2018 Update] Top Google Sheets Add-Ons for Spreadsheets [July 2019 Update] Top Google Sheets Add-ons I scraped this data with a little script from the Google … Read more
A histogram is a type of chart that visually shows the distribution of data. It’s useful when looking at the average or median of a data set, to understand whether that data point is common or not. For example, an ecommerce dashboard will typically include an Average Order Value metric. Say this metric is $50. … Read more
The box plot chart (aka box and whiskers) is a chart to visually display the distribution of a dataset: the maximum, minimum, median, and the range on either side of the median. Google Data Studio currently doesn’t provide a Box Plot chart type, but you can create something similar using a Stacked Column chart type. … Read more
Google Data Studio lets you hook up a wide variety of data sources and create cool reports and visualizations out of them. Sometimes, though, the wires get crossed during the import process, and there’s a data type issue where your metrics (numbers) get read as dimensions (text fields), and vice versa. Luckily there’s an easy, … Read more
This post shows four examples of using the dataLayer.push method to pass in extra metadata to Google Tag Manager (GTM) via Variables. #1 Standard GTM Data Layer Push Syntax#2 GTM Data Layer Push with Array#3 GTM Data Layer Push with Nested Key-Value Pairs#4 GTM Data Layer Push with Nested Arrays #1 STANDARD GTM DATA LAYER PUSH … Read more
Setting up Enhanced Ecommerce tracking via Google Tag Manager & Google Analytics generally involves creating a data layer that contains all the relevant values, as described here: https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/enhanced-ecommerce#purchases These same values are often required to set up other marketing and analytics tags. For example, the Facebook conversion pixel looks like this: <script> fbq(‘track’, ‘Purchase’, {currency: “USD”, … Read more
This is an updated, comprehensive list of all the Google Sheets add-ons (aka plugins or extensions) available in the Sheets add-on store, along with their user counts and comparisons to their rankings in July, 2018. Other posts in this series: Top Google Sheets Add-Ons for Spreadsheets (+User Counts) [Jan 2019 Update] Top Google Sheets Add-Ons … Read more
