Data Analytics

Enhance Digital Performance with the Power of Data and Analytics

Make informed marketing decisions based on data-driven analytics to drive better performance and ROI.

Exploring Data and Analytics

In today's digital business landscape, data analytics has become a crucial tool for extracting valuable insights from vast amounts of data. By harnessing the power of data analytics, our clients' can unlock hidden patterns, trends, and opportunities that can inform strategic decision-making and drive competitive advantage.

From descriptive analytics that provide historical data analysis to predictive and prescriptive analytics that offer forward-looking insights, data analytics enables businesses to make data-driven decisions that can optimise operations, improve customer experiences, and drive business growth.

Embrace the power of data analytics to unlock the secrets hidden in your data and make informed decisions that can propel your business forward.

Accelerate marketing performance: advanced data insights

Informed decision making

Leveraging data and analytics in marketing enables businesses to make informed decisions, optimise campaigns, and achieve better results through precise targeting and understanding of customer behaviour.

Improved performance

Data and analytics enable businesses to measure, track, and optimise marketing performance by analysing data to identify effective strategies and make data-driven optimisations.

Enhanced personalisation

Data and analytics provide businesses with insights into customer preferences, behaviours, and needs, enabling personalised and targeted marketing efforts that lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and conversion rates.

Mastering marketing performance with Data & Analytics

At Clear Click, we specialise in helping businesses master their marketing performance through the power of Data and Analytics. Our expert team leverages data-driven insights to optimise marketing efforts, make informed decisions, and unlock the full potential of our clients' marketing initiatives. We enable businesses to drive better results, achieve higher ROI, and create personalised, effective marketing campaigns that resonate with their target audience.

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Developing a data quality management plan

Exploring data for insights and trends

Creating custom reports and dashboards

Establishing data-driven strategies and initiatives

Discover our latest Data & Analytics articles

By
Alistair Mains
An Introduction to Google Tag Manager
December 17, 2022
• 4 min read
Data Analytics

In this introduction article about Google Tag Manager, you can expect to find out:

After this introductory article about Google Tag Manager, you will have a general overview of the tool and its key features and understand how it can be used to improve tracking and marketing efforts on your website.

What is Google Tag Manager & How it works?

Google Tag Manager is a free tool provided by Google that allows users to easily add, manage, and update tracking tags and code snippets on their websites. It allows marketers, analysts, and other web professionals to quickly and easily make changes to the tracking and marketing codes on their websites without having to involve a web developer. This makes it possible for marketers and other non-technical users to take control of their website tracking and marketing efforts and make changes to their tracking setup without having to wait for a developer to make the changes for them.

Key Benefits of Google Tag manager

One of the key benefits of using Google Tag Manager is that it allows users to quickly and easily add new tracking and marketing tags to their website without having to update the website's code. This means that marketers and other non-technical users can add new tracking and marketing tags to their websites without having to wait for a developer to make the changes for them. This is especially useful for marketers who want to quickly test out new marketing campaigns or tracking setups without having to wait for a developer to make the changes for them.

Google Tag Manager also makes it easy to manage and update the tracking and marketing tags on your website. With Google Tag Manager, you can easily see all of the tracking and marketing tags that are currently installed on your website, and you can quickly make changes to them without having to update the website's code. This means that you can make changes to your tracking and marketing tags on the fly, without having to wait for a developer to make the changes for you.

Another key benefit of using Google Tag Manager is that it allows you to easily track events on your website. With Google Tag Manager, you can create custom event tags that will track specific actions that users take on your website. This can be anything from clicking on a specific button or link to scrolling to a certain point on the page. With this information, you can gain a better understanding of how users are interacting with your website, which can help you make more informed decisions about your marketing and tracking efforts.

Google Tag Manager also makes it easy to set up and manage tags for Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a powerful tool that allows you to track the traffic and behaviour of visitors to your website. With Google Tag Manager, you can easily add the Google Analytics tracking code to your website and manage it without updating the website's code. This makes it easy to set up and manage Google Analytics tracking on your website, which can help you gain valuable insights into the performance of your website.

How Google Tag Manager can help your marketing efforts

Overall, Google Tag Manager is a valuable tool for marketers, analysts, and other web professionals who want to easily add, manage and update tracking and marketing tags on their websites. It allows non-technical users to take control of their website tracking and marketing efforts and make changes to their tracking setup without having to involve a web developer. This makes it possible for marketers to quickly test out new marketing campaigns and tracking setups, and it makes it easy to track events and set up Google Analytics tracking on your website.

The key features of Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager has several key features that make it a powerful and useful tool for managing and tracking the various tags and scripts on a website. Some key features include;

Preview and testing

With Google Tag Manager, you can preview and test your tags before they are deployed on your website. This can help to ensure that your tags are working correctly and that they are not causing any problems on your website. You can also use Google Tag Manager to test different versions of your tags and compare their performance to see which ones are most effective.

Tracking and debugging

Google Tag Manager allows you to track and debug your tags to identify and troubleshoot any issues that may arise. This can help to ensure that your tags are working correctly and that they are providing accurate and useful data.

Tag management

One of the key features of Google Tag Manager is the ability to manage all of your website's tags from a single interface. This can save time and effort, and can help to ensure that your tags are always up-to-date and working correctly.

Triggers and variables

Google Tag Manager allows you to create and manage tags using a variety of different triggers and variables. This means that you can control when and where your tags are fired, and customise them based on specific user actions or events.

Overall, these and other key features of Google Tag Manager make it a powerful and useful tool for managing and tracking the various tags and scripts on a website. By using these features, you can improve the accuracy and effectiveness of your tracking and marketing efforts, and make it easier to manage the various tags on your website.

How to Get Started with Google Tag Manager? 

To get started with Google Tag Manager and use it to manage and optimise the tags on your website, you can follow these steps:

  1. Sign up for a Google Tag Manager account: Go to the Google Tag Manager website and sign up for a free account. You will need to provide some basic information, such as your name, email address, and website URL.
  2. Install the Google Tag Manager code on your website: Once you have signed up for an account, you will need to install the Google Tag Manager code on your website. This code will allow Google Tag Manager to communicate with your website and manage the tags on it.
  3. Create a new container: After installing the code on your website, you will need to create a new container in Google Tag Manager. This will be the place where you will manage and track the tags on your website.
  4. Add tags to your container: Once you have created a container, you can begin adding tags to it. This can be done by clicking on the "Add a new tag" button and configuring the settings for your tag, such as the type of tag, the trigger for when it should be fired, and any other relevant settings.
  5. Publish your container: After adding tags to your container, you will need to publish it in order for the tags to start working on your website. This can be done by clicking on the "Publish" button in the top-right corner of the Google Tag Manager interface.
  6. Monitor and track your tags: Once your container is published, you can begin monitoring and tracking your tags to see how they are performing on your website. You can use Google Tag Manager to view the data that your tags are collecting, as well as track and debug any issues that may arise.

Overall, getting started with Google Tag Manager is relatively simple and can be done in just a few steps. By following the steps outlined above, you can begin using Google Tag Manager to manage and optimise the tags on your website.

But if you would prefer the peace of mind and have one of our experts at Clear Click set this up, feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

By
Nicolaas Kerkmeester
Google’s Third-party Cookies Phaseout: What Marketers Can Do To Prepare
May 25, 2022
• 4 min read
Data Analytics

It is no secret that internet users are growing increasingly uneasy about how advertisers track their data on the web: 40% of UK respondents stated they were concerned about how companies use their data. In light of these growing concerns, tech giant Google recently announced a plan for a third-party cookie phase out on its browser, Google Chrome.

The digital marketing industry thrives by delivering relevant target ads to web users. It does this with the help of a massive database of individual data gathered by thousands of companies, primarily through third-party cookies.

Google Chrome accounts for 64.34% of the global market share (as of April 2022), making it the most widely used browser to use first and third-party cookies. According to Google’s current plan, it will have a third-party cookie phase out by 2023. This shift away from third-party cookies has caused major concern amongst marketers and raises questions about how the decision will impact the effectiveness of digital advertising.

This article will cover the following topics:

What are cookies?

Cookies are small files sent to your browser by a website you visit. The website uses these files to track personal information about your visit. This data includes the items you click on, the products in your online shopping cart, or even your username and password.

Different kinds of cookies are used for different purposes. For example, session cookies are used when you navigate a website; these cookies disappear once you exit the website. On the other hand, tracking cookies create long-term records of multiple visits to the same site.

While there are many types of cookies, here we’ll focus on first-party and third-party cookies.


First-party cookies 

First-party cookies are created and stored directly by the website or domain. These cookies allow brands to deliver a better and more personalised user experience by collecting data such as language settings and login credentials. First-party cookies essentially store all user data from the user’s interaction with your website but can’t access data from other domains.


Third-party cookies

Third-party cookies are created by external domains, i.e., websites other than those you are visiting directly. These domains include advertising and tracking providers. Third-party cookies allow brands to track user behaviour and habits and help marketers make predictions based on this data. These cookies are also used for retargeting and cross-site tracking.

First Party Cookies Vs Third Party Cookies

Why is Google phasing out cookies? 

Google lists user privacy as the primary reason for third-party cookies to phase out. The firm believes that “People shouldn’t have to accept being tracked across the web in order to get the benefits of relevant advertising.“ With growing global concern on data privacy, Google faced public and regulatory pressure to enhance its commitment to protecting individuals’ data.

In response to rumours about Google developing a new tracking system, Google stated they would not be building "alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products." 

While Google Chrome isn’t the first web browser to phase out third-party cookies, it is the largest. Apple blocked these cookies from Safari back in 2020, while Mozilla’s Firefox began to phase them out in 2019. 

How will this impact digital marketing?

While eliminating third-party cookies will require marketers to rework parts of their advertising strategy, everything will not change. This section will highlight the areas that are likely to be unaffected by Google’s decision. 

Conversion Tracking 

Paid social conversion and search tags use only first-party cookies. Google will continue to use these first-party cookies, citing them as ‘vital’ in the new privacy-first world. As a result, you will not experience any disruption while tracking standard-click through conversions.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a popular tool to capture data about your website’s visitors: it is used by 55.6% of all websites. It uses first-party cookies set via a piece of JavaScript code that you must add to every page that you want to track. Google Analytics sets four cookies automatically and a fifth via opt-in, which relates to sharing data about your web traffic with Google. With Google Analytics, you can track and generate reports for the number of users, session duration, bounce rate, page views and more.


Retargeting

Retargeting using first-party cookies will continue undisrupted. Ads displayed on Google’s search engine results page are targeted using the individuals’ search queries, thus using a Google or first-party cookie.

Similarly, remarketing on Facebook and Instagram will be unaffected as it is based on user data tracked with Meta cookies and doesn’t involve third-party cookies.

How can marketers prepare? 

The death of the third-party cookie has generated a lot of nervousness in the marketing community: 41% of marketers feel that the biggest challenge will be tracking the right data.

If your marketing and advertising strategies rely heavily on third-party cookies, you should consider alternative plans that capitalise on first-party data. Ingrid Burton, CMO of Quantcast, said, "Using solutions that utilise first-party data with AI and machine learning will help communicators reach the right person at the right moment.” 


What strategies can be implemented? 

With every advancement or change in technology, there emerge new solutions. Marketers, advertisers, and data engineers have been actively searching for alternatives to third-party cookies. Google itself advocates its Privacy Sandbox as a replacement for ad targeting.

Google's Privacy Sandbox

Google will not create technology that tracks users at an individual level; however, it will still be investing in alternatives that focus on group behaviour. Its Privacy Sandbox aims to “create a thriving web ecosystem that is respectful of users and private by default.” 

The Privacy Sandbox technology works on interest-based advertising using Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC): the idea that groups of users with common interests could replace individual identifiers. This data has proven to be nearly as effective as that from third-party cookies. The FLoC approach hides individual data in the crowd and uses on-device processing to keep a user’s web history private on their browser. 

By combining functionality with privacy protection, the Privacy Sandbox will not hamper the user experience but instead, make users more confident that their browser is working to safeguard their privacy. At the same time, it will provide an effective solution for advertisers and marketers to generate leads and increase revenue.

What tools can be used? 

Optimising your marketing strategy for the post-third-party cookie world can be challenging, but Clear Click is here to help. Clear Click offers a range of services to help your business maximise its interactions with prospective customers using multi-channel insights and strategic consultancy. Our Web Analysts interpret data to calculate the performance of marketing campaigns. This data can help your organic and paid search teams strengthen your advertising efforts.

In the evolving tech space, it’s essential to adapt your advertising strategies, and Clear Click makes this process stress-free! Book a free consultation today to learn more.

By
Nicolaas Kerkmeester
Google Analytics 4: A Complete Introduction
May 8, 2022
• 4 min read
Data Analytics

In 2021, Google announced that it would replace Google Analytics 3, aka Universal Analytics, with a new iteration of its web analytics platform, Google Analytics 4. Google will stop processing new hits on July 1st, 2023, and will stop processing all hits on October 1st, 2023.

Millions of large and small businesses rely on Google Analytics to understand their marketing progress and consumer preferences. Since Google Analytics 4 is the new, standard analytics software of Google, getting familiar with the key features can improve your digital marketing efforts.  

This article will provide a broad overview of Google Analytics 4 and the benefits that businesses can reap by using the software.

Feel free to jump to any section of the article using the links below:

  1. What is Google Analytics 4? 
  2. What is different with Google Analytics 4?
  3. What are the benefits of Google Analytics 4?

What is Google Analytics 4? 

Google Analytics 4 is a data computation software that allows businesses to measure traffic and engagement across their websites and applications. Launched on October 14th, 2020, the software is the latest version of Google’s analytics platform.

What is different with Google Analytics 4? 

Google Analytics 4 differs from its predecessor Google Analytics Universal in various key features. The new platform provides updated features such as deeper predictive insights, cross-device measurement, enhanced integration with Google Ads, codeless event tracking, and improved data controls. 

What are the benefits of Google Analytics 4?

Marketers and analysts are excited by many of GA4s features. Here under are 6 Benefits of Google Analytics 4 (GA4):

6 Benefits of Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
6 Benefits of Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

  1. Enhanced Measurement and Tracking: The new enhanced measurement feature allows users to track events and interactions automatically. This sort of tracking would have taken hours or days on Google’s previous analytics platforms. Using GA4, marketers can track scrolls, outbound link clicks, site searches, YouTube video engagement, and file downloads. This new approach will be instrumental in helping businesses understand the total impact of their marketing efforts across various platforms. 

  1. Smarter Insights and Predictions: GA4 will also leverage AI to alert users of trends in their data. The software will help marketers anticipate their customers’ decisions, allowing businesses to predict churn and revenue from a particular customer segment.

  1. Improved User Interface: Google Universal Analytics provided users with a tremendous amount of information, albeit in an unintuitive and disorganised fashion. The new software improves the user interface by organising reports and information based on events, business cycles, and user data. Another big plus in Google Analytics 4’s user interface is that there will be a “Customise Report” tool. In addition, the core of Google Analytics 4 is based on machine learning, which means that the new software provides unparalleled automation in terms of user experience. 

  1. Integration with BigQuery: Google Analytics 4 also offers a free integration with Google BigQuery, an advanced database solution, and Google Cloud Platform. The integration means that users can access raw data without purchasing Google Analytics 360. BigQuery lets users utilise advanced analysis of many raw and unsampled data sets from Google Analytics. Such a feature is particularly helpful for businesses with a lot of web traffic. In addition, a BigQuery integration also lets users export their data to visualisation platforms such as Tableau and Power BI.

  1. Effective Customer Engagement Measurement: Google Analytics 4 is designed to give a customer-centric measurement of how consumers interact with businesses. Instead of measuring customer engagement through a device, the new platform uses User IDs and unique Google Signals to picture a business-customer interaction accurately. For example, users can check if a customer first discovered their business through an ad or somewhere else with this new feature. Such information is critical to assessing the quality and progress of your business's current marketing efforts and tracking the customer journey. 

  1. Long Term Growth: Another reason to use Google Analytics 4 is that the platform is suited to the future of the tech landscape. As the industry continues to evolve, outdated platforms might not be adaptable to rapid changes in the tech industry. However, Google Analytics 4 is different in that it can function without cookies as well. Therefore, businesses that use Google Analytics 4 are immune to significant industry-wide changes in the tech sector.

Conclusion:

Google has already started investing in the future development of Google Analytics 4, making the software a default choice for businesses seeking to operate long term. Familiarising yourself with the new software will help your business reap the benefits of further updates and Google’s latest innovations.

Keeping your business updated with the latest technology standards can protect you from abrupt regulatory interventions. In fact, Google Analytics 4 was launched as a response to the recent development in the EU regarding cookies and data tracking. Therefore, by using Google Analytics 4, you will protect yourself from breaching any privacy laws in the future. 

If you are looking for a fantastic analytic tool to assess and direct your marketing efforts, we recommend that you start using Google Analytics now! Need support with GA4 book a call with one of our specialists.