Benefits of Google Analytics 360 vs Google Analytics Free Version

As one of the top Google Analytics Certified Service Partners on the official partners portal (and author of the industry’s latest best seller Google Analytics Breakthrough, published by Wiley 🙂 ), we still get this question regularly: “What’s so great about Analytics 360? Why does my organization need it?”

Click here to download our comparison matrix, and read on for the details…

Say “Bye-Bye” to Sampling

Officially, in Google Analytics terms of service, Google Analytics (free version) allows up to 10 million hits per month (here’s the definition of “hits”). If you’re a large organization generating millions of hits per month, you’re probably hitting sampling limits (even before you hit the 10 million mark). This is because at this level, in order to lower their data processing load, Google is sampling your data usually to the point where it’s not really usable. With Analytics 360, there’s a much higher threshold before sampling kicks in, essentially eliminating it altogether.

200 Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics

With GA free, you get 20 Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics. With Google Analytics 360, you get 200 of each. Basically, track more and qualify your data better.

“Raw” Hit-Level Data with Google BigQuery Integration (and integrate it with other sources of data)

Google BigQuery is Google’s SQL data cruncher. You can import “raw” time-stamped hit-level data from Google Analytics into BigQuery. Not only do you get more granular data, but you can now do much deeper analysis and further data engineering by importing and joining other sources of data into BigQuery, including CRM data, offline POS sales data, email marketing data, etc. We usually crunch data in BigQuery then visualize it in powerful data-visualization tools like Tableau or Looker. This will help you unlock powerful insights hidden in and across all of your data.
Check out this case study where E-Nor was able to combine email marketing data with GA data for one of our clients which led to an optimization that produced an 62% increase in conversion!

Data-Driven Attribution

With GA, you already have great options in terms of attribution – figuring out where your visitors come from, from which channels, and how many visits it might take for your visitor to convert (more on Multi Channel Funnels here), etc. Take it to the next level with Data-Driven Attribution only available through Google Analytics 360. Google Analytics 360 algorithmic-ally gives credit to different channels (for example, maybe your paid ads might end up being more valuable in certain conversion path). You can even create your own custom attribution models based on this, where you can assign more credit to what you feel might be a more valuable channel.

Retro-Active Custom Funnels

Create arbitrary funnels based on your knowledge of your business (and they’re retroactive)! Want to see how a newly created funnel did last year? Upgrade to Google Analytics 360 and find out!

Double-Click Integration

With GA free, you already get AdWords integration. Take this further by also seeing your DoubleClick campaign data in Google Analytics 360.

Roll-Up Reporting

If you’re a large organization and you have 100’s or even 1000’s of properties, Google Analytics 360 lets you easily see an aggregated view of the performance across all your sites and properties.

Data Freshness

With GA free, it could take up to 24 hours to get your data showing in reports. With Google Analytics 360, you’ll see your data in maximum 4 hours, but generally much faster. That means you can monitor your campaigns, conversion, and sales quicker and more effectively.

Service Level Agreements

Google Analytics 360 requires a 12-month contract that you can obtain from any Google Analytics 360 Authorized Reseller. Keep in mind though, you get service level agreements that give you guarantees of service.

Professional Services: Google Analytics Audit, Implementation, Support, and Training

We find that most clients come to us with a lack of confidence in their data. Since Google Analytics is an investment, a reseller partner has the ability to bundle some professional services with your license, such as Google Analytics audits, implementation assistance, on-site training, and support. Resellers like E-Nor have decades of experience helping enterprise clients get up-to-speed with Google Analytics 360 based on industry best-practices – something you won’t get procuring a license directly.