Google has formally announced a paid version of Google Analytics. Long rumored to exist, this new version of Google Analytics, named Google Analytics Premium, is sure to mix up the “enterprise” analytics market.
Before we get into product features and what makes it different, I want to allay all fears and confirm that the free version of Google Analytics is not going away. Google will continue to provide a free analytics solution. And I also want to point out that Google is not going to strip out any existing functionality or let the free version of Google Analytics become useless. Heck, they just launched a new Site Performance reports, Multi-Channel Funnels and announced ANOTHER user interface update. Now let’s talk about Premium! Google Analytics Premium is built on the following foundation:
- A high-powered “engine” that can collect massive amounts of data and process it faster
- Advanced campaign analysis tools
- Dedicated support and training
- A money backed SLA (Service-Level Agreement)
Let’s dig into each of these items a bit more.
Processing Power
Many organizations have been challenged by some of the “infrastructure” limitations of Google Analytics. Things like processing speed, data table limits, and data-sampling can cause questionable analysis and an overall lack of confidence in the data. Google Analytics Premium solves all of these “infrastructure” related items by raising almost all of the ‘limits’ on data collection, storage and processing.
- More data capacity. The free version of Google Analytics will collect 300,000,000 data hits per month. The premium version of Google Analytics can handle up to 1 Billion hits per month.
- Larger data tables. The free version of Google Analytics has a 50,000 rows of data limit per day. The premium version of Google Analytics is limited to 1 Million rows of data per day.
- 1 MM Row data export. The free version of Google Analytics can export 500 rows of data at a time from the user interface. The premium version of Google Analytics can export 1,000,000 rows.
- Higher sampling limits. The free version of Google Analytics will apply sampling when you are segmenting or working with 500,000 visits. (This is also called Fast Action mode). The premium version of Google Analytics will apply sampling when you are working with 50,000,000 visits.
- 50 Custom variables. The free version of Google Analytics has 5 custom variables. Google Analytics Premium customers get 50 custom variables.
- Faster processing time. Google Analytics Premium will process data faster. We’ve seen processing times that are less than 1 hour, but the official word is 4 hours.
Not bad, huh? If’ you been struggling with issues like ‘(other)’ in your content reports then GA Premium will solve that issue easily.
New Analysis Features
In addition to a more robust infrastructure, Google Analytics Premium also provides an advanced set of analysis features that tackle complex marketing measurement. Specifically, Premium will have an Attribution modeling tool. This feature will help customers to better model the ROI of multiple marketing activities. Marketers can use standard, predefined models or create custom models, to better attribute revenue to all the marketing touch-points. Remember, attribution is in addition to the features of the free version of Google Analytics. So there’s a lot to like.
Dedicated Support
I’m really excited about this part. Google Analytics Premium comes with dedicated support and training. When you buy Premium from a reseller, like Cardinal Path, it comes with a dedicated support team that can help you configure and maintain your implementation. We all know how hard it is to keep an analytics tool configure correctly. Now we can pester you all the time to make sure you’re always thinking about when you launch a new mobile site, app, website or campaign! Support plans vary and training, but are included.
Service Level Agreement
In addition to the above features, Google Analytics Premium comes with a money-backed SLA. This SLA covers not only data collection but the reporting interface. And let me tell you, the SLA is generous. So for all those organizations out there that have avoided Google Analytics because there is no SLA, that is no longer an issue. You’re probably all wondering how much does Google Analytics Premium cost and how you can get your hands on it (the holiday season is coming up fast). GA Premium is sold by Google AND via Google Analytics Premium Authorized Resellers like Cardinal Path. The price is based on monthly data hits sent to Google. The price also includes support and training.
We’re having a webinar at 10am on October 3 to review Google Analytics Premium and take your questions. I hope to see you there
