Google Analytics for Creators: Why You Need It and How to Use It
How to set up and use Google Analytics to analyze your audience, improve content, and grow your project.
If you're creating something online, whether it's a digital product or content, at some point, you'll ask:
- Who is my audience?
- What works and what doesn't?
- How can I attract new users?
Google Analytics can help you find the answers.
Let's explore why you need it and how to get started.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics (GA) is a free tool for analyzing data about visitors to your website, app, or blog.
A real-world example:
I write free guides for creators, which I monetize through affiliate marketing.
Using GA, I can see which articles are popular, how often they lead to affiliate link clicks, and which countries my content is in demand.
Google Search Console (GSC) complements GA: with it, I analyze which keywords attract readers and drive conversions.
I'll cover GSC in more detail in a future article.
Data from GA and GSC helps create content that interests the audience, optimize the website for search engines, and increase free traffic.
How Does Google Analytics Work?
Step-by-step:
- Create an account: Sign up on the Google Analytics platform and add your website or app.
- Install the tracker: Copy the generated code and paste it into your website's code or set it up through an integration if using platforms like Webflow.
- Analyze data: Track how many people visit your site, where they come from, which pages interest them the most, and how they interact with your content.
Let’s break down each step.
Who is Google Analytics for?
- Bloggers: For example, a food blogger can discover which recipes are popular and where readers come from. This helps plan articles and choose engaging topics.
- Experts: An online course creator can see which pages attract more traffic and where users are more likely to leave inquiries. They can also track which ads drive more sales.
- Creators: A YouTube creator can analyze website traffic from video descriptions and determine which videos drive more traffic.
- Startup founders and indie hackers: Google Analytics shows how users interact with a landing page: what they click on, which information they reach, and where they drop off. This helps quickly identify and fix weak points.
When to Start Using GA?
Google Analytics is useful at all stages of work:
- Project launch: At the initial stage, analytics helps test hypotheses and identify which ideas and content formats work better.
- Audience growth: Use GA to identify effective promotion channels and focus resources on them.
- Optimization and scaling: Track conversions to improve your site or blog and increase its effectiveness.
Integrate GA as early as possible: it allows you to collect more data, notice seasonal trends, and track long-term changes in audience behavior.
How to Set Up Google Analytics?
1. Create an Account in Google Analytics
Go to the Google Analytics website and sign up:
- Create an Account: This is a general container for your business or project.
- Add a Property: A specific website or app you want to track.
One account can include multiple properties, such as a website and a mobile app.
When creating an account, you'll be asked to choose what you want to track first to customize your reports.
Regardless of your choice, you'll have access to all data later.
2. Get a Tracking Code
After setting up your project, the system will generate a Measurement ID or a unique code to insert into your website.
3. Insert the Code into HTML or CMS
For websites on Webflow or Weblium use integrations.
For integration, you usually only need to specify the Measurement ID.
For other platforms, manually add the code to the <head> section of your website.
4. Verify GA Setup
Open the "Realtime overview" section to ensure data is being collected correctly.
So, you've installed the tracker and received your first data.
What’s next?
How to Use Google Analytics?
Google Analytics provides a lot of data for analysis.
Here are some basic recommendations to start with:
1. Explore Key Metrics
Reports → Reports snapshot.
- Active users: How many people actively use your site daily, weekly, or monthly. Helps you understand traffic trends.
- New users: How many new visitors have arrived. A high number might indicate a successful ad campaign.
- Average engagement time: The average time users spend on the site. If it’s low, your content might not be engaging, or the site might be hard to use.
2. Identify Traffic Sources
Reports → Acquisition → User acquisition.
- Organic Search: Visits from search engines. Check if your content is well-optimized for keywords and familiarize yourself with the basics of SEO.
- Direct: Users who entered the URL manually. This indicates brand recognition.
- Referral: Visits from other sites. Consider partnerships with quality platforms.
- Social: Visits from social networks. If they’re low, consider boosting your promotion efforts in this channel.
3. Analyze Demographics
Reports → Demographics → Overview.
- Geography: Find out which countries and cities users come from. This helps tailor content for the right regions.
- Age and gender: Study the age and gender of your audience to target ads more accurately.
4. Find Popular Pages
Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens.
- Views: Number of page views. Identify traffic leaders and think about what makes them successful (topic, SEO, content structure).
- Average engagement time: Time users spend on a page. If it’s low, the content might need improvement.
5. Use Insights
Reports snapshot or Home.
Once enough data is collected, Google Analytics will start showing insights: traffic spikes, popular devices, or potential performance issues.
These suggestions help you notice changes in user behavior and understand how to improve your site or content.
6. Track Events
Reports → Engagement → Events.
- Event count: How many times events were triggered.
- Event value: If events have a value, evaluate their effectiveness.
Let’s explore events in detail.
How Do Events Work in GA?
Events help you understand how users interact with your site:
- Clicks on buttons and links: For example, tracking a "Buy" button helps identify which products generate the most interest.
- Video views: Tracking completed views helps assess how engaging your videos are.
- Form submissions: Analyzing successful form submissions helps improve site usability.
- Downloads: Data on file downloads (e.g., PDF guides or checklists) shows interest in your additional materials.
How to set up:
- Automatically (GA4): Modern versions of Google Analytics track basic events (e.g., scrolling or clicks) without additional setup.
- Manual setup: For complex scenarios like tracking sales funnel stages, set up custom events via Google Tag Manager.
We’ll cover automatic setup now and discuss manual setup in future articles.
How to Set Up Automatic Events in GA4?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the current analytics version, chosen automatically during registration.
Previously, Universal Analytics was used, but this version is no longer relevant for new accounts.
GA4 simplifies work by automatically tracking many user actions without extra setup.
Here’s a step-by-step guide:
1. Open Data Stream Settings
- In the left menu, select "Admin."
- Go to the "Data Streams" section and select your website or app.
2. Enable Enhanced Measurement
- In the "Enhanced Measurement" section, make sure the toggle is on.
- Click "Configure" to open the list of available events.
3. Check Enabled Events
- Page views: All page transitions are tracked automatically.
- Scrolls: Tracks when a user scrolls 90% of the page.
- Outbound clicks: Tracks clicks on links that lead to external websites.
- Site search: Logs search queries entered in the search field.
- Form interactions: Records interactions with forms on the site (e.g., submissions).
- Video engagement: Monitors video plays, pauses, and completions.
- File downloads: Captures file download actions.
4. Verify Event Functionality
- Go to the "Realtime" section.
- Perform actions on the site (e.g., scroll the page, download a file) and ensure events appear in real-time.
Track only key events to keep your data clear and relevant.
Use filters and segments for a detailed analysis of specific user groups' behavior.
Google Analytics and Databox Integration
I use Databox to quickly analyze data from various sources through convenient dashboards.
Widgets on my phone and computer help track key metrics — traffic, conversions, and engagement levels.
Databox is suitable for bloggers, experts, and startups, simplifying access to analytics without needing to log into the Google Analytics interface.
Why is Google Analytics Important for Creators?
It helps you better understand your audience and their behavior, improve content and ad campaigns, and provides data for scaling and growing your project.
What’s Next?
- Weekly, check key metrics (traffic, events) through Google Analytics or using convenient widgets like Databox.
- Monthly, optimize content: improve pages with low engagement, work on conversions, and enhance the user experience (UX).
I recommend starting to use Google Analytics today to better understand your audience and grow your project.
On Patreon, I share my experiments, insights, and behind-the-scenes progress as I rebuild and grow. I explore fresh ideas across different media and languages, dive into AI tools, and pass along every lesson I learn.
