Pushing standard analytics platforms to new extremes is what we are good at and as our campaigns become even more complex, so do our measurement requirements. Today BigQuery has become an integral part of the ecosystem that can unlock data analysis and reporting like never before.
There are limitations within Google Analytics 360 and we believe the integration with BigQuery allows users to further enhance the standard GA360 capabilities and deliver a link between web analytics and various other third-party data sources. BigQuery is a powerful tool when operated correctly and if you are familiar with GA360 we believe the connection between the two deliver a few use cases and good reasons to try it out.
Firstly, what is BigQuery?
BigQuery is a data warehouse that can be found within the Google Cloud Platform or GCP console, it was specifically developed to analyze large data sets using super-fast SQL queries – we mentioned super-fast because it leverages the processing power of Google’s infrastructure.
Benefit 1: Machine Learning Algorithms
Leveraging programming languages and prepackaged functions within BigQuery we have the ability to take raw data and run predictive analytics, customer segmentation and customer lifetime value models. For example, we can create a predictive model based on past customer data to better optimize our performance campaigns. Finally, we remove the manual guesswork from serving impressions and start using 1st party data to assign values based on conversion probability.
Benefit 2: Old data, queried today
It’s frustrating when you leverage new technology and the migration process glitches, losing all your insights, testing and data analytics. Fortunately, you have the option to import the previous 13 months of Google Analytics 360 into BigQuery, which means you can pull in more than 1 year of sales transactions into BigQuery instantly and start advanced queries without having to start again.
Benefit 3: Same data set but deeper
Google Analytics can easily measure and visualize the revenue driven through mobile devices, but what if you wanted to know the average revenue for a specific product at a user level for the past 6 months – this would no doubt be harder to answer and more of a job for BigQuery.
Benefit 4: Easier visualization of data
Due to the number of integrations available, including the advent and continuous improvement of Google Data Studio, building and visualizing all-round analytics data has never been easier. If you have followed Benefit 4, then you are already steps ahead of pulling all your data sources in one place. Google Data Studio is free and we would always recommend leveraging it with a different view for each type of user whether it is a member of the board who wants the topline view or the people in charge of campaign optimization.
Benefit 5: The single source of truth, improved.
Since BigQuery is a data warehouse it can store all of your data, however, you can bring in various other data sources such as CRM data with native integrations and develop a unique identifier for each customer. For the first time, you will be able to measure true lifetime value based on your known and previously unknown web visitors by combining your offline, online and marketing data.
At Bidmath, we are experts in BigQuery and strongly believe whatever data challenges you have, the means to get to that answer will be through leveraging BigQuery. Whether it’s a CRM integration, a new way to identify unknown users or you’re tempted to see your true customer lifetime value, we are here to help you on your data journey.
