Nightmare

For Google it appears that their much hyped Google Analytics 4 release is becoming a bit of a nightmare release as marketers and anaylists compile lists of why Google Analytics 4 sucks. And herein could lie a few lessons for PR Professionals and their clients.

That Google is being panned for what is essentially a free product is perhaps a bit harsh but, if seen in the context of just how much money Google makes from paid for products, then one has a reasonable expectation of ease of use from the free products as well. I mean Google Search still works doesn’t it?

For me personally my first read of one of the listicle articles highlighting marketer frustration with the migration to Google Analytics 4 ‘inspired’ me to have a look at a self hosted analytics package called Matomo. Now Matomo is attractive to me for the simple reason that I can self-host it and deploy on any of our web sites. This will go a long way towards safeguarding our data intergrity and I have a bit of a suspicion that it will make the Google Bot a bit more eager to spider our web sites in the abscence of Google Analytics data to support their content scraping.

In addition we will look at offering this analytics alternative to our hosting clients over at Reach Trust.

I must confess that I am not a power user of Google Analytics but have dabbled every month to monitor just where traffic comes from and travels to on our web sites. Frankly I have found the server based analytics tools a bit better for a quick snapshot of traffic to and from our web sites.

But, after installing Matomo 24 hours ago, I think I may have found a new favourite.

Installation of Matomo was a breeze through my servers One Click installation panel.

Adding a web site property and installing the javascript analytics code on my three chosen web sites – MyPR, ReachTrust and Straton – was very easy.

The level of information now coming through from the Matomo analytics panel is clear, concise, easy to navigate and presented in a really appealing manner that complements what I sometimes think is my ‘convoluted logic’.

Also appealing to me with Matomo is that this is a service that I could offer to existing clients for a small fee.

The PR Lessons that Google need to learn from this ‘hiccup’:

Identify your influencers (in the Real Estate trade these are called Gabby Annies!) and get feedback before launch: In Google’s case these would be the SEO marketers and Analysts.
Own the narrative: If you feel that there could be negatives in your product then be the first person to talk about them and reveal the path to fixing.
Swamp the market with happiness, success and praise from genuine users just before launch.
Collaborate with your competitors – being nice to them will (hopefully) make them less inclined to pan you when you have a hiccup.
Don’t be afraid to apologise, ask for clarification, fix and trumpet what you did.
See the last paragraph for lesson number 6

Industry publication, Search Engine Land (SEL), surveyed readers about the new Google Analytics 4 property and received negative feedback as follows:

SEL reported that GA4’s user interface was hands-down the biggest issue reported by readers; “The UI was described as “slow”, “laughable” and a few other adjectives we’re opting not to publish.”
Another major concern for marketers has been the delay of same day data on GA4; “Advertisers have stressed that they need the ability to monitor performance constantly and are confused as to why the new analytics platform doesn’t appear to have this function.”
Marketers raised concerns about discrepancies on GA4 too; “Differences in information had resulted in some worrying that the data being served therefore couldn’t possibly be accurate, resulting in people questioning if they can trust GA4.”
Marketers across the board have been reporting that GA4 is incredibly difficult to use; “Even seasoned advertisers are finding it challenging trying to navigate their way around the new platform.”
Lack of resources; “With so many marketers struggling as they try to figure out GA4, many are questioning why Google hasn’t provided more educational resources explaining how the new tool works.”
Some advertisers explained that marketing doesn’t wear a one size fits all hat; “While some of the more complex settings may suit some, other professionals, such as bloggers, would just like access to basic tools on GA4 and are wasting time and money trying to understand features they don’t need to use.”
Another common complaint from marketers was the lack of features GA4 has to offer in comparison to Universal Analytics; “Marketers seemed particularly bothered by the removal of attribution features.”
Difficulty recreating reports; “Unfortunately, it seems for many that this task has proved far more difficult than it should have been.”
Reports; “According to many marketers who took part in our poll, Google has made many unnecessary changes when it comes to building reports, making their workload more difficult.”

Search Engine Land offers a course for those looking to upskill themselves on the new GA4 – https://searchengineland.com/ga4-training-courses-help-confused-marketers-428935

Some marketers summarised their experiences with GA4 in just a few words:

“Mad! Mad! Mad!
“Total cr*p!”
“GA4 = LAME!”
“One word (in fact two words): BS!”
“What a waste of our time.”
GA4 UI team should be fired.

Matomo offers the ability for marketers to see individual visitor session information, locations, devices and software used. Visitor behaviour is tracked across all pages. You can quickly see where your visitors found your web site by Search Engine, Social Media Channel or direct.

Matomo offers the ability for you to embed widgets that will give your site visitors more insight into actions being taken by visitors to your site.

The widget below shows which countries visitors to MyPR came from yesterday:

The widget shows the OUTGOING LINKS clicked on from MyPR yesterday:

Of course one always wants to know if a company that provides a product for free will be in business for the forseeable future to support, develop, maintain and grow the product. Matomo offers their hosted product for a fee AND offers premuim plugins for self hosted installations which does give comfort that the product will be around for a while.

The free self hosted version of Matomo users can extend their experience with premium plugins that add more information, ease of use and additional functionality. Matomo also offer free versions through their site as well as a premium offering at 19 Euros per month for power users.

Some of these plugins include:

Custom Reports: Pull out the information you need in order to be successful. Develop your custom strategy to meet your individualized goals while…
Search Engine Keywords Performance: All keywords searched by your users on search engines are now visible into your Referrers reports!
Form Analytics: Increase conversions on your online forms and lose less visitors by learning everything about your users behavior and their pain points.
Multi Channel Conversion Attribution: Get a clear understanding of how much credit each of your marketing channel is actually responsible for to shift your marketing.
A/B Testing: Increase revenue and conversions by comparing different versions of your websites or apps & detect the winning variation.
Heatmap & Session Recording: Truly understand your visitors by seeing where they click, hover, type and scroll. Replay their actions in a video.
Login SAML: Provides SAML support for Matomo. Compatible with any Identity Provider such as OneLogin, Okta, Ping Identity, ADFS, Google etc.
WooCommerce Analytics: Drive more revenue, improve your sales funnel, and get accurate insights with our Matomo Analytics Ecommerce tracking integration.
Roll-Up Reporting: At a glance, see how several of your websites, mobile apps & shops are performing overall.
Users Flow: Users Flow is a visual representation of the most popular paths your users take through your website & app.
Media Analytics: Grow your business with advanced video & audio analytics. Get powerful insights into how your audience watches your videos.
Advertising Conversion Export: Provides an export of attributed goal conversions for usage in ad networks like Google Ads.
SEO Web Vitals: Improve your website performance, rank higher in search results and optimise your visitor experience with SEO Web Vitals.
Funnels: Identify and understand where your visitors drop off to increase your conversions, sales and revenue with your existing traffic.
Cohorts: Track your retention efforts over time and keep your visitors engaged and coming back for more.
Activity Log: Get a detailed audit log of all activities happening in your Matomo Analytics for increased security, risk management etc.
White Label: Give your users and clients access to a more streamline analytics experience that is less confusing and lets your own branding shine.
Premium Bundle: All premium features in one bundle, make the most out of your Matomo and enjoy discounts of up to 45%! Priced From $ 1729 per year
Growth Bundle: This bundle lets you optimize your content, increase your conversions, and gives you insights into your user acquisition.
Content Optimization Bundle: Bring your content to another level with these premium features and enjoy a discount when buying them together.