Google Analytics Academy

I’ve recently completed the Google Analytics Academy, Google’s course on analytics. Six units of video and text lessons with links to further information, with a number of tests and a couple of hands-on activities, net you this bold certificate. You can go on from here to take the Google Analytics Individual Qualification exam, which both Josepha and I have had on our to-do lists for quite a while.

If you’re not out to become an Analytics expert, should you consider taking the Analytics Academy course next time it is offered? It’s four to six hours of your life, after all, and there are tests.

Here’s what the Analytics Academy offers business owners:

• It helps you understand what Google Analytics can do.  No, you won’t be able to connect your phone app and your POS system with your website’s analytics after taking this course, but you’ll know that it can be done. Chances are good that you don’t know the half of it.
• It helps you align your business goals and KPIs with Google Analytics. It’s easy to get hung up on particular goals and metrics, but deciding what your business goals are and setting up your website goals to match can bring you  more useful data and help you see the value of your marketing efforts more clearly.
• It tells you what the various reports are for. If you’re like a lot of business owners, you don’t always get a lot out of your Google Analytics reports. Knowing the point of the various reports allows you to get more from them, and also to ask for reports you might find useful. The Analytics Academy section on Custom Reporting explains some of the range of options and links to a nice gallery of dashboards and reports that will be valuable for different kinds of organizations.

Analytics Academy doesn’t assume that you are doing everything yourself, nor that a brief course can answer all your questions. A lot of instruction includes the phrase “Have your developer do this” or “Have your analytics team do that.”

It will help you, as a business owner, get the idea of Google Analytics and what it has to offer your organization.

The lessons are clear, easy to follow, and well organized. The linked resources are extensive. The tests are multiple choice, and you get to retake them till you get 100% on everything, so they help you catch where you missed something. I did miss a few questions, even though I have been using Google Analytics pretty much every day for seven years now, so I can confidently say that you will probably learn some new things.

I came back to work with some exciting new ideas to implement, too, and some new ways to collaborate with clients. I have a new idea for the Google Analytics trainings I’m doing in the next few weeks, too.

I’d recommend it. If you’ve taken the training, please share your opinion in the comments. I’d like to know what you thought.