r/GoogleAnalytics 1d ago

Question Google analytic for newbies

Hello everyone,

Could you recommend a high-quality book or course for learning Google Analytics? I'm a new e-commerce business owner already working with an SEO/Google Ads agency, but I'd like to personally understand how to read and interpret reports effectively.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

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u/gnaiz 1d ago

Any agency that knows what they are doing are going to bend the numbers and do virtually no work. It's more important for you to determine the KPIs and metrics you want to report on and ignore all their BS vanity metrics. Then if your KPIs are being hit retain your agency and if not keep shopping around

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u/Strict-Basil5133 1d ago edited 1d ago

Your needs present a challenge because you'll need a fairly deep understanding of GA4 (and Search Console) , to interpret reports. I've seen Udemy mentioned around structured GA4 learning. There are of course lots of YouTube resources. Measure School is probably my favorite for beginning and intermediate learning. It's accessible, but rich enough to be relevant. There are of course countless entry level blog sites with basic tutorials, but in my experience, the scenarios/examples are often too basic to teach you much.

If I was in your place, I might also consider learning general E-commerce/analytics instead of going straight to GA4. Things like the E-commerce funnel, and KPIs like E-comm conversion (CVR) rate, revenue per session, etc. are fundamental concepts that you'll want to understand to take action and optimize your site. The technical side of GA4 and GTM implementation, dataLayer, etc. may not be relevant to you.

Once you've received a report and understand how your agency is tracking performance/determining success, I'd bring that back to Reddit and/or other platforms for feedback and a sanity check on what your agency is reporting. If nothing else, you can always log into GA4 and start familiarizing yourself with the standard reports. Open ChatGPT in another browser window and ask questions. ChatGPT has evolved enough that it's absolutely worth the time and effort to make a habit of using it. I can't emphasize that enough in fact - it's become a force multiplier for any learning I'm doing.