Google Analytics is a staple in the marketing world. We use it to analyze everything from organic traffic to how much e-commerce sales visitors from social media generated.
But, even a tool as powerful and versatile as Google Analytics has its flaws. The system has a few holes and missed opportunities that leave marketers without pertinent data.
Yet, so many marketing teams live and die by this platform. Every campaign-critical decision is made based on the data reported by Google Analytics.
Your marketing team needs to stop relying solely on Google Analytics data for marketing strategy decisions. Here’s why.
1. Incorrect, Unnecessary, & Missing Data
Although Google Analytics provides reports on many website performance aspects, it still offers limited data to marketers.
For example, all too often, marketers encounter the dreaded “Not Provided” results for search query keywords, URLs, and other criteria. How can marketers make an informed decision if they’re only analyzing this data from Google Analytics?
Additionally, the majority of Internet users have some ad blockers set up. With this in place, their information will not appear on Google Analytics (at least accurately.) A marketer’s website could be receiving far more traction than is reported, and they’d never know it.
And that’s all before tackling the referrer spam problem.
Marketers are constantly filtering out unnecessary referral traffic spam from their Google Analytics reports. Marketers shouldn’t need to filter unnecessary data out of their tracking tool to get actual results!
Lastly, Google Analytics is programmed to estimate a lot of data. For instance, if a user lands on your homepage and keeps the tab open while interacting with another program, Google counts this as time on site.
With so much inaccurate, missing, or unnecessary data, Google Analytics shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all reporting tool for marketing teams.
2. Failure to Accommodate Businesses with Long Sales Funnels
Google Analytics does not offer an ideal platform for businesses that have a long-term sales funnel. If your sales cycle takes 90+ days to convert, you’ll lose out as Google Analytics only tracks data for 90-day increments.
That means the platform is fantastic for top-of-the-funnel activities such as driving website visits and tracking behavior. But once these leads begin on the journey to becoming a paying customer, you’ll quickly lose the ability to track them accurately.
If your industry requires a long-term sales cycle, relying on Google Analytics isn’t giving you the in-depth data you need to make informed marketing decisions.
3. Lack of Call Data
Lastly, Google Analytics only includes call data from phone calls retrieved from platforms such as Google Maps and AdWords.
By not factoring in the data related to leads calling your business, you’re making marketing decisions based on only half of the information you need.
And, since the Google Call History feature only records call data associated with calls from their products, you’re still operating with a fraction of the information necessary.
Fortunately, a call tracking number can remedy this.
Combine Call Tracking with Google Analytics Reports for the Ultimate Marketing Strategy
Call tracking helps marketers gather a wealth of pertinent information about their phone leads. You can translate this data to other reporting tools such as Google Analytics to optimize decision-making, reporting, and necessary marketing strategy directions.
Call tracking numbers can provide insight into:
- How customers found your business: With specific call tracking numbers for each marketing campaign, platform, profile, and channel, you’ll have a clear understanding of how each customer discovered your business.
- Marketing performance: By knowing how customers find your company, you’ll also see which channels and platforms perform the best. If AdWords generate far more leads than email marketing, you’ll know!
- Budget allocation: Many marketing teams make financial and budgetary decisions based on Google Analytics reports. However, with much of the necessary data missing from these reports, it’s unclear if the chosen budget direction is the correct path. By filtering in data about call leads, you’ll know the exact channels to allocate funds for the best results.
Combining call tracking data with your Google Analytics reports provides a comprehensive assessment of the success or failure of your marketing efforts. Without it, you’ll be operating inefficiently and ineffectively as a marketing department.
Add a call tracking number to your marketing team’s suite of tools and dethrone Google Analytics today.
