Digital analytics Minidegree at CXL, week 1
By: Arsene Zounon
Tags: Digital Analytics, Google Analytics, Learning, Cxl Minidegree

This was my first week at CXL learning Digital analytics. This is a first 12-week journey into the world of digital analytics in order to improve my knowledge and skills. For this first post, I will talk about what is digital analytics and the position of digital analyst, then I will talk about my first course on Google Analytics 4 before finishing with the organization that gives me the opportunity to do this training with the best instructors in this field in the world.

Photo by Jonathan Francisca on Unsplash

What is Digital analytics?

According to Jim Sterne “Digital analytics is the capture and analysis of data from everywhere. It includes web analytics as well as email, search, social media, mobile, and (increasingly) offline data as well” and serve any type of organization (government, individual, enterprises…) who want to make well-informed decisions. It’s different from Conversion Optimization and Digital marketing.

Digital analyst role typically requires:

“The ability to translate complex data into easy-to-understand information

A fundamental understanding of digital marketing programs and technologies

Ability to communicate across various levels of an organization

Ability to develop, audit, and test campaigns in ways that optimize key performance indicators (KPIs)…

A successful digital analyst resume will reflect experience with multiple analytics tools, apps, and software.” This can be Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Looker, Amplitude, Heap…

Because I’m looking to increase my knowledge in this field, I sign up for a Minidegree at CXL Institute (more on this later on this post) that have 4 cumulative tracks thought by 11 instructors.

CXL instructors are hand-picked, and carefully vetted — every instructor needs to be the absolute best in the world at what they do.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4 by Charles Farina

During my first week, I take Google Analytics 4 course by Charles Farina. It’s a must watch intense workshop format course about Google Analytics 4 that goes from theory to practical details and assignment. If you don’t know it yet, Google Analytics 4 is not just an update of Universal Analytics, it’s a new idea of analytics tools made by Google.

Charles doesn’t just talk about it, he shows his own setups with real data and explains how to do the same with your own digital platforms. I am glad that my instructor is a real professional in the field.

The course can be divided into 3 parts:

Differences Google Analytics and Universal Analytics

GA4 is a mix of many Google analytical / tracking tools. Some differences with Universal Analytics are:

Automatic measurement

Realtime reports

Audience builder

Conversion tracking

…

As there will be no historical data import between UA and Google Analytics 4, it’s better to start using GA4 right now with websites and mobile apps (android and IOS). But while learning how to use GA4, you can keep old Universal tag for the moment inside the same media.

Setup: Core implementation, Admin, Events and conversion, BigQuery, E-commerce, Privacy

Charles encourages us to make an implementation on our own real online website using Google Tag Manager and automatic measurement helps a lot in this task. He shows how to set up a data stream during this process and we immediately start collecting data.

As Google Analytics 4 change from hit to event it’s important to spend some time learning how events works, how they can be created or modified. We get familiar, gain experience and become experts with custom dimensions/metrics, setting custom conversions (goals) with the new create and modify events feature

With the default integration of BigQuery, any user can now access the data outside of GA4. This allows the use of third-party software to process and analyze the data, but also to store it indefinitely.

Now with the User-Ids, User-Properties and Privacy configuration facilities, it is possible for Google’s to identify users who visit your website or app multiple times from different devices even if they are not logged in.

One of the elements that really shows that we are in digital analytics and not just web analytics is Measurement Protocol to help send data to GA from anywhere.

Reporting: Standard reports, analysis module, Segments & Audiences

Google Analytics 4 UI is completely different from Universal Analytics and we see this in the standard reports that offer a variety of new features. GA4 reporting is based on the new funnel of Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization, Retention where the old reporting system was based on Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, Conversions.

The Analysis module which used to only be available for GA360 users is now in GA4 and is where we need to go for most ad-hoc analysis. With Audiences, you can segment your users in the ways that are important to your business.

GA4 is in intensive development so many things will change signiﬁcantly. This course is really great and can alone justify your registration to CXL institute.

Registration at CXL Institute

If you want to join CXL Institute and get advanced level skills in all fields related to marketing, analytics and optimization, you are very welcome. By the time I’m writing this post, you have two options right now to join. You will be able to apply skills for small or big company in ecommerce, SaaS or B2B enterprises as there are industry agnostic.

Regular subscription

Your subscription includes 50+ training programs on digital marketing, get access to 50+ on-demand courses, 100% online and fully self-paced. For your convenience, there is currently unlimited access to all courses for 07 days for the price of $1. I don’t know if this offer will still be valid when you read this but if you are serious about building skills, and are ready to put in the effort it takes to, go ahead and subscribe.

Scholarship

You can get a scholarship from CXL if you meet their requirement. You read on CXL website “But cost is often a roadblock. We want to give transformative opportunities to people working towards serious growth regardless of whether or not they can afford the education. ». It’s a great opportunity they are giving to anyone who knows he can Be what he wants to be If I work hard at it. If you are qualified for the Scholarship, you will have to

Choose a Minidegree between 4 and complete it in 12 weeks

Write each week a post of 1000 words minimum about what you have learned

They gave me the scholarship so this is my first post about my journey at CXL Institute. I will take advantage of this exercise to start my own blog on the subject and also start writing in the 3 languages I practice daily: French, English and Italian.

Conclusion

Learning Google Analytics 4 is really the first step in the roadmap to become a Digital Analyst. I will keep the same serious attitude and regularity during the next weeks to finish with real skills in the field.