10 Reasons

to ChooseAnalytics Canvas

To Get GA Data Into Tableau

While Tableau’s connector might be sufficient for simple Google Analytics queries, it will limit your ability to take full advantage of your Google Analytics data.

Here, we would like to show you how you can improve your analysis, and illustrate the important differences between connecting to Google Analytics with Analytics Canvas and with Tableau.

1. Querying multiple Google Analytics accounts and profiles at once

Working with one account at a time means low productivity.

For starters, Tableau allows you to connect to only one account and one view (profile) at a time.

Simple Google Analytics implementations mean one account and just a few profiles, but most of the companies which are serious about Google Analytics have dozens – or even hundreds – of profiles. Analysts are pushed to prioritize and keep up with only a handful of them.

With Analytics Canvas, companies with robust Google Analytics implementations that involve multiple accounts and profiles save time and increase analyst productivity.

Analytics Canvas users query dozens, even hundreds or thousands of profiles at once and put all the data into a single TDE.

2. Including ALL the dimensions you want

Don’t avoid looking at the detail you need because it will be “Too much data”

For sites with lots of traffic from lots of sources to lots of content, sometimes the long tail is important. Looking at high level summaries just won’t give you the insight you need.

If you have an e-commerce site with tens of thousands of products, you need to know in detail what is happening, and that might mean tens or hundreds of thousands of rows per day. Reloading everything every time just won’t work. Picking and choosing which dimensions to not consider means losing the detail you need.

With Analytics Canvas and the speed and efficiency of the TDE extracts it can create, you can push the limits of what Tableau can do with high resolution Google Analytics data.

3. Cleaning data consistently

Sometimes your Google Analytics data needs a bit of cleaning. (Or a lot).

Once a bit of data is stored in Google Analytics, its there for good. Any errors in tagging or links etc. means that you end up with extra values you don’t want- “email” and “Email”, or “campaignA” and “campainA”.

While you can use Tableaus features to group such values, if its done in each workbook, it has to be re-done again and again, and might not always be done the same, making reports inconsistent.

Analytics Canvas gives you the ability fix issues once, and have the right data in all your TDEs so every dashboard sees the same version.

EmailemailCampaign Acampaign ACampagn A…

Arrrrrrrg!

4. Filtering of the data before import

Loading unfiltered data results in inefficient use of resources.

Frequently, analysis requires a deep dive into a specific subset of the website traffic: for example, hourly data for a specific country by region, or a regex on a page path to focus in on a few pages out of hundreds.

Tableau’s connector cannot filter by dimensions and metrics other than the date dimension. This means you have to import ALL the data- often making the volume unworkable.

If you have a large amount of data in Google Analytics, a large query will take a long time to process, waste your API quota, and slow down your workbooks.

In Analytics Canvas, you can add detailed filters, to query only what you need.

5. Using all Google Analytics dimensions and metrics as soon as they become available

Getting the latest version of API means staying competitive.

When Google Analytics adds new dimensions and metrics, you want to start using them right away.

In Tableau, you might have to wait for months or even years before the connector gets updated with the latest API version. Dimensions are only included in a new release- you have to upgrade.

Until then, you are stuck with reporting the old way – as your competition is busily running new reports and gaining new insights.

With Analytics Canvas, you can access the newest dimensions and metrics as well as API updates, the day they become available, without even upgrading the software- Canvas uses the Google Analytics meta data API, and checks it every time you run.

6. Automatically refreshing GA extracts directly to Tableau Online and Server

Automatic refreshing of data sources allows you to avoid repetitive work, and saves time.

Are your dashboards up-to-date?

With Tableau, if the connector isn’t supporting what you need, it is difficult to automatically update data sources and schedule automatic publishing of refreshed data sources to Tableau Online and Tableau Server.

Analysts and business users have to regularly reopen their workbooks to reload Google Analytics data loaded manually to update all visualizations.

Analytics Canvas has the capability to automatically refresh your data sources and publish them to Tableau Server and Tableau Online in a single flow. Once built, every night the entire process runs and every dashboard has fresh updated data.

7. Saving your queries. You don’t have to click on the same dimensions again and again

Get to your visualizations right away with saved queries.

Repeat queries are common in analytics -what if we look at the same data from a new perspective? With Tableau’s connector there’s no quick access to Google Analytics queries that you frequently make.

In Analytics Canvas, you can save your favorite queries in the query library, where you can have speedy access to them, even if you are creating a new workflow from scratch.

What if your colleague wants to recreate a query that you’ve made, with another Google Analytics account or profile? Analytics Canvas allows you to share your queries with your colleagues, including dimensions, metrics, complicated filters, and advanced segments that you’ve set up.

8. Analyzing how your marketing channels work together with Multi-Channel Funnels

Look across your channels to tie your efforts to ROI.

Tableau’s connector queries only the Core Reporting API; it doesn’t have the metrics and dimensions needed for analysis of conversion paths, identifying which channels assist to conversions, or what role each channel plays in the conversion process.

Analytics Canvas connects to Multi-Channel Funnels API, allowing you to explore what role prior website referrals, searches, and ads have played in conversions, and how much times passes between the user’s initial interest and his or her purchase.

9. Visualizing and analyzing custom funnels

Analyzing funnels means understanding where your website visitors get stuck.

Understanding task abandonment and task completion is fundamental to optimizing website performance. Consider the most important behavioral metrics: Goal Conversion Rate, Bounce Rate, Exit Rate. Funnel analysis allows you not only to find out these metrics, but to understand the details: how far do visitors get in the conversion process? Exactly what step of the funnel needs to be improved?

Tableau’s connector does not offer funnel analysis.

Analytics Canvas helps analysts and business users focus their website optimization efforts with the guidance of funnel analysis. With Analytics Canvas it is possible to do custom funnel analysis, even without a Google Analytics Premium account.

10. Analytics 360 BigQuery Analysis

Fully utilize your Analytics 360 Big Query analysis with funnel analysis and SQL Generation.

Companies with Google Analytics 360 can have their raw data pumped into BigQuery, and Tableau has a BigQuery connector, but the Tableau BigQuery connector can’t just connect directly to the tables and return meaningful results.

To really take advantage of the hit level data, GA Premium users potentially have to write hundreds of lines of SQL code in BigQuery to create even a basic funnel analysis.

Analytics Canvas makes it easy to create a complex funnel analysis using BigQuery, to analyze page-hit data and gain insights at even the most detailed levels using a graphical user interface. Point and click, and watch the SQL code get generated automatically, then pipe your data into a TDE, and publish it automatically.

Analytics Canvas offers a complete solution, that allows you to quickly connect, transform and seamlessly bring your data into Tableau for visualization.

Try it free for 30 days and discover how much better your GA data in Tableau can be.

www.AnalyticsCanvas.com