https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog Analytics Ninja is a small group of expert consultants that solves complex analytics needs for large companies. en-gb https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/data-pipelines-dont-fail-quietly-a-practical-guide-to-monitoring-alerting https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/data-pipelines-dont-fail-quietly-a-practical-guide-to-monitoring-alerting Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Christopher Bridges “Do not confuse things that are hard with things that are valuable.” ~ James Clear It’s a common fallacy that monitoring data pipelines, and other key performance data, is […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/data-enrichment-and-data-activation-using-hubspot-and-server-gtm https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/data-enrichment-and-data-activation-using-hubspot-and-server-gtm Sun, 15 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT . Situation : One of the challenges that one of our clients faced was a lack of visibility into their HubSpot campaigns' performance in Google Analytics. They run dozens of HubSpot email […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/bigquery-gcp-iam-query-permissions https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/bigquery-gcp-iam-query-permissions Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT Getting the right permissions in Google Cloud can be complicated and BigQuery is no exception to this. We're unpacking how to get IAM right and what to do to improve your processes. https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/shopify-app-custom-pixels-customer-privacy https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/shopify-app-custom-pixels-customer-privacy Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT As we worked on updating our consent management logic to align with Shopify’s recent checkout extensibility release for one of our main client (read our previous article on the topic if you […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/checkout-extensibility-review https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/checkout-extensibility-review Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT In 2024, anyone working in analytics for Shopify websites has been busy "upgrading" to Checkout Extensibility. This is especially true for Analytics Ninja as one of our major clients is a […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/clustering-the-ga4-events-table https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/clustering-the-ga4-events-table Fri, 05 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT Anyone who works with Google Analytics should be using BigQuery for their analysis and reporting. There, I said it. Hit level, raw event data is your best source for whatever you want to report, if […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/google-analytics-backup-archiving https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/google-analytics-backup-archiving Fri, 30 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMT Today is a very auspicious day. In less than 24 hours, Google Analytics will stop processing data from tens of millions of websites. Sites that have been using Google Analytics for a very […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/apples-safari-15-5-impact-on-geolocation-analytics https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/apples-safari-15-5-impact-on-geolocation-analytics Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT . Yesterday I was asked an interesting question by one of my clients. The organization, which provides services in the United States, wanted to know if a greater percentage of people were […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/customer-journeys-and-tries https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/customer-journeys-and-tries Mon, 05 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT Using SQL-modeling to tell different stories about user behavior A bit over 7 months ago, Jules (our Head of Data Analysis and Conversion Optimization) sent me a message in Slack letting me know […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/fixing-shopifys-broken-data-layer-with-server-side-google-tag-manager https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/fixing-shopifys-broken-data-layer-with-server-side-google-tag-manager Fri, 04 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT At Analytics Ninja, we find ourselves ever more and more excited about using Google Tag Manager Server Side containers (SSGTM). While Google is certainly not the first vendor to introduce Server […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/weighted-sorting-in-data-studio-using-bigquery https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/weighted-sorting-in-data-studio-using-bigquery Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT Finding the diamonds in the rough... One of my favorite features in the Google Analytics UI is the ability to do weighted sorting. With more and more Google Analytics reporting being done in […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/google-analytics-userid-views-and-visitor-back-stitching https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/google-analytics-userid-views-and-visitor-back-stitching Sun, 31 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT Google Analytics and UserId Backstitching For a few years now I've been obsessing about how Google Analytics treats UserIDs. There are quite a few posts out there for how Google Analytics UserID […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/measuring-page-speed-with-google-analytics https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/measuring-page-speed-with-google-analytics Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT One of the most common needs that have come up for Analytics Ninja's clients in 2019 has been measuring page speed. The marketing industry seems to be very heavily focused on the topic with a wide […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/apples-intelligent-tracking-prevention-and-google-analytics https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/apples-intelligent-tracking-prevention-and-google-analytics Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://twitter.com/johnwilander/status/1136119342209294336 I've tried not to think too much about Safari's Intelligent Tracking Platform (ITP) lately. The topic tends to get me worked up and […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/methods-of-workflow-sanity-with-google-tag-manager https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/methods-of-workflow-sanity-with-google-tag-manager Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT Also known as: a story of one ninja's journey to tag management nirvana. This blog post was co-authored by my good friend and esteemed, highly respected, super-expert colleague Sam Briesemeister. […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/guide-facebook-pixel-google-tag-manager https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/guide-facebook-pixel-google-tag-manager Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT How to set up the Facebook Pixel using Google Tag Manager. Recently I was tasked to deploy a Facebook Pixel on an ecommerce site. While deploying tags with Google Tag Manager is normally a […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/tracking-brighcove-videos-with-gooogle-analytics https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/tracking-brighcove-videos-with-gooogle-analytics Wed, 09 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT This post is authored by David Vallejo . Brighcove is an online video platform that allows to embed onDemand videos on your websites. It seems there’re out of there some people looking for a way to […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/google-analytics-custom-metrics-calculated-metrics https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/google-analytics-custom-metrics-calculated-metrics Fri, 18 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT Metrics, Metrics, Metrics, oh my!! With the recent (very welcome) release of calculated metrics in Google Analytics, I thought that the time was ripe to write a post about custom metrics in […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/using-google-analytics-to-grow-your-business https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/using-google-analytics-to-grow-your-business Mon, 19 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT The following post is an email that I wrote for the Traffic1M course presented by SumoMe.com. It is geared to folks who are just getting started with Google Analytics, and online marketing in […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/smooth-google-analytics-migrations-using-google-tag-manager https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/smooth-google-analytics-migrations-using-google-tag-manager Thu, 23 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT This post is authored by David Vallejo. At the current juncture, this blog is not configured to support for multiple authors. I hope to remedy that in the future. ~~Yehoshua Since Google Tag Manager […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/real-time-page-google-analytics https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/real-time-page-google-analytics Wed, 11 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT A better way to measure content engagement with Google Analytics This post is inspired by a conversation that I had with my friend and colleague Simo Ahava at Superweek as well as a recent work […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/advanced-retargeting-google-tag-manager https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/advanced-retargeting-google-tag-manager Tue, 27 May 2014 00:00:00 GMT From Data Layer to Dollars... Some visitors are more profitable than others, and thoughtfully created Remarketing Lists can help businesses focus their ad spend on the most valuable visitors. This […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/googles-universal-analytics-out-of-beta https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/googles-universal-analytics-out-of-beta Wed, 09 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMT Universal Analytics The big news last week (at least for folks like me) was that Universal Analytics finally came out of beta. Is it time for you to switch? Short answer --> yes, soon. :-) What […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/shopify-google-analytics-integration https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/shopify-google-analytics-integration Fri, 20 Dec 2013 00:00:00 GMT The following is the tale of some investigative work I did for a company which approached me to help them with their Google Analytics tracking for their online store. This company, like so many […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/where-did-my-traffic-go https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/where-did-my-traffic-go Thu, 03 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT A question that is commonly asked of analysts is "WHERE DID MY TRAFFIC GO?!" (Yes, even occasionally emailed in all caps). :-) Indeed, this is a question that I received from a publisher recently, […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/measuring-profit-using-googles-universal-analytics https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/measuring-profit-using-googles-universal-analytics Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMT Leveraging Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics to gain insights into Merchandise and Profitability. I spend a bit too much time on Twitter. It’s not a terrible thing, as in addition to Twitter […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/dudamobile-google-analytics-fix https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/dudamobile-google-analytics-fix Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT DudaMobile + Google Analytics = #Fail Sometimes I find myself really bothered by 3rd parties who claim to have Google Analytics integrations not take the care to make sure that is done correctly. […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/getting-clean-and-meaningful-google-analytics-data https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/getting-clean-and-meaningful-google-analytics-data Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT Ever since returning from Superweek in beautiful Galyateto, Hungary , I've been thinking a lot about data and the utility of Google Analytics as a tool. Yes, I know, I spend a lot of time thinking […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/google-analytics-bounce-rate-demystified https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/google-analytics-bounce-rate-demystified Sun, 17 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT Bounce Rate in Google Analytics Every few months of so, I see a (re)tweet pointing to this infographic from KissMetrics . Here's a snippet: (Update: to learn about content engagement and […] https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/how-unique-are-unique-visitors-in-google-analytics https://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/how-unique-are-unique-visitors-in-google-analytics Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT "Unique" Visitors 25%-39% inflated I've been working on implementations with a number of clients who have a need for visitor level tracking in Google Analytics so that they can start using GA to […]