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Setting up Google Analytics

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Publitas Support
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Available_in.png Bronze Silver Gold Enterprise
 


Track an array of activity statistics using the Universal Analytics integration, available in Publitas.
For example, you can track Sessions, Page views, Unique visitors and Hotspot clicks.

In this article you'll learn how to:

  1. Connect Google Analytics to Publitas
  2. Configure Custom Dimension for better reporting
  3. Start reporting
  4. A few more things to consider

 

Connect Google Analytics to Publitas

To connect your Publitas account to Google Analytics:

  1. Log in or sign up for Google Analytics

  2. From the Admin screen, create a new "Property"
    • Enterprise TIP: If you're on the Enterprise plan you can connect the same property, created in step 2, to different groups in your Publitas account. This can help you track all publications from a single brand and report on the performance quickly. Using custom dimensions you can quickly filter out specific groups. Continue reading to learn more about configuring these custom dimensions.
  3. Chose and submit a name for your property

  4. Select your timezone and currency

  5. Click to Show advanced options and select Create a Universal Analytics property

  6. Type in view.publitas.com for the Website URL

  7. Check the box at Create a Universal Analytics property only and click on NextCleanShot_2020-11-18_at_15.06.38.gif
  8. Submit your business details and click on Create

  9. Copy the number you'll find beneath Tracking ID in the resulting screen (it should be formatted like so: UA-XXXXXX-YY)

  10. Now access your Publitas account, click on the three dots on the top left, next to the group name, and select Settings

  11. Go to the Google Analytics tab, click on Add Tracking ID and paste the number you copied in step 7

  12. Save the changes to complete the setup

    mceclip0.png

 

Configure Custom Dimension for better reporting

To help create useful reports and dashboards the pageview configuration also sends over the publication name, page number, product name and group name to GA as custom dimensions. These can be used to, for example, filter the data for a specific publication or list the page numbers in your reports.

Before you continue, please be aware of the following:

  • If custom dimensions have already been added to the property, used to track custom values on a different website, we recommend not to use this option.
  • If you signed up for Publitas before March 18, 2021, please contact our Support team to have custom dimensions enabled on your account.

How to enable custom dimensions:

  1. Go to the Admin section of Google Analytics
  2. Select the correct GA property (middle column)
  3. Choose the option Custom Definitions > Custom Dimensions
  4. Add the following Custom Dimensions in order: 
    1. Publitas - Publication (Scope: Hit) Bronze.png
    2. Publitas - Page (Scope: Hit) Bronze.png
    3. Publitas - Link (Scope: Hit) Bronze.png
    4. Publitas - Product (Scope: Hit) Gold.png
    5. Publitas - Group (Scope: Hit) ENT.png

You can ignore the code snippets provided by Google Analytics in step 4, these are covered by Publitas.

Configure Custom Dimensions in GA:
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Start reporting

Once the setup is completed your publications will be tracked by Google Analytics. It can take up to 24 hours before the results are available in Google Analytics's standard reports. However, you can use the Realtime > Overview  report to check whether the connection is working. Simply preview one of the publications found in the connected group and see if your session pops up in the report.

Use the Realtime report to test the connection:
mceclip0.png

Also check out: Using Google Analytics to find out how your publications are performing

 

A few more things to consider:

  • When you're embedding online publications the tracking cookie is classified as a third party cookie. We configured the GA integration to ensure that the cookie is not blocked by default when Chromium browsers are used, notably Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
  • If an end-user chooses a very secure browser like Brave, or proactively change the preferences of their browser to actively block cookies, no tracking will occur for that specific user.
  • Bronze.png Silver.png If you are on the Bronze or Silver plan you only have to configure the first three custom dimensions.
  • Gold.png The fourth custom dimension, product name, is logged when Product hotspots are used, which are available in the Gold and Enterprise plan.
  • ENT.png Tracking group names, the fifth custom dimension, is helpful when you're on the Enterprise plan and you track multiple groups of publications using a single property.

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