{"id":20504,"date":"2020-01-30T10:59:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T10:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/google-analytics"},"modified":"2026-10-07T09:24:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T09:24:46","slug":"google-analytics","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/google-analytics","title":{"rendered":"Google Analytics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-81539 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/google-analytics-official-square-600.png\" alt=\"Google Analytics\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/google-analytics-official-square-600.png 600w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/google-analytics-official-square-600-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/google-analytics-official-square-600-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/google-analytics-official-square-600-360x360.png 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Google Analytics<\/strong> is Google&#8217;s digital measurement platform for collecting, organizing, and analyzing data about how people interact with websites and applications. Its current version, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), uses an <strong>event-based model<\/strong> to describe actions such as viewing a page, clicking a link, searching, purchasing, or submitting a form.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Origin of Google Analytics<\/h2>\n<p>Google launched <a href=\"https:\/\/marketingplatform.google.com\/about\/analytics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Analytics<\/a> in November 2005 after acquiring Urchin Software Corporation. The service made <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/web-analytics\">web analytics<\/a> accessible to organizations of different sizes<\/strong> through an interface for examining traffic and digital behavior. Over time, the platform expanded from measuring web pages to analyzing websites and applications together.<\/p>\n<p>The current edition is <strong>Google Analytics 4<\/strong>. It brings data together in properties that may contain web, iOS, and Android streams, and organizes measurement around the actions that occur throughout each user&#8217;s journey.<\/p>\n<h2>How Google Analytics works<\/h2>\n<p>Measurement begins when <strong>a tag or software development kit sends information<\/strong> from a website or application to a Google Analytics property. The system processes the data and presents it in reports, explorations, and analysis workspaces. The flow can be summarized in four elements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Collection:<\/strong> data streams receive information from the Google tag, Google Tag Manager, or Firebase SDKs, depending on the environment being measured.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Events and parameters:<\/strong> each interaction is recorded as an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/event\">event<\/a>. Its parameters provide context such as the page, product, purchase value, or method used to sign in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Processing:<\/strong> Google Analytics turns incoming data into dimensions and metrics. Identity, consent, filters, and retention settings affect the information available and how it can be interpreted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Analysis:<\/strong> standard reports show common trends, while explorations combine segments, funnels, paths, and cohorts to investigate more specific questions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>GA4 includes automatically collected events, enhanced measurement, and recommended or custom events. Some modeling and predictive features are only activated when a property meets their data requirements. Therefore, <strong>analysis quality depends on implementation<\/strong>, the consent obtained, and whether events accurately represent the relevant actions.<\/p>\n<h2>What Google Analytics can analyze<\/h2>\n<p>Google Analytics can show <strong>the journey from acquisition to actions that create value<\/strong>. Its reports and explorations cover several complementary areas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Acquisition:<\/strong> identifies the channels, campaigns, and sources that generate sessions and users.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Engagement:<\/strong> shows page or screen views, engagement time, internal searches, downloads, and other content events.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Key events:<\/strong> allows actions that matter to an organization, such as a purchase or form submission, to be marked as key events, and supports analysis of the paths and funnels that lead to them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ecommerce:<\/strong> analyzes product views, additions to cart, checkout processes, transactions, revenue, and refunds when the corresponding events have been implemented.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Audiences and retention:<\/strong> groups users through behavioral conditions and helps compare recurrence, cohorts, and change over time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These data do not provide a causal explanation on their own. Google Analytics describes <strong>patterns observed in the available measurement<\/strong>; understanding why they occur requires the business context, data quality, and other sources of information.<\/p>\n<h2>Main integrations<\/h2>\n<p>The platform connects with other products to extend <strong>data collection, activation, visualization, and analysis<\/strong>. Common integrations include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Google Tag Manager:<\/strong> helps manage tags and events without editing site code for every change. Its setup requires a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/google-tag-manager\">Google Tag Manager implementation<\/a> that is consistent with the measurement plan.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Google Ads:<\/strong> supports audience sharing and the use of Google Analytics events as the basis for certain advertising conversions, while also bringing campaign data into the analysis.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Google Search Console:<\/strong> adds query and page information from organic search, using scopes and measurement methods that differ from those in Analytics.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Looker Studio:<\/strong> uses Google Analytics as a source for dashboards and for combining its data with other platforms.<\/li>\n<li><strong>BigQuery and Firebase:<\/strong> BigQuery provides an event export for advanced analysis, while Firebase supplies the measurement infrastructure for mobile applications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These connections do not replace measurement planning. A useful property maintains <strong>well-defined events, parameters, and key events<\/strong>, documentation of changes, and regular collection checks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google Analytics is Google&#8217;s platform for measuring events on websites and apps. Its GA4 model organizes reports, key events, and integrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":81533,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1442,1413,1444],"class_list":["post-20504","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-analysis-and-dashboards","encyclopedia-tag-ecommerce-measurement","encyclopedia-tag-web-analytics-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/20504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=20504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}