June 25, 2015 · Cassey Reynoso

School is NOT Out – Google Analytics Certification Guide

Just because school is coming to an end, don’t let that stop you from learning, testing, and receiving another diploma (or in this case, a certification). For all of you analytics enthusiasts out there that use Google Analytics on a daily basis, there is no excuse to not take your Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) exam and get certified.
We are here to help you study, give you some tips on what you need to know, tell you about some tricks the exam tries to pull, and help you get your certificate!
We also recommend being very familiar with the following concepts:
•    Do you know how many minutes of inactivity will cause a visitor’s session to expire?
•    What does Time Lag mean in Google Analytics?
•    Micro Conversion vs. Macro Conversion
•    Do you know the advantages of implementing the tag manager?
•    Know how to structure your accounts
•    What is an ROI, and what do you need in order to calculate it?
•    Study on what a goal is, how to set it up, and what you can see in Google Analytics with one.
You need to make sure you that you really study and understand what sources, mediums, channels, keywords, and campaign parameters are for this exam. Here are some notes/definitions for you to soak in.
Source:
Every referral to a website has a source, or an origin. Some examples of those are: “google.com” (search engine), “Facebook.com” (referring site), “April2015_Newsletter” (the name of one of your campaigns), and “direct” (users coming to your site by typing in the URL or had it bookmarked).
Medium:
Every referral to your site also has a medium. Some examples are: “organic” (unpaid search), “cpc” (paid search), “referral”, “email”, or “none” (direct traffic).
Channels:
Direct, Organic Search, Paid Search, Referral, Email, Other Advertising, Social, and Display.
Keyword:
In both organic and paid search, the phrase/keyword used by a user when searching in a search engine. If the SSL search is employed, the keyword will show as “Not Provided”.
Campaign:
The name of a campaign that you have tracked or an AdWords campaign.
Campaign Parameters:
You should always use utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign parameters to help keep track of different campaigns. utm_term and •   •   •    utm_content can be used for tracking additional information:
•    utm_source: Identify the advertiser, site, publication, etc. that is sending traffic to your property, for example: google, citysearch, newsletter4, billboard.
•    utm_medium: The advertising or marketing medium, for example: cpc, banner, email newsletter.
•    utm_campaign: The individual campaign name, slogan, promo code, etc. for a product.
•    utm_term: Identify paid search keywords. If you’re manually tagging paid keyword campaigns, you should also use utm_term to specify the keyword.
•    utm_content: Used to differentiate similar content, or links within the same ad. For example, if you have two call-to-action links within the same email message, you can use utm_content and set different values for each so you can tell which version is more effective.
Content:
Identifies a specific link or content item in a custom campaign. For example, if you have two call-to-action links within the same email message, you can use different content values to differentiate them so that you can tell which version is most effective.
You will also want to be familiar with many of the other basic digital analytics terms and definitions for the test.
Final Tip – READ THE QUESTION! Read it out loud. Listen to what it is asking. There are some that may seem like a trick question once you read it just because it is SO obvious.
In all honestly, just using Google Analytics and reading the question thoroughly will help you the most.
We hope you find these tips and tricks useful; feel free to let us know if you have any to add after you complete your Google Analytics Test.
Please post comments on scores, we would love to see how many of you are taking the plunge and getting your certificate. Good luck!

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