How do you learn Google Analytics without practice? How can we train new people when analytics accounts are held private – like trade secrets.
Reading vs. Learning Google Analytics
You can find lots of resources to teach yourself Google Analytics. One of the very, very best is the informative, insightful, and thought-provoking writing of Avinash Kaushik. If you don’t already follow his blog – Occam’s Razor, do it! You should also subscribe to his email newsletter, The Marketing < > Analytics Intersect.
Yet, reading gets us only halfway. I learn best when I can apply my new knowledge directly and immediately. Don’t you?
When we wrote Internet Marketing Start to Finish, I sought an open Google Analytics account for students (see my post on the Pure Visibility website). For its instructors’ resource guide, I offered access to the analytics on this site. While better than nothing, it remained incomplete and unsatisfying. For instance, this site has no AdWords or e-commerce.
Demo Account to Learn Google Analytics!
Earlier this month, Google opened up a great resource for learning – a demo e-commerce account. From Google’s Official Announcement:
It can be difficult to gain practical experience since not everyone has access to a fully-implemented Google Analytics account. To fix this we’re introducing a fully functional Google Analytics Demo Account, available to everyone (get access here).
This account has AdWords data, e-commerce functionality, and more. Hip Hip Hooray!
I love this. Very cool. Have you taken a look? What do you think?
Learn More
Avinash Kaushik shared more info on the Demo account and how you might use it available via Occam’s Razor post “Be Real World Smart: A Beginner’s Advanced Google Analytics Guide.”