Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics 3rd Edition

Brian Clifton goes very deep into the inner workings of Google Analytics and gives real world examples of how he implements its execution. I got Google Analytics Qualified briefly before I bought this book and only intended on using it to strengthen my foundation of GA. I now feel much more confident running filters and reports for my website.I read the entire book cover-to-cover on a kindle desktop app. My only problem with this book is the images on the Kindle app are so incredibly tiny to see that you can't make out any small text. Very frustrating as I was trying to see things like what he wrote for a RegEx filter, ect ect. Also Google Analytics has updated their layout since this book was written, so certain things aren't going to be where Brian explained them to be (eg- Profiles have been moved to the Admin screen, the "Content" sidebar in GA was renamed "Behavior", and other little changes). If you're familiar with GA's new layout then you won't be temporarily lost. Certain things in the book blew me away on how advanced they were, Chapter 12 in particular was like reading Greek to me. Fortunately for me, Chapter 12 is about working with the GA API, which is something I will never have any use for for my website.All in all, a very thorough book. Applicable for novice and advanced users. Keep it around for reference when you get into more advanced implementation like modifying the GATC.

I started getting interested in Online Advertising around the year 2007. I bought a book called "The Online Advertising Playbook" and that book gave an excellent overview of concepts such as behavioral targeting, location-based targeting etc. Then I read Avinash Kaushik's "Web Analytics: An Hour A Day". It was an excellent introduction to web analytics. Earlier this year I bought and read Avinash Kaushik's "Web Analytics 2.0" - it was a reasonably good book and I am glad I read it.I loved reading Brian Clifton's "Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics". I read every page of its 550+ pages in a little under 9 hours. A bit about my background - I have been working in the enterprise applications software (e.g., Oracle, Salesforce, Netsuite etc.) industry for about 23 years. For the last few years I have been doing some work on Google Analytics and so I am very familiar with GA. At present I use GA to evaluate how users at my client are interacting with a web-based application. Clifton's book is an excellent combination of an introduction to Google Analytics as well as best practices. I think the word "advanced" in the title may be incorrect because the web metrics that he describes should be standard metrics for web performance measurement.I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to read just ONE book on how to use Google Analytics.

Lots of great info, but just so you know, this book is huge! It's like a college textbook. Most of these types of instructional books I've purchased were a bit more manageable, but this isn't the kind of book you pick up and read front to back in a few days. I guess I was hoping for something a bit more directed at the basics. But this is an in-depth look at google analytics. I can't fault them for that, but it's something I wish I realized before buying it.

I just got my hands on the 3rd edition of Advanced Web Metrics, and I am happy to say it is a great update to the book. I have said for a while that anyone interesting in online marketing should start by reading Advanced Web Metrics. They then should go learn about all the functional areas of online marketing (e.g., paid search, SEO, email marketing, etc.) and then come back and read Advanced Web Metrics again. Metrics are the cornerstone of online marketing, and Brian Clifton just nails the subject. He does a great job of weaving high level concepts together with real world implementation.The 3rd edition keeps the book fresh and tackles a number of areas that have changed since the 2nd edition (e.g., the new Google Analytics interface). This is a fast moving area after all!The only topic I would like to see Brian cover in more detail is privacy. The theories on privacy are pretty clear, but the tools are moving so quickly that there are some gray areas in the real world. Hopefully we will see that in the 4th edition!The 2nd edition of Advanced Web Metrics has been the only book sitting on my desk for the last 12 months (because it is so darn handy). Now the 3rd edition will have to take its place.

very complicated

When this book was released in March, I already owned Brian's two previous editions, so I was a little on the fence about buying the third edition. Eventually, I broke down and bought the 3rd edition, because my second edition was so worn-out. To my surprise the 3rd edition was much larger than the 2nd edition, so I quickly saw this was not just a re-hash of the same. Not only was this book chock full of new information, it had some great code examples for the new version of Google Analytics. This is what I expect in a book titled "Advanced Web Metrics." I can get the basics online, in blogs, but Brian's books really help as a guide to going to the next level. Don't get me wrong there is a good balance here, with plently for those new to Google Analytics as well, including a lovely "Google Analytics in Color" section for those unfamiliar with GA. In short, this book I keep handy as my reference for the right answer on most questions and I cannot recommend it enough for those who are serious about analytics. It was worth every penny.

It's not a nice book to read, I quit in the 3th or 4th chapter because I've lost interest in it.