A guide to Universal Analytics.

1. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 1
Universal Analytics: Implications in
Higher Ed

2. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 2
1) What is Universal Analytics?
2) How Does it Work?
3) What are the Main Features of UA?
4) What are the Issues of UA?
5) What are its Implications in Higher Education?
Overview
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed

3. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 3
 Announced in Oct 2012, and then made available to the
public in beta at the end of March 2012, Universal Analytics
is the next major iteration of Google Analytics.
 It is a big change in how it tracks web traffic, moving from
what has been a per visit approach, to a more visitor centric
point of view.
 By assigning a unique client id to visitors, who register on
your site, it tracks visitors across devices and touch points,
including multiple visits, multiple browsers, multiple devices
and off line behavior ( ie in your CRM system).
1. What is Universal Analytics?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed

4. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 4
 UA uses a new measurement protocol which lets you send
data from any device/system/environment to your GA
account provided you have formatted your data according to
the protocol.
 Through this protocol you can import offline conversion data into GA.
 For now, experts suggest adding Universal Analytics tracking
code in parallel to the existing Google Analytics tracking
code on your current website.
2. How Does it Work?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed

5. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 5
 This is necessary to retain all of your past GA data. If you
simply replace your “classic” GA with Universal Analytics you
will lose all of your history.
 A migration path is promised soon from Google that will
merge your GA history with Universal Analytics.
 New sites only require the Universal Analytics tracking code
to track all activity going forward but you should also
carefully consider UA's limitations before you make a final
decision to use it alone.
2. How Does it Work?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed

6. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 6
 Understand visitor interaction across devices and touch
points by tracking multiple visits, multiple browsers, multiple
devices.
 Track offline behavior – i.e measure call centre or CRM
activity.
 UA will provide a better understanding of the relationship between
online and offline marketing channels that drive sales and
conversions than GA
 For example, you might track a unique, prospective student across
multiple visits to your site using each of their mobile, tablet and
desktop devices, and then cross reference related call centre or
CRM events, from deep in the recruitment cycle, back to the original
lead source of the prospective student.
3. What are the Main Features of UA?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed

7. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 7
 Integration of your college's or university’s mobile application
tracking and additional insights into performance
 More effectively track multi-channel marketing campaigns.
 Create your own custom dimensions and metrics to better
understand your visitor behavior.
 Dimensions are a characteristic of your visitor and typically
appear as a row in your analytics report.
3. What are the Main Features of UA?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed

8. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 8
 A migration path to integrate GA and UA data is not yet
available.
 Currently a fair bit of technical knowledge is required to use
custom dimensions, custom metrics and integrating data
across multiple devices/ platforms.
 You should have some serious expertise on hand to guide
you in the adoption and use of UA. Also keep in mind that it
is still in beta so the product will change and continue to
improve with time.
 Privacy is an issue. You will need to give your end users
proper notice and get consent about what data you will
collect via UA.
4. What are the Issues of UA?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed

9. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 9
 Universal Analytics provides visitor centric tracking that
could prove extremely valuable to higher ed marketers as
competition for paying students continues to increase.
 The ability to track visitor activity across multiple devices will help
bring the expanding device universe back into some sense of focus.
 The ability to track and integrate off line activity, like call centre or
CRM system activity could be the most important piece.
 The capability to calculate ROI across devices, across marketing
campaigns and deep into the bottom end of the recruitment funnel
will create a powerful tool that could change how higher ed
marketers do their business.
 Privacy and complexity issues complicate and may limit the
adoption of UA in higher ed but its potential is strong to be a
game changer.
5. Implications in Higher Education?
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed

10. Universal Analytics: Implications in Higher Ed
Slide 10
Questions?
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info@higher-education-marketing.com
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