How to Use Google Analytics Demo Account to Get Hands-On With Data Analysis
How are you going to learn Google Analytics when you have no data to analyze?
This is the situation most new bloggers find themselves in:
- They know that data reports from are vital to a blog’s success.
- They know Google Analytics is the “Holy Grail” of all analytics tools.
By that logic, the obvious next step is to integrate Google Analytics with their up-and-coming blog. Since most bloggers are not data analysts, they hope that with enough practice they’ll learn to make sense of the mountains of graphs, charts, and whatnot.
But a new blog also means you have little to no traffic, and without traffic and related data, there is nothing to analyze.
Or maybe you thought you would study the tool first, in order to see what the fuss was about?
That’s a Catch-22 here: Without Google Analytics, you can’t study website data. Without website data, you can’t learn how to work with Google Analytics.
Without actual website traffic and data to analyze, pick apart, and consolidate in a coherent manner by yourself, you’re just going to end up stumbling around in the labyrinth of features within Google Analytics, unable to understand its full potential.
Luckily for you, Google Analytics just came up with an answer to these troubles. Read on to find out.
About Google Analytics Demo Account
What is it?
The Google Analytics Demo Account is an account provided by Google filled with real website data. If you have a Google account (any Google product — Gmail, Drive, YouTube…), you can use that to gain access to the Demo Account.
Where’s the data from?
The Demo Account pulls data from an actual eCommerce store by the name of Google Merchandise Store. Google is practically handing you all the information of its branded online store (traffic, content, and transactions) on a silver platter. Go nuts. (Seriously!)
How to access
Sign in to your Google Account and opt in for the demo account.
Keep in mind that if you already have a Google Analytics (standard) account, the Demo Account will simply become one of the free 100 accounts available to you.
Once you’re done with it, you can remove the demo account whenever you like by following the instructions given here.
What You Can Do With the Demo Account
Every single reporting feature within GA comes alive with data. With demo account, you can play with those reports and data to your heart’s content — manipulation, segmentation, custom reports, and dashboards… just all of it. You can share everything you create as well.
To the brilliant bloggers who will have half-a-dozen tabs open on their browsers for actionable insights about GA, I suggest heading straight to:
- Search Console Data (landing pages, queries, and demographics by country and device), and;
- Attribution Modeling (to understand profits from various channels / sources via different models, and even create your own)
What You Can’t Do With the Demo Account
Nothing’s perfect. Here are few things you can’t do with the demo account:
You can’t collaborate
You can share your assets (custom reports, segments, etc.) and you can see the assets shared with you by others, but you can’t collaborate — which means learning this remotely from an analytics-whiz (in real time) is out of the equation.
You can’t extract the data
It’s impossible to extract this data using API (for further study in a different analytics tool). You’re stuck with Google Analytics.
Looking Ahead
Deepak Aujla, Global Analytics Platform Manager at Google, announced Google’s intention to add more live data for Enhanced eCommerce features (custom dimensions, campaigns, coupons, et al) and AdWords reports to Demo Account within this year. If you’ve got ideas (Content Grouping anyone?), you can pitch in a request here.
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