Today, practically every company has a website that serves as their internet presence. Because of this, you must comprehend the internal organization of your website so that you can determine whether or not it serves its intended function. You must know what visitors do when they arrive at your website, how long they remain, and which pages they view to achieve this goal.
Like many other web analytics systems, Google Analytics collects total pageviews and visit information, including the type of device, operating system, and browser used. Also, if you’ve configured individual user monitoring, you can track a fixed number of user-level properties (up to 20).
With Google Analytics tracking code, you can also produce customized events. If you’re content with sampled and comprehensive traffic data, this can be enough for basic tracking.
What is the Google Analytics Tracking Code?
The Google Analytics tracking code is a piece of JavaScript that transmits website visitor session information to Google Analytics. You can also insert this tracking code if a website uses a tag manager. Another way to use the Google Tracking Code to collect data is by adding the script snipped to the HTML of each website page.
Then, after creating a property in the Google Analytics account, the admin or website owner can get the tracking code for their website to copy, paste and install.
In short, this JavaScript code, referenced by a JavaScript file when a visitor views a page on your website, performs the Google Analytics tracking function. Every time a page request submits a report, tracking activities are used to keep track of everything.
What Data Can You Track with Google Analytics?
Data collection on Google Analytics involves a lot of website data, such as the number of website visitors and users, the number of sessions and session duration, the approximate geolocation of users visiting a website, and any browser and device information.
At this point, you may be wondering how to track phone calls in Google Analytics, purchases, or form submissions.
In Google Analytics, to track phone calls, for example, you must install phone analytics, also known as call tracking. And to do so, you’ll need a US business phone number, the Google tag added to your website, and your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts linked to one another.
P.S. Google Analytics only records calls that reach a predefined call duration.
The same is true for tracking website purchases and contact forms. Essentially, this data is transferred from your Google Ads’ conversion tracking and then shown as “Goal Completions” in Google Analytics.
Want to learn more about Goal Tracking in Google Analytics? Well, guess what? We’ve already got a blog that covers it!
Where is My Google Analytics Tracking ID?
So, where is the Google Analytics Tracking ID? Follow these steps to find the tracking ID and code snippet.
Before we begin, it’s worth noting that when we talk about the Google Analytics tracking ID, we’re referring to the “UA-” ID, which stands for Universal Analytics. The Google Tag ID is different and is distinguishable from the “UA-” ID because it starts with “G-.” This Google Tag ID is common with Google Analytics 4 users instead of having the Universal Analytics ID.
So, to find the Universal Analytics Tracking ID, you must first find your way to the Admin page at the bottom left of the Google Analytics menu. It should look something like this:
And then, once inside the Admin page, make your way to the Property column, which is the one in the middle as shown in the image below.
Now, click on “Property Settings” and there you will see under Property Settings > Basic Settings, where it says Tracking Id, the UA code.
But, since Google Analytics 4 will be taking over, we’ll also give you a step-by-step guide of where to find the Google Tag ID. To start, you must also find your way to the Admin page at the bottom left of the Google Analytics menu.
Like the UA Code, the tracking ID will be under the “Property” column. In Google Analytics 4, you’ll have to go into the “Data Streams.” And then, you’ll find the “Measurement ID”.
I know it’s a little confusing when we talk about tracking IDs, so just be mindful of which Google Analytics account you have, whether it’s the Universal Analytics (UA) one or the Google Analytics 4 or GA4 for short.
When you click on the “Stream” which most likely will be your website, you’ll then see the “Stream details” and the basic information regarding this tracking ID. Note how the “Measurement ID” is technically the tracking ID we’re looking for, since it starts with “G-” and is followed by a set of numbers that are crucial to identify your website in Google Analytics 4.
Please refer to the following Google Support page to learn more about the Google Tag ID.
What Are UTM Tracking Codes?
Google Analytics lets you create UTM codes. UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, and it’s a code snippet of text that shows at the end of a tracked URL on your website. And what a UTM code does is let you track website user activity. It’s very common to install UTM codes in websites to track various website links in greater detail.
In essence, Google Analytics can report and track UTM codes and website link activity.
UTM codes are composed of a source, medium, campaign, or any other set of parameters that will let you identify where a user is coming from to your landing page.
For example, say your website is www.website.com, and your landing page is www.website.com/landing-page. So, a UTM code snippet of text will show up at the end of this link as:
www.website.com/landing-page/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=
social&utm_campaign=free-demo-campaign.
In this example, you can clearly see that the UTM code displays the source, which is where the user is originally coming from. A UTM code source could be Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, etc.
Next, the UTM code lists the medium or the channel or type of traffic, which in the example is coming from social media. Other examples of UTM code medium channels include websites, blogs, emails, and such.
The third most common UTM code snippet is the campaign parameter, which is exactly what it sounds like. The UTM code campaign is the campaign that it’s tracking. So, this part of the code will help you identify the campaign bringing more traffic to your landing page.
And a bonus UTM code snippet text that is also available includes a custom one, such as adding keywords that match your Google Ads campaigns to see which ones you can optimize for when creating your ads.
Even if all of this is useful for your website optimization and strategy, you want to avoid adding too many UTM code snippets as it will increase your landing page’s loading time, which could scare away potential customers.
How to Create UTM Codes in Google Analytics
Now, on to the nitty-gritty of creating UTM codes in Google Analytics. It can be done in more than one way. There are other ways to install UTM codes that are specific to mobile apps for Google Play and iOS. However, in this blog, we’ll focus on Google Analytics.
A favorite way to create UTM codes for most people are to use Google’s URL Builder, but there’s also the option for you to create them manually.
So, you want to first make sure that you have a Google Analytics account set up. Then, head over to the Google Campaign URL Builder, and depending on your type of account, you’ll need to toggle this button to either UA or GA4.
How do you know which one you have? Well, if your tracking ID starts with a “UA-” then it’s Universal Analytics, and if it’s a Google tag ID, it’s Google Analytics 4.
Now, you want to start filling out the information that the campaign builder is asking you for, such as the website URL, campaign ID, campaign source, campaign medium, and campaign name as the required fields. The campaign term and content are the “bonus” parameters we were talking about earlier in the blog. If you have any of those, then fill them out, too.
And we have to give it to Google. They’re nice enough to provide us with examples for each, in case you’re still having trouble understanding how to fill these fields.
When you’re done filling out the form, you’ll get the UTM-generated code that you can copy-paste into your Google Analytics campaign.
Now, when it comes to Google Analytics 4, the Campaign URL Builder will request the same information but will generate a code that only works for Google Analytics 4, so it will start with “G-” and be followed by a combination of both letters and numbers.
The process for UA and GA4 UTM codes in the Campaign URL Builder is pretty much the same, except for the URL it generates. And noticeably, soon, Google Analytics 4 will be the only option available since it’ll take over all website analytics tracking powered by Google. So you want to hop on that Google Analytics 4 bandwagon as soon as possible to start adjusting to the changes in tracking and other Admin settings different from the older Google Analytics version that uses “UA.”
What Data Does Google Analytics Prohibit Collecting?
Google Analytics does not track users individually. The setting of some user-level characteristics is permitted, but no Personally-Identifying Information (PII), such as an individual’s email address, name, or employer, is permitted. So, it is impossible to promote or target specific consumers based on their email addresses from recorded data.
Making the best data-driven decisions requires thoroughly understanding your visitors and how they interact with your website or product. This can lead to significant reporting gaps because Google Analytics tracks based on browser and device type rather than individual profiles.
Moreover, user data is often spread across a variety of sources. Consolidating user data into a single platform enhances your reporting capabilities.
Google Analytics normally only supports data from live-streaming sources, and importing from other sources can be a challenging task. But if you want to use a tool that lets you have all your paid media channels in one place, try our reporting tool, AdClicks.
Frequently Asked Question: Google Analytics Tracking ID Code
How Can You Check Whether Your Google Analytics Tag Is Active?
It may take up to 24 hours for data like traffic-referral information, user attributes, and browsing information to appear in your reports once you have successfully inserted the Google Analytics tag. But you may immediately verify your web-tracking configuration.
You can view the most recent website activity using real-time reports. If these reports contain data, your tag collects and transmits it to Google Analytics.
You may view activity for specific pages using the behavior reports and Real-Time overview. If you still need to add the tag to every page on your website, you can look at these reports to see if it’s sending information from the pages you’ve marked. Only the most popular page’s activity is displayed in these reports. Because of this, it is impossible to do a complete review, but these reports strongly indicate that the Google Analytics tag is working effectively.
Does Google Analytics Use Cookies?
Cookies are typically used by website analytics programs like Google Analytics to track user activity. Cookies will almost always be linked to the particular browser you’re using. Therefore, Chrome and Safari cannot share cookies created by each browser.
The same holds for certain websites, as most modern browsers now prohibit third-party cookies.
A Google cookie is created and saved in your browser whenever you visit a website that uses the Google Analytics code. When you visit the site again, Google will recognize you as a repeat visitor because it will check for an existing cookie. This data is marked on Google as a “hit.”
Can Google Analytics Track Specific Users?
Google Analytics may track specific users with a few restrictions, even though it wasn’t created with individual user behavior in mind.
The first requirement is that each user should have a user ID, which you would need to build and is normally only used for known visitors. In other words, the user must sign in to your website before you can assign a user ID.
You can only push a certain amount of data to this profile once the user ID has been generated and enabled in the Google Analytics settings. There is now a 20-custom property maximum, and it is against company policies to use any Personally-Identifying Information (PII).
So, technically there is room for you to do it, but it’s not the easiest thing to do.
Wrapping Up: Tracking Data and Codes on Google Analytics
It’s always a good idea to know if visitors are coming to your website and what exactly they’re viewing, regardless of the type of website you have. You can easily comprehend user activity on your website thanks to Google Analytics, which supports your business with website analytics.
With some expertise, finding answers to seemingly obvious questions like the Google Analytics code becomes much simpler. If you need to track and collect data from your website, the topics we’ve discussed should make it easier to locate your Google Analytics tracking code and get it up and running.
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