Morgan Jones - Practical Ecommerce

Articles by: Morgan Jones

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Morgan Jones

Morgan Jones is CEO of Power My Analytics, a company focused on enabling brands to extract and report essential data for their operations.

Power My Analytics has been a Google Marketing Platform Partner for 15 years and has advised more than 400 companies, from internet startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, including 1-800-Flowers, Canon, Intel, the U.S. Social Security Administration, and Wyndham.

Analytics & Data
Google Analytics 4 Transition Update

September 5, 2023 • Morgan Jones

Universal Analytics has stopped collecting data for most users. Here's what to do next.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics 4 Transition Checklist

January 25, 2022 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics 4 is live and ready to use. Here's our quick transition checklist to successfully migrate from Google's Universal Analytics, the current version for most users.
Analytics & Data
Ramping Up Google Analytics 4

September 2, 2021 • Morgan Jones

I first addressed Google Analytics 4 last fall. It is becoming the go-to platform in Google's analytics ecosystem. The older version, Universal Analytics, will eventually sunset. For now, continue using Universal Analytics while ramping up GA4.
Analytics & Data
Combining Google Analytics Data with Other Sources

July 20, 2021 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics provides data from a website or app on engagement, conversions, and transactions. However, many online merchants need data from other sources, such as search engines, social media, affiliates, and more. Some of these sources can be connected or imported into Google Analytics. Others cannot.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics for Continuous Improvement

April 28, 2021 • Morgan Jones

There is no shortage of articles on tips and tricks for improving Google Analytics. This article, however, will focus on using Google Analytics for its main purpose: driving continuous improvement in your business. To help, I've assembled a Data Studio template tailored to ecommerce.
Google Ads
A Data Studio Template to Automate Ecommerce KPIs

January 5, 2021 • Morgan Jones

Automating key performance indicators streamlines data collection and enables real-time reporting. Collecting and reporting from multiple data sources is possible in Google Data Studio, an excellent platform. To help, I've created a free Data Studio template that you can use for your business. I'll explain the template in this post.
Analytics & Data
Introduction to Google Analytics 4

October 21, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics has come a long way since it launched in 2005. Version 4 is the latest iteration. It enables the blending of online and offline user activity into one reporting stream.
Google Ads
Using Google Analytics to Optimize Google Ads

September 13, 2020 • Morgan Jones

The Google Ads reporting suite in Google Analytics is essential for advertisers looking to drive profitable sales. I'll explain the setup and analysis process in this post. Before you can view Google Ads reports in Google Analytics, complete a couple of steps.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Tag Manager to Track Visitor Interactions

August 3, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Online merchants need data to drive decisions. An example is tracking visitor activity. In this post, I'll review how to set up the reporting of common site interactions using Google Tag Manager.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics to Track Site Changes

July 7, 2020 • Morgan Jones

The ability to measure changes to pricing, shipping, and other items is essential to successful ecommerce merchants. Google Analytics has features to document and track changes to provide critical feedback. Annotations in Google Analytics allow you to document change history.
Analytics & Data
Using Filters in Google Analytics

May 24, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Accurate data is essential for decision-making. Google Analytics can provide that data, but it may need a bit of sanitizing. Filters in Google Analytics can remove data impurities. In this post, I'll introduce Google Analytics filters.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics to Respond to Covid-19

April 28, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics can identify pandemic-related problems and opportunities for your ecommerce business. I'll explain in this post.
Analytics & Data
Workarounds for Errors in Google Analytics

March 26, 2020 • Morgan Jones

One-hundred percent of all Google Analytics implementations have broken at some point. The impact can range from minimal to extreme. An ecommerce example is when sales as reported by Google Analytics does not align with actual results from a shopping cart.
Analytics & Data
Using Data Studio to Convert Multi-currency Reports

January 28, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Google's Analytics’ conversion of currencies is straightforward. However, setting the conversion date to equal the date of the transaction may not be an option, forcing merchants to convert currencies manually. Google Data Studio can solve this manual conversion hurdle.
Analytics & Data
Removing Personal Data from Google Analytics

January 10, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics prohibits the collection of personally identifiable information. Users of Google Analytics should detect and then delete the PII if necessary. I'll explain how to do that in this post.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Introduction to Cross-device Reporting

October 15, 2019 • Morgan Jones

There has been a seismic shift in website traffic in the past several years, from desktop to mobile. Google Analytics has rolled out the beta version of cross-device reporting to inform merchants of how their shoppers are interacting via multiple devices.
Analytics & Data
How to Audit Integration of Google Analytics, Ads

September 4, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Ads is an important platform for online merchants. Google Analytics is another. Combining the two provides rich, actionable data to grow traffic and sales — assuming that tracking is set up correctly. In this post, I'll provide an audit process to confirm proper integration.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics’ Learning Resources

August 12, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics is sophisticated and comprehensive. Getting started — logging in, using the menu, viewing the reports — is straightforward. But interpreting the data can be difficult. Fortunately, Google Analytics offers many learning resources to help.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Common Mistakes from Ecommerce Merchants

July 5, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics provides impactful data that can help ecommerce merchants. But installed incorrectly, Google Analytics can produce inaccurate reporting. In this post, I'll address common mistakes from merchants in installing Google Analytics and analyzing its data.
Analytics & Data
7 Gaps in Google Analytics That Require Additional Tools

June 23, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics is a powerful, free web analytics platform. However, it has gaps that are better served by other tools. I'll address those gaps and tools in this post.
Analytics & Data
Analyze Click Paths in Google Analytics to Improve Conversions

May 8, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Monitoring the navigation of visitors can help ecommerce merchants identify bottlenecks to the checkout page. There are two ways to analyze paths in Google Analytics: Behavior Flow and Navigation analysis.
Analytics & Data
Using Alerts in Google Analytics for Slow Site Speeds

April 4, 2019 • Morgan Jones

I’ve addressed site speed reports in Google Analytics. Site speed is critical for conversions and, increasingly, for search engine rankings. In this post, I’ll explain how to set up Custom Alerts in ...
Analytics & Data
Using Google Data Studio to Report Gross Profit by SKU

March 18, 2019 • Morgan Jones

In "Using Google Analytics to Track Profitability by Product," I explained how to import product cost into Google Analytics to calculate gross profit for each item sold. It was a tricky exercise. I received feedback and questions. In this post. I'll break the process down by using Google Data Studio and data blending.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Tracking Sales When Multiple Sites Use a Single Checkout

February 26, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Larger ecommerce companies sometimes create multiple branded websites that feed into a single checkout. For those companies, tracking which site generated the business — revenue — can be tricky. In this post, I will provide a method for reporting the “source of business” metrics in Google Analytics.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: How to Track PayPal Transactions

January 11, 2019 • Morgan Jones

“PayPal Payments Standard” is popular, but it can be challenging for Google Analytics to report the sale. Using PayPal Payments Standard, customers leave the merchant's website for their account at PayPal. After they complete payment, PayPal redirects them back to the return URL provided by the merchant.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Use Up-to-date Tags for Optimal Reporting

November 20, 2018 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics periodically rolls out new tracking code. The updates present a challenge to ensure the latest tags are installed. They also present an opportunity: getting robust data and reports that help drive your business.
Analytics & Data
How to Audit Google Analytics Data, for Ecommerce

November 6, 2018 • Morgan Jones

Data from Google Analytics helps ecommerce merchants make key decisions. But that assumes the data is accurate. In this post, I'll provide instructions for conducting a Google Analytics audit to confirm the accuracy of the data or identify potential errors.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics to Track On-site Promotions

October 11, 2018 • Morgan Jones

Measuring the impact of banners and promotional links on the home page and other key pages can be challenging. In this post, I will provide instructions for identifying on-site banners and other key links that drive clicks and conversions.
Analytics & Data
Use Google Analytics to Fine-tune Your Value Proposition

September 3, 2018 • Morgan Jones

A value proposition should address a sustainable competitive advantage that a company will have over competitors. Once the company defines it, the value proposition should be measured. Data from Google Analytics can be enlightening.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Dissecting Bounce Rates for Ecommerce

July 30, 2018 • Morgan Jones

There are many metrics in Google Analytics. The bounce rate is among the most prominent, but it’s also among the most misunderstood. In this post, I will address the bounce ...