Successful Analytics by Brian Clifton
Brian Clifton
Author. Speaker. Google Analytics Pioneer.
I help organisations turn digital data into business insight—ethically and intelligently. With 25+ years leading web analytics, including building Google’s EMEA first analytics team, I now speak and write globally on privacy, data quality, and digital strategy.
From Chapter 6 of the book Successful Analytics
“Deep dive into data”
What I write and speak about
At around 2008, a great friend and mentor said to me: Advanced web metrics is about doing the basics very well and applying it in a clever way. It has influenced my approach to Google Analytics and my books ever since. I still like to refer to it whenever I feel myself getting carried away with a shiny new feature.
“Noise or Music?” is about advanced Google Analytics and GTM setups, metrics understanding , GDPR and online privacy . The purpose is to educate in an actionable way. My passion is twofold: A] Getting good quality data that is actionable i.e. relevant to the business; B] Respecting user privacy and advocating “benign” analytics. That is, collecting data in non-invasive ways.
Note, I only post on things I have given a great deal of thought to and/or researched myself. I do not aim to be a news service, or broadcast the “latest features”. My approach is to write about long-term, sustainable data strategies.
Important articles/studies:
- A Google Analytics Enterprise Study – a major review of the Google Analytics (Universal) setup of 75 global brands, audited for data accuracy and governance.
- Cookie Consent Banner Requirements – what you need to know in order to have a GDPR/ePD compliant cookie banner and not destroy your data collection.
- Google Analytics Anonymize IP – An Impact Study – what difference does it make to geolocation data when you anonymise IP data?
- European Google Analytics Alternatives – Jigsaws and Device Fingerprints
- The myth of Enhanced Conversions and Advanced Matching
Interested in my latest project…?
Over the past 8 years, myself and the team have built Verified Data software – a forensic data auditing tool with an emphasis on accuracy and privacy compliance – visit verified-data.com .
