MMA Forum: Google Touts Analytics for Every Platform

Google executives highlighted the multi-device capabilities of Universal Analytics at this year’s Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Forum.

Analytics advocate at Google Justin Cutroni and group product manager for Google Analytics Manav Misra herald Universal Analytics as the next stage of Google Analytics. The Googlers touted the platform as a future-proof analytics tool. They said the recently released system will help marketers decipher trends in an ever-changing market.

“With Universal Analytics we wanted to create a platform that could create a holistic and wide view [for consumer data],” said Cutroni during a presentation at the 2012 MMA Forum.

Universal Analytics was released last year in beta. The tool allows businesses to discover and analyze user data across mobile, desktop, brick-and-mortar stores, gaming devices, and future platforms.

Google says the tool allows marketers to connect end user data across multiple platforms so they can create a better view of consumer trends. Cutroni says the tool doesn’t just focus on one platform, instead, it gathers data from multiple channels to create a better understanding of a user’s behavior.

“What we are thinking about with Universal Analytics is mobile is just one data point,” continued Cutroni. “The whole idea is that mobile is a part of every piece of data.”

Universal Analytics will allow users to create segmentation charts, cohort analysis, and attribution models using the data from multiple data points. According to Cutroni, the platform gives marketers the same types of options they expect from traditional analytics for every data point.

“It’s giving you that thing you have for web, we are mimicking that,” said Cutroni.

The Googlers were also quick to point out that Universal Analytics is set up to be used on future data consumption technologies. According to Misra, Universal Analytics has been set up to be future-proof.

“If you look back 10 years ago two of these devices didn’t exist, and 10 years from now devices we don’t know about will be created,” said Misra during the presentation.

While the Google execs continued to tout the benefits of the recently released platform, they were also quick to say that it wasn’t a “silver bullet.”

According to Cutroni, Universal Analytics will not give businesses all the answers. However, he says, it will give users the ability to make informed decisions using the data.

“We don’t think there is a silver bullet. The whole idea is to create something that allows you to make informed choices,” said Cutroni.

Universal Analytics is currently available in beta. Sign-ups for the platform are currently being accepted.