UK University: Analytics & Solution Architecture
Client: UK University
Sector: Higher Education
Project Duration: July 2024 – September 2024
Services Provided:
• Web Analytics Audit & Tracking
• Cookie Compliance Fixes
• Big Query Reporting Migration
• Custom Dashboards in Power BI using Big Query Data
• Team Training
Scenario & Objectives
The client had a website recently built, which was to be the new focal point of all marketing campaigns. In the process, the development team had left much of the tracking partially incomplete and/or inaccurate. This meant the marketing team were left unsure of the success of their campaigns post click, as there were inconsistent at best, or absence of tracking at worst analytics events.
The marketing team needed to justify their paid budgets to senior stakeholders, which was essential to provide an attribution for marketing activity.
The website team needed to understand which areas of the site were being viewed the most, and understand the typical customer journey. The website was broken up into different institute sections relating to academic departments, which needed to be framed for both senior stakeholders and institute level stakeholders.
The web team wanted to understand both interactions with different academic departments, but also conversion rates per section.
Basic Reporting Requirements
• Sessions / Users
• Traffic sources, by various grouping levels
• Page categories, by subject, department and academic institute
• Pages per session
• Bounce and exit rates
• Average time on page – per page
• Conversion rate per each key event
• Sub conversions, e.g, key CTA clicks
All data points needed to be stratified by being in English language or Welsh language, due to regulations by the Welsh government, public institutions are required to be bilingual, and the data needed to reflect this language split.
Additional requirements included a comprehensive suite of training materials and documentation to ensure the marketing team in place could take over management of the Google Tag Manager container and web tracking activity after the project conclusion.
What We Did
We were asked to, first and foremost, overhaul the tracking infrastructure within Google Tag Manager to ensure all events on site were accurately reflected within GA4.
As part of the overhaul, we implemented Cookiebot as the consent mechanism to ensure full compliance and coverage of Google Consent Mode. All data pipelines and storage areas were reviewed to align with GDPR and public sector data handling best practices.
This enabled the marketing team to accurately provide conversion points that were consistent and accurate across all marketing channels.
The tracking overhaul left no stone unturned in terms of setup, ensuring that not only each key event was tracked, but also the metadata essential for contextual and analytical purposes was populated as custom dimensions, through logic and dataLayer variables for academic discipline, department, institute, language and more.
Once the tracking setup was complete, we then sought to transform how it could be visualised through the power of BigQuery, which gives us the ability to analyse data in far more granular detail than simple GA4 data exports.
We created bespoke reports using the big query SQL capability. Using Google cloud service accounts to transfer the data each day to Microsoft power BI data streams. From there, we configured a bespoke report which fulfilled and stretched our brief.
Results
• Full understanding of website performance, to granular detail.
• Marketing attribution between campaigns and conversion points for better ROI measurement.
• Bespoke reporting suitable for each organisational level.
• Cloud enabled analytics tech stack suitable for future utilisation by other tools, datasets and processes.
• Single source of truth across web, marketing and student recruitment teams.
• Upskilled marketing team who gained confidence to use Google Tag Manager / other tools.
We worked with Apex to develop a Web Analytics reporting suite for our university, bringing key website data into one meaningful dashboard to help inform marketing activity. The team was a pleasure to work with, they were responsive and informative throughout the project. Sam was able to break down quite complex information and terminology and make it meaningful to someone non-technical. I would happily work with Apex Digital again on future projects
-Head of Marketing
Tech stack:
• Google Tag Manager
• Usercentrics/Cookiebot
• Google Analytics
• Looker Studio
• Google Big Query / GCP SQL
• Power BI / Microsoft Fabric
Get in Touch