Is data science with Google Analytics possible ? How ? This more an overview and less a technical talk. Measure camp London Sept 2017

1. Data Science with Google Analytics
Is it possible and how ?
Alexandros Papageorgiou
MeasureCamp London. September 2017.

2. About me
Account strategist @ Google
Back to school - Data analytics
analyst @alex-papageo.com
Consumer behaviour analyst @ WhatClinic.com

3. Data...data...data
It’s in our menu every day!
Is it Data science ?
Can it be Data science ?
(what’s data science anyway ? )

4. “Google Analytics is basically for marketers”
Data Scientist in big internet company to me

5. The landscape back in 2015

6. A year or so later

7. Hype ?

8. Back to the question:
Is DS with GA possible ?
Answer: Yes it is. But…

9. 1. Access the Data
Google API + R/Python Libraries.
R
GoogleAnalyticsR
RGA
RGoogleAnalytics
Python
Pandas ga
google2pandas

10. 2. Initial variable selection

11. 3. Un-sample the data
E.g. Day by day or hour by hour api calls.

12. 4. Transform the data
Bring it to atomic/event level, e.g. every row corresponds to an individual
obervation
- User
- Session
- Page

13. User explorer ?

14. Query multiple dimensions

15. Result: Session level data

16. Custom dimensions
Supercharging websites with a real-time R API http://code.markedmondson.me/predictClickOpenCPU/supercharge.html#1
Improve Data Collection With Four Custom Dimensions https://www.simoahava.com/analytics/improve-data-collection-with-four-custom-dimensions/
E.g. Cust ID + Timestamp

17. 5. Store the data (recommended)

18. 6. Model & Communicate the data
https://github.com/papageorgiou/dublinR-talk-analytics http://www.alex-papageo.com/research.html
E.g. Decision tree & variable importance for conversion prediction

19. Some ideas
● Decision tree for conversion prediction (rpart)
● Clickstream analysis to predict next page (clickstream)
● Clustering for customer segmentation (base R)
● Association Rules for pages/products frequently visited together (arules)
Enrich data: Look for opportunities to join with internal data/ external api data

20. Wrapping up
DS with GA not straightforward but possible
Take advantage of GA API
Open source R/Python libraries
Get familiar with 2-3 algos and apply them on your data.

21. Thank you!