User Tracking in Google Analytics

Google Analytics – Audience explorer / User Explorer / User ID tracking

Visiolink has added new features to its Google analytics data tracking platform. The new User ID tracking allows your organization to connect key metrics like page swipes, articles read, and publications opened to individual user

What it means:

The event tracking which Visiolink has developed for google analytics can now be made joined with User Tracking. With a new App upgrade and new Google Analytics setup, Visiolink Consulting can now enable your organization greater insight into your readership. The user tracking can help you better follow and understand how users engage with your ePaper. New types of user segments and user exploration features will become available for your organization to use when creating new marketing campaigns, or monitor when activity is especially high or low, and apply data-driven decision-making.

Enabling user tracking in your app and desktop solutions:

First, you must clarify how many solutions need to be updated with the User tracking feature. Then in collaboration with the Visiolink Consulting department, the feature will be implemented into google analytics. It is that simple. There will be a short introductory phase, where you will be able to learn more of google analytics user explore, as well as using UserIDs as a custom dimension, enabling you to create user segments to use in any kind of decision making. 

The technical implementation:

The UserID have three tiers of implementation, to fully accommodate the needs you might have.

1. Devices based User Tracking: This implementation lets each client, Android phone, iOS tablet, Desktop Browser etc., generate the individual IDs. This is the simplest implementation and does not require anything other documentation on your end to implement. Each individual device will generate a random UserID specific to that device. This means that when a user uses his phone and then later another device like a tablet or desktop PC, that same user will appear as a different This is, unfortunately, the disadvantage of client generated IDs, they do not connect to any authentication system but instead each individual device. Multiple users logging into the same device will still have the same IDs. The advantage of this tier is that this does not need any coordination on your part with regards to authentication.

Who should use this: Free ePapers, ePapers without authentication.

What can you do: Follow the individual readers' behavior on the 7 main metrics, create platform segments.

Not available: No cross-device tracking, No organization wide connection, no complete ePaper segments can be made

Security: The ID is not connected to the individual users, but rather the device they are using. This ID cannot see who has logged in. The individual cannot be identified, but anonymous behavior can still be analyzed.  

2. Authentication based User Tracking: The second tier implementation is generated on a server level together with your authentication system. Whenever there is any form of authentication, Visiolink highly recommends using this implementation tier. Together with your authentication system, the servers generate a UserID which is coupled to your authentication method. This means that each reader can be followed across devices, as their login credentials apply the same User ID. You are able to follow the readers’ engagement journey, when reading the ePaper on their tablet and then on their desktop at a later point in time, their User ID will always be the same. The clear advantage here is that a device change or clearing the cookies will not reset their UserID, and you can start generating clear historic data on each user, figuring out when and why their ePaper activity is going up or down.

Who should use this: ePapers with authentication and with a wish for the best possible insight into engagement journeys. 

3. SSO / DMP integrated User Tracking: Visiolink is also able to accommodate the organizations which might already have a data management platform like Bluekai, Sap, Adform etc. When providing Visiolink with UserIDs for the readers’ login, this will replace both the server and client generated IDs. This allows for easier integration of event tracking into the larger DMPs.

Who should use this: Any organization with a DMP and advertising / web customization which hinges on the readers’ data.

General data protection regulation:

Due to new regulations made within EU, it is important to fully understand how to handle personal and sensitive data. Please consult both EU’s regulations as well as your own country’s data regulation laws.

Note that data is also stored anonymously on Google’s servers. Google Inc. is part of the EU-US Privacy shield meaning that data is not sent to an uncertain third party country or organization.