Acknowledgments

After the first two editions of this book, writing this third edition has been both very rewarding and very hard work. Thankfully, my writing style has much improved—mainly due to the valuable feedback I have received from readers, clients, and workshop attendees alike. This has enabled me to produce this third edition not only with the latest features and updates from Google Analytics, but also in an improved pedagogical manner. I hope you consider it a worthy enhancement.

I have never considered myself a natural writer. Endlessly agonizing over every sentence, I would yearn for perfection, or at the very least adequacy. The first edition of this book, written while working 12 hours a day at Google, took me 18 months to finish (mainly written on trains and planes or in various hotel rooms across Europe or in the United States). I got myself organized and even more obsessive (if that were possible) and completed the second edition in six months. For the third edition, I am down to five months—to the relief of my much-supportive partner, Sara, and my friends and family.

Yet the process of writing remains enjoyable. In fact, I am already looking forward to my next writing project, though I am undecided as to what that should be—I said that in the last edition! However, I am not a one-man band, and many people have happily contributed their time to make this edition even better than the previous editions.

First, special thanks go to Trevor Claiborne, Brad Townsend, Alex Ortiz-Rosado, Nick Michailovski, and Tomas Remotigue, all of Google, who have significantly contributed to my knowledge and understanding of the internal workings of Google Analytics over the years. All worked in their own time to sanity-check and expand on the technical aspects of this and previous editions of this book. Trevor is my much-appreciated technical editor. His eagle eye for detail and breadth of knowledge for all things Google have enabled me to write a much more comprehensive book.

Significant feedback, help, and brainstorming were also freely provided by Shelby Thayer, a web analytics practitioner, enthusiast, advocate, and all-round nice person working for Penn State University. As with the last edition, Shelby has kindly proofread and commented on every page of this book, ensuring content relevance and continuity. Her informed questions and detailed feedback have been invaluable to me.

Thanks also go to Leonardo Naressi of Direct Performance for his expertise and advice with Flash event and mobile tracking; Jeremy Aube of ROI Revolution, who provided expertise and help with updating content on Google Website Optimizer and who is a great asset of the GACP community; Sara Andersson for her generous advice and strategic thinking regarding integrating offline and online marketing and for sharing her ideas on search marketing, social media engagement, and life in general; Jim Sterne for reviewing this book and for honoring me by writing the foreword; Mikael Thuneberg (automateanalytics.com), John Babb (idemension), James Bake (Hanson Inc.), Henrik Lauritzen (UserReport), and Paul Walsh (Infinity Tracking Ltd.) for providing case study content to include with Chapter 12; and all members of the Google Analytics Certified Partners (GACP) network for their stimulating discussions, experiences, and thoughts when implementing and using Google Analytics for their clients.

Last but not least, many thanks to the Wiley publishing team: Willem Knibbe, whose enthusiasm for this topic keeps me wanting to produce further editions of this book; Dick Margulis, who originally helped me with the first edition and kept the structure and cohesion going in a straight line throughout the process of writing this edition; Pete Gaughan, Liz Britten, Judy Flynn, and the many other people at Wiley who work tirelessly in the background to help create and polish what I hope you will consider is an enjoyable and informative read. Ultimately this was my mission for what potentially can be a very dry subject.

That’s quite a long list, with people from all over the world (at least seven countries) helping to shape, expand, and improve the content provided. I hope I have remembered everyone.