Overview of Google Analytics' Measurement Protocol, covering technical details, architecture, use cases, and examples.

1. Offline Tracking using the
Measurement Protocol

2. Agenda
• Introduction
• The Measurement Protocol
• Use Cases

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Introduction

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The Path To Conversion
THE REAL PATH TO CONVERSION
Display
Ad Search
Ad
Web
Chat
Email
Campaign
Offline Call /
Offline System
TV
Ad

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What is missing from the picture
• No offline touchpoints
• Even if there are offline touchpoints, they’re reported as separate paths
• All paths relate to a single cookie “User” – no cross-device
or cross-browser analysis is possible
• Why does Google report in this way?
• Web analytics relies on cookies
• Cookies (hence “Users”) are browser,
domain and device-specific

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How to paint a better picture
Track how users interact with a given business from almost any environment.

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The Measurement Protocol

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Google Analytics Architecture - Overview
The way to interact and influence processing
in GA is through the user interface, client
libraries, and APIs that are organized into 4
main components:
1. Collection
collects user-interaction data.
2. Configuration
manage how the data is processed.
3. Processing
processes the user-interaction data, with the
configuration data.
4. Reporting
provides access to all the processed data.
Collection
Processing
ReportingConfiguration
gtag.js
iOS SDK
Android SDK
analytics.js
ga.js (legacy)
Measurement
Protocol
Logs Processing Query Engine
Configuration Data
Web
Interface
Management
API
Provisioning
API
Metadata
API
Embed API
Core
Reporting API
Multi-Channel
Funnels API
Real Time
Reporting API
Web Interface
External
Environment

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The Measurement Protocol – Technical bits
There are two parts to send data to Google Analytics using the Measurement Protocol:
1. Transport
HTTP GET/POST Request
POST https://www.google-analytics.com/collect
payload_data
GET /collect?payload_data HTTP/1.1 Host:
https://www.google-analytics.com
The body must include exactly 1 URI encoded payload.
The payload data is sent as URI escaped query parameters
Any
Environment*

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The Measurement Protocol – Technical bits
1. Transport
HTTP GET/POST Request
POST https://www.google-analytics.com/collect
payload_data
GET /collect?payload_data HTTP/1.1
Host: https://www.google-analytics.com
*Almost any – has to be connected to the internet and be able to make HTTP requests.
• GET requests have a lower size limit, so we tend to use POST requests to extend the payload to up to 8192 bytes
The body must include exactly 1 URI encoded payload.
The payload data is sent as URI escaped query parameters
Any
Environment*

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The Measurement Protocol – Technical bits
There are two parts to send data to Google Analytics using the Measurement Protocol:
2. Payload
The payload resembles a URL query string where each parameter has a key and value (UTF-8 and URL Encoded), is
separated by an = character, and each pair is delimited by an & character.
Fields required for
every hit you send:
• v (version)
• tid (web property ID)
• cid (client ID)
• t (hit type)

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The Measurement Protocol – Technical bits
2. Payload
The payload resembles a URL query string where each parameter has a key and value (UTF-8 and URL Encoded), is
separated by an = character, and each pair is delimited by an & character. For
Fields required for
every hit you send:
• v (version)
• tid (web property ID)
• cid (client ID)
• t (hit type)
• Some hit types require certain additional parameters (i.e. Transaction Hits)
• For everything else, there’s the Parameter Reference

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The Measurement Protocol – Technical bits – Tying it up together
POST https://www.google-analytics.com/collect?
v=1
&tid=UA-XXXX-Y
&cid=555
&t=pageview
&dp=%2Fhome
Any
Environment*
HTTP Request

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Use Cases

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Tie online to offline behaviour by sending additional data from a CRM
FORM SUBMISSIONS
Client IDs captured in
CRM alongside
submitted form data
CRM
PLATFORM
CRM Triggers
construct hits with
enriched data
On site
behaviour
Offline Data sent to GA

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Track email opens as well as clicks on links
<img src="http://www.google-
analytics.com/collect?v=1&tid=UA-51725701-1
&t=event&ec=email%20open&ea=febsale&el=99off
&cid={{Client ID}}">
Dear {{Name}},
Check out our latest offer – 100% off if you click through and
buy in the next 10 seconds!
www.bait.com/lp?utm_source=march&utm_medium=email
&utm_campaign=impossible
Kind regards,
Mr Spamalot
&clientid={{Client ID}}
<<Mailing List 1>>
Awesome email campaign

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Configure server-side tracking

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Send data from devices that are connected to the internet
In Store
Tills
Kiosks
IoT
Devices
Barcode
Scanners
Other

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Summary
Allows you to
enhance data
collection
Provides the
mechanism to
send hits to GA
via HTTP
Requests
Enables Single
Customer View
Is applicable in
various
scenarios
The Measurement Protocol:

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Thank you for your time.
Any questions?