Read our blogs from Michael Wilson
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jan 18th 2023
Google Analytics
5 min read
Six Steps to Smooth Transition from UA to GA4 in 2023
Happy New Year! 2023 is the year that GA4 will officially become Google’s main analytics product with Universal Analytics scheduled to be sunset. On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Sep 20th 2022
Digital Analytics Insights
4 min read
Does FBCLID affect GA4? Remove FBCLID + Other Unwanted Query Parameters in GA4
FBCLID is Facebook's Click Identifier - a query parameter appended to all links posted on Facebook since 2018. In response to browsers clamping down on third-party cookies, this FBCLID identifier...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Dec 2nd 2021
Digital Analytics Insights
2 min read
What is /trafficbot.life and why is it appearing in Google Analytics?
There was a significant surge in bot traffic in Google Analytics from 31st January to 2nd February 2021. One of the most common issues we saw came from /trafficbot.life and...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Oct 22nd 2021
Digital Analytics Insights
4 min read
GA4 Event Tracking via GTM – Where are my Event Parameters?
The latest version of Google Analytics - GA4 - brings a whole new measurement framework. It also requires a whole new set of Google Analytics tags to be configured via...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jun 25th 2021
Digital Analytics Insights
3 min read
How To Pull in Header Text as a Variable Using Google Tag Manager
If there's a piece of text loaded on a page that you would like to collect as part of your data analysis, there are several ways to do this using...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
May 21st 2021
Google Analytics
3 min read
Rise in Direct Traffic & New Users in Google Analytics? It Might Be ITP…
Have you noticed a significant increase in Direct traffic in your Google Analytics account recently? Maybe it's coincided with a drop in Organic traffic? This is something we've seen happen...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Mar 23rd 2021
Digital Analytics Insights
3 min read
How to Test CSS Selectors Using the Chrome Dev Console
If you've been using Google Tag Manager for a while, you've probably encountered a scenario where you want to distinguish between clicks on buttons that don't have unique IDs or...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Nov 16th 2020
4 min read
New Google Tag Manager Preview Mode (October 2020) – Tag Assistant
We like surprises, don't we? Whenever we spotted a surge of comments on forums and social media about a huge change to the Google Tag Manager interface recently, it definitely...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Aug 19th 2020
Google Tag Manager
3 min read
Server Side Tagging in Google Tag Manager – What is it? Should we use it?
Google Tag Manager is one of our favourite tools which allows us to control all our advanced tracking and conversion pixels from within one interface. Until now, GTM has been...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jul 10th 2020
Digital Analytics Insights
3 min read
Outbound Link Tracking in GTM using ‘Is Outbound’ Auto-Event Variable
Tracking outbound links in Google Tag Manager is not a new topic - we've written a guide explaining how to do it before - but there is a more efficient...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jan 14th 2020
2 min read
Introduction to Google Tag Manager
We’re big fans of Google Tag Manager here at GlowMetrics, and so are our clients… If you’re already using it, you’re probably a fan of it too. If you’ve no...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Nov 12th 2019
Company Updates
3 min read
Google Marketing Platform Partner Summit 2019
Google's annual invite-only event for Google Marketing Platform partners took place in San Francisco last month at the Hilton Hotel in Union Square. Now known as the GMP Summit since...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Mar 28th 2019
3 min read
What are Trigger Groups in Google Tag Manager?
You might have noticed a new addition to the Google Tag Manager interface this week, as Google released a new trigger type - Trigger Groups. Wondering what a Trigger Group...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jan 31st 2019
Digital Analytics Insights
2 min read
When to Update Your Referral Exclusion List in Google Analytics?
One of the most common issues that we come across happens when an e-commerce website has a payment portal that temporarily redirects the user to a third-party site to process...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jan 8th 2019
Digital Analytics Insights
3 min read
Calculated Fields in Google Data Studio – How to Use Text Functions
Have you ever set up a report in Google Data Studio and realised your data isn’t as clean as you’d like it to be? Maybe you’ve used inconsistent naming conventions...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jul 12th 2018
Digital Analytics Insights
2 min read
What is FBCLID? How To Remove FBCLID parameter from Google Analytics
You might have noticed recently a new parameter has appeared in your Google Analytics reports. Your nice clean URL structure has been taken over by this 'fbclid' parameter and its...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
May 24th 2018
Google Tag Manager
3 min read
Tracking Youtube Videos via GTM in 2018 (Using New Built-In Youtube Trigger)
It used to be a lot more difficult tracking embedded Youtube video plays using Google Tag Manager. You either had to write your own custom script to listen for the...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Nov 17th 2017
3 min read
Google Tag Manager – Top 10 Tips for GTM Beginners
Google Tag Manager is an incredibly powerful tool - we use it daily to add all sorts of marketing and analytics tags for our clients. If you're just getting started,...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Sep 14th 2017
3 min read
Google Analytics Certified Partner (GACP) Summit 2017 in San Francisco
The Google Analytics Certified Partner Summit 2017 took place in the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco on the 30th and 31st August. We were there along with representatives from approximately 500 other GACP...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Feb 6th 2017
Digital Analytics Insights
2 min read
How to Backup a Google Tag Manager Container
You may have heard about a number of Google Tag Manager containers which temporarily disappeared recently. Google, to their credit, rectified the situation quickly and the containers were restored again...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jan 13th 2017
Google Tag Manager
2 min read
Tracking Clicks to Email via Google Tag Manager
Do you have a number of email links on your website such as this one - michael@glowmetrics.com - which uses "mailto:" at the beginning to directly open the user's mail client...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jun 24th 2016
3 min read
Top 5 Google Tag Manager Mistakes
Google Tag Manager is a really useful tool – it’s allowed us to help our clients get more out of their analytics implementation and has allowed their marketing teams to take...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Mar 24th 2016
Digital Analytics Insights
2 min read
Outbound Link Tracking via Google Tag Manager
Want to know which links your visitors are clicking on on your website and where they head off to? If you have a link to a third party website, by...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
May 8th 2015
2 min read
Google Tag Manager v2 – What’s Changed?
One of the most useful tools we’ve found over the last year or so has been Google Tag Manager – it’s allowed us to help our clients set up their...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Mar 13th 2015
Digital Analytics Insights
2 min read
Cohort Analysis (Beta) – Another new Google Analytics report!
Following on from the Active Users (Beta) Report we discovered recently, we've noticed another new addition in Google Analytics, the Cohort Analysis (Beta) Report. If you don’t have access to it yet,...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Mar 12th 2015
Digital Analytics Insights
2 min read
Calculated Metrics (Beta) – new Google Analytics feature rolling out
Google Analytics have released another great feature, and this is one of my favourite updates so far. You can now work out a key metric based on data that’s already...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Mar 8th 2015
Digital Analytics Insights
2 min read
Lifetime Value (Beta) – New Google Analytics report!
Another new report has popped up in some of our clients’ Google Analytics accounts recently – the Lifetime Value report. It’s still in Beta and currently only available for ‘app’...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Jan 19th 2015
Digital Analytics Insights
< 1 min read
Active Users (Beta) – New Google Analytics Report!
We’ve recently come across the Active Users Report in Google Analytics. It’s still in Beta and is only available for a few of our clients’ accounts so far. Spotted it...
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Oct 29th 2014
Digital Marketing Insights
3 min read
Twitter’s Advanced Search for Local Businesses
One of my favourite things about Twitter is the fact it’s such an open platform. Yes, that means trolling is an issue but on the other hand, the opportunities are...