How should I handle analytics.js with a premium Google Analytics account?

0
votes

I have a client that runs a number of sites and I manage some of them. They are a large company so they have had a premium Google Analytics account for some time, likely because another project requested it and it was upgraded across the board.

Enter me, one project we are working on is improving the data we track in GA. Step one of my plan was to upgrade to analytics.js & the new universal tracking code and to add ecommerce tracking. Seemed simple enough, I've already done it for other clients.

Well I just discovered that premium account can not use the new universal tracking code. Insane move by Google IMO, I don't understand who signed off on giving free accounts a feature that premium accounts don't have access to but alas it is what it is. Source: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/upgrade/

I'm wondering what the best course of action is. Ideas:

  • Use the "old" method using ga.js--annoying because I'll have to rewrite everything once Google turns on support for premium accounts, I enjoy double the billable hours but would rather be more efficient
  • Downgrade part of the account--huge headaches here too, presumably whoever wanted premium to begin with will continue wanting it. Don't think I can seperate out only my projects without losing all past data.
  • Something else that will solve my problem? I'm hoping there's a plan I've overlooked.
1
google-analytics

1 Answers

-2
votes

Have you thought about implementing Google Tag Manager? By using GTM, you could

  1. create a new universal analytics (analytics.js) account
  2. create a google tag manager account
  3. create a staging environment and add GTM to that
  4. add both your ga.js and analytics.js accounts to GTM
  5. QA and push to production
  6. When analytics.js comes out of beta and is enabled for premium, simply do the migration and move your ga.js tracking code over to the analytic.js tags you've already setup.

I've written about the benefits of using dual-tagging using google tag manager in a blog post, but I think it's your best bet for not having to redo your implementation.