At this webinar, Susan Bell, product manager for BLOX Now app for TownNews, provided a step-by-step training for setting up analytics for your BLOX Now app.
Note: This training is for Google Analytics free business account users, and does not apply to Google Analytics 360 accounts.
Google sunset their legacy SDK for mobile reporting on October 31st for all non-360 customers.
What does this mean?
Here is Google’s documentation explaining the change. https://support.google.com/firebase/answer/9167112?hl=en
If you are a Google Analytics non-360 customer, you have probably noticed an alert at the top of your google account when you log in to view your mobile stats.
Your Google Analytics metrics will stop working as they are currently set up for mobile on October 31st. Historical data will be eventually be deleted. Google has not announced when historical data will be lost.
TownNews has been working over the past few months to provide a solution.
Solutions:
Update your Google Analytic Free Business Account to Google Analytics 360. There is a charge for this.
GA 360 customers are not necessary safe in the future. They are just not impacted right away. Google has not announced any date for implementing this in GA 360 accounts to date.
If you wish to continue using your Free Business account, you will have to set up a new property in your Google Analytics account. It will only take a few minutes. Those steps are provided below.
Remember, historical data will be lost so you will need to go pull any numbers you wish to have before October 31st.
Firebase is the engine behind the new reporting in Google Analytics.
What is Firebase?
You have a Firebase account now that we use to engine your push notifications along with the TownNews notifier. We have been collecting analytics all along in Firebase and you can go directly to your Firebase panel now to see these analytics. (firebase.com) Firebase was in beta for these reporting metrics and the Google Legacy SDK was a much more mature method of tracking data until now. Google owns Firebase and has chosen to begin migration for this to be the main analytic tool for mobile. They are starting the migration for Firebase for mobile reporting with non-360 customers. We expect 360 customers to impacted within the next year.
Google has introduced a Firebase dashboard within your Google Analytic accounts which is new. This is a beta reporting dashboard and we are seeing daily updates and changes.
This is the only solution Google is providing.
What to expect:
Historical data lost in time
Traffic decrease due to the switch from Legacy Google SDK to Firebase
This will be similar to vendor to vendor changes. You will not collect 100% of traffic until your user base updates to the 3.0 release.
Analytics will look different. This is a Firebase analytic reporting system that has a Google analytic display.
Expect changes to the reporting system.
This is still in beta with Google and we are seeing daily/weekly updates.
We will send out as much communication as we can if major updates occur but reach out to your customer service representative if you have any questions.
What should you do for a smooth transition?
Collect historical data - better safe than sorry
Set up your GA/Firebase APP+Web Property
Communicate to your users to update their apps as soon as 3.0 is live for your property
Pin a story to the top of your app
Breaking news alert
Send out a push notification
After everything is set up, have your analytics team spend time learning the new reporting display in GA for your mobile application.
Ask questions
This is new for everyone and we can all expect changes along the way. Ask questions. We are here to help in anyway we can.
Part 1: GA/Firebase APP+Web Property Process
THIS PROCESS SHOULD BE COMPLETED AFTER YOUR APPS ARE BUILT. YOUR APPS DO NOT HAVE TO BE LIVE TO SET THIS UP.
AN ADMIN OF THE PROPERTY MUST SET THIS US
- Go to Google Analytics Primary Account for your website.
- In the main menu, select “Admin” or the gear icon
- This is located at the bottom left hand side of your screen
- Create New Property
- Choose “Apps and web” (BETA)
- Click “continue.”
- Add a name for your property (example “Sun Times Now Mobile”).
- Select Time Zone and other options.
- Select “Create.”
- This will immediately take you to “data stream beta”
- Click Add App
- In the data stream field, you will see options for IOS, Android and Website
- We will be setting up IOS and Android, not Website.
- You will need the following for both Android and IOS (This can be found on the customer’s deliverable docs)
- App Name
- Ex. TownNews Now
- Package Name (bundle ID)
- Ex. com.townnews.marketing
- Enter the App name and Package name into the appropriate fields
- Click Register App
- The rest of the steps auto configure once App Name and Package Name have been added.
- After auto-configure is complete, you will have to continue pressing “next” until you reach “Run the app to verify installation”
- Skip “Run the app to verify installation”
- Click Next
- IOS is now setup and you should see a screen like below:
- Select Android and Repeat Steps
Part 2: Steps to link GA on Firebase Panel
- Login to firebase Panel (Property App Project)
- Go to the Property app Project Settings
- Select Data Privacy
- Click Analytics Settings
- On Next page -> Click Begin Upgrade
- Select Continue
- Select an account -> Property Account
- Click Continue
- All steps are now completed to link your Firebase to your Google Analytic New Property Account but let's make sure.
- Log back into your Google Analytic Account
- Select the new app+web property account you just created
- Click admin (gear icon) at the bottom left of you screen
- Click Firebase Linking
- A green check mark and a link date should be displayed if all steps were successful.
Once Part 1 and Part 2 of this document are complete, it will take 24 hours for data to start populating in in the customers GA account.