Google Analytics is a web analytics tool. You can use it to understand who is visiting your marketplace, what pages are they visiting, how often are they visiting those pages, and a lot more.
Note that Google Analytics is not GDPR compliant. If you are a marketplace business in the EU, consider using GDPR-compliant Plausbile as your analytics service. You can learn more about tracking your marketplace traffic with Plausible in this article.
How to create a Google Analytics account
Log in with your Google account or create a new one
Go to "Admin" from the bottom left corner and select "+ Create Account" from the top of the first column
Input an account name and review the data-sharing settings, then click "Next"
Name your property and review the details (country, report timezone, ...)
If you want to, answer some business questions, then click "Create"
Accept Google's Terms of Service and Data Processing Terms
Choose "Web" as the platform to collect data from
Add your marketplace website URL and name this data stream
Disable "Enhanced measurement" as this can break in-app navigation
Click "Create stream"
On the "Web stream details", from the "Stream details" section, copy the "Measurement ID": it should be in the format "G-XXXXXX"
If another layer/screen named "Installation instructions" with details on how to "Install your Google tag" opened, you can close it
Your Google Analytics account is now created, and you have your tracking ID. Next up, add it in Console to your marketplace to track traffic.
How to add your Google Analytics Tracking ID to your Sharetribe marketplace in Console
Log in to Console
Go to "Integrations -> Analytics"
Check "Google Analytics"
Paste the "Measurement ID" you copied earlier into the "Google Analytics Measurement ID" field
Save changes
Voilà! Your marketplace traffic is now tracked with Google Analytics! Traffic from your marketplace will start to appear within 24 hours in your Google Analytics account, and you should already be able to view some from the Realtime report in your Google Analytics account.
Your Google Analytics ID is set per environment. This means you need to add your tracking ID to every environment (Live, Dev, and/or Test) where you want to track your traffic. If you configure Google Analytics while building in Test or Dev to see how it works, remember to configure it again in Console in your Live environment.
How to track site search with Google Analytics
With Google Analytics, you can track what keywords people search for in your marketplace and what filters they use. This can be useful to learn more about your users' behavior and see if there is a demand for something that your marketplace doesn't offer.
Log in to Google Analytics at https://www.google.com/analytics/web/.
Open the account that you created for your marketplace.
From the bottom left, select "Admin".
Click on "Data Streams" and open the data stream you want to configure.
Make sure that "Enhanced Measurements" is enabled then click on the gear icon to access the additional settings.
Make sure that "Site Search" is enabled.
Click on "Show advanced settings" under "Site Search".
In the "Search Term Query Parameter" field, add the filter definition that you want to track. The most common terms you may want to track are
pub_category,address,keywords,dates,seatsSave your settings.