Learning Google Analytics

Chapter 7. Use Case: Predictive Purchases

This chapter’s use case serves as a simple example to accustom you to the structure shared with the more complex use cases we’ll see in later chapters. We’ll use only one platform, GA4 , to create it. However, the same data roles apply for the more involved use cases later, and we show that it’s possible to swap out those data roles should doing so better serve your needs.

In this scenario, let’s suppose that you’re a book publisher who would like to advertise your incredible new guide to Google Analytics. You have a custom GA4 set-up where the categories of books that your customers are browsing are recorded and purchase behavior from thousands of transactions are available. You’re also running a lot of Google Ads search campaigns tailored for each category, but because the subjects you are marketing against are broad, you’re catching a lot of impressions for customers just searching for general information. So you’re spending money on campaigns that don’t target potential customers and therefore cost you more money than you would like. You also have a theory that you’re potentially spending money advertising to people who would purchase the book anyway and would like to see if you can suppress advertising for those customers so you can spend more budget on impressions for customers who may need to be persuaded that this really is the book for them. Using GA4, we’re going to set up an Audience for those users with a 90%+ probability of ...