How to Backup Universal Analytics Data for Free?
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 6:14 am
Google Analytics 4 has now completely replaced Universal Analytics. So what will happen to our years of accumulated data in Universal Analytics? Google announced that Universal Analytics data will be stored until July 1, 2024, and then removed indefinitely . This seems to be a worrying situation for many businesses and digital marketers. Many brands we consult for give up on Universal Analytics data if they don’t have big data going back; however, the opposite is true for brands that have accumulated data for years.
In order to guide you, we will explain one of the best ways to solve this issue in our article. First of all, there is no single way for “Universal Analytics Backup”. There are more than one method we can apply. These methods, as suggested in the Google source, are as follows:
In our article, we will talk about the export method with “Google Sheets”. We will visualize the data we store with Google Sheets with Looker Studio. Google Sheets is a reliable and inexpensive tool for backing up your Universal Analytics data. You can keep your backed up data safe and always have access to it for your future work. Whether it is to analyze your site traffic or to track user behavior trends, this backed up data will be a valuable resource for growing your business and improving your strategies. Without further ado, I will start explaining step by step how to do it.
Step 1 - Log in to your Google account where you have your Analytics account.
Here, I recommend that you do this via an incognito tab, because the add-on we will talk about later may not work correctly when more than one Google account is open.
Step 2 - Select the Universal Analytics view you will be backing up and open a blank Google Sheets.
This will be where you will backup and organize your Universal Analytics data.
Step 3 - Follow the steps below via the Extension menu: Extension > Add-ons > Get add-ons.
Step 4 - Find the “Google Analytics” add-on in Google Workspace.
Install the plugin that will appear when you type “Google Analytics” in the search section as in the image. Since I have it installed, it shows as “Installed”.
After you grant the permissions and install it, it should appear overseas chinese in uk data under the Google Sheets extension menu as follows. If it doesn't appear, you can refresh the page once.
Step 5 - Open your most used report screens from Universal Analytics.
Since there are many report screens, you should prioritize the reports you use the most in order to manage your effort and time efficiently. I preferred the “Landing Page” report, which is one of the most used reports. Then, I set the date period between January 1, 2020 and July 30, 2023. I will make a backup of 3.5 years, I think this is a very good period to analyze a website. You should set the date here according to yourself.
Step 6 - Add “Date” as the secondary dimension.
When you add date via the secondary dimension, it will separate all pages day by day and therefore increase the number of rows. Pay attention to the number of rows below, if you are a site with a lot of data, there may be some problems after 100,000 rows. For me, this number was “95551”, so there is no problem.
Step 7 - Let's select "Create new report" via the Google Analytics plugin.
Step - 8 Create the report by selecting Dimension and Metric.
Afterwards, we can select our dimensions and metrics, give a report name and click “Create Report”.
Step 9 – Set the date and limit.
Update your date period and limit as follows.
Step 10 - Run reports
We can follow the steps in the visual and say “Run reports”.
If we see the screen below, we can say that we were successful.
After the above screen, our file should look like the one below.
We have stored our data in 10 steps. Now we are moving on to the process of visualizing this data. We will do this with Looker Studio.
Step 11 - Let's open Looker Studio in the same Google account.
Let's open an empty report by clicking "Blank" from the opened Looker panel and directly select "Google Sheets" as the data source.
Step 12 - Let's specify the report we created as the data source.
Let's select "Landing page" in the sheet we created as the data source.
After doing this, there is another important setting we need to make. We need to specify rows and columns specifically by ticking the “Include specific range” section. For me, this information is as follows, your column value may change depending on the number of metrics.
In order to guide you, we will explain one of the best ways to solve this issue in our article. First of all, there is no single way for “Universal Analytics Backup”. There are more than one method we can apply. These methods, as suggested in the Google source, are as follows:
In our article, we will talk about the export method with “Google Sheets”. We will visualize the data we store with Google Sheets with Looker Studio. Google Sheets is a reliable and inexpensive tool for backing up your Universal Analytics data. You can keep your backed up data safe and always have access to it for your future work. Whether it is to analyze your site traffic or to track user behavior trends, this backed up data will be a valuable resource for growing your business and improving your strategies. Without further ado, I will start explaining step by step how to do it.
Step 1 - Log in to your Google account where you have your Analytics account.
Here, I recommend that you do this via an incognito tab, because the add-on we will talk about later may not work correctly when more than one Google account is open.
Step 2 - Select the Universal Analytics view you will be backing up and open a blank Google Sheets.
This will be where you will backup and organize your Universal Analytics data.
Step 3 - Follow the steps below via the Extension menu: Extension > Add-ons > Get add-ons.
Step 4 - Find the “Google Analytics” add-on in Google Workspace.
Install the plugin that will appear when you type “Google Analytics” in the search section as in the image. Since I have it installed, it shows as “Installed”.
After you grant the permissions and install it, it should appear overseas chinese in uk data under the Google Sheets extension menu as follows. If it doesn't appear, you can refresh the page once.
Step 5 - Open your most used report screens from Universal Analytics.
Since there are many report screens, you should prioritize the reports you use the most in order to manage your effort and time efficiently. I preferred the “Landing Page” report, which is one of the most used reports. Then, I set the date period between January 1, 2020 and July 30, 2023. I will make a backup of 3.5 years, I think this is a very good period to analyze a website. You should set the date here according to yourself.
Step 6 - Add “Date” as the secondary dimension.
When you add date via the secondary dimension, it will separate all pages day by day and therefore increase the number of rows. Pay attention to the number of rows below, if you are a site with a lot of data, there may be some problems after 100,000 rows. For me, this number was “95551”, so there is no problem.
Step 7 - Let's select "Create new report" via the Google Analytics plugin.
Step - 8 Create the report by selecting Dimension and Metric.
Afterwards, we can select our dimensions and metrics, give a report name and click “Create Report”.
Step 9 – Set the date and limit.
Update your date period and limit as follows.
Step 10 - Run reports
We can follow the steps in the visual and say “Run reports”.
If we see the screen below, we can say that we were successful.
After the above screen, our file should look like the one below.
We have stored our data in 10 steps. Now we are moving on to the process of visualizing this data. We will do this with Looker Studio.
Step 11 - Let's open Looker Studio in the same Google account.
Let's open an empty report by clicking "Blank" from the opened Looker panel and directly select "Google Sheets" as the data source.
Step 12 - Let's specify the report we created as the data source.
Let's select "Landing page" in the sheet we created as the data source.
After doing this, there is another important setting we need to make. We need to specify rows and columns specifically by ticking the “Include specific range” section. For me, this information is as follows, your column value may change depending on the number of metrics.