Unit 4 Collecting Actionable Data with Google Analytics-Lesson 4.2 Understanding your Account Structure

A Google Analytics account is a logical way to group data.  Configuration settings are applied to the entire account. Within each account you can have one or more properties that collect data. Each property is assigned a unique tracking I.D. that tells Google Analytics exactly what data should be collected, stored, and reported together.  An organization would typically create separate accounts for each unique business or distinct business units. Then you can create unique properties within that account for different websites, mobile applications, or other digital assets.

For each property, you have the ability to create multiple views.  "Views lets you define a unique perspective from a parent property." For example, you may want to create a separate view for specific geographic regions.  Google recommends having 3 views for each property:  an unfiltered view, a master view, and a test view.  *Warning* Once data has been processed, it cannot be reprocessed. Also, once a view is deleted it can only be restored within 35 days of deletion. This is why having a backup view, or the unfiltered view is important. One more note, once you create a view it begins reporting at the date of creation and does not account for any historical data that has previously been collected.