Google Launches Analytics Advisor AI Chatbot

Without any warning or explanation (yet, anyway) Google has launched within GA4 an AI chatbot that can answer questions to help you use the product:

The only hint that something like this was in the works came at Google Marketing Live 2025 in May when mention was made of a future "data expert" for GA4:

“In Google Analytics, the data expert will proactively show insights and trends, plus enable easy data exploration with simple visuals for improved decision-making and performance. These new capabilities will also help marketers troubleshoot campaign issues.”

The new tool doesn't just provide text answers to questions. It generates interactive charts and graphs like those in the GA4 interface, and explains the steps it took in answering your question.

One caveat: Analytics Advisor comes with a disclaimer: "Your chat activity may be used to improve the product." That is, your GA4 data may be used to train the underlying AI model. If that's not a problem for you, you should give this tool a try at first opportunity.

Rollout of Analytics Advisor in beta is believed to have begun on 10 October, but as of today 16 October Google has neither announced a timeline nor published documentation. Watch this space for updates.

"Summer Special" pricing now open for Marketing Analytics Summit 2025

Styled by organizers Rising Media as "The Conference for Digital Analytics Trailblazers", this event is scheduled to be held 2-5 June 2025 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel in Phoenix, AZ.

Call for speakers is now open until 29 October 2024. Topics of interest include web analytics, search engine optimization, email marketing analytics, social media metrics, more.

Format will be conference per se 3-4 June, with workshops on 2 June and 5 June.

2-day conference ticket prices are:

• Summer Special through Friday 27 September: $1295
• Super Early Bird through 14 February 2025 $1495
• Regular price through 18 April 2025 $1895
• Late price through 31 May 2025 $2095
• Onsite price $2295

Qualifying academics and government employees can attend for half price. More info is here: regsupport@risingmedia.com .

"$200 off" group rate is available for reps of same company registering at same time.

Attendees can make audio recordings of session for "personal use" but it looks like organizers won't be creating or distributing recordings. Live streaming is prohibited.

Sheraton has reserved a block of rooms priced at $229/night plus tax. Call 866-837-4213.

Go here for 2024 event info.

If you are a data/analytics whiz and can plan this far ahead, those early-registration discounts look attractive.

DAA 2023 OneConference to be held in Chicago 10-12 October

Styled by organizers as "the premier educational and networking event for analytics professionals", the 2023 DAA OneConference is planned to be a celebration of the past, present and future of the use of data.

The OneConference includes the Quanties Awards reception and party.

Speakers will include:

• Leadership Coach Tracy Pruzan-Roy
• CORE founder Evan LaPointe
• Data Science Leader Alex Destino
• Analytics & Marketing Science SVP Andrew Richardson

Agenda in a nutshell:

Tuesday 10 October

1000-1145 Workshops

1300-1445 Workshops

1500-1600 Business meeting

1600-1700 Reception

Wednesday 11 October

0900-0955 Welcome | Keynote by Andrew Richardson

1030-1130 Breakout sessions

1300-1415 Keynote by Tracy Pruzan-Roy

1430-1530 Breakout sessions

1600-1700 Keynote by Alex Destino

1800-2100 Quanties reception and awards party

Thursday 12 October

0900-0955 Keynote by Evan LaPoint

1015-1115 Breakout sessions

1130-1200 Closing remarks

Event venue will be the Chicago History Museum.

Nonmember registration fee is $1099, DAA members presumably pay less.

DAA does not have a designated host hotel or block of rooms but suggests the Hotel Lincoln which is within walking distance. Just now Hyatt.com is quoting room rates of $188-$213 per night for the conference period.

The Digital Analytics Association was founded in 2003 by Jim Sterne, Andrew Edwards and Bryan Eisenberg, with a mission to foster community, advocacy and professional development through analytics.

"The premier event for marketing insights, analytics, and data science professionals"

More speakers:

• Caitlin Wood, IBM
• Scott Breitenother, Brooklyn Data Co
• David Ciommo, Humana
• Andrew Naumann, Northwestern Mutual
• Guan Wang, Snowflake
• Yet more

Venue will be the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in DC.

Conference opens for registration at 0730 on Tuesday 26 September.

Agenda:

Tuesday 26 September

• 1300 Welcome by Scott Breitenother
• 1305 Keynote to be announced
• 1335 Walter Paliska, Shape the Future of Digital Marketing
• 1410 Scott Breitenother, Delivering Personalized Customer Experiences
• 1500 MADS Innovation Sessions
• 1540 Guan Wang, Advanced Marketing Analytics Using ML
• 1700 Welcome reception

Wednesday 27 September

• 0730 Breakfast and registration
• 0825 David Ciommo, Data Storytelling and Beyond
• 0825 Caitlyn Wood, From Individual Insights to Company-Level Insights
• 0915 Andrew Naumann, CLV: It's Not What You Think
• 0915 Katie Robbert, Managing the People that Manage the Machines
• 1030 Sunny Hunt, Data Storytelling
• 1030 Darren Bosik, Using Predictive Analytics for Proactive Response
• 1120 Chad O'Brien, Building a Data-Driven Culture
• 1120 Hilary Borndahl, ROI Disruption in the Details
• 1200 Lunch
• 1306 MADS Innovation Sessions
• 1345 Andy Crestodina, How to Audit Your Content Using GA4
• 1435 Whitney Myers, Analytics Fundamentals
• 1435 Jim Sterne, How Does Generative AI Change the Analytics Role?
• 1600 Keynote to be announced
• 1900 Party at the National Portrait Gallery

Thursday 28 September

• 0700 Registration
• 0730 Breakfast
• 0910 Avinash Kaushik, Keynote
• 1015 Robert Neal, Making Better Decisions Faster
• 1015 Alton Alexander, Python and How to Accelerate Your Content Marketing
• 1105 John Nicholson, How the Olly Brand is Adapting
• 1145 Lunch
• 1245 Keynote to be announced
• 1355 Zontee Hou, Data & Culture Workshop
• 1355 Paul Yang, Measurement & Modeling Workshop
• 1530 Alton Alexander, AI& Machine Learning Workshop
• 1530 Driving Growth Workshop to be announced
• 1645 Cassie Kozyrkov, Keynote
• 2100 Drinking

Pricing for conference passes is complicated, ranges from Digital Early Bird through 14 July to Onsite Rate starting 26 September $2499.

"All Access" passes include Thursday workshops and on-demand recordings,

"Main Conference" passes do not.

"Digital" pass includes on-demand recordings only.

Group rates ands sponsorships are available.

Go here for registration and more information.

I have to admit that data science isn't a big passion of mine. But this conference offers some great speakers and a solid 3-day schedule. And pricing is easier on the wallet than some conferences, even considering travel to DC. Digital pass could be an attractive option for some.

Google has announced that as of 1 July 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data.

All new data will flow into Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

And those data will be different in some very important ways:

• In the interest of user privacy, GA4 will not collect or store users' IP addresses.
• GA4 is much less dependent on cookies.
• Because GA4 operates across platforms, it can track user journeys across websites and apps and produce user-centric metrics.
• Unlike Universal Analytics which is session-based, GA4 is event-based, tracking events like link clicks and video plays.
• GA4 applies machine learning to data gathered, to generate insights and predict outcomes.
• GA4 is being integrated with multiple Google products including Google Ads, YouTube, Firebase, AdMob and others.
• Tracking prospects through the marketing funnel to conversion will be more difficult and costly.
• Creating awareness and consideration may become more important in advertising and require more investment for less immediate return.

To limit the volume of historical data you'll have to move from Universal Analytics to GA4 in 2023, it's a good idea to start using GA4 now.

But there could be a steep learning curve - and a lot of people are finding GA4 user-unfriendly - so if I believe the prudent course would be to run both Universal Analytics and GA4 at least until you have good confidence in GA4.