How Google’s new AI tools could change how you use your marketing data

James Hussey

Not many business owners who get excited about opening Google Analytics. It’s useful, certainly. But when you’ve got a list of jobs to get through, looking at rows of numbers isn’t usually top of it.

The tricky bit isn’t getting the data either. Google gives you plenty of that. It’s figuring out what you should actually take from it.

Google is adding more AI features to Ads and Analytics to help with exactly that. Some of them are designed to point out changes in your account, while others can help turn the data into something a little easier to understand.

In Analytics, for example, an AI overview can give you a quick rundown of what has happened since you last checked your account. If traffic has moved, conversions have changed or something else stands out, the tool can bring it to your attention.

You can get something similar in Google Ads. AI insight cards will appear on the homepage with information based on your account. There are also new reporting options where you can use a prompt to create dashboards and visual reports.

That could save a fair bit of messing around.

There’s another addition that caught my attention. Google is bringing AI-powered benchmarking to Analytics, giving businesses the option to compare their results against anonymised data from similar companies.

That’s useful because a number on its own doesn’t always mean much. Say your website generated 1,000 visits last month. Is that good? Maybe. Maybe not. If businesses like yours are typically getting 500, it looks pretty healthy. If they’re getting 5,000, you’ve got some work to do.

The new AI features are not going to tell you everything you need to know about your marketing. They can’t know that a competitor launched a big promotion last week, or that your sales always dip during a particular month.

What they can do is make it easier to spot things worth investigating.

For smaller businesses in particular, that could be the biggest advantage. You don’t need to become a data analyst just to get something useful out of your advertising figures. If Google can do some of the initial digging for you, there’s a good chance you’ll actually spend more time looking at your data rather than putting it off until later.

If you require any assistance with the SEO performance of your website, get in touch with us at Engage Web today.

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James Hussey

Digital Marketing Executive at Engage Web

Having once gone to school in the Burnage area of Manchester known for being the childhood home of Noel and Liam Gallagher, “Some Might Say” that James is a “Supersonic” presence within Engage Web, happily turning his hand to “Whatever” tasks his role throws at him.