How to add Google Analytics tracking to Timely – Timely

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Google Analytics is a powerful platform that allows you to track who visits your website. You can use Google Analytics with your Timely account, to track visits to your mini-website and/or online booking process. In this guide, you will learn how to add Google Analytics tracking to Timely.

Timely note: while we can help you with the initial setup process with Google Analytics, we are not able to provide any support around accessing and using Google Analytics. We recommend taking a course to get the most value out of this feature, such as those found in the Google Analytics Academy.

How Google Analytics works and what you can track

How many people start the online booking process
How many people complete the booking process
What step people are dropping off (which step has the least views)
How many times people have abandoned the payment process (if online payments is enabled)
How many times people have reached the failed payments page (if online payments is enabled)

How to track page views using Google Analytics

To track online bookings with Google Analytics, you will need to:

1 Head to the reports > examine user behaviour > pages and screens report and select page path and screen class in the drop down.

When the client successfully completes an online booking via Timely, they will not be taken to a unique landing page. Because of this, there is not a single URL you can use to track successful online bookings. This also means that it's not currently possible to set up as a goal for a completed booking i.e. using the conversion tracking functionality in Google Analytics.

Instead, you would look for the booking/confirmation URL to see how many bookings have been successfully made. You can also use this report to see how many times customers have made it to each step of the booking process.

How to track referrals using Google Analytics

When you use Google Analytics with Timely, you will also notice that there are two main sources:

Direct will indicate that they headed to the website/URL directly.
Referral will identify that they came to the booking process from another link.

To identify where the client originated from, you require something called cross-domain tracking - the ability to track someone across different websites/domains. Unfortunately, this is not something that is currently supported in Timely, so the exact referral source cannot be recorded.

How to create a free Google Analytics account

If you aren't already using Google Analytics, then you can create a free account. To do this:

1 Head to the Google Analytics page, and click get started today to create a new account. You will be prompted to sign in with your Gmail address.

2 When you reach the landing page, click the start measuring button. You will then be prompted to enter some information:

Add an account name (e.g., Your business name)
Add a property name (e.g., Timely online booking)
Update your reporting time zone & currency here if required
Enter your business information (relevant Industry category, Business size, etc) and click on create
You will be taken to the start collecting data page, then choose web button in the platform area
You will then be prompted to set up data stream
Set the Website URL to: bookings.gettimely.com (you'll also want this to be set to https://)
Enter a stream name
Click on create stream button, you will then be taken to your web stream details.
You can now copy the measurement ID (e.g. G-xxxx) from the top of the page

How to add Timely to an existing Google Analytics account

If you are already using Google Analytics, then you can set up a new property to track your Timely bookings:

1 Go to your Google Analytics home page, and then to the admin page followed by clicking create property. You will then be prompted to enter some information:

Add a property name (e.g., Timely online booking)
Update your reporting time zone & currency here if required
Select the relevant industry category
Choose relevant business objectives and click on create
You will then be prompted to set up data stream
Set the Website URL to: bookings.gettimely.com (you'll also want this to be set to https://)
Enter a stream name
Click on create stream button, you will then be taken to your web stream details
You can now copy the measurement ID (e.g. G-xxxx) from the top of the page

How to add Google Analytics to Timely

Now that you have your measurement ID in hand, you can add this to your Timely account. To do this:

1 Head to setup from the main menu in your Timely account dashboard, and click on analytics tools.

2 Select the Google Analytics tab and GA4 in the analytics type section.

3 Next, add your Google Analytics measurement ID in the ID field provided.

4 Then, select how you would like your booking steps to be recorded into your analytics account. The options include:

Simple (recommended): A distinct page address excluding any query-string for each booking step. Use this one to track confirmations.
Full: A distinct page address including any query-string for each booking step. This will also show you a unique link for every service/date range selected - the services aren't named and use a bunch of numbers and letters, so not super handy!
Default: The default page address as detected by the analytics script. Note this may result in multiple booking steps being recorded under the same page address.

5 When you are ready, click save to apply your changes.

Timely note: Google analytics can take up to 48 hours before the reports start showing any activity so check back the following day. You can also head back to the tracking info page at Google analytics in a few hours to see if Google has verified your tracking code!

How to use Google Adwords with Timely

At the moment, using Google Adwords with Timely is not supported. There are two key puzzle pieces required to do so: cross-domain tracking (the ability to track a visitor across different websites) and a field to allow a snippet of code to be added directly to the completed step of the online booking process.