How to replace Twitter's website analytics with Google Analytics - Christopher S. Penn

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Remember when Twitter rolled out website analytics? It was a wonderful secret just between us marketers. Well, the developers giveth and the developers taketh away. Twitter’s website analytics is no more:

So how do you replace this? How will you figure out if Twitter is is delivering website performance to you, if you’d become accustomed to measuring your tweets with the built-in tool?

Google Analytics is your answer. Here’s how to set it up. First, open your Google Analytics profile.

Second, start a new custom segment, shown above.

Next, create a Traffic Sources match for Twitter. I like to measure both Twitter.com the website as well as links from Twitter’s link shortener, so that I capture clicks from the mobile app and third party apps. Here’s the difference:

Above, twitter.com alone.

Above, twitter.com and the t.co link shortener

Name your segment something obvious, like Twitter traffic.

Hit the blue Save button, and you will see the traffic you get from Twitter to your website (above).

Remember that setting this measurement up only measures the last third of our social media measurement model:

taken from my new book, Marketing Blue Belt

We still need to measure audience growth and engagement. Measuring website traffic from a social media source isn’t enough to achieve the results you’re looking for.

Nonetheless, if you relied upon Twitter’s website analytics, you’ve got a replacement in Google Analytics. Give it a try!

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