Optily is a new solution that brings in ad data from all sources–including Google Analytics–into a single dashboard. You see all your campaigns displayed in a simple overview, get instant recommendations on how to optimize your ad spend, and can then apply the changes directly with one click.
Google Analytics (GA) is a business tool that provides users with an in-depth analysis of their website or app performance.
GA integrates with Google’s other popular marketing tools such as Google Ads, Search Console, and Data Studio. This makes it popular among advertisers who work largely in the Google Ad world.
But GA is notoriously complicated and there are other great marketing analytics options, such as Optily, available to marketers. If you can use a platform such as Optily and get all the data you need with much less work, should you just use Google Analytics on its own?
That’s the question we will explore for you in this blog. This will hopefully help you decide if Google Analytics on its own works for you or if a solution like Optily would help you grow your online business with ads.
What’s your ad budget? 
Everything costs money, but the key is figuring out what value you gain from your investment. If you’re planning on spending up to a couple of thousand dollars per month on ads, you’re likely not going to see a huge impact on your ads with an optimization automation tool. Google Analytics may be a good option for you as it will provide some analysis for free.
But, beware! Google Analytics works on a freemium model.
There is an immense price jump from free to premium, which actually unlocks all the features you need to grow your business.
The premium tier, called Google Analytics 360, jumps to $150,000 each year!
If you are a growing company then a platform like Optily is the better choice. We offer a flat monthly fee.
The only astronomical jump you’ll see at Optily is your ROAS percentage jump to the triple digits!
Are you prepared to lose cookies? 
If you’re a veteran Optily blog reader then you’ll know we talk about cookies quite a lot here, such as:
Our society is moving towards a more secure and private online world without cookies or other identifying data. The advertising industry must keep up.
Cookies are necessary tools that play a key role in the digital advertising industry. They’re almost solely responsible for the hyper-personalized and relevant ads that companies can present to attract customers.
Google’s latest update, Google Analytics 4, includes an attempt by the company to “future proof” their analytics software.
However, with solutions like Optily, we’re already ahead of the curve. Our software works with the data you provide, no matter what that date is. If it’s cookie data flowing through Analytics, ad data from Google, or ad data from Facebook, that’s all perfect! Our algorithm is built to work with the signals it gets from the platforms and analytics tools that you have access to.
Do you like saving time & money? 
As the saying goes: Time is Money.
We’ve worked with a lot of marketers. We found out that they spend on average 6 – 8 hours a week on ad optimization.
Let’s put this into perspective, an average marketer makes ~ $28 an hour in the US. That means that ad optimization work hours cost you ~$200 a week.
That’s over $10,000 a year on something that can be easily automated! And this is a low estimate.
Google Analytics is notoriously complicated and can take years to become proficient with. Then Google comes along and releases a new update sending you back to square one.
A platform like Optily’s single-click ad spend optimizer might be the perfect solution to save you time and money.
Optily instantly analyzes your campaigns and helps you spend your ad dollars where they are most effective. You can apply recommendations straight from the platform, so you don’t even have to log in to Ads Manager just to apply a small budget change.
Dashboard Comparison 
Google Analytics
There are many different layouts for the Google Analytics dashboard and it can be customized to focus on various aspects of online marketing.
e.g SEO, eCommerce, Social Media, Mobile
Below is what’s known as the “Basic Dashboard”, which displays metrics such as:
- Unique visitors
- Referral websites
- Geographical breakdown of visitors
- Organic finds, referrals, direct links
- Mobile analytics
Source: analytics.google.com
Optily
The Optily dashboard is user-friendly, detailed, and customizable.
Below is an example dashboard for an online bookstore, the Performance & Key Metrics screen shows:
- Overall revenue
- Overall CPC, CPM, and Ad spend
- A detailed breakdown of individual campaigns
- A graph visualizing and comparing the campaign performances
So, is there a difference? 
Yes, there is a difference and, in my opinion, one clear winner.
Google Analytics is a powerful analytical tool, however, it suffers by being over-complicated and not user-friendly.
Optily offers a matched level of power and analytics while being easier to use. Considering that Optily allows you to work across several platforms, see not just analytics, but also improvement recommendations you can apply instantly, it’s a solution that will simplify a campaign manager’s life immensely.
The dedicated Optily team experts provide onhand service to help in any way possible. We will work with your team on day-to-day campaign management, deploying our automated tech solutions, and setting all the back-end setup.
Free Demo 
The only way to really know which solution is better for your business is to try them out.
Google offers a free version of their Google Analytics tool here. While it won’t give you access to all the features, it will allow you to get a feel for the platform.
At Optily we’re a nice bunch and pretty generous. We’ll give you a 14-day completely free trial with access to all our wonderful features right here.
We want you to see your business grow–because when you grow, we grow!
