Google Analytics is an invaluable tool for digital marketers and business owners. It provides an in-depth look into website traffic and user behavior, enabling you to make informed decisions about your digital marketing strategy. One of the features that make Google Analytics so powerful is its ability to link different types of products. This allows you to track how your products are performing across various channels and offers insights into how you can optimize and improve your product offerings.

In this article, we’ll cover the different types of product linking available in Google Analytics and how you can use them to better understand your customer’s journey.

1. Cross-Domain Tracking

Cross-domain tracking allows you to track users across multiple websites using the same Google Analytics property. This is useful if you have multiple websites that are related to each other, such as the main website, a blog, and an online store. Cross-domain tracking allows you to assign an ID to each user and track their activities across all of your sites.

2. Event Tracking

Event tracking allows you to track user interactions with specific elements on your website, such as videos, forms, or downloads. This is useful for understanding user behavior and how they interact with your site’s content.

3. Campaign Tracking

Campaign tracking allows you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and how they are driving traffic to your website. This can be done by tracking the source of your visitors (e.g. organic search, paid search, display, etc.) as well as any specific parameters you have included in your campaigns (e.g. campaign name, ad group name, etc.).

4. E-commerce Linking

E-commerce linking allows you to track purchases and revenue from your online store. This allows you to see how different products are performing and whether different campaigns or sources are driving the most sales.

5. Product Linking

Product linking is similar to e-commerce linking but allows you to track individual products, rather than the overall store performance. This is useful for understanding which of your products are the most popular, as well as the customer’s journey from discovery to purchase.

6. Affiliate Product Linking

Affiliate product linking allows you to track sales generated through your affiliate partners. You can also track the performance of your affiliate campaigns and measure the success of your affiliate partners. Affiliate product linking is a great way to maximize your affiliate relationships and generate more sales.

7. Custom Product Linking

This allows you to track custom events related to your products, such as when a product is added to a shopping cart or when a product is shared on social media. With custom product linking, you can measure the impact of different marketing campaigns on the performance of your products.

By understanding the different types of product linking available in Google Analytics, you can gain valuable insights into user behavior and ensure you’re making the most out of your data. With the right product linking setup, you can gain a better understanding of how users move between channels, what products they’re interested in, and what actions they take. This can help you create a more effective marketing strategy and optimize your website for maximum performance.