I have strong (negative) opinions about Google Analytics 4. I actually created Conversion Bridge solely because I wanted to move off Google Analytics 4 but I still needed conversion tracking for my favorite WordPress plugins and realized others would need this too. In fact, Conversion Bridge did not have a Google Analytics conversion tracking integration until shortly before the version 1 launch. In my opinion, GA4 is a bloated piece of software that is really only useable for high end marketing professionals who spend hours each day using it. Analytics shouldn’t require a week long course just to be able to use it for basic tracking and reporting. However, lots of people still use and rely on it so I ultimately made the integration.
Early on while making Conversion Bridge I realized it would be nice to be able to enable multiple analytics platforms at once. Mostly for my own testing purposes but also because many people were asking me which Google Analytics alternative platform they should use. The answer I gave was most often, “it depends.” It depends because what your website is tracking and your overall marketing goals can determine which analytics platform best suits your needs.
Steps for testing Google Analytics alternatives
Many of the Google Analytics alternatives are paid offerings. The one major advantage Google Analytics does have is it’s free price tag so I get why many still cling to it. However, these platforms understand that changing analytics platforms can be a hard decision to make so they offer free trials.
By using Conversion Bridge + free trials, you can try out every single alternative option on your site and see which one is best for you. Here is how:
- Buy and install Conversion Bridge
- Sign up for every free trial for any of the 13 analytics platforms integrated into Conversion Bridge
- Enable all the analytics platforms you want to use – Conversion Bridge allows you to enable as many as you would like at the same time
- Track for a week or so and then look at the reporting tools from each platform to see which one gives the best data in the most helpful format for you
Any conversion tracking you have setup within Conversion Bridge – whether it be from one of the the 54 plugin integrations currently available or custom conversion events you have setup – will all get tracked in every single analytics platform you have enabled. You do not need to setup conversion tracking separately for every single platform – Conversion Bridge does all this heavy lifting for you.
Any downsides to trying out Google Analytics alternatives?
Nope. At least not when using Conversion Bridge.
Loading multiple analytics platforms has little effect on page load times since all of the alternative platforms have very minimal sized tracking JavaScript files. Remember, you are only doing this for a week or so and will not be permanent on your site.
Since you will also be tracking with Google Analytics as well during this testing phase you will not be losing any of your important data should you ultimately choose not to switch.
There is no downside to using Conversion Bridge to test out alternative platforms – so give it a try! Then let me know which platform you ultimately chose to use as I’m always curious to learn more on what others feel is the best analytics platform to use.
