Tools

Understanding the Google 360 Suite

CopyPress

August 6, 2021 (Updated: February 9, 2023)

Quick Navigation

• What Is Google 360?
• When Did the Google 360 Suite Launch?
• All About the Google 360 Products
• How Much Does Google 360 Cost?
• How Do I Use Google 360?
• Google 360 vs. Universal Analytics
• Benefits of Google 360

The entire advertising process starts with understanding how a consumer behaves in a particular moment. That moment provides the insights you need to make your brand attractive to those customers. To more easily make these assessments, enterprise marketers use tools like Google 360 that help them track, share, and test data.

What Is Google 360?

Google 360 is a suite of eight enterprise-level products that form a platform of tools. These integrated data and marketing analytics products help people better understand their customers. It also helps generate insights to improve websites. This grouping is the basis of the Google Marketing Platform. It’s targeted to companies that have needs beyond what Google’s Universal Analytics—Google’s free analytics program—provides.

When Did the Google 360 Suite Launch?

Google 360 first launched in March 2016. It premiered in limited beta testing for Google Analytics Premium and Adometry customers before its official launch. Three of the suite programs existed as separate tools before 2016. Tag Manager and Google Consumer Surveys (now called Google Surveys 360) came out in 2012.

Google has a long history of providing marketing tools and upgrading them for efficiency. Google’s first analytics program came out in November 2005. Google also unified its DoubleClick advertiser products under the Google Marketing Platform brand in 2018. Additionally, DoubleClick Bid Manager became Google Display & Video 360 in July of that year.

Image via Unsplash by Edho Pratama

All About the Google 360 Products

Google 360 suite helps enterprise marketers connect data across platforms. This can help sync efforts from online, mobile, and traditional marketing. The information you can collect and view from these tools helps guide your content decisions. For example, the information may help you work with CopyPress to create custom infographics to share on your website.

The Google 360 suite contains:

Google Analytics 360

Google Analytics 360 is a revamped version of Google Analytics Premium. This data collection tool for large companies lets you know which channels drive your customers and which campaigns bring new leads. With Google Analytics 360, you can analyze data from all your touch points, as it provides raw data access without restrictions. It also has enterprise-level support, service, and service level agreements (SLAs). Integration with BigQuery helps build and analyze programming efforts.

Google Campaign Manager 360

Google Campaign Manager 360 is an ad management system for advertisers. It allows for digital campaign management across mobile devices and websites. It includes reporting, trafficking, administration, and verification features to monitor ad campaigns and impressions. This program can generate multiple types of reports to analyze your data.

Google Data Studio 360

Google Data Studio 360 is a data analysis and visualization product. It lets you share real-time marketing data and models across departments. You can integrate data from all suite products and data sources to build unlimited interactive reports and dashboards. Data Studio 360 may look and feel familiar because it’s based on Google Docs technology, making it easy to master if you’re already familiar with that word processor.

Google Display & Video 360

Google Display & Video 360 combines elements of current and former products DoubleClick Bid Manager, Audience Center, Studio, and Campaign Manager. It focuses on five integrated models that simplify the campaign creation and execution process. Its components include:

• Campaigns: Allows you to build your cross-channel media plans and execute them to your specifications
• Audiences: Lets you manage your audiences and your paid advertisements together in one place
• Creatives: Uses data to implement your creative strategy and polish your media plan
• Inventory: Lets you locate inventory from broadcasters and publishers to place your ads
• Insights: Combines your campaign metrics in one place for easy access and review

Google Optimize 360

Google Optimize 360 helps marketers look at website testing and personalization. With this program, you can test online user experiences in an A/B format without writing extra code. This tool can also help you decide which site or ad is the most successful for different audiences.

Google Search Ads 360

Google Search Ads 360 allows you to manage marketing campaigns across multiple supported search engines and media channels. It includes reporting features and automated bidding to increase campaign performance. This tool integrates with other Google 360 products to share data and make informed decisions. Search Ads may save you time when creating new campaigns and increase your return on investment (ROI) for search marketing efforts.

Google Surveys 360

Google Surveys 360 helps collect insights about consumers. Certain features allow you to target hard-to-reach audiences by industry and occupation. Using this program, you can generate online ratings that show up in Google searches. You can also generate data sets and see results in representative samples.

Google Tag Manager 360

Google Tag Manager 360 helps streamline workflows and decision-making processes. You can manage both Google and third-party tags for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and site code through this program, which simplifies information-gathering methods. Tag Manager also helps increase data accuracy.

Previous tools

Since its launch, Google 360 has removed a few products from its marketing platform. While Google no longer recognizes these tools as part of their marketing platform, previous customers may still have access to their services. Some Google partners may also still sell licenses for these packages:

• Google Attribution 360: This program was an updated tool formerly known as Adometry. It let users track marketing information, determine marketing performance by channel, and analyze performance across devices.
• Google Audience Center 360: This program was the company’s first data management platform (DMP). It could understand customers’ habits and help locate potential customers across devices, channels, and campaigns.

How Much Does Google 360 Cost?

The Google Analytics 360 suite starts at $150,000 per year in the United States. The price reflects Google’s target demographic of top-tier enterprise marketers. It’s important to note that this price point is for base plans—support plans or more features may come at an extra cost. Some factors that may influence your final price include:

• Country or region of your company headquarters
• Expected monthly hit volume
• Number of products you choose to purchase
• Purchasing organization or location

You can either purchase the entire suite or get individual subscriptions to different Google 360 tools. You can purchase Google 360 directly from Google, but you also have the option to buy through third-party companies called Google Analytics Certified Partners for Services and Sales.

How Do I Use Google 360?

Google 360’s products can adapt to fit your business’s unique needs. Many of the programs are customizable and offer unlimited tests, fields, and reports for you to get the information and data you need right away.

Additionally, Google 360 includes standard support with the option to purchase additional support plans to address your use questions and needs. There are also free Google Skillshop and Google Academy courses, such as Getting Started with Google Analytics 360, to help you learn how to use the products. Because you pay and subscribe to use the Google 360 services, you must sign into the authorized account to use the programs and their features.

Google 360 vs. Universal Analytics

Factors such as the features and the price tag may make you wonder if Google 360 is right for your business, especially when Universal Analytics offers some of the same benefits at no cost. The size of your business and the way you intend to use this suite may help you determine if it’s right for you. Some areas where Google 360 and Universal Analytics differ include:

Support

Google 360 offers support plans that provide information like discovery or needs analyses. You can also access training from Google experts and 24/7 emergency support. With Universal Analytics, you’re limited to Google support online through their forums. You can also contact the company, but it may take longer to get a response.

Data Processing

Google limits its data processing features for Universal Analytics. Some of these elements and restrictions include:

• Access to data export
• Access to data pulled in 24-hour intervals
• Access to tracking API
• Access to real-time data
• Limit of up to 10 million hits per month
• Limit of 20 customer metrics each
• Limit of up to 200 views per web property
• Limit of up to 50,000 rows of data for tracking and export

With Google 360, the data processing features and limitations are:

• Access to data export
• Access to tracking API
• Access to data pulled in one-hour intervals
• Access to real-time data
• Contract and service guarantees
• Google Drive integration
• Limit of up to 20 billion hits per month for data volume capacity
• Limit of 200 customer dimensions and metrics
• Limit of up to 3 million data rows for tracking and export
• Limit of up to 400 views per web property
• Query time processing
• Unsampled reporting

With both programs, you own your created data. However, you have limited access to this data with the free Universal Analytics plan.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Universal Analytics doesn’t offer any SLA features. For Google 360, you can access SLA freshness, collection, and reporting for over 98% of data. With Google 360, you also have access to Google Tag Manager. This provides SLA and service level guarantees for customers.

Advertising and Multi-Channel

Like many other features, Universal Analytics has limited advertising and multi-channel elements. Both plans offer:

• Attribution modeling
• Campaign measurement
• Google Ads integration
• Multi-channel reporting

With Google 360, you also get features like data-driven attribution models and Salesforce integration.

Social, Mobile, and Video

Both Google 360 and Universal Analytics offer the same social, mobile, and video features. There is no advantage for either program in this category. With both, you get:

• App tracking
• Conversion reporting
• Mobile device tracking
• Social reporting
• Video performance measurements

Video marketing is particularly valuable to companies of all sizes, and Google’s options for assessing your video performance metrics may help you further engage your audience. Download CopyPress’ free eBook on video marketing to learn more about how it continues to change the face of online branding.

Analysis Tools

Universal Analytics and Google 360 both include the following analysis tools:

• Advanced segmentation
• Analytics filters
• Custom reporting
• Flow visualizations
• Real-time data

Besides these features, Google 360 also offers:

• An advanced reporting interface
• Custom funnel reporting
• Custom unsampled tables

Benefits of Google 360

For large companies, Google 360 can provide many benefits that other marketing suites don’t offer. It may also give you more flexibility and freedom than the Universal Analytics program. Some benefits of Google 360 include:

• Connecting insights and results: Google 360 allows you to use insights to affect your connections. This makes for a better flow between advertising and publisher products.
• Discovering new insights: Google 360 uses machine-learning capabilities to track data and information. This can help provide insights that may not be possible with other programs.
• Focusing on an open system: Google 360 integrates with other proprietary company tools and standalone resources. This means marketers can import both first- and third-party data into the system, which helps them ensure they’re not duplicating remarketing efforts.
• Leveraging data: Google 360 provides access to quick data analysis, encourages collaboration, and generates shareable reports. Additionally, connections to Google Cloud allow for sharing across departments.
• Protecting privacy: The Google 360 suite has a focus on privacy, which lets you track users safely without risking their personal data.
• Understanding customers: Google 360 helps you learn how your site and app users engage with content. This shows you which tactics and strategies work best for conversions.

While Universal Analytics may work well for small and medium-sized businesses, Google 360 may be worth the investment for larger companies. Review your current marketing, advertising, and data collection efforts and see where you could make changes. If Google 360 offers solutions in those areas, consider contacting Google or a third-party supplier to get a quote for purchasing.

CopyPress

August 6, 2021 (Updated: February 9, 2023)