How I Became a Digital Marketing Analyst with Zero Experience

A few months ago, I didn’t even know what Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was, let alone what it did or how it could help make sense of website analytics. My background was in human resources, and I was about to graduate with a degree in astrophysics. Digital marketing was not in my repertoire, and as graduation crept closer, I was feeling more unsure than ever about my career plans.

At the time, I was working in customer support at a bank and answering questions about credit cards; that was definitely not what I saw myself doing for another couple decades. I went into the job market only knowing that I’ve always particularly enjoyed my university courses surrounding data analysis, and also that I wanted to try everything. I wanted to be a pilot one month, a lawyer the next, a researcher the next, a scheduling analyst after that, a dog walker the next, etc. It was around then that a friend suggested marketing “because that way you get to do some of everything!” I reached out to a few marketing agencies, including Kick Point, and spoke to Jen, who suggested I take the Analytics Playbook courses and see how I liked the analytics part of digital marketing.

I was excited to learn more about digital marketing, but unfortunately my initial reaction towards GA4 and Google Tag Manager (GTM) was that they made me want to scream. Everything felt fragile, like one wrong click and suddenly I somehow shut off the internet. It’s hard to know where to start when you’re a lot worried about breaking something. In GA4, I couldn’t tell what these reports were telling me or how they could help make marketing decisions. Triggers refused to work in GTM and GA4 was not giving me anything of value.

However, things began to click as I worked through Dana’s real-life examples and hands-on exercises. Instead of dry, theoretical lessons, I was actually tracking things on a site that I had control over. When something went wrong, I learned how to troubleshoot and fix it. Dana’s honest and approachable style made things interesting and engaging. I learned how to understand GA4 data, work within GTM, and build reports in GA4 and Looker Studio for clients.

In the Practical GA4 course, Dana had us create a mini website to get hands-on experience in GA4 and GTM. I was tracking real button clicks, form submissions, and scroll depths on a site I could control. The Analytics for Agencies course did a deeper dive on GA4 and GTM, and further solidified my understanding of both. When something broke, I learned to debug it. When something worked, I understood why it worked. My first “this finally works” moment was when I was able to get a stubborn accordion click to correctly fire in GTM on my website. I spent over an hour testing triggers and trying different variables. Dana provided templates so you can not only read and understand data, but you learn how to present it to clients.

The Analytics Audit course helped me understand audits and figure out what was missing or broken. Dana’s interactive approach made learning click in a way that felt like whatever the opposite of an 8 a.m. lecture is; instead of passively watching slides, I was able to apply my knowledge immediately and meaningfully.

From there, things started to fall into place. Concepts that felt abstract before, like data layer variables, triggers, and events, started to make sense. Every time I fixed something, I understood it a bit better. Working with a website that had no bearing on anything important really helped solidify my knowledge and apply it.

Fast forward to today: I’m a digital marketing analyst now! Every day has a fair amount of routine (lots of GA4 and GTM!), but also new challenges and opportunities to work out for clients. I’ve gone from feeling lost in GA4 to helping out with real client projects. Three months ago, the thought of managing a client’s analytics setup would have sent me into orbit. Now, I’m building Looker Studio dashboards, I’ve set up GA4 accounts, and created tags and triggers in GTM containers. I love problem-solving, and I get to learn something new every day!

What still shocks me is how quickly everything changed in my career. I started with zero knowledge of anything digital marketing, not even the vocabulary. A few months later, I was hired at Kick Point after taking a couple of classes, working with the same tools that used to give me headaches. For me, the courses didn’t just teach me analytics, but also gave me the foundation to build a career.

Looking back, here’s what I wish I had known at the start:

• GA4 may feel overwhelming at first, but once you know the basics, the pieces will slowly start falling into place.
• Mistakes are part of the process, and practice makes perfect! You’ll learn more from your mistakes than from initial successes. Feeling confusion means you’re learning, especially when you’re able to figure out why something won’t work.
• You don’t need a marketing background. If you’re curious about data and enjoy problem-solving, you’re halfway there!

If you’re looking at GA4 and feeling lost, that’s completely okay! We also feel like that every time Google moves a button or changes the interface for no reason. It’s normal to feel confused at first. The key is to push through the confusion and trust that things will slowly start to make sense as you practice. You certainly don’t need a marketing background, and the hands-on approach makes it stick faster than you’d think. Google might change things on a whim, but the courses teach you how to think about analytics and how to approach problems, and not just memorize where to click.

Ready to start your own analytics journey? Practical GA4 is where I started—it might be where you start too.