An ad buyer wants numbers they can trust, from a name they know. Google Analytics gives them that: real traffic for your paper, on Google's own screens, nobody's word for it. Your paper already carries the plumbing, so connecting it is one paste. Here is the whole setup, and how to show a buyer.
Go to analytics.google.com and sign in with a Google account. If you have no account, open Admin, click Create, and make an Account, then a Property named after your paper. Under Data collection, open Data streams, add a Web stream for your paper's address, and open it. Copy the Measurement id. It looks like G-XXXXXXXXXX. That one code is all your paper needs.
In Desk settings, open the Google Analytics card. Paste the Measurement id, or paste Google's whole tag and we keep the code, then save. Your paper now carries Google's tag. There is nothing else to wire.
Go to lookerstudio.google.com, create a Report, and connect it to your Google Analytics property. Set the data source credentials to Owner, so a visitor is not asked to sign in. Click Share, set the link to anyone with the link can view, and send that link to your buyer. They open it with no Google account of their own.
If your buyer has a Google account, open Admin, then Property Access Management. Add their email and give them the Viewer role. Viewer lets them read every report and change nothing. That is the right role for a buyer.
In Google Analytics, open Reports, then Realtime. Open your paper in another window and accept the cookie notice. Your visit shows up in Realtime within a minute. That is the proof. The fuller reports fill in over the next few hours.
Your paper shows a small cookie notice, and the Google tag loads only after a reader accepts it. A tag checker never accepts the notice, so it reports no tag even though the tag is installed and works. That is expected. Check with Realtime instead. One thing to know: Google counts the readers who accept, so its number is a floor, and your paper's own reader meter counts everyone.
Sign in and open your paper, then Desk settings, Google Analytics, and paste your Measurement id. · All guides