Programming Language: scripted language that can run both “as a full program” (like an Excel macro) as well as one command at a time
Built of/for/by statisticians: “working with data” is at the core of the platform
Open Source (Free*): while ancillary services/support are available for a fee, the core platform (and an IDE with which to work with it) does not require any internal budget approval – just download it!
Supported by a Large Community: the user base of R has, in some respects, outpaced that of SPSS and SAS (but not yet Excel!); the community of digital analyst R users is rapidly growing (Congratulations! You’re joining a great group!). Go to http://join.measure.chat to join the #measure Slack team (and the coolest channel there: #r-and-statistics)
Connectable to digital analytics (and other!) data sources: multiple “packages” have been created for connecting to digital analytics platforms via their APIs. And to Google Sheets. And to you-name-it. We’ll be using some of them today!
* TANSTAAFL
Why use R (instead of Excel)?
Reproducibility: write a function for one project/client and then reuse it for others
Flexibility: many many open source packages to enable powerful operations
Scalability: copes easily beyond Excel limits; can scale up in cloud using same code
Interoperability: can run (almost) same code on Linux, Mac, and Windows