I would suggest using a simpler service like Firebase (by Google) -
https://firebase.google.com.
It has a SDK and very good up-to-date examples and documentation. Most of the nitty gritty of creating a server, APIs and authentication is abstracted away. The service includes analytics and allows you to create 'cloud function' which are written in js so you should feel at home there if you're creating a react app.
This comes from experience of creating a few apps with AWS (no real google cloud platform experience). For creating new apps mobile/web nowadays I use Firebase as its much easier to start up.
Slight change of tack perhaps from your original question, but hope that helps. Good luck!