Enterprise Class upgrades added to Google Analytics
Google Analytics has been significantly upgraded. New features include:
- Custom Reports
- Advanced Segmentation
- Motion Charts (a new data visualization tool)
- Integrated reporting for AdSense
- A data export API
- An updated user and admin interface
Here’s a screenshot of some of the new features…
Advanced Segmentation is our favorite new feature so far. It gives you the power to delve deeper into your analytics data and break your traffic into specific subgroups. Google has predefined segments such as:
- Paid Traffic
- Visitors with Conversions
- Direct Traffic
- New Visitors
- Search Traffic
- Returning Visitors
- Referral Traffic
…plus many more. You can also create your own custom segmentations. That allows you to break your traffic out into specific categories so you can better understand how your site is performing. You can also mix and match multiple segmentations. As Google Analytics expert Avinash Kaushik explains it:
Analyzing data in aggregate is a crime against humanity … your website’s really a mix of Visitor Sources, Visitor Behavior and your Desired Outcomes.
When you look at all that in aggregate, you get nothing. You think Average Time on Site means something. No! You think All Visits and Overall Conversion Rate gives you insights. Nyet! You think understanding Keywords without drilling down to each search engine will be awesome. Non!
If you want to find actionable insights, you need to segment your web analytics data. You need to separate out the various Sources, Behavior and Outcomes. Then you’ll understand behavior of micro-segments of your website visitors, which in turn will lead you to actionable insights because you are not focusing on a “glob” rather you are focused on a “specific.”
To which we say: Amen!
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The AdSense integration allows you to link your AdSense and Analytics accounts, then receive data such as:
- Total revenue, impressions, clicks, and click-through rates
- Revenue per day, per hour, and other time frames.
- Revenue per page (showing you what your most profitable pages are)
- Revenue per referral (showing you what sites bring you the most profitable traffic)
- Geographic reports (showing you where your traffic is coming from)
Google has more background on that feature in their recent blog post.
The Analytics API is designed to allow users to create custom tools which can export and manipulate Google Analytics data.
The Analytics upgrade is being rolled out in stages, and some users may see the new features sooner than others. AdSense integration, in particular, may take longer to appear as Google gets feedback from users about what is and isn’t working. So far, we aren’t seeing it in any of the Google Analytics accounts we have access to.
Google has a set of tutorial videos on YouTube that delve into the more detailed aspects of the new upgrade, as well as a comprehensive blog post on the topic.
And to get an iron-grip on the whole picture, we highly recommend you peruse Avinash Kaushik’s extremely detailed segmentation tutorial.
