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Google Analytics Launches new AdWords Reports & Other Goodies

May 4, 2010 By Justin Cutroni 1 Comment

Today at Emetrics, Brett Crosby announced a number of new features and recapped some recent changes to Google Analytics. Here’s a quick video recap of the announcement and some thoughts on the changes.

Specific things that Brett talked about:

The rebranding of Google Analytics consultants as Google Analytics authorized partners.

This was announced on the AdWords blog and on the Analytics blog. Google is unifying their partner programs. The GAAC is gone, now partners are Google Analytics Certified partners. This should help differentiate partner companies from individual passing the GAIQ exam.

The formal launch of the new Async tracking code.

It’s been out for a while but this was the official coming out for the new version of the tracking code. I wrote a about how the async code works and if you should switch. The async code will now be the default for tracking. Check out the blog post for more information about how it works.

The introduction of the Google Analytics Apps Gallery.

Google is creating a place to showcase apps built on the API. I’ve long felt that the marketplace can innovate more than any Analytics company. GA has more or less become a giant data collector. The gallery should help push more development of analytics tools.

The addition of the AdWords ID to the GA API.

It is now possible to pull actual ad and search query information via the API. This is huge, I think it’s going to lead to a lot of innovation in the search tool marketplace. Vendors like ClickEquations can now connect what happened on a visitors site directly back to the AdWords search query and ad variation. Pretty cool.

New AdWords reports.

Google also announced the addition of new AdWords reports to Google Analytics. I think we all agree that the previous reprots were less than good. The new reports offer additional data, like the actual search term, that was not previous available in Analytics.

Brett also spoke about the recently introduced AdWords Search Funnels. This is Google’s crack at AdWords campaign attribution. My buddy Nick dove a little deeper over on the WebShare blog.

While some might look at this list and shrug that there’s not much new I think these changes hint at things to come. Specifically I think the AdWords API announcement is huge. This tells us Google is pulling more and more data into Analytics. How long before we get DoubleClick data and other types of data in Analytics? Or when will they let us import data into Analytics, like cost data?

Overall, a nice little treat for us analytics users. Thanks to the Analytics team and great job.

As always, I welcome your comments!

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Introducing Google Analytics v4

October 20, 2009 By Justin Cutroni 17 Comments

Google introduced a new version of Google Analytics today, filled with new features to make analysts and marketers drool.

Included in this new release is:

  • New and Improved Goals (20 goals per profile and new ‘threshold’ goals based on pageviews and time on site)
  • New mobile tracking
  • Table Filtering (a way to quickly filter data in a report)
  • Unique Visitor Segmentation (Unique Visitors is now a metric and can be added to custom reports)
  • Multiple custom variables (an evolution of Custom Segmentation, wicked awesome!)
  • Analytics Intelligence (automatic data analysis. And yes, it is as cool as it sounds!)
  • Analytics Alerts (customizable alerts based on your data rules)

NOTE: Links above are to individual posts.

There are also a couple previously announced features that have FINALLY made it into the product, including:

  • Sharing custom reports and advanced custom segments
  • Pivoting data and segmenting with a secondary dimensions

I must say, this release is very cool. Google has listened to users and included some of the most requested features. 20 goals, automatic alerts, more custom variables… We’ve been hearing/making these requests for years!

One thing I think people will ignore is that many of these features represents dramatic improvements in the GA system. While these features have a definite ‘wow’ factor they provide a solid foundation for future enhancements.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that I usually blast out as many posts as possible to explain the new features. Today is no different.

Because there are some many people blogging about GA, I’m going to be a bit selective and cover the topics that I don’t think will get much attention or that I just really like :)

So click away! Let’s all explore these cool new features together!

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How Google Analytics Tracks ‘Bookmark’ Visits

May 20, 2009 By Justin Cutroni 39 Comments

I was recently inspired by a Tweet to write about how GA tracks visitors that use a bookmark to access a site.

Simply put, Google Analytics will attribute a ‘bookmark’ visit to the information in the Google Analytics campaign cookie.

Many people believe that GA tracks bookmark visits as (direct) traffic. Google Analytics does not track bookmark traffic as (direct) traffic unless (direct) is the value in the cookie. Whatever is stored in the campaign cookie becomes the source of the ‘bookmark’ visit.

The cookie is named __utmz, I’ve talked about a few times, in my series on Campaign Tracking and my post on GA – CRM integration. __utmz always stores where the visitor came from (organic search, campaign referral, etc.)

How about a quick video to walk through an example and save me some typing.

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Filed Under: About Google Analytics, Campaign Tracking, Tracking

Google Analytics Version 3.0

October 22, 2008 By Justin Cutroni Leave a Comment

Today Google is releasing a significant update to Google Analytics. I’m not sure if it is officially version 3.0, but the amount of new functionality is extraordinary. Not to mention some nice changes to the interface to clean things up.

This new release includes:

* Motion Charts (a data visualization tool)
* Advanced Segmentation
* Custom Reporting
* AdSense Integration
* A data API
* A new administrative interface

Not all of these features are public. The API and AdSense reports (I believe) are in private beta meaning your account must be authorized to use them. All other features are public! Woo Hoo!

These new features cover 90% of the requests we get from all users, both big and small. In my opinion this release is game changer, especially for the enterprise market.

For example, our ability to manage massive GA implementations (1,000 + sites) is now much easier with the new administrative interface. And the data API let’s companies integrate their click stream data with other data sources. Did I mention that Advanced Segmentation let’s you segment historical data?

I’ll slowly be rolling out some posts and to cover all new features as well as a few posts to discuss how this changes the way we work with GA.

A big congratulations to the Google Analytics team. The amount of new functionality is really amazing.

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Getting to Know the New Google Analytics Admin Interface

October 22, 2008 By Justin Cutroni Leave a Comment

One part of Google Analytics that has seen very little love over the past few years is the administrative interface. Not any more! Google has rolled out a beta version of a new GA management tool that will have an immediate impact on how we set up and manage Google Analytics.

When you firs log in the new admin area will display a list of all accounts that you have access to.


Click to enlarge the image.

This tabular layout of accounts is new, and very helpful. If you’re an agency, or a large company, you probably have access to multiple GA accounts. This layout makes it easy to identify performance at the account level.

Key to the new layout is the addition of metrics. Available metrics in are:

* Visits
* Time on Site
* Bounce Rate
* Completed Goals

One column actually does a date comparison. Choose one of the above metrics using the drop down at the top of the column and a simple date range using the buttons at the top right corner of the screen to determine how said metric has changed over the past day, week, month or year.

Looking a bit closer, you’ll notice that each account name is a link. Clicking on the link will display all profiles within that account:


click to enlarge.

This is where things get really juicy!

GA is now grouping the profiles that have been created for each tracking code in an account. I’ve talked a lot about creating multiple profiles for a single site, and this is a great way to see all those properties in one place.

As an analyst I like the fact that I can view basic information in the admin area and do a quick performance evaluation. Would I like to see more metrics? Sure, but this is a great start. This literally turns the admin area into a basic dashboard for large groups of websites.

Another feature that I really like is the Favorites. Anyone that uses other Google products (like GMail or GDocs) will recognize this.

You can ‘star’ certain profiles and then display only those that you starred. This makes it very easy to zoom through all profiles and find the ones you regularly use. Unfortunately starring is not available in the account view, just the profile view.

Try changing the number of rows displayed using the drop down at the bottom of the table… Notice anything interesting? The new interface uses AJAX to dynamically pull back the data. Pretty slick.

Another interesting AJAX feature is the ability to rename accounts and profiles right from the table. Just click on the little pen icon next to an account name or profile name. Is this totally necessary? I’ll let you decide. But given the new interface I bet a lot of people are going to rename their accounts and profiles.

With the new layout of accounts and profiles we can eliminate the website domain name from the profile and account name and use a functional description that everyone can understand.

One thing that is missing from the new admin screen is a summary row. I think it’s critical to have a scorecard, similar to the scorecard in the reporting interface, that displays summary information for the profiles and accounts displayed.

Overall, this is a fantastic change that goes a long way to helping us manage and analyze large GA deployments.

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Filed Under: About Google Analytics, Analysis Tagged With: , , ,

Google Analytics Compliance with WAA Standard Metrics

September 21, 2008 By Justin Cutroni 24 Comments

Following the lead of Dennis Mortensen (founder of IndexTools, Director of Insights at Yahoo!, WAA board member and all around good guy) I’ve decided to identify just how compliant GA is with these standards.

Below is a list of all standards defined in the WAA metrics definitions document and GA compliance with each definition. GA is compliant with 19 of the 26 metrics. Most of the non-compliance is due to the fact that GA does not offer all the metrics that the WAA defined.

Compliant Term WAA Definition GA Definition
Yes Page

A page is an analyst definable unit of content.

Same as WAA
Yes Page View

The number of times a page (an analyst-definable unit of content) was viewed.

Same as WAA.

Note: A pageview is created each time the _trackPageview() method is executed. Any value passed to the _trackPageview() method will appear in the Content reports, thus making a Page analyst definable.
Yes Visits/Sessions A visit is an interaction, by an individual, with a website consisting of one or more requests for an analyst-definable unit of content (i.e. “page view”). If an individual has not taken another action (typically additional page views) on the site within a specified time period, the visit session will terminate. Same as WAA.

Note: By default, a visit will terminate after 30 minutes of inactivity by the visitor. The legth of inactivity can be modified by altering the Google Analytics tracking code.
Yes

Unique Visitors

 The number of inferred individual people (filtered for spiders and robots), within a designated reporting timeframe, with activity consisting of one or more visits to a site. Each individual is counted only once in the unique visitor measure for the reporting period.

Same as WAA

Note: Google Analytics defines this term as Absolute Unique Visitors.

A visitor is defined using a unique numeric identifier stored in the Google Analytics tracking cookies. This value is set when the visitor’s first visit is created.

Each visitor is counted only once in the Absolute Unique Visitor metric, regardless of how many times they return to the site during the reporting period.

Yes

New Visitor

The number of Unique Visitors with activity including a first-ever Visit to a site during a reporting period.

Same as WAA

Note: While GA does share the same definition for a new visitor it does not does not count the number of new, unique people (visitors) that have visited the site during the reporting period. GA counts the number of VISITS generated by new people.

Google Analytics calculate the number of New visitors by identifying the number of new unique visitor IDs that were created during the reporting period.

It is possible to measure the number of new visitors using a profile and include filter.
NO

Repeat Visitor

The number of Unique Visitors with activity consisting

of two or more Visits to a site during a reporting period.


N/a

This metric does not exist in Google Analytics.
Yes

Return Visitor

 The number of Unique Visitors with activity consisting of a Visit to a site during a reporting period and where the Unique Visitor also Visited the site prior to the reporting period.

Same as WAA

Note: While GA does share the same definition for a return visitor it does not does not count the number of returning unique people (visitors) that have visited the site during the reporting period. GA counts the number of VISITS generated by people coming .

GA identifies a return visitor as any visit generated by a person who’s unique identifier cookie was set prior to the reporting period.
Yes

Entry Page

The first page of a visit.

Same as WAA
Yes

Landing Page

A page intended to identify the beginning of the user

experience resulting from a defined marketing effort.

Same as WAA

Yes

Exit Page

The last page on a site accessed during a visit, signifying the end of a visit/session.

Same as WAA

Yes

Visit Duration

The length of time in a session. Calculation is typically the timestamp of the last activity in the session minus the timestamp of the first activity of the session.

Same as WAA

Note: Google Analytics uses a different name for this metric. It is called ‘Average Time on Site’.

The average time on site is calculated by dividing the total time spent on the site by the total number of Visits.

NO

Referrer

 The referrer is the page URL that originally generated the request for the current page view or object.

The referrer in Google Analytics is the page URL that originally generated the request for the current VISIT. This value is then added to all pageviews in that visit.

The referrer is identified in GA as any source whose medium is “referral”.


GA also has a field called ‘Referral’ which does conform to the WAA’s definition. However; this is not a field displayed in any report, only available as a filter field.
N/a

Internal Referrer

 The internal referrer is a page URL that is internal to the website or a web-property within the website as defined by the user.

N/a

This metric is not available in GA.
N/a

External Referrer

The external referrer is a page URL where the traffic is external or outside of the website or a web property defined by the user.

N/a

This metric is not available in GA.

See definition of Referrer above.
N/a

Search Referrer

The search referrer is an internal or external referrer for which the URL has been generated by a search function.

N/a

This metric is not available in GA.

Note: While Google Analytics does track both external search phrases and internal search phrases, the term ‘search referrer’ is not used in reporting.
Yes

Visit Referrer

The visit referrer is the first referrer in a session, whether internal, external or null.

Same as WAA

Note: This data is called a Referral in Google Analytics and can ONLY be the external referrer.
N/a

Original Referrer

The original referrer is the first referrer in a visitor’s first session, whether internal, external or null.


N/a

This metric is not available in GA.

Note: See information about Referrer above.

Yes

Click-through

Number of times a link was clicked by a visitor.

Same as WAA

Note: Google Analytics refers to Click-throughs as ‘clicks’.

This metric is only available in the AdWords reports.

Yes

Click-through Rate/Ratio

The number of click-throughs for a specific link divided by the number of times that link was viewed.

Same as WAA

Note: Click-through and Click-through Rate is the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on an ad(s) by the number of impressions for the ad(s).

This metric is only available in the AdWords reports.

Yes

Page Views per Visit

The number of page views in a reporting period divided

by number of visits in the same reporting period.

Same as WAA

Yes

Page Exit Ratio

Number of exits from a page divided by total number of

page views of that page.

Same as WAA

This metric is called ‘Exit %’.

N/a

Single-Page Visits

Visits that consist of one page regardless of the number

of times the page was viewed.

N/A

This metric is not available in GA.

Yes

Single Page View Visits (Bounces)

Visits that consist of one pageview.

Same as WAA

Note: Bounces can be modified by other Google Analytics features; specifically Custom segmentation and event tracking.


When either of the previous features are used the Google Analytics tracking code will request the invisible gif from the Google Analytics server.


Google Analytics will interpret this GIF request as a visitor action and conclude that they are engaged with the webpage and will NOT count them as a Bounce.


To be clear, if a visitor lands on a page, and views a video that is tracked using event tracking, and then leaves the site from the original landing page, a bounce will NOT be counted.


The same is true for custom segmentation. If a visitor is placed in a custom segment on a landing page, and does not view any other pages, a Bounce will NOT be counted.

Yes

Bounce Rate

Single page view visits divided by entry pages.

Same as WAA


NOTE: See comment above regarding how the number of bounces can change based on the use of Event Tracking or Custom Segmentation.

Yes

Event

Any logged or recorded action that has a specific date and time assigned to it by either the browser or server.

Same as WAA

Note: There are multiple attributes to an event in Google Analytics. There are objects, actions and labels.

Event Tracking is a Google Analytics Beta feature and may not be enabled in your account. You can read more about Event tracking in this post or on the GA Code Site.

Yes

Conversion

A visitor completing a target action.

Same as WAA

Note: In addition to conversions, Google Analytics will also calculate Conversion Rate. Conversion rate is the total # of visits resulting in a desired action divided by the total number of visits.


Also note that a conversion will only be recorded ONCE per visits. Visitors can not convert more than one time per visit.

You can read more about goals in this post: All About Google Analytics Goals.
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Do we really “get” Google Analytics?

July 17, 2008 By Justin Cutroni Leave a Comment

It’s been just over a year since Google redesigned and relaunched Google Analytics. In that time GA has become an innovative product that seems to improve every day.

But I believe that many of us, myself included, are really missing the point when it comes to Google Analytics. I don’t think that we fully embrace the paradigm shift that Google is pushing with GA. Let me explain…

By releasing Google Analytics for free, Google has thrust web analytics into the mainstream. This is great for our industry, but it places a heavy burden on Google. They must provide a product that makes analytics easy.

But is web analytics easy? That’s debatable, but the simple truth is that there are millions of people out there getting into web analytics via GA and Google needs to help them understand their data.

Paradigm Shift #1: use GA to do more analysis.

picture-9_200x112shkl.jpg

Google Analytics is designed to facilitate the understanding of click stream data. How? By providing an interface that helps people explore their data by providing lots of context. All of the time spent redesigning GA was for one reason: to create a product that makes analysis easy for everyone. That’s a rather lofty goal but it is analysis most critical part of being a web analyst. If GA can help us understand what’s happening with our website then we can take action.

Have people embraced this idea? To some extent, yes. Many users I talk to like the features in GA and feel that it is an effective tool for analysis. But there is a huge number of users that still do not understand or know about many of the features in GA. Believe it or not, people still don’t know that you can track different types of online advertising, not just AdWords. A large segment of people use GA to track “hits” to their site.

Let me caveat this by saying that there are some analysis tasks that are just not possible in GA. However, these tasks are usually more advanced analysis techniques, like applying a control limit or doing a long tail analysis. Perhaps the GA team will ad advanced features as the product matures with the market.

picture-7.png

Paradigm shift #2: less formal reporting, more pestering!

Just as important as understanding the data is the distribution and access to the data. Google has tried to facilitate this need in two ways.

First, access to Google Analytics is pretty easy. Anyone with a Google Account can get access to a GA account. Three fields and two clicks and you can add someone to your analytics account. It’s that easy. And, to the best of my knowledge, there is no limit to the number of users. Now Joe in IT can access the data along with Kathy in marketing.

Second, the new GA redesign included email reports. While this does not seem like a revolutionary feature, the ability to distribute actionable data, to anyone, at any time, helps drive change. Why export data, create a report and then email it when you can email it right from GA? You can pester your co-workers and contractors (who are the ones that usually need to take action on the data) with the information they need to make change.

sharing.gif

I don’t think that many people have really embraced GA’s email reports feature. Multiple people a week ask me how to get data out of GA so they can create elaborate dashboards or other reports. They try to force GA into their current reporting framework rather than trying to change. I’m not saying this is wrong, but I think we need to give GA’s features a chance.

Parting Thoughts

While Google Analytics is not the end-all be-all web analytics application, it is a solid foundation that will continue to evolve and meet the needs of a growing and maturing user base. The big question is, will we embrace the change that many of GA’s features support, or will we continue with analytics as usual?

Think I’m off the mark? Have I consumed too much of the Google Analytics Kool-Aid? Leave a comment below!

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