• Home
  • Google Analytics
    • Customizations
    • For Ecommerce
  • Speaking
  • About
    • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Disclaimer and Privacy Policy

Analytics Talk

Digital Analytics for Business

You are here: Home / Analysis / Path Analysis in Google Analytics with Flow Visualization

Path Analysis in Google Analytics with Flow Visualization

Posted: October 19, 2011 34 Comments

Google Recently announced a new feature in Google Analytics, Flow Visualization. These reports, the Visit Flow report, Navigation Flow report, and Goal Flow report are a new take on analyzing how people navigate through content.

Flow Visualization report in Google Anlaytics

Flow Visualization report in Google Anlaytics

For a long time click path analysis was not really possible in Google Analytics. Sure, we had the Navigation Summary and Entrance Paths reports, but these were very limited. This was by design. Most click path reports, no matter the analytics tool, has little to no value. They usually show 9,845 different paths to conversion. How does that help?

The new Flow Visualizations reports hope to remedy this problem and make it easier to understand visitor behavior regarding how they move through content.

Nodes: Foundation of Flow Visualizations

All flow visualization reports are built using nodes. Nodes are groups of pages. The cool thing is that the nodes are automatically created using an intelligence algorithm. For example, nodes will automatically group the same page that may only differ by a couple of query parameter.

Don’t worry, you can create your own nodes, and I’ll show you how to do that in a minute.

The new reports show visitor flow through nodes, and where people drop out of the flow (ie leave the site). The really important thing here is the visualization AND our ability to manipulate the visualization. So if you a specific issue or scenario that you are analyzing it’s easy to drill down on the scenario you want. But the visualization also supports ad-hoc analysis.

These new reports are in the Home > Intelligence > Flow Visualization section.

On to the Visits Flow report.

Visit Flow Report

The Visit Flow report is a nice refresh of the traditional click path report. Rather than looking at clicks from one page to another, we’re seeing visitors moving between nodes. The ‘story’ starts on the left side of the visualization where you can choose a to view a starting segment, like Campaign, Traffic Source, Country, Region, etc.

This is AMAZING! Now you can easily segment traffic through a site based on various dimensions of data! The next time someone asks what campaign traffic did, now you can provide some very detailed flow information.

Connections in blue represent the number of visits that move between the nodes.

Connections in red represent the drop off from a particular node.

How easy is that to understand? The brilliance is the simplicity.

Let’s say you want to focus on a particular segment of data, like the state of Texas. Just choose a dimension from the drop down, in this case Region. Then click on the Texas node at the far left and choose ‘Highlight traffic through here’. The path of traffic from Texas will appear a bit darker.

View the path for a specific dimension of data in the Flow Visualization report.

View the path for a specific dimension of data in the Flow Visualization report.

I know there can be a lot to take in. If you are a bit confused, then perhaps we should reduce the number of paths that are visible. Use the ‘Connections’ slider at the top to view more, or less paths and make the analysis easier.

Alter the number of paths visible in Flow visualization

The reason why click path reporting has sucked for SO LONG was the vast amount of data stuffed into a really crappy display. Google is trying to solve that using this new visualization, the Dimension drop down AND the Connections slider. You have control over the amount of data you are looking thus making analysis area.

Using this interface you can identify where people come from, follow them to various pages and evaluate the bounce rate, and then see what they look at after the landing page.

The interactivity is just awesome.

[ By the way, you can scroll to the right by dragging the visualization when you see the fist. You can also add more steps by clicking on the arrow at the far right. ]

Let’s say you want to learn more about a particular node. Just hover over a node and you’ll see something like this:

Node details in Google Analytics Flow Visualization

The first thing we learn is how many pages are in this node. Remember, an algorithm initially created this node. We can also see how many dropped off and how many moved on. Very useful.

Now, perhaps I want to understand this page a little better. I can click on the node and choose ‘Explore Traffic through here.’ That brings us to the next report

Navigation Flow Report

The Navigation Flow report is similar to the old Navigation Path report in Google Analytics. Now you can see the nodes before, and after, your chosen node.

Google Analytics Flow Navigation Report

Google Analytics Flow Navigation Report

Let’s talk about how we can create and edit your nodes.

Click on the small gear at the top of the node. You can use a reg ex, or other basic pattern, to group a set of pages together into a node.

For example, if I’m a publisher, I may want to group all my Sports pages together into a Sports node, like this:

The Name field is the name that will be displayed in the report, it’s nice and human readable :)

The value here is you can group your content together so you can analyze your site your way.

Ecommerce people, want to understand the flow of traffic through your product pages? Group them together in a node.

Publishers people, want to see where people go after the last page in all your articles? Group those pages together in a node.

Another really cool feature of the Flow Visualization reports is our ability to segment the entire graphic. Use the drop down at the top of the report to apply a segment, like new visits, return visits, etc.

Apply a segment to a Flow Visualization

Apply a segment to a Flow Visualization

Combine that with the dimension drop down and I can slice and dice the behavior of different groups as they move around the site. Crazy awesome.

Goal Flow Analysis

In addition to the basic flow reporting, there is also a Goal Flow report that provides insight into your conversion paths.

Goal Flow report in Google Analytics.

Goal Flow report in Google Analytics. Click to enlarge.

Again, you can choose a dimension of data, here I chose the medium, and view how that traffic moved through your funnels. I hope you have a funnel configured!

NOTE: At this time the Goal Flow report only works for URL based goals and funnels. Events will follow soon.

Notice the loops? Those show traffic that ‘loops back’ to other steps. I think this is a HUGE improvement over the existing Goal Funnel reports. It’s much easier to see holes in the funnel (drop offs) and behavior (looping).

Is this just the beginning?

Hopefully this gives you a basic idea of how the flow visualization reports work and how you can manipulate them. The key here is that you can segment the data to isolate the behavior that you want to investigate.

I’ve got to say, I think this is going to have a much bigger impact on Google Analytics than most people know. Sure, these reports are sexy. And we’ll start to do more path analysis.

But this visualization of data is the key change. I believe we’re going to see Google include more creative data visualizations to help aid analysis. That’s truly exciting.

Filed Under: Analysis Tagged With: Analysis, features, flow visualization, path analysis

Comments

  1. Ulrik says

    October 20, 2011 at 11:35 am

    How does table limits in Google Analytics work with this feature. I am assuming this will easily fill 20.000 rows of data in absolutely no time?

    Reply
    • Justin Cutroni says

      October 22, 2011 at 7:31 pm

      @Ulrik : The real time data goes through a different data processing pipeline. It isn’t actually processed, like the standard GA data.

      Reply
  2. Eric Olsen says

    October 24, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    Do you know if these features are live for everyone yet? I can’t seem to find them in my reporting. Great overview, though. I can’t wait to try them.

    Reply
  3. Abdelrahman says

    October 28, 2011 at 9:02 am

    Hi Justine,

    I want to track action by Google analytics event tracking. But the challenge that customer needs to make account first, and then verify it from his email to have the permission to do that action (that I want to track). The problem here is that Google analytics will consider this visitor after verifying his email as a new visit. So, I will not be able to track from where visitor who make this action/Goal come from.

    Reply
  4. Chris G says

    November 1, 2011 at 9:31 am

    These are so beautiful. For their sexiness alone they should be shown to clients. Curves! Shading! The only thing missing is gradients. Oh wait.

    I look forward to seeing examples, someday, of instances where an analyst actually learned something that they didn’t already get from a good look at other reports. It’s really hard to eyeball-compare things like this for different segments and not make a mistake. Give me cluster analysis any day.

    Reply
  5. Lisa @ Mirasol Palm Beach Gardens says

    November 8, 2011 at 8:50 am

    I have been toying around with some of the new features in GA, but haven’t really had the time to spend setting up some custom reports and nodes, especially with the visualization funnels. This is really great stuff.

    This will not only help me with my top content but will really help me to figure out if users are getting to the homes they are looking for or if they are falling off somewhere in the process.

    This should help me see quite a lift in my Mirasol internet buyers’ inquiries. So excited!!

    Cheers!

    Reply
  6. Hugh Gage says

    November 16, 2011 at 9:38 pm

    These reports have serious potential. Thanks Justin for a very clear overview.

    Reply
  7. Dave Searle says

    December 8, 2011 at 1:51 am

    Great to see this kind of visualisation coming into use. I first saw this being used in the Visual Sciences (now Adobe Insight) product about 4 years ago. I wonder when we’ll see process maps in GA :)

    Reply
  8. Bogdan Iordache says

    December 17, 2011 at 2:56 pm

    Hey Justin,

    great post. I’ve been playing for a couple of days with Google Analytics and Visitor Flow mostly for understanding how my app is being used. Grouping different pages is a must, as I’ve got tens of URL pointing to the same page.

    However, after I create a group, do the analysis and start looking for something else I lose all the information that I entered regarding them. Can the group configuration be saved somehow for future usage ?

    Reply
    • Justin Cutroni says

      December 19, 2011 at 9:18 am

      @Bogdan: Unfortunately no, once you change screens the custom grouping goes away. I think this is something that will improve over time. While I love the flow visualization there are lots of little things, like ‘saving’, that could make it much better.

      Reply
    • Patrick Le Cam says

      October 11, 2012 at 8:23 am

      @Bogdan: I have solved this sort of problem by setting up a different GA profile in which I use filter to rewrite the URL and group different page into 1 URL. You can then use all the GA features with this grouping.
      I would think that if you can group your URL in Visitor Flow, you should be able to do it in the filter setting

      Reply
  9. Olivier K'Danet says

    June 26, 2012 at 10:08 am

    Seems like the Navigation Flow Reports are no longer available on GA…
    Anly idea why ?

    Best regards,
    Olivier

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Ny kanalvisualisering og sti-analyse i Google Analytics. Stor nyhed says:
    October 19, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    […] Google Analytics at blive meget lille. Du kan læse mere om nyheden på Google Analytics egen blog Justin Cutronis blog Searchengineland.com You like Google […]

    Reply
  2. Flow visualizations: dite addio ai report di navigazione, questi sono meravigliosi • Google Analytics in 30 secondi says:
    October 19, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    […] attesa di vederli attivati ci accontentiamo dei soliti post dei bene informati: quindi Justin Cutroni e Lunametrics, oltre naturalmente all’annuncio […]

    Reply
  3. Path Analysis in Google Analytics with Flow Visualization – Analytics … | SFWEBDESIGN.com says:
    October 19, 2011 at 7:41 pm

    […] Read more from the original source: Path Analysis in Google Analytics with Flow Visualization – Analytics … […]

    Reply
  4. 译文:GA中的流可视化路径分析 | Cloga与网站分析 says:
    October 23, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    […] 原文链接:http://cutroni.wpengine.com/2011/10/19/path-analysis-in-google-analytics-with-flow-visualization/ Posted by Cloga at 上午 9:31 […]

    Reply
  5. 译文:GA中的流可视化路径分析 | 首席网 says:
    October 24, 2011 at 5:06 am

    […] 原文链接:http://cutroni.wpengine.com/2011/10/19/path-analysis-in-google-analytics-with-flow-visualization/ […]

    Reply
  6. The News in Review: October 17-21, 2011 | ROI Labs says:
    October 25, 2011 at 10:16 am

    […] Informative Review: http://cutroni.wpengine.com/2011/10/19/path-analysis-in-google-analytics-with-flow-visualization/ […]

    Reply
  7. 【转】GA中的流可视化路径分析 | zoe@网站分析 says:
    November 7, 2011 at 2:10 am

    […] 原文链接:http://cutroni.wpengine.com/2011/10/19/path-analysis-in-google-analytics-with-flow-visualization/ […]

    Reply
  8. Google’s New Social Data Hub | John Lovett at Web Analytics Demystified says:
    December 7, 2011 at 5:07 pm

    […] to data within their Google Analytics product such as Adwords, Goal completion rates and cool new flow visualizations. If/when Google applies the lens of their analytics tool to this new aggregated data set, look out […]

    Reply
  9. GA中的流可视化路径分析 says:
    December 8, 2011 at 4:46 am

    […] 原文链接:http://cutroni.wpengine.com/2011/10/19/path-analysis-in-google-analytics-with-flow-visualization/ […]

    Reply
  10. The OPLIN 4cast » Blog Archive » OPLIN 4Cast #262: Google Analytics changes says:
    December 28, 2011 at 10:35 am

    […] Path analysis in Google Analytics with Flow Visualization (Analytics Talk/Justin Cutroni)  “The reason why click path reporting has sucked for SO LONG was the vast amount of data stuffed into a really crappy display. Google is trying to solve that using this new visualization[…]. Using this interface you can identify where people come from, follow them to various pages and evaluate the bounce rate, and then see what they look at after the landing page.” […]

    Reply
  11. Google Analytics: 2011 in Review « Happy Marketer says:
    January 2, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    […] Analytics also launched some fancier features like Path Analysis (excellent intro by Justin Cutrioni here), DoubleClick integration (part of Google Analytics Premium). These are probably more appropriate […]

    Reply
  12. Full Funnel: Google Analytics Measures Social Media – Analytics Talk says:
    March 21, 2012 at 8:34 am

    […] you like our flow visualization report then you’ll like the social flow […]

    Reply
  13. Google Analytics updates July 2012Zestard | Zestard says:
    August 1, 2012 at 5:22 am

    […] Justin Cutroni’s post From the Autumn gives details on how to select different traffic sources, create custom nodes and apply advanced segments. Learn more  […]

    Reply
  14. SEO Customizations for Google Analytics - Analytics Talk says:
    August 13, 2012 at 2:13 pm

    […] use the Goal Flow and the Flow Visualization reports. THese reports help you understand how visitors move through the content on your […]

    Reply
  15. Pitching Search Marketing In Traditional Marketing Terms | Serp Blog says:
    October 22, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    […] a fraction of the time, the real value is in the click-thru. This is, of course, measurable, as the activity will show up in the site statistics, and can be traced back to the originating search […]

    Reply
  16. Pitching Search Marketing In Traditional Marketing Terms « topservicewizard says:
    October 31, 2012 at 5:21 am

    […] a fraction of the time, the real value is in the click-thru. This is, of course, measurable, as the activity will show up in the site statistics, and can be traced back to the originating search […]

    Reply
  17. Google Analytics Year in Review « HelpLearn.asia says:
    November 27, 2012 at 2:34 am

    […] Analytics also launched some fancier features like Path Analysis (excellent intro by Justin Cutrioni here), DoubleClick integration (part of Google Analytics Premium). These are probably more appropriate […]

    Reply
  18. Pitching Search Marketing In Traditional Marketing Terms | Free Fresh Stuff says:
    December 1, 2012 at 2:25 am

    […] a fraction of the time, the real value is in the click-thru. This is, of course, measurable, as the activity will show up in the site statistics, and can be traced back to the originating search […]

    Reply
  19. Pitching Search Marketing In Traditional Marketing Terms | Top Service Wizard says:
    December 10, 2012 at 10:53 am

    […] a fraction of the time, the real value is in the click-thru. This is, of course, measurable, as the activity will show up in the site statistics, and can be traced back to the originating search […]

    Reply
  20. Pitching Search Marketing In Traditional Marketing Terms | Marketing Strategies.mobi says:
    January 22, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    […] a fraction of the time, the real value is in the click-thru. This is, of course, measurable, as the activity will show up in the site statistics, and can be traced back to the originating search […]

    Reply
  21. Pitching Search Marketing In Traditional Marketing Terms says:
    February 5, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    […] a fraction of the time, the real value is in the click-thru. This is, of course, measurable, as the activity will show up in the site statistics, and can be traced back to the originating search […]

    Reply
  22. 5 Website Metrics That Matter For Your Business - Small Business Tips and Resources-The Small Business Playbook says:
    May 28, 2013 at 11:12 am

    […] For more on understanding Visitor Flow, check out this article. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

My Books

Google Analytics by Justin Cutroni
Learn More on Amazon.com

Performance Marketing co-authored by Justin Cutroni
Learn More on Amazon.com

Recent Posts

  • Understanding the Google Analytics Cohort Report
  • Using Offline and Online data to drive Google Analytics Remarketing
  • Understanding Cross Device Measurement and the User-ID
  • Universal Analytics: Now out of beta!
  • Advanced Content Tracking with Universal Analytics

Categories

  • About Google Analytics (25)
  • Analysis (52)
  • Analytics Strategy (3)
  • Campaign Tracking (14)
  • Ecommerce (8)
  • Event Tracking (10)
  • Remarketing (2)
  • Reporting (10)
  • Resources (7)
  • Tag Management (5)
  • Tips (25)
  • Tracking (52)
  • Uncategorized (64)
  • Universal Analytics (9)
  • Web Analytics (15)

Copyright © 2023 ·News Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress