Last week at the 2013 Google Analytics summit there were 15 new features discussed. That’s a lot! Many people have asked me what I think are the most important announcements so I thought I would write a quick post.
Personally, I love all of the new features. But here are five things that I think will have a lasting impact on Google Analytics and, potentially, the industry.
New Admin API
What: The ability to create users, adjust permissions and configure view settings (like goals) all via an API.
Why: People have been asking for this feature for a LONG time – at least 5 years. Many of GA largest users are platforms (ecommerce platforms, content platforms, etc.). With this new API these platforms can automatically create GA accounts AND configure them when a customer signs up for service. This means less work installing and configuring GA for the end user. This change should drive greater adoption of Google Analytics.
Learn More: Check out the official Analytics API developer documents to learn more. Please note that these new APIs are in beta. You can sign up for the beta here.
The Analytics ABC’s
What: A new report format that groups data based on user acquisition, user behavior and business outcomes.
Why: We often talk about the customer lifecycle, and how certain data describes certain parts of the cycle.
Google Analytics reports are now divided into Acquisition, Behavior and Outcomes. And Audience – but AABC’s doesn’t make as much sense.
In addition to dividing the reports into a new information architecture, some of the reports, are also divided into ABC’s. You’ll notice that the metrics in the reports are grouped by acquisition metrics, behavioral metrics and conversion metrics.
The new Acquisitions overview report shows channels performance based on metric groups. Many reports will now display metrics in groups based on acquisition, behavior and conversions.
For example, the metric New Visitors helps us understand if we’re attracting new or repeat traffic.
Also part of this change is the ability to see data based on your channel groups. This dimension of data was previously only available in the Multi-channel funnel reports and model comparison tool. Now you can create your channel groups once and access them from almost any report.
I really like the Chanel Grouping feature because it let’s me customize how I look at my traffic source data. Plus I can hide any mistakes I make with Campaign Tracking.
This will be a significant change for most users.
Learn more : Coming soon!
Understand your audience with demographic data
What: The addition of your site user’s demographic data into Google Analytics.
Why: When we talk about analytics we always talk about understanding the behavior of site users: what they do on a site.
But understanding who our users are is also critical. Knowing things like gender, age and interests can help us augment our marketing strategy and drive specific tactics, like generating creative.
There’s new demographic data in Google Analytics. You can now view the age, gender and interests of your users.
This data is now available in Google Analytics. You can view aggregate data for your users as well as segment by various demographic traits.
Learn More: Coming soon!
Google Tag Manager’s new Auto-event tracking
What: The ability to track almost every website action, like clicks and form submissions without any additional JavaScript.
Why: Implementing analytics tracking, especially complex tracking like tracking button or link clicks, is a lot of work. It usually involves custom JavaScript that is complex to implement and needs to be maintained.
Auto event tracking eliminates all of the JavaScript. There are a series of new tags in Google Tag Manager that will automatically listen for user actions and, if you want, capture those actions. Then you can collect the data with Google Analytics or any other tool.
Listen, Capture Collect. How the Auto-event tracking works for Google Tag Manager.
This is a huge benefit for analytics users as we can now easily measure things like outbound links, file downloads and arbitrary clicks.
Learn more: Check out the Google Tag Manager help center for more information about the listener tag.
Analytics Academy
What: A massive, open, online course for digital analytics and Google Analytics.
Why: Digital analytics and Google Analytics is changing fast. It’s hard to keep up with all of the new tactics and technologies.
Our goal is to train _everyone_ that wants to learn digital analytics and Google Analytics. Each analytics academy course is a series of video lessons and quizzes designed to teach the fundamentals of digital analytics. There’s also a group with teaching assistants to help answer your questions. We’ll also host Google Hangouts to discuss analytics with industry leaders and reinforce some of the key concepts.
I want to stress, that Analytics Academy is a _platform_. We have a lot more content coming.
Learn More: I wrote a quick piece about how Analytics Academy works. Or you can check out the content and sign up for our first course.
There you have it – my take on some of the more significant announcements at the 2013 Google Analytics summit. Don’t get me wrong – all of the announcements are important. But I think these will have a lasting impact on the industry.
Very exciting! Looking forward to getting age and gender data.
Hey,
I don’t see new customer demographic data. Have any clue when these new reports are rolling out?
I have a Google Analytics account that was transitioned to the new ABC format, which I think looks great. However, when I try to look at past traffic channel data, like say organic channel traffic from January through September 2013, I get a message that says “Channel data is not available prior to July 25, 2013. Select an alternative dimension.” This is an account that has been active for several years, and I used to be able to see all the historical data before the new ABC format change. Is there a new place/way to look at the historical data? Thanks
@Colby: That’s correct, channel data was only calculated back to July, 2013. You can still view the ‘organic’ medium back to the beginning of time :)
Hi Justin. You guys have been super busy. Love the new channel data. And the auto-tagging for events is fantastic too :)
How does Google know about the age or gender. It’s based on what?
Tks!!
I curious as well – as I’m browsing the web – unless someone asks me specifically about age/gender/etc – how would GA know what that is?
And what about a customer’s ability to “opt-out” of sharing that information? How does GA handle that?
@Kevin: You can read more about where Google Analytics gets the demographic data from this help center article. Hope that helps.
Rafael, the information is taken from DoubleClick third-party cookies. You can read more here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2799357?hl=en&ref_topic=2799375
Hi Justin – when will the demographic data be rolled out to all GA accounts?
@Cory: Yes – the demographic data will be rolled out to everyone. Rollouts usually happen in stages – thanks for your patience!
These are great additions to GA! One feature request I’ve always had is the ability to make annotations thought the API.
@Chip: That’s a very common request, one that I’ve been asking for as well! While it’s on the list, I have no idea if/when it might happen.
where the fifth? :)
Hi Justin.
Just finished your Digital Analytics Fundamentals course. Amazing! Thanks!
Quick question. If I am considering implementing REMARKETING, should I use the Classic Analytics or is it soon going to be available in Universal Analytics?
Thanks.
Best
Eduardo
@Eduardo: Remarketing is NOT currently available in Universal Analytics.
Hi Justin,
As we have to enhance the GA tracking script if we want to get audience with demographic data, I am wondering if it works also through Google Tag Manager? If I adjust the tracking code and add it as Custom HTML tag?
many thanks for your help
Should I still use campaign tracking on my email links, even though there is channel called Email under acquisition. Will they be counted twice under acquisition?
@Daniel: Yes! Tagged links is one of the signals that is used to create that channel.
Hi there!
Great idea with demographic data. Looking forwart to it as well as gender data. The graphs look interesting :)
I am a very small inbound marketing agency and measurement plus analysis seems so critical for all my clients but it’s my job to show them why and how. I often have to use the phrase, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. You were very clear in this post how important it is to pay attention to analytics. I am learning how to separate the key KPIs from more useless reports which seems to be expanding all the time. If I had one item of value that I could offer to your readers, it’s to learn which are the 5 to 10 reports and key performance indicators that make their decision making process smoother. Your blog posts seem to be, and should be of great help in this area. Education is everything.