Advanced Google Analytics

Ben MacNeillben.macneill@extension.org

• Goals

• Custom Reports

• Custom Variables

• Advanced Segments

• Bonus: New GA UI

Goals

• What do you want your site visitors to do?

• Download a PDF?

• Submit a form?

• Click the "contact us" link?

• Sign up for a newsletter?

• How many visitors reach the goal?

• Where do visitors abandon goals?

Example: Ask an Expert

• How many visitors are "Asking an Expert"?

• What happens when they use the Ask an Expert form?

• Problem: the search results for the form create unique URLs

Solution: Virtual Pages

• The solution is create a virtual page with the GATC method: _trackPageview()

• We're going to overwrite the actual, dynamic URL with a made-up, virtual URL

Step 1. Define the Goal

• "Question submitted" page

• Problem: it's not a hardcoded web page (there is no thankyou.html page)

• (The "thank you" page URL is dynamic because the visitor is returned to their previous page)

Make Up a Descriptive URL

Before:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

After:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/ask-an-expert-question-submitted']);

In GA, this page view shows up as: www.extension.org/ask-an-expert-question-submitted

Goals in the New UI

Step 2. Set up a Goal

Step 3. Define the Funnel

Result: Visualization Funnel

Funnel Detail

Analyze

• Are visitors doing what you expect?

• Where are they dropping off?

• What's wrong with those pages?(focus redesign efforts there.)

Funnels in the New UI

Custom Reports

Why Custom Reports?

• When you want more than the general GA reports: traffic sources, pageviews, search terms, visitor location, etc.

• Only the metrics you want to see

• Organized exactly how you want to see it

• Create report combinations that don't exist by default

Create a New Report

Custom Report Builder

Metrics vs. Dimensions

• Metrics: think Numbers(145 visitors, pages, or goals)

• Dimensions: think Descriptions(145 visitors in NC who came from Organic Search)

• Want to measure AaE Submissions and total visitors (Visits and Goals - metric)

• Where are Ask an Expert submissions coming from? (Geography - dimension)

• How are these visitors finding the Ask an Expert form? (Traffic source - dimension)

Example: Where are AaE Questions Coming From?

Step 1. Select Metrics

• We are choosing metrics related to AaE Goals

• Drag and arrange in any order you prefer

Step 2. Select Dimensions

• Pick a Primary dimension

• Choose the order of drill-down dimensions

Step 3. Save and View

View Later

Custom Variables

• Create additional, custom traffic segments

• visitor types

• which sections are most popular

Step 1. What's the scope?

• Visitor-level — the individual that visits the site, and everything about that person

• Session-level — the visit itself and everything that takes place during that time

• Page-level — individual pages that the visitors interacts with. Generally a pageview.

_setCustomVar(index, name, value, opt_scope)

• Name-value pairs (section, horses)

• index: the slot for the custom variable. limited number. 1-5.

• opt_scope: 1 (visitor-level), 2 (session-level), or 3 (page-level, the default).

Examples

Category tracking? Use page-level scope (3).(rat = resource area tag)

_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'rat', 'horses', 3]);

User-type tracking? Visitor-level scope (1).

_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 2, 'login', 'internal', 1]);

Custom Vars in the New UI

Drilling Down

Advanced Segments

• Define the specific slice of traffic that you are interested in

• Activate that segment and view any report in Google Analytics

Segments in the New UI

Another way

Step 1. Create a New Segment

Step 2. Define the Segment

Step 3. Apply Segment

Every report is now limited to "via Twitter"

New GA UI

• Faster

• Can switch between profiles and stay on the same report

• Doesn't have PDF export or report emailing yet

Happy Analyzing!

• ben.macneill@extension.org

• http://www.slideshare.net/chillnc/

• twitter: @chillnc