Google Analytics is a great free tool for revealing basic information about the activity on your site. However, there are many advanced features such a Goal Tracking, Custom Reports, Custom Variables and Advanced Segments which can greatly increase your understanding of how visitors are interacting with your site. Come learn about these features and see how eXtension uses them on our sites.

1. Advanced Google
Analytics
Ben MacNeill
ben.macneill@extension.org

2. • Goals
• Custom Reports
• Custom Variables
• Advanced Segments
• Bonus: New GA UI

3. 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?

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

8. Goals in the New UI

9. Step 2. Set up a Goal

10. Step 3. Define the Funnel

11. Result: Visualization Funnel

12. Funnel Detail

13. Analyze
• Are visitors doing what you expect?
• Where are they dropping off?
• What's wrong with those pages?
(focus redesign efforts there.)

15. Funnels in the New UI

16. Custom Reports

17. 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

18. Create a New Report

19. Custom Report Builder

20. Metrics vs. Dimensions
• Metrics: think Numbers
(145 visitors, pages, or goals)
• Dimensions: think Descriptions
(145 visitors in NC who came
from Organic Search)

21. Example: Where are AaE
Questions Coming From?
• 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)

22. Step 1. Select Metrics
• We are choosing metrics related to AaE Goals
• Drag and arrange in any order you prefer

23. Step 2. Select Dimensions
• Pick a Primary dimension
• Choose the order of drill-down dimensions

24. Step 3. Save and View

25. View Later

26. Custom Variables
• Create additional, custom traffic segments
• visitor types
• which sections are most popular

27. 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.

28. _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).

29. 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]);

30. Custom Vars in the New UI

31. Drilling Down

32. Advanced Segments
• Define the specific slice of traffic that you
are interested in
• Activate that segment and view any report
in Google Analytics

33. Segments in the New UI

34. Another way

35. Step 1. Create a New
Segment

36. Step 2. Define the Segment

37. Step 3. Apply Segment

38. Every report is now
limited to "via Twitter"

39. New GA UI
• Faster
• Can switch between profiles and
stay on the same report
• Doesn't have PDF export or report
emailing yet

40. Happy Analyzing!
• ben.macneill@extension.org
• http://www.slideshare.net/chillnc/
• twitter: @chillnc