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

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

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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?

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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

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Solution: Virtual Pages• The solution is create a virtual page with the GATC method: _trackPageview()• Were going to overwrite the actual, dynamic URL with a made-up, virtual URL

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Step 1. Define the Goal• "Question submitted" page• Problem: its 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)

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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

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Goals in the New UI

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Step 2. Set up a Goal

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Step 3. Define the Funnel

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Result: Visualization Funnel

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Funnel Detail

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

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Funnels in the New UI

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Custom Reports

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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 dont exist by default

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Create a New Report

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Custom Report Builder

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

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Example: Where are AaEQuestions 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)

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

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

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Step 3. Save and View

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View Later

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

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Step 1. Whats 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.

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_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).

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ExamplesCategory 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]);

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Custom Vars in the New UI

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Drilling Down

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

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Segments in the New UI

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Another way

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Step 1. Create a New Segment

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Step 2. Define the Segment

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Step 3. Apply Segment

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Every report is nowlimited to "via Twitter"

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New GA UI• Faster• Can switch between profiles and stay on the same report• Doesnt have PDF export or report emailing yet

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