The most useful Google Analytics updates in 2013

At the beginning of October, at the next annual summit, Google Analytics representatives announced several updates at once, some of which we already see in our accounts today, some will appear in the system by the end of the year. According to the developers, innovations will help site owners and web analysts to get even more data about resource users, to find links between different types of people and their interaction with the site, to discover new ideas for business development. Let's try to understand the current updates.

User segmentation

Consider what changes have occurred in user segmentation. Previously, extended segments were based only on visitor data, now Google Analytics allows you to customize custom segments according to certain criteria based on visitor data. For example, specific demographic data or behavior. This allows for a deeper analysis at the site visitor level.


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To set up a custom segment, go to the “Overview” of the audience and click on the “Create a Segment” tab.



Seven Google Analytics templates offer ample opportunities to customize user segments: by demographic data, by device type or user browser, by user behavior, duration or frequency of visit, by date of first visit, traffic source, etc. Different configurations of these templates allow you to create a mass of various segments, depending on the required tasks.



From the new - the template “Date of the first visit” and “Sequence”. The “Sequence” segment allows you to see how many users have completed conversion activities by completing a specific path through the site. Previously, it was necessary to set up goals and wait for a while until the data were collected, and now it is enough to create a segment.

Traffic sources

Updated the most popular report on traffic sources. By grouping key indicators, the developers made it even more intuitive and intuitive.

The new report “General Information” provides a summary of the traffic sources: where the visitor came from, how he behaves on the site and how he performs the conversion. By default, such a report contains relative indicators broken down by channels.



Now you can see in one report:

• From which channels is the most traffic users;
• From which channels come the visitors who most effectively interact with the site;
• Which channels bring us the most conversion users.

Thus, we immediately get a general idea about the effectiveness of various sources of traffic, as well as about the behavior of visitors.

The new report "Channels" gives detailed information for each channel. By default, channels such as Direct Entries, Referrals, Search Engines and Social Networks, etc., are installed, but you can always adjust additional channels as you like.

Lecture hall

For most marketers, the biggest problem is the lack of information about people visiting the site. We do not know what gender or age they are, what their profession is, or what they are interested in. In the formation of marketing and advertising campaigns often have to act blindly, guessing this data. An updated audience report solves this problem. Now you can find out the gender, age and areas of interest of users of the site, how the behavior of the audience changes depending on which category it belongs to (for example, men or women). In the Russian version of Google Analytics, this feature will appear before the end of the current year.

And so, we present an overview of the new reports by audience.

"Demography"

• “Review” (overview of traffic by sex and age);
• "Age" (traffic by age range);
• "Floor" (traffic by floor).

Interests

• “Review” (review of the “Affinity categories” and “Other categories”);
• "Affinity categories" (classification of visitors based on their lifestyle, for example, technophiles, music lovers, gamers, etc.);
• “Other categories” (visitor categorization based on the content they consume).

With advanced data about the site’s audience, you can create personalized resource pages and more effective advertising and marketing campaigns.

Finally

We reviewed the major changes that will appear in Google Analytics later this year. For active users of the system, innovations may seem a bit unusual, but they are really more convenient, and most importantly much more informative. By getting even more data about the audience of the resource, we can more correctly develop the site and the business as a whole.

Attention (!): The article does not pretend to the accuracy and completeness of all data.