More Enterprise-Class Features Added To Google Analytics

Over the past year, our team has been gathering a feature wish list from you, our customers. We also asked experts in the web analytics industry and listened to customers of other analytics tools to find out what additional functionality they would like to see added to Google Analytics to make it as powerful, flexible, and useful as a web analytics tool can be.

Today at the eMetrics Summit in Washington, D.C., after months of development and testing, Avinash Kaushik, our Analytics Evangelist, unveiled the new functionalities that represent a major upgrade to Google Analytics. With these features, gradually being released in beta in all accounts, you'll gain much richer insights into your website traffic, and it'll be even easier to discover, create, and access the metrics important to you.

They are (with more details below): Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reports, a data export API (private beta), integrated reporting for AdSense publishers (private beta), multi-dimensional data visualizations called "Motion Charts," and an updated user and administrative interface.

These are features that experts and enterprise-level customers demand, and they will be available and easy to use in your Google Analytics reports. Please see below for details on each new feature and the release schedule letting you know when you can expect to have access to them. Here is a screenshot showing you where in your reports you can find a few of the new features, with more screenshots, help center links, and video demos (also at this YouTube playlist) below.


Features being added to all accounts in the coming weeks:

Advanced Segmentation enables you to isolate and analyze subsets of your traffic. It is true on-the-fly segmentation of visits so that you can create powerful filters with a few mouse-clicks. Select from predefined custom segments such as "Paid Traffic" and "Visits with Conversions" or create new custom segments with a flexible, easy-to-use segment builder. Then, you can apply one or more of these segments to current or historical data, and even compare segment performance side by side in reports.


Learn how to create an advanced segment in the video below, and in this help center article:



*Also, Avinash has just posted a blog on how to use Advanced Segmentation which is a must-read to quickly learn how to take advantage of this powerful feature.


Custom Reports are reports you create, save, and edit to give you a specific view of your data. You can choose the information and metrics you want to see, organized in the way you want to see it, by using a drag and drop interface to populate an Analytics report. You can also create tabs if you want to see related data - similar to a "Goal Conversions" tab - in effect creating multiple levels of sub-reports.


Once created, each custom report is available for as long as you want it. Take a look at this quick start guide to Custom Reports and to see a demo, play this video:




Motion Charts add sophisticated multi-dimensional analysis to most Analytics reports. Select metrics for the x-axis, y-axis, bubble size, and bubble color and view how they interact over time.

By comparing metrics visually over time you can expose data relationships that would be difficult to see in traditional reports. Motion Charts will be available through a new "Visualize" button at the top of reports.

Take a look at this help center article and watch this video for more information:



(Note: if you're interesting in putting your own data in motion, you can also use a Motion Chart gadget in Google Spreadsheets or a visualization API.)


The New Account Management Dashboard makes it easier for you to manage and monitor your account by providing simpler navigation between accounts and profiles and displaying a dashboard of key performance metrics upfront upon login.

Meaningful data and clear visual cues (green is good, red is bad) help alert you to areas requiring more attention. We hope the new navigation, administrators' ability to rename accounts and profiles, and account/profile locator functionality will boost your efficiency and ease of account management. Learn more in this help center article.

Features currently in private beta, scheduled for a more gradual full release to all accounts:

The Data Export API enables you to create software programs and applications using all read-only report level data from Analytics. The data exported can be used in any number of ways, such as building custom dashboards, creating data visualizations or interfaces, performing offline analysis, and combining/mashing Analytics data with other data sources. The API will be a platform for developers to extend Analytics data in new and practical ways, as far as can be imagined and implemented.


Integrated Reporting with AdSense lets AdSense publishers see their revenue and impression data alongside their site traffic data in Analytics. Take a look at the AdSense blog for more details. This integration will give publishers even more metrics to help them measure visitor activity and the performance of ad units, as well as discover areas of revenue potential on their websites.


Learn how to link your AdSense account with a Google Analytics account, and for a glimpse at the new reports, take a look at this video:

If you don't already, you'll soon have access to these new features. Once you get a chance to use them, we invite you to discuss them and give us feedback in our user forum. We hope you'll find them useful and intuitive.

Announced by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics

Tips and Tools for Maximizing Sales

For many of you the fourth quarter is the busiest and biggest season, and in this economy analytics are more important than ever. With holiday traffic starting in November and peaking in early-December, now is the time to make sure your site is in the best shape to maximize holiday traffic and revenue.

To help you better analyze your campaign performance, optimize your web pages, and drive even more traffic to your e-commerce site during this crucial time, we'd like to share some tip and tools you can use in Analytics and other Google products.

 
Use the Analytics Funnel Visualization report to improve conversions

• Learn how many shoppers drop out during each step of your shopping cart conversion process. 
• Then, work on the steps that lose the most customers.
• Website Optimizer, our free testing tool, is a great way to improve those key pages.

Geo-target your AdWords campaigns through Analytics

• Find out where your most profitable customers are coming from, and direct your advertising dollars to target customers in those areas.
  
• Get data for region-specific keyword performance in your Analytics account.
  
• Create more targeted AdWords campaigns by region. Watch this video for a step-by-step demo.

Submit your products to Google Product Search

• Google Product Search enables shoppers to search for and find products to buy online, and enables you to submit your products for free and target users shopping on Google. Google Product Search is currently available to merchants in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.
• If you've never used Google Product Search, you can start submitting your products using feeds you've already prepared for other shopping engines.

Visit our Google page on holiday success to see a full list of tips. We hope these tips and tools help you make the most of your holiday season!

- Dai Pham, Google Analytics Team

Make a date with data in Google Analytics

In AdSense, we’re big on data. From spreadsheets and graphs to weekly reports and metrics, we constantly turn to numbers when running our business. In a similar vein, we've heard your requests for more data to help you run your AdSense websites, which is why we’re excited to announce the integration of one of our personal favorite reporting tools, Google Analytics, with AdSense. We're gradually rolling out this functionality to publishers, and you'll see an invitation link at the top of your 'Overview' and 'Advanced Reports' pages when it's been enabled for your account.


By integrating your AdSense account with a new or existing Analytics account, you’ll have access to in-depth reports about user activity on your site. In addition to the wealth of metrics already available in Analytics such as unique visitors and visitor language, you'll now have access to granular reports that break down AdSense performance both by page and by referring site. Armed with this new data about user behavior, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions on how to improve the user experience on your site and optimize your AdSense units to increase your revenue potential.


We've highlighted a few ways to use the integrated metrics below, but we encourage you to be creative! Come up with your own to discover how useful (and fun) new data can be:

• Discover untapped markets. Use the geographies report to determine which regions are under-represented in your site’s user base. Optimize your site’s content to attract more of these under-represented users.
  
• Drive high-earning traffic to your site. Use the 'Referring sites' report to determine where the users who are making you the most money are coming from. Focus your efforts on getting traffic from these sources.
  
• Delve deeper into AdSense reports. Use the visualization feature to look at trends in your site's AdSense performance over time, or by time of day.
  

Again, this feature is not yet available to all our publishers, but please keep checking your account for an invitation. In the meantime, you can take a look at our demo to learn more about the reports you'll have access to:



Announced by Vineesha Malkani - AdSense Publisher Support