Google Analytics New Features Announced Options

[Jill]

This is gonna be totally awesome! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/yahoo.gif)

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2008/10/more...s-added-to.html

Includes advanced segmentation, custom reports, motion charts and more. Looks very cool and very drag and droppy. Appears to be a new Ajax interface. I haven't checked my accounts yet, but watched some of the videos at their blog.

Going to check my account now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif)

[nethy]

Haven't checked out any of the features yet.

But it seems 10X faster.

[zephyr]

Drag & Drop customizable reports, customized segmentation reports...
Is this Iowa? No, this is heaven-
Dang, my account isn't upgraded yet!

The Avinash blog on segmentation is a class in itself

[Randy]

My account hasn't been upgraded yet either, but there are going to be some pretty cool tools in the new package. FWIW, I have have submitted my sites per Avinash's instructions at the bottom of this blog post to see if I'm able to jump ahead in line a bit. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink1.gif)

Adsense publishers specifically are really going to love having the data right there in GoAn.

For everybody else the segmentation is going to give them whole new ways of viewing their stats. Hopefully people don't get too confused by the possibilities (read: data overload) and will actually use it. I've been doing some rudimentary Segmentation on the GoAn data already --you can do this at a low level and the results can be quite enlightening-- but the new methods where you can set up all sorts of different segments will be great! The only thing I worry about is data overload.

Once people get a handle on what general data is best to segment and compare I hope the possibility of data overload will become far less. But I really like the idea of being able to set up ad hoc segments for those times when I have a question I'd like to have answered. Or at least get a hint towards an answer. Combined with conversion testing it's bound to become quite a powerful option IMHO.

[Jill]

I seem to have some of the new features, but not all...can't wait!

[nethy]

After having a bit of a play, I think this is extremely powerful.

A lot of the people were achiving 50% of this with 10,000% the effort using profiles. And you had to set up everything in advance as opposed to on the fly.

Great Job Google. Even Randy is going to cough up data.

[Randy]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/hysterical.gif)

I already have been Nethy. Spent hours and hours playing there dreaming up new ways to segment the data, and some of the reports can be quite enlightening.

I haven't had a chance to blog about it yet, but certainly plan to some day. Including how to set up some of the segmentation rules I find interesting.

[MaKa]

The new features are really helpful. I've on several occasions wanted to do some quick reports which where possible with log file analysis software as Nettracker, but not with Google. I think Google just surpassed Nettracker, definitely on the ease with which you can create reports (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) A true drag-n-drop solution! I've already been making several custom reports on the fly, just to find out what is going on to answer specific questions I wanted answered.

[Randy]

Have you got any segmentation comparisons you feel are useful yet Maka? Something you wouldn't mind sharing?

I've got a few (dozen) I'm playing with that might prove to be interesting, but I need to test 'em more on more sites and I currently only have two of my own sites enrolled in GoAn so far, since I have a log analyzer I've been pretty comfortable with for years.

I'm thinking it might not hurt if we started creating a little list of comparisons we find helpful, so that others can look at the same on their site, without first having to dream up the comparison on their own.

[MaKa]

I've mainly looked at an obvious one: Comparing goal conversion rates between paid and non-paid visitors. I'm also looking at conversion rates of specific AdWords text as I don't have goals setup in adwords.

The other reports I've created aren't really segments, they are just variations of existing reports. E.g. you can now finally get a report that show the number of conversions rather than a conversion rate percentage. Most of the time I'm not interested in a 100% conversion rate if it's only one visit. I'm interested in the sources that send me a high volume converting visitors. Once I've got those optimised I can start looking at the low volume sources.

Just noticed that the custom reports are created for all sites in the same account. That's handy!

Edit:
Another report I just created shows the source of keywords used to find your site. To make this report drop "visits" in the tabs and drop the dimensions "Keywords" and "Source". You can quickly see which search engine has send you the most traffic for a specific keyword.

This post has been edited by MaKa: Nov 12 2008, 05:51 AM

[Randy]

Good one MaKa! I've got one similar to your Keywords report, cept that it keys to Goal Completions. Or as I've named it, Conversions by KW.

So, in the Metric area drag over Total Goal Completions from the Goals section, then from the Dimensions panel drag over Keyword from the Traffic Sources section and Source from the Traffic Sources panel.

Now at a glance I can tell which keyword phrases are actually converting visitors into buyers, and with a click on each phrase I can tell which sites sent the traffic for which keywords that ended up converting.

[MaKa]

That's a good addition Randy, I may use that for some of the commercial sites I'm working on.

[nethy]

Have you got any segmentation comparisons you feel are useful yet Maka?

One thing you can really do is use it as brand management tool. You can create segment that pretty much covers anyone that probably knows about you (direct = various keyword combinations + particular links). You can track keyword 'groups.' (eg: searches relating to Jill Whalen, Searches relating to highrankings, searches relating to generic IM terms, searches relating to seo related terms)

One of the clicktracks filter features was looking at conversion customers (this is a built in advanced segment). But you could also look at big/small spenders & such.

Questions like 'is spending time on technical details correlated to size of purchase?"

[Randy]

Questions like 'is spending time on technical details correlated to size of purchase?"

Right. Or Is the number of pages viewed critical to conversion? which could then be used to look at entry points that are not encouraging multiple page views for one reason or another.

Or a related metric like Does how long new visitors stay on the site, regardless of the pages they visit, an important factor in conversions?

There are any number of metrics that may tie together to improve conversions on a site. But those same metrics may not be as important for other sites. IMO it's just nice to be able to look at this type of thing with a high degree of granularity.

[nethy]

*There are any number of metrics that may tie together to improve conversions on a site. But those same metrics may not be as important for other sites. IMO it's just nice to be able to look at this type of thing with a high degree of granularity.*

Definitely. The thing about this sort of upgrade is they've made it easier to use the tool from a technical perspective, but possibly more difficult from a conceptual one.

I'm excited about using segments like: 'pedantic visitors' that read all of the terms & conditions, shipping policies, return policies & such; 'Not Savy visitors' that use IE6, search for domain.com in google, etc.; 'deal hunters' 'know what they want visitors'; 'City slickers'; 'sophisticated visitors'...

All those need custom segments.