How do you feel when you open Google Analytics? The answer is "overwhelmed" for many people. There's a lot of information in those reports ready to be studied.
The problem is that overburdened marketers and business owners end up poking around in a few default reports, capturing some monthly KPIs, and then moving on to the next month.
Is the line rising? Dance of celebration. Is the trend downward? Sobs were muffled. In any event, checkback in approximately 30 days to see if anything has changed.
Going beyond the basic reports and into custom reports, advanced segmentation, and custom dashboards can boost your store's growth.
When you set up a Google Analytics account, the tool has no idea what's essential to you, correct? You could be running a content site or a SaaS business. It has no idea you run an ecommerce store and wish to examine ecommerce-specific information.
That is why it is adaptable. So you can create the reports that are important to you, track the metrics that are important to you, and discover the insights that are important to you.
You're only getting 30% of what Google Analytics has to offer if you stick to the settings and out-of-the-box options.
So, how about we start tapping into the other 70%? Google Analytics custom reports play a significant role in this.
What are custom reports in Google Analytics?
A Google Analytics custom report is just a Google Analytics report that you generate and adapt to meet your specific needs.
You are able to select the inputs based on the outcomes you desire. That entails picking your own dimensions (for example, country) and measurements (for example, pageviews). Then select how the data is displayed.
How to Use Custom Reports in Google Analytics
Before you begin designing your own Google Analytics custom reports, you should become acquainted with the following reporting elements:
- Dimensions are data attributes.
- Metrics are numerical measurements.
You are now ready to begin creating your own custom report. Launch Google Analytics and navigate to Customization -> Custom Reports:
Then click the "+ New Custom Report" button to see this:
Each Google Analytics custom report comes with one tab by default, but you can add additional as needed. Just bear in mind that the following information must be modified for each tab you create.
As previously described, select your report type, metrics, and dimensions.
You can limit the custom report to specified dimensions when you get to the filters. For example, if you construct a report using the nation dimension, you may apply a filter to only show data from specific countries.
The final choice is for your Google Analytics views. You're basically deciding which views have access to the report. This is entirely up to you and your tastes.
There are a few things to keep in mind here:
- Your goal is to simplify analysis. It's easy to get caught up in importing large reports, which might leave you feeling overwhelmed with data.
- Metrics for acquisition, behaviour, and results are required. Choose bespoke reports that cover the full funnel from beginning to end.
- The importance of segmentation cannot be overstated. Custom reports, like normal Google Analytics reports, allow you to segment your data to offer extra insights. Take advantage of this opportunity.
Here are some Google Analytics custom reports to get you started, which you can either import or re-create and further personalize yourself.
Customized site performance reports
Simply said, if your website does not function properly, it will not convert. These reports will assist you in ensuring that your site is working as planned.
1. Metrics for site speed by browser and browser version
This report can assist you in determining browsers or browser versions that have sluggish load times. You should pay close attention to the average document interactive time, which is the amount of time it takes before the page is really useable (regardless of whether it is fully loaded).
Slow websites kill conversions. Google and SOASTA recently discovered that speed has a major impact on bounce rate, so keep a watch on this data to ensure your business loads swiftly in all browser versions.
2. Ecommerce analytics by browser, browser version, and operating system
A low number of transactions or a low conversion rate, in addition to a slow load time, can indicate a browser-related problem. This report will provide you with more information about your site's performance in the browsers that your visitors use the most.
If you discover a problem, either undertake cross-browser testing yourself or delegate the task to someone more technically skilled.
3. Metrics by weekday name and hour
Are you planning a promotion or a flash sale? Consider the days and hours when your store is busiest.
This report will provide data by weekday and hour of the day. I advocate tailoring the measurements to your own needs. For example, maybe you care more about average order value than average session duration.
Create your own Google Analytics custom report using Johnathan's suggestions.
4. Report on organic search referring pages
This report will provide you with a comprehensive view of visitor actions depending on search engines, keywords, landing pages, and so forth. Again, you may want to tailor the metrics to what is most important to you.
5. Keyword/matched query report for PPC
Which queries are matching to your ads? This report will tell you which PPC match type (wide, phrase, exact) you should employ in the future to make your advertising relevant.
6. Performance of paid versus organic search
This report is crucial for everyone who runs paid advertisements. Do you really grasp the differences in behaviour between your paid and organic search traffic? They interact with your site in various ways, which means they have different ideas about what constitutes a successful user experience.
You'll notice behavioural variances and learn how to improve the experience for each portion.
7. Ecommerce report every day
This is the report to view every day if you want to keep an eye on the performance of your store. Google's Justin Cutroni created it expressly for that case.
8. Cost analysis for all campaigns
Examine how much you spent, how frequently your ad appeared, how many people clicked through to your site, the cost per click, the per session value, and so on. Avinashi Kaushik created this bespoke report to prompt marketers to consider cost and genuine ROI.
It's a strong report, but make sure your data is properly flowing in.
9. Evaluation of business outcomes
You're ready to try out this custom report now that you've enabled Enhanced Ecommerce.
It will provide you with quick access to a large amount of business outcome data.
Asa result, you'll continue to gain valuable insights about sales, checkouts, average order value, and so on. You will not, however, spend hours sifting through report after report.
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