Intermediate Google Analytics, week 5
This is another review of CXL institute course. This one is about Intermediate Google Analytics and Chris Mercer co-founder at MeasurementMarketing.io is the teacher.
This course covers more intermediate levels of Google Analytics, more specific things that you can do to get even more insights from any Google Analytics implementations.
Before taking this course you might be comfortable with basic concepts:
1. Google Analytics Goals, filters, views (backup, production…), reports
2. Google Tag Manager: because GA and GTM work hand in hand, having a basic understanding will help you in this lesson)
COURSE PROGRAM
This is a 16-class program 5h 50min
- · Clean Data: Filtering Out SPAM
- · Clean Data: Removing Internal Hits
- · Clean Data: Cross-Domain Tracking
- · Finding Answers: Funnel Tracking
- · Finding Answers: Segments — Part 1
- · Finding Answers: Segments — Part 2
- · Finding Answers: Custom Reports
- · Tips & Tricks: Dashboards
- · Tips & Tricks: Saved Reports & Alerts
- · Tips & Tricks: Channels
- · Tips & Tricks: Multi-Channel Funnel Reports
- · Tips & Tricks: Attribution
- · Tips & Tricks: Exporting to Google Sheets
- · Tips & Tricks: Measurement Protocol
- · Wrap Up & Resources
Although this course is relative to Universal Analytics, the concepts covered are still relevant in Google Analytics 4. I will dwell on the segments for the remainder of this article. Among all the elements discussed and generally in Google Analytics, segments are one of the concepts to master. They are useful to structure the organization of data useful to bring the answers. So I will use this part to define segments, what is the difference between segments and filters, the different types of segments in google analytics.
Google Analytics offers by default many standard reports that are very complete and allow you to explore the data of your site. These reports are very general and do not allow you to have a specific vision of certain users or certain specific visits. In addition, it is sometimes strategic to segment sessions and users in order to make specific decisions.
Segments allow you to isolate and analyze subsets of data defined by specific criteria, to examine trends and respond appropriately. Built-in segments are available, or you can create your own segments under an infinite number of possible conditions.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEGMENTS AND FILTERS
According to Chris Mercer: “The biggest difference between segments and filters is filter permanently alters the data in the view of which it is a part and those data can never get it back in this view what has been excluded. they permanently alter the data
filters are kind of a permanent answer to a temporary problem sometimes
a segment is like a temporary filter. It’s filtering it within the actual reports. It will be there for as long as you want it to be there and then you can remove it, and then get it back. So it doesn’t actually delete anything, it doesn’t remove anything permanently, it just temporarily shows you a certain select part of your data.
One is not better than the other, we just have to keep in mind that when we want to provide an answer to a temporary or periodic question, we use a segment to give shape to the information. When the need is permanent, we rather apply a Google Analytics filter.
in Google analytics there are the built-in segments and custom segments. Built-in segments are already built and available, you just have to check a box to use any of them. Custom segments peut être créé à la volée, sans conséquences particulières.
In Google Analytics there is by default, an “Add Segment” button on all reports. By clicking on this button, you can apply one or more predefined segments to your reports, or you can create new custom segments. Up to 4 segments can be applied to a view at the same time.
CHOOSE A BUILT-IN SEGMENT
After clicking on the “Add Segment” button, the window displays a list of predefined segments that you can apply to your reports. Simply click on the check box.
CREATE A CUSTOM SEGMENT
If you regularly use a secondary dimension to facilitate the reading of reports, it is time to use an advanced segment, which will meet your needs more easily.
Click on the red new segment button, give the segment a clear name and set it up.
There are many segment choices arranged around the following categories:
- Demographics,
- Technology (mobile device, etc.),
- User behavior,
- Date of first session,
- Traffic Sources
For each of the categories, Google Analytics intuitively provides all the options available when you make the selection. While creating your segment, an indicator to the right displays the percentage of total traffic represented by this segment.
Click save to view the filtered data!
It’s that easy to create a segment!
SHARE SEGMENTS
In a GA account with multiple users, only the one who creates a segment has access to it by default. For this, Google Analytics gives the ability to share the segment with others.After creating a segment, you can always share it by bringing up the segments screen, then clicking on actions in the dropdown choose share. This will give you a URL that allows you to share. Rest assured, you are sharing the configuration details of the segment, no data is transmitted to the recipient of the share.
IMPORT A SEGMENT FROM THE GALLERY
If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the built-in segments and don’t have the time or inclination to create your own, you can import the ones from the gallery. The gallery contains segments created by the Google Analytics team and independent experts. Once imported, you will find them in the list of custom segments.
Conclusion
Analytics does a great job of storing information, Google Tag Manager does a great job of collecting the different behaviors and sending them to Google Analytics for storage.
At the end of this course, additional Tips & Tricks are given:
- Calculated metrics
- Content grouping
- Scheduled emails
- Annotations
As usual, Chris Mercer give a lot of resources to help master any lesson. According to him, some of the topics covered in this lesson teach skills that are not necessarily used every day, but when the need arises, we are very well equipped to implement them.
