Google Analytics 360 continues to deliver new enhancements in reporting and analytics. With the Advanced Analysis module enabled in all Google Analytics 360 accounts last week, you can explore your customer journey more closely and get deeper insights. Additionally, you can include your data related to your various products in the Google 360 Suite or in your AdWords and DoubleClick accounts to this module.
You can access the Advanced Analysis module from the bottom of the left menu in the Google Analytics 360 interface.
Advanced Analysis has three new powerful techniques that help you analyze the user experience in-depth. By using these techniques, you can establish audiences, and convert the learning results from your analysis into values by using them in your reports and targets.
Advanced Analysis templates are divided into three;
- Exploration
- Funnel Analysis
- Segment Overlap
Advanced Analysis – Main page
Main page of the Advanced Analysis module has similar design features to the homepage of Google Data Studio. Property and access information for the Google Analytics account you selected for analysis appears on the upper left corner, while you can see the organization information of your 360 account on the upper right corner. To switch into a different Google Analytics account, you need to use the organization preferences on the right.
While you start analyzing, you can choose one of “Exploration”, “Segment Overlap” or “Funnel Analysis” to use the templates created in advance by Google, or you can scroll through the analysis (Blank) boxes on the empty page to start from scratch.
When giving names to your reports, take care to create a standard or to make them understandable. Otherwise, all of your reports may be called “Exploration”, “Segment Overlap”, “Untitled Analysis” and disappear.
Variables
The Variables tab is located on the left side of your reports, and serves as a field where you can add the date range, segments, dimensions, and metrics for your analysis. Similarly to the reports found in the Google Analytics interface, you can make comparisons based on date, and use the dimensions and metrics without any limit.
“Segments” are located just below the date range. If you are working on template reports, then the predefined segments (segments created on Google Analytics) will also appear in this section. You can make additions and subtractions with the plus sign. We should remind you that there is a limitation of 10 segments in the Segments field.
“Dimensions” and “Metrics” are located under the Segments. Similarly, some are predefined and you can add by clicking the plus sign. Maximum 15 dimensions and 10 metrics can be available in the Variables section. Double-click or drag-and-drop to apply the segments, dimensions, or metrics in your reports.
Tip: Do not worry if you make any mistake. All you have to do is click the “Undo” and “Redo” buttons at the top right of the reporting screen.
Tab Settings
From the tab settings, you can choose to visualize your report as a table, chart or diagram, and add segments, dimensions and metrics in the Variables section. In your chart and diagram preferences, you can detail your analysis by specifying the breakdown size. You can limit the number of report rows and columns you created, as well as you are free to quickly apply any filter you want with the filter option.
Line Chart appearance
Exploration
Although Exploration report has an appearance similar to the standard reports in the Google Analytics interface, it is equipped with features that enable you to do a much more robust analysis. With the ability to analyze your data in a flexible table layout, you have a much better chance of getting more sophisticated insights in a much shorter time.
In your standard reports, which you currently use in the Google Analytics interface, the limit for using an additional dimension is only 1. With Advanced Analysis, you can interact with five nested rows and columns. You can rotate the table, change the number of rows/columns displayed, and when you identify an important data set, you can quickly assign that data as the segment to use in your other analyzes.
Data Interaction
When you right-click on any data value from an Exploration table or another visualization, you will see several options. You can begin with “Include only selection” or “Exclude selection”. In this way, you will be applying an automatic filter to your Tab Settings and update your visualization accordingly.
By clicking the “Create segment from this selection” option, you can add the relevant data as a new segment to your Segment panel, and you can use this segment again in any future Advanced Analysis.
So, can you also use these segments for the reports in the Google Analytics interface? Yes! There are two steps you need to follow for this. First, go to the Variables panel, right-click on the segment you created, and then select your relevant Google Analytics view by clicking the Publish option. Your Google Analytics segment is now ready.
And another powerful feature is that you can increase your targeting accuracy and efficiency by assigning the desired data set as the Audience list (Build audience from this selection) and linking it with your remarketing or other relevant marketing platforms.
Finally, when you click on the “View users” option to get more detailed information about the users, you will be directed to the “User Explorer” report in the Google Analytics interface. In this way, you will be able to further understand the movement and journey of your audiences, which you think that they are valuable or they underperform, and the many other in-depth information provided by the User Explorer report.
Funnel Analysis
You can use the Funnel Analysis technique to understand the steps users take to complete the targets on your site. For example, you can quickly see how users are progressing through the purchase process and identify the steps that can be improved. With Custom Funnels in Google Analytics 360, you can perform this work with up to maximum 5 steps. With Advanced Analysis, however, you can take increase it to 10 and evaluate your optimizations for longer processes. These additional steps – along with the ability to add multiple segment and dimension breakdowns – will also give you a closer look at how different groups of users interact with your site.
You have the right to use up to 4 segments in Funnel Analysis. Each segment is displayed with its own color in the report. You just need to get the cursor on the segment you chose to see how these segments perform for each step you specified.
As with the other two reports, features such as include/exclude, create segment, create audience, and review user are also available in this report. If you want to re-target the users who leave your processes at certain steps, then the Funnel Analysis will be your best assistant!
When you want to change the funnel steps that you have created, you can add the desired steps from the pop-up page when you click on the pen next to the “Steps” menu in the tab settings. Compared to the Custom Funnel report, which is used for a long time in Google Analytics 360, the biggest advantage of Funnel Analysis is that we are not limited to dimensions only when creating the steps. By adding the metrics in steps, we will now be able to use the data in any of the analyzes that go down deeper.
The funnels that exist in the Advanced Analysis module always behave as closed funnels. In other words, the data included to the funnel is generated based only on the data entered in the first step. Open funnels have a measurement logic that can also be accessed from the middle steps.
Segment Overlap
You can use the Segment Overlap feature to visualize and analyze how your Google Analytics segments overlap and relate to each other. With this module where you can use maximum three segments at a time, you will be able to clearly distinguish specific segments by seeing your segments in more detail. On the other hand, you can export these segments to Google Analytics or other platforms, and use them in other reports, analytics, and targeting.
From the Values panel, you can select segments that you think will help you with your analysis, drag them from the tab settings section to the segment comparison field, or click to add them.
By using the Segment Overlap analysis tab, you can also examine the segment not only visually, but also by performing performance comparisons with the metrics you’ve added with dimension breakdown.
As in Exploration analysis, you can also create segment and audience lists through this module and use it both in the Advanced Analysis module and in the Google Analytics interface. With this analysis, you can also track the details of the users in the relevant segments from the “User Explorer” report in the Google Analytics interface by using the “Show Users” feature.
Limitations to Advanced Analysis
- Advanced Analysis is only available for Analytics 360 customers.
- Up to 200 individual analyzes can be generated per view for each user.
- 10 segments can be added per analysis.
- Advanced Analysis is subject to the same sampling limits as Google Analytics 360.
Export
You can export the analysis data to several different formats. This allows you to share your data with other tools that can process these formats.
1.Click on the download button in the upper right corner of the screen.
2.Select your export format.
- Google Sheets
- TSV
- CSV
Final Word
Advanced Analysis module has the potential to offer great advantages to its users in terms of analyzing, advertising and targeting with its strong features. Considering that it is still the beta version, we can easily say that new features or patches will be added in the coming days.
If you are interested with the Google Analytics 360 offering several different premium measurement and reporting solutions including the Advanced Analysis module, then you can contact SEM, Turkey’s first and biggest Google Analytics 360 sales partner, through iletisim@semtr.com.
