Posts Tagged ‘advanced segment’

Jan 13
2011

Quick Google Analytics Tip – How to Share Advanced Segments and Custom Reports

web analytics  By: Allaedin Ezzedin 2 Comments »

Just recently, one of our clients asked me to share with their analysts a number of custom segments and custom reports that I’ve created for them. With the new “Share” segment button, it was very easy to share the URL of the segments/report and email them to the client.

When the analysts clicked on the segments’ URLs, they imported the report structure exactly as it was configured under my login. But when they saved the segments under their login, the segments were saved under wrong profiles!

Why to share segments?
First of all we need to know that Advanced Segments and custom reports in Google Analytics are tied to the user login and not to the account/profile under which these segments are created in. So if two users have access to the same profile but they are using different login to access the GA account, the segments created by user A are not accessible to user B unless they are manually shared by user A. So, all the amazing segments and custom reports that E-Nor creates under their Google Analytics login will not be visible to their clients who are using a different login credential, even though both E-Nor and their clients are logged into the same GA account.

What went wrong with the segments I shared with our client?
When our client’s analysts clicked on the shared segment’s URL, the segment showed up by default under the first profile of the first account that the login of each user has access to. Because the relevant profile applicable to the segment was not the first profile in their accounts list, they failed to add the segment to the right profile and when they later logged in they were unable to allocate the segment under the given profile.

Disclaimer

The “share” functionality in the Advance Segment and Custom Report is good as long as the recipient of the shared segment applies the segment to the right profile using the “Visible in” menu (See point# 6 of this post). But if you want to make the life of the recipient much easier then follow the simple solution provided below.

Solution:

After looking at the Segment link and other GA reports links, I noticed that if we add the Profile ID to the link URL as parameter, then the segment will be populated under the right account and the right profile. So the solution is simply to attach the profile ID with the segment link :)

How:

Let me translate the above solution to 5 simple steps to follow:

1. How can I get the profile id?

Google Analytics assign a unique ID for each profile. This profile ID is different than the account ID [UA-123456-1], which we add to the website pages along with the JavaScript pixel. In order to find the Profile ID, just log in to Google Analytics and locate the account and the profile under which you created the “Advanced Segment”. Click on Analytics Settings > Edit, and the Profile ID will be in the upper left corner of the profile settings page.

2. How to create advanced segments and custom reports?
This is not the focus of this blog post, nevertheless, to learn how to create your own advanced segment read the following help topics:

3. How to get the custom segment Link?

Click Share for the relevant segment or report. [Go to Advanced Segments > Manage your advanced segments > Share > Copy the URL]

4. How to add the profile ID that I got from step# 1 to the segment Link URL that I got from step# 2?
Very simple! Just append the Profile ID [ex. id=18900120] to the end of the segment link URL

5. What is next?

Send the enhanced segment link to anyone who has access to the Google Analytics account. When the recipient clicks the link, a template of your advanced segment or custom report loads under the correct account and correct profile.

6. What if I receive a segment link that doesn’t contain the profile ID?

Well, then you need to manually apply the segment to the desired profile.
At the bottom of the segment page, use the “Visible in” menu to select the profile(s) where you want the segment to be available.

Happy Analysis :)

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Sep 09
2010

Advanced Segments in Urchin – Google’s real gift to humanity

web analytics  By: Shiraz Asif No Comments »

 
Advanced Segments from Google
A few months back a colleague of mine called Multiple Custom Variables "Google’s Gift to Humanity."  I disagree.  He had good intentions, like he usually does, but in this case he was terribly misguided.  Multiple Custom Variables are significant and a dream come true to some, but the real gift to humanity, and there isn’t even any competition here, is Advanced Segments.  I can’t remember a day going by where I haven’t used this phenomenal feature in Google Analytics.  Now, the feature is finally available in Urchin 7!
 

What can I do with Advanced Segments in Urchin 7?

  • Identify & analyze the visitor groups who are truly valuable to your business
  • Allows you to filter reporting data similar to using GA Advanced Segmentation. The feature is accessible on the Urchin 7 Reporting UI from the toolbar.
  • Each advanced segment is a combination of filters joined by an "AND" condition. Metrics support numeric comparison operators "equals to", "less than", "less than or equal to", "greater than" and "greater than or equal to".

 

How do I use Advanced Segments in Urchin 7?

Easy :)   the interface is similar to Google Analytics.  The screen capture below shows the new Advanced Segments dropdown.  Click on this dropdown to enter the wonderful world of Advanced Segmentation awesomeness.


 
In the screen capture below, the user is presented with an option to manage their advanced segments, or view from a list of default segments.


 

How do I create a new Advanced Segment in Urchin 7?

Let’s build a really simple segment that will let us analyze traffic originating from Google.

NOTE:  in building a segment, I strongly recommend giving the segment a meaningful name.  This will help you and others that may be using the tool clearly know what the segment contains.  Don’t use names like "My Segment" or "Segment 1" or "test".  A meaningful name for the example above would be "Traffic Source=Google" or "Traffic from Google" or something to that effect.
 
1) To create and configure a new segment, click the "Create new custom segment" button on the Manage Urchin Visit Segments page.


 
2)  Below is the segment definition screen:


 
3)  Once done, apply the segment to all profiles


 
4)  Now let’s view the New vs. Returning report for our segment!


 

What are some practical use cases of Advanced Segments:

1)  Create a true organic segment where branded traffic is filtered out.
2)  Create a segment to analyze visitors by referrer or traffic source (like our example above)
3)  Segment by geographic location (country, city, etc)
4)  Segment by Content viewed (Landing page or Page)
5)  Segment by Goals (allowing you to see the behavior of users who converted vs those who didn’t)
6)  Segment by Technology metrics (browser type, screen resolution, etc)
All the above will help in your data analysis.  These are just a few simple ideas.  Pleases share any cool segments that have assisted you in your analysis!

Try out Urchin 7 today.

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Jun 10
2010

Segment Blog Commenters in Google Analytics

web analytics  By: Allaedin Ezzedin 16 Comments »

Recently Avinash Kaushik shared with his Facebook friends that his blog reached the following millstone: “# of comments on my blog = 8,000 today! Context: 221 posts. 471k words in posts. 742k words in comments.”

That is an average of 36 comments per post and 92 words per comment. Congratulations Avinash!

For Analytics oriented bloggers such as Avinash, I am sure as much as they love and appreciate all their blog readers they will always value the engaged readers who make the effort to drop a line or two seeking clarification, encouraging them to write more or giving them feedback.

This segment of blog readers is by all means the fuel that keeps bloggers alive and encourages them to continue to write and share what they have in mind. Therefore, studying and analyzing the behavior and the user experience of this segment is very important for optimizing the blog to achieve your blog objectives.

In this post I will walk you through few basic steps that will help make this segment of engaged readers available in your Google Analytics report.

Assumptions:

  • You have Google Analytics installed in your blog
  • You are using WordPress as a platform for your blog (of course you can apply the same method to other blogging platforms)

The How:

Our approach is a three-step process:  add custom code, create a Goal in Google Analytics which tracks the number of comment submissions and then create an advanced segment for those who converted.

Step 1) Add custom code to the comments’ form code:

Since in WordPress there is no unique confirmation page – thank you page – that visitors see once they have submitted their comment, we will need to fire a virtual page every time the “Submit” button is clicked.

We will need to modify the comments form’s code and add some JavaScript code to it. The code will fire a virtual page every time the “submit comment” button is clicked. The code for the comments form is found within the comments.php file, which can be found under your WordPress theme folder [../wp-content/themes/default/comments.php]

  • Add the following code to the onclick event of the “submit comment” button:

onClick=”javascript: _gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/comment-submission.php']);”

Below you will see how the code will look after the JavaScrip insertion, this depends on the version of the Google Analytics tracking code you are using:

Asynchronous snippet

<p><input onClick=”javascript: _gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/comment-submission.php']);” name=”submit” type=”submit” id=”submit” tabindex=”5″ value=”Submit Comment” />
<?php comment_id_fields(); ?>
</p>

Traditional snippet

<p><input onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/comment-submission.php’);” name=”submit” type=”submit” id=”submit” tabindex=”5″ value=”Submit Comment” />
<?php comment_id_fields(); ?>
</p>

Step 2) Create a Goal:

Every time the virtual page that we created in step 1 is fired, it will trigger a conversion and the hit will be available in the Goals report.

  1. Log in to your Google Analytics account and then click “Edit” beside your profile. You will need to configure goals for each profile you want the Goal to show up in.
  2. Click on: +Add Goal
  3. Enter the following Goal Information:
  • Goal Name: Blog Comment Submission
  • Active Goal: On
  • Goal Type: URL Destination
  • Match Type: Head Match or Exact Match (in this case both will work)
  • Goal URL: /comment-submission.php

Step 3) Wait a Few Days and Analyze your Goal Performance

Your Goals will not work backwards, so you will need to wait for Goal data to appear in your reports. Now you have the number of comment submissions.

Is creating a goal is enough for our deep analysis? Not really! It will be nice if we can analyze traffic only from this specific segment of our blog visitors. Advanced Segments is the answer!

Step 4) Create an advanced segment

Now let us create an advanced segment that only shows the visits of those who submitted comments.

  1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account
  2. Advanced Segments > Create a new advanced segment
  3. Select the “Goal Completion” Metric for the Goal that you created in step 2

By applying this segment, now you will have more insight about the  blog commenter’s user experience, their traffic sources, geographical locations, time on site, browsers, screen resolutions, etc.

Apply the same concept to your email subscribers, contact-us requests, social media followers or any other segment of your blog readers you are interested in learning more about.

Happy Analyzing :)

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