11 Google Analytics reports you may not know

Google Analytics is the website and marketing measurement platform chosen by many people.

New reports and tools are added regularly. In addition, we can also connect to other Google data products, such as Search Console and Google Ads.

These are important and the steps to configure settings for your specific site.

I encourage you to fully explore ways to fully unleash the potential of your data.

This may mean configuring conversion tracking through goals, event tracking important actions you want to track within the page, connecting to other Google products I mentioned, understanding other settings, and so on.

These are all good first steps.

Now, let’s dive into 11 specific Google Analytics reports that you might not know about. These may be the keys to valuable insights you can use in your website and marketing efforts.

1. Custom Dashboard

How many times have you jumped into Google Analytics to find the same reports, statistics, or data fragments?

How many times must you answer the same question for your stakeholders?

If more than once, then a custom dashboard is for you.

You can create custom dashboards from almost any data view that can be drilled down in Google Analytics. In addition, you can add data and reports in widget format from multiple reports to one page.

This is a big time saver. Once you set it up the way you want, it can also be arranged to be automatically exported and delivered to you or key stakeholders.

This is a good starting point, and then jump to Google Data Insight, You can do more.

2. Lifetime value

The report still has the “beta” label in Google Analytics. However, over time, I found that it is used more in sites that have a lot of participation within the 30-90 day cookie window that Google Analytics can track.

If your website attracts users and they often return to make one or more purchases, you can track the value of a particular user and take it into account with other aspects of the buyer’s journey that you measure.

Please note that when some content is in the beta phase, I will keep in mind that the report may be updated, enhanced, deleted, or the data may change over time, so be careful.

3. User Explorer

The user browser allows us to gain insight into the journey of a visitor to a particular website.

Although we cannot identify users in Google Analytics by default (and be careful when trying to match data, as Google has specific guidelines for this), we will see how individual users consume content over a period of time And behavior time on the site.

This information is not necessarily as powerful as some third-party user records and heat map tools, but it provides some aggregation and insight to aggregate revenue data and other standard Google Analytics metrics into a single report.

Being able to view the journey of a single user—including the number of sessions, the pages/activities they performed in them, and when they finally made a purchase or decision—helps optimize the user experience and conversion rate.

It can also help set expectations for marketing activities and how many steps are actually part of the customer journey.

4. Interests/Interest Categories

Interest/interest similarity category reports are very interesting and useful in a wide range of uses.

If you don’t see the data by default, you just need to agree to these terms and authorize Google to display the data for your account.

The categories shown may or may not be consistent with your expectations.

You can take advantage of these categories in the following ways:

• Learn more about them to understand behavior.
• Share this data with those who run paid search or social media campaigns and write content targeted to specific audiences.
• Compare the segments with each other.

Finding opportunities to utilize specific audiences and market segments is powerful in the following situations Adjust your content strategy.

This data provides many options for adding dimensions and slicing and dicing views. Taking some time to delve into the following may be a good starting point:

• Who is your current audience.
• How do they convert.
• You should prioritize your work in the field of digital marketing.

5. Benchmark Test-Channel

If you have ever wondered or been asked how your website performance compares to others in your industry, benchmark reports are a hidden gem that can help.

You can select some very detailed industry verticals, and see how your website compares between different channels in the standard Google Analytics traffic metrics.

If you are struggling to determine how to do this, this is important data for setting baselines and establishing goals.

It may be more helpful and fun to put some real competitive goals in place instead of looking inward or setting goals that may be unrealistic.

6. User Flow

This report has left me stunned for a long time. At first glance, it looks very busy and difficult to decipher.

However, give it a moment, then use the zoom slider and move it around the page. Also, use the drop-down menu above the first column to change the dimension you want to view.

Once you get the hang of it, this page can provide some reliable insights, and you must drill down in other reports to get the same information.

In the event of an accident, looking at how your users browse the site in general and popular paths can lead to further investigation.

You can also view patterns and trends in the user journey to help you shape your content to shape the path changes over time.

7. Website content-landing page

Although very basic, this report is often overlooked.

Knowing the top landing pages of your website can help verify and connect the dots between specific marketing efforts, organic search, viral content, and more.

By using the dimension tool, you can also view the source of each page and quickly understand what brings the most traffic to that page.

For SEO, you want to confirm that over time, you will get a diverse set of landing pages based on optimization strategies.

Most likely you are not trying to drive all traffic to and through the homepage.

You want to have as many landing pages as entry points so that you can access the most relevant traffic on the topic through them.

8. Website search-search terms

Although most content management systems and e-commerce platforms provide reports on terms searched through the on-site search function, Google Analytics can help you dig deeper.

With the Google Analytics search terms report, you can see the same terms that your web platform might show you.

From there, you can also apply all the typical Google Analytics dimensions and view more information about user sources, behavior, and their behavior on the site in a broader and detailed manner.

You can then use this data for UX, CRO, and other improvements to make content easier to find and ensure that your searches work as expected.

9. Multi-channel funnel-assisted conversion

In many cases (if not most cases), potential customer submissions or e-commerce purchase goal conversions will not occur on the first visit. It is powerful to be able to attribute the visit to the visit before the converted visit occurs.

Google Analytics provides assisted conversion reports to show us how each channel can participate in the journey without being responsible for the actual conversion visit.

In some cases, you will see the same channels as most last-click conversions. However, it is important to be able to give due credit.

For example, you may be preparing to cancel certain channels such as social, because it will not bring any potential customers or revenue.

But assisted conversion reports (and other reports that show user paths and journeys) may tell you other things.

The important part of setting up revenue tracking is that you can see the dollar amount associated with a particular traffic and the value of assists to help complete the transaction.

10. Multi-channel funnel-the main conversion path

Going further than assisted conversions, we can see aggregated data showing the most popular channel combinations and orders that lead to conversions in the customer journey.

This is yet another effective way to see how channels work together and the revenue generated from it.

11. Attribution-model comparison tool

For a long time, attribution has been the biggest concern of digital marketers.

Google Analytics provides a tool to compare different models, such as the default model for the first click and the last click. You can even find other models, import them, and then create your own models to meet your business needs.

Understanding the existence of this report and how different models display your data is an important first step Google Analytics provides us.

in conclusion

There are many reasons why we don’t have time to use Google Analytics and have all the reports and data it has.

I am not saying that you need to invest a lot of new time there.

However, I do want you to take a moment to consider reports that you may not know or may not currently use.

There are many great ways to integrate this data into a third-party reporting platform, or find you in a custom dashboard.

I just want to work smarter, not harder. Make sure you have all the information related to your business or organization.

Don’t ignore less-used or known reports in GA, because there is a lot of power in understanding more customer journeys, behaviors, and acquisitions to set new goals and shape your future.

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