Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Over the past year we’ve added many new features to Google Analytics. Today we are releasing all of this data in the Core Reporting API!


Custom Dimensions and Metrics

We're most excited about the ability to query for custom dimensions and metrics using the API.

Developers can use custom dimensions to send unique IDs into Google Analytics, and then use the core reporting API to retrieve these IDs along with other Google Analytics data.

For example, your content management system can pass a content ID as a custom dimension using the Google Analytics tracking code. Developers can then use the API to get a list of the most popular content by ID and display the list of most popular content on their website.

Mobile Dimensions and Metrics

We've added more mobile dimensions and metrics, including those found in the Mobile App Analytics reports:

  • ga:appId
  • ga:appVersion
  • ga:appName
  • ga:appInstallerId
  • ga:landingScreenName
  • ga:screenDepth
  • ga:screenName
  • ga:exitScreenName
  • ga:timeOnScreen
  • ga:avgScreenviewDuration
  • ga:deviceCategory
  • ga:isTablet
  • ga:mobileDeviceMarketingName
  • ga:exceptionDescription
  • ga:exceptionsPerScreenview
  • ga:fatalExceptionsPerScreenview

Some examples of questions this new data can answer are:

Local Currency Metrics

If you are sending Google Analytics multiple currencies, you now have the ability to access the local currency of the transactions with this new data:

  • ga:currencyCode
  • ga:localItemRevenue
  • ga:localTransactionRevenue
  • ga:localTransactionShipping
  • ga:localTransactionTax

Time Dimensions

We also added new time based dimensions to simplify working with reporting data:

  • ga:dayOfWeekName
  • ga:dateHour
  • ga:isoWeek
  • ga:yearMonth
  • ga:yearWeek

Sample queries:

Traffic Source Dimensions

Finally, we've added two new traffic source dimensions, including one to return the full URL of the referral.

  • ga:fullReferrer
  • ga:sourceMedium

Sample query: the top 10 referrers based on visits (using full referrer).

For a complete list of the new data, take a look at the Core Reporting API changelog.
For all the data definitions, check the Core Reporting API Dimensions and Metrics explorer.
As always, you can check out this new data directly within our Query Explorer tool.
We’re very excited to release this data and thrilled to see what developers build next!

Posted by Srinivasan Kannan & Pete Frisella, Google Analytics API Team

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Advertisers like to see reports in Analytics which are fresh - reflecting their up-to-the-minute AdWords settings - and consistent with the AdWords reporting. Today, Google Analytics is excited to announce that it is rolling out a new AdWords integration infrastructure for our advertisers to realize these benefits. More importantly, the new integration is laying a foundation for adding new AdWords dimensions quickly -  such as Ads - and paving the path for a rich set of reports such as enhanced campaign bid adjustments and Google Display Network targeting settings. Highlighted below are a few ways in which the new platform will start impacting AdWords reports in Google Analytics.

Improved data freshness and consistency
With the new infrastructure, reports will reflect the most recent AdWords settings such as campaign or ad_group names keeping them fresh and consistent with AdWords. In the example below, a user has renamed their campaign thrice from “Big Deal”   “Big Deals”   “Big Deal - Car Accessories”. In the current reports, visits are attributed to the three different campaign names while clicks are attributed to the newest campaign name. After this change,  both visits and clicks metrics would be associated with the most recent campaign name: “Big Deal - Car Accessories”, thus collapsing multiple rows into a single row.

Current Behavior
Campaign
Visits
Impressions
Clicks
Big Deal
542
0
0
Big Deals
381
0
0
Big Deal - Car Accessories
72
68724
1023

New Behavior
Campaign
Visits
Impressions
Clicks
Big Deal - Car Accessories
995
68724
1023

Laying the foundation for richer reporting
The new integration is laying the foundation for adding new AdWords dimensions quickly and for creating new reports with speed. Very soon, advertisers would be able to access reports based on their Enhanced Campaigns’ targeting settings; reports containing rich information to help fine tune ads targeting settings and bid adjustments for improved ROI (Return On Investment).

Show and hide AdWords data via linking
The new integration allows users to show or hide data for auto-tagged AdWords accounts by linking or unlinking the account to a profile. If a user un-links an Adwords account from a profile, all historical data pertaining to the account would be hidden by rolling them up into (not set).

Over the next few weeks, the new AdWords integration platform will be rolled out to GA accounts gradually.

Posted by Narendra Singhal, Google Analytics Team

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Webinar on Tuesday 7/16
Register for the webinar here.

When it comes to web analytics, one of the biggest complaints from marketers has long been the lack of technology to measure the ROI of social media. Thanks to our exciting integration between Google Analytics and Wildfire by Google that was first announced at thinkDoubleClick in June, those blind spots are now a thing of the past. This webinar will demonstrate how social media impacts the customer journey and then show you how Google Analytics lets you measure that influence in detail.


We’ll start by showing you the best way to set up your modeling and reporting to include all your social marketing efforts. Then we’ll give you a live demo of the Google Analytics integration with Wildfire. Now you’ll be able to see exactly how each and every social message and page published with Wildfire drives traffic and revenue to your website.

The webinar features Adam Singer, Product Marketing Manager for Google Analytics and Jessica Gilmartin, the Head of Product Marketing for Wildfire by Google. They’ll be joined by Adam Kuznia, Social Media Manager for Maryland Live! Casino, who will share the story of how he built the gaming industry’s largest East Coast social media community from scratch in just six months using Wildfire and Google Analytics, and proved to his management team the ROI of social.

This webinar is Part 1 of a three-part educational series introducing Google and Wildfire analytics integrations, so be sure not to miss it.

Date: Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Time: 10am PDT / 1pm EDT/ 5pm GMT
Duration: 1 hr

Level: 101 / Beginner

Register here.