New Google Analytics Features Unveiled

October 20, 2009Joe Christopher

Several Blast team members attended the Google Analytics Authorized Consultant Summit (GAAC) last week. The rollout of new Google Analytics features is one of my favorite take-aways –  other than having a great time at the Googleplex.  Google provided us with a glimpse of the new GA features, but we had to keep our lips sealed under NDA . However, they announced the new Google Analytics features today. (Read their blog for the juicy details.)  Below are some of our favorite features:

Expanded Goals & Site Engagement Goals

Google Analytics offers two new goal types – time on site and pages per visit – to enhance functionality.  Additionally, you can now have up to 20 goals in each profile. Yes! UP TO 20 GOALS!! You will no longer have to create 5 new profiles to track 20 goals!

Multiple Custom Variables

You can now segment different variables at the page, session, and visitor-level. Previously, you were limited to one custom variable/segment.  Using these variables, you’ll be able to further segment your metrics against very specific visitor types. Multiple custom variables enables you to get down to the nitty gritty of understanding your audience!

Analytics Intelligence

New GA features make you smarter! Analytics Intelligence provides automatic alerts of significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics and dimensions over daily, weekly and monthly periods.  You’ll spend less time monitoring your analytics manually and have more time to do things like increasing your conversion.

Custom Alerts

Now you can create custom alerts to tell GA what to watch out for. Essentially turn Google Analytics into a data body guard! Receive alerts via email and in the GA interface when an event is triggered. You can set up insightful alerts of what is happening on your site, so you don’t miss anything on those busy days you forget to log in.

For example: Setup an ecommerce alert of a min/max threshold to get notified of a great sales day or a very low sales day.  There are a lot of possibilities for this with access to 11 dimensions and 18 metrics.

The new Google Analytics features demonstrate Google is positioning this platform as a “powerful, flexible, and intelligent” enterprise-level analytics platform.  Many of the previous shortcomings are addressed. It’s obvious that Google is dedicating resources towards continued improvements and features in its GA product.

This impressive list of new features is a great reminder to jump back into your own site’s analytics to discover the possibilities of what can and should be tracked for your business.  Blast Advanced Media offers Google consulting services to help you properly configure and analyze what site visitors are doing, finding and not finding on your site. Now, Google Analytics helps your site speak to you, so you can use that knowledge to increase conversions, pageviews, and revenue.

About the Author

Joe Christopher

As Vice President of Analytics at Blast Analytics, Joe leads a team of talented analytics consultants responsible for helping clients understand and take action on their vast amounts of data, to continuously improve and EVOLVE their organizations. With over 20 years of experience in analytics and digital marketing, Joe offers a high-level of knowledge and guidance to clients across all industries. He is an expert in all major analytics platforms including Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics, as well as various tag management systems such as Tealium and Adobe Launch. He also consults on data visualization, data governance, and data quality strategies. Having extensive expertise in many areas, has enabled Joe to become a well known thought leader and speak at industry events such as Tealium’s Digital Velocity series. Joe remains on the pulse of various information technology, programming languages, tools and services, keeping Blast and its clients on the leading edge.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn. Joe Christopher has written 51 posts on the Blast Digital Customer Experience and Analytics Blog.