Author Archive

In the past we've received a lot of feedback from our users who have implemented the _setVar method requesting that custom visitor segments not affect bounce rates. You've asked for it and we've listened! Today we're modifying this feature so that the _setVar method no longer counts as an interaction hit with the result that you may see higher bounce rates and more accurate time on page metrics in your reports.

As a refresher, Google Analytics calculates bounces and durations based upon interaction hits. Now, interaction hits will only include pageviews, events, transactions and experiments (such as with Google Website Optimizer). Here's more on how this change to the _setVar method could affect your data:

Higher bounce rates in your reports

Let's say that you've used the _setVar method on your landing pages to segment member vs. non-member site visitors. Previously, if a visitor came to your site and triggered the _setVar call, but viewed only one page, this would not be counted as a bounce. With this change the user defined call will not send an interaction hit and overall bounce rates will increase as this single page visit will now be counted as a bounce.

More accurate time on page metrics

Time on page metrics are normally counted by the difference in time stamps which are set by interaction hits. Prior to this change, using _setVar would cause Google Analytics to calculate the time on page metric between the time of the pageview hit and the interaction hit of the user defined variable. Now, as user-defined hits are no longer counted as an interaction hit, time on page metrics should more accurately reflect the time between one pageview and the next.

Posted by Dai Pham, Google Analytics Team

With the help of Google Analytics, Experience Project has maximized online advertising, delivered features users want, cued in on trends, and more. With such a powerful feedback loop, Experience Project will continue growing the community and positively impacting the human experience.
Posted by Melissa Hsieh, Google Analytics Team

Seminars for Success are day-long seminars designed to help you improve your online marketing and get the most out of Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer. We've selected industry professionals from our Google Analytics Authorized Consultant network to teach these seminars in cities around the U.S.

Google Analytics – Introduction & User Training

Wednesday, March 18 - Austin ,TX

Monday, March 23 - Philadelphia, PA

Walk away from day one with the knowledge to take actionable information out of Google Analytics and drive your business decisions. Day one topics include:

• Introduction to Web Analytics
• Common Interface Features
• Dashboard Reports & Customization
• Understanding Visitors
• Much, Much More…

Google Analytics – Advanced Technical Implementation

Thursday, March 19, Austin, TX

Tuesday, March 24- Philadelphia, PA

Day two takes you through Google Analytics configurations, best practices, filter set ups and advanced installs and implementations. Day two topics include:

• Profiles and Strategies
• Filters – Uses and Implementation
• Profile and Filter Combinations
• Goals & Funnels - Configuration & Setup
• And much, much more…

Landing Page Testing with Google Website Optimizer

Friday, March 20, Austin, TX only!

The Google Website Optimizer experts present this practical course taking you through the process of testing your site to improving your users’ experience and seeing your conversion rates soar. The course includes an overview of Website Optimizer, loads of testing best practices, and hands-on experience to better understand and run A/B and multivariate tests on your website and key landing pages.

Seats are limited, so register today!

Austin seminars for success

Philadelphia seminars for success

Posted by Eva Woo, Google Analytics Team

Imagine you're advertising on national television. You've selected several programs and networks that you think will deliver your message to the right audience. Now, wouldn't you want to know which of those target placements was most effective at driving traffic to your website? Well now it's even easier for Google Analytics and Google TV Ads advertisers to learn just that.
Here's more information on each of these enhancements:

New TV Ads metrics

The two new TV Ads metrics help you to understand full ad viewership with Viewed Entire Ads providing you an absolute number and % Initial Audience Retained providing this data expressed as a percentage.

• Viewed Entire Ad: The number of impressions tuned to your ad from beginning through to the end.

• % Initial Audience Retained: The proportion of the audience that was present at the beginning of the ad who then watched the entire airing to the end.

These two metrics are currently available in Report Center within AdWords, and we've now added them to the TV Campaigns report in Analytics. As always, Analytics provides powerful visualization tools. You can see TV campaign metrics alongside your website metrics to help you more easily identify which of your TV ad airings most effectively drove traffic to your website.

Hourly data reporting

One of TV advertisers' most requested features has been to view ad performance at an hourly level. Advertisers have been able to review TV campaign data at a daily, weekly and monthly level within Analytics. Today we've enhanced the TV Campaigns report to show metrics in hourly breakdowns. Simply click on the "Graph by Hourly" clock icon in the top right hand corner above the chart. This view makes it easier to attribute website metrics to specific TV ad airings.

Please note that the hourly display in Analytics is based on the specific time zone associated with your Analytics profile and AdWords account, while the TV Reports within AdWords will show the time of an ad airing based on the TV station's time zone. For example, if you live in San Francisco and have your AdWords account in the PST time zone but are airing an ad on the TV station's time zone of the East coast, the hourly data in your TV Campaigns report will be displayed based on PST.

A Google Analytics API has long been one of our most widely anticipated features. Today we're pleased to announce that the Google Analytics Data Export API beta is now publicly available to all Analytics users!

What's so exciting about an API? The API will allow developers to extend Google Analytics in new and creative ways that benefit developers, organizations and end users. Large organizations and agencies now have a standardized platform for integrating Analytics data with their own business data. Developers can integrate Google Analytics into their existing products and create standalone applications that they sell. Users could see snapshots of their Analytics data in developer created dashboards and gadgets. Individuals and business owners will have opportunities to access their Google Analytics information in a variety of new ways.

For example, how would you like to access Google Analytics from your phone? Now you can, with this Android application from Actual Metrics. How about accessing Analytics from your desktop? It's here from Desktop-Reporting.  

And if you're interested in seeing how integrating Google Analytics can enhance your own business take a look at these examples. MailChimp has integrated Google Analytics into their email marketing  platform and ShufflePoint® provides a service for adding Google Analytics data into PowerPoint® presentations. See how youcalc has created apps that allow you to mashup Google Analytics, AdWords, Salesforce.com and other enterprise data. 

Check out more customer examples on our developer site. These apps demonstrate only some of the creative possibilities and we know you'll discover other interesting ways to use the Analytics API.  

So, how does the API work?  

The Data Export API is easy to use and provides read-only access to all your Analytics data.  Any data that's available through the standard Analytics web interface is available through the API. The Analytics API is a Google Data API. This is the same API protocol for Google Calendar, Finance and Webmaster Tools.  If you've used any of these APIs, the Google Analytics Data Export API will look very familiar to you. 

For the JavaScript and Java programming languages, we've provided client libraries to abstract and simplify the process. We're also working on supporting more programming languages. In the meantime, for any programming language you want to use you can make requests directly to the API over HTTP and access the data in XML.  

How do I get started? 

There are three key resources you'll want to use when you start developing on top of the Google Analytics API.  First, all the documentation you need can be found on our Developer site at Google Code. Here you'll find example code, a developer guide, FAQ, and the complete API reference. 

Second, be sure to sign up for the Google Analytics API Notify email group so you get the key announcements on feature updates, code changes and other service related news that relate to the API. (Don't worry, this will be a low-traffic email list and we promise to only send emails when there is something important that affects developers.)  

Finally, you'll want to become a part of the Google Analytics developer community by joining the Google Analytics APIs Group. This user forum is a great way to share ideas and get feedback from other developers. We also check in on these forums so let us know what you think about the API there, and share your ideas and your applications with us. We look forward to seeing your creativity!

Posted by Nick Mihailovski and the Google Analytics API Team 

Do you have a Google Analytics account that:

For more information, please read this help center article on AdWords cost data importing.