Casually, you mentioned, over and over, again and again, at every conference and tradeshow where we met you, that advanced segmentation was a feature you'd love to see in Google Analytics. You shared your segmentation wishlist, and we found that after you showed us, we started dreaming about it too. You wanted to be able to:
Compare segments and key performance metrics side by side in reports Save the segments you create and apply them whenever you wish to any report Create new custom segments easily and say goodbye to RegEx We heard you, and we built all of these features, and we expect that they will make your life a lot easier and more informed. In fact, advanced segmentation is the
favorite new feature of Avinash, Analytics Evangelist at Google.
Select from predefined custom segments such as "Paid Traffic", "Visits with Conversions"or "New Visits" Use an autocomplete function and a drag and drop interface to easily create segments Apply a segment to all historical traffic For starters, what is a segment? How do I create an Advanced Segment? Simply select the segment or segments you want - in this case, we've selected two right off the bat: "New Visitors" and "Returning Visitors" - click "Apply" in the bottom right, and presto! The segments are applied to all of your reports. And you can un-apply them just as easily - by unchecking them in the drop down menu. Where do I see the segment in my reports? Once you apply a segment, you'll see it reflected throughout all reports in the profile. And just to mention it again, it acts upon all data -- even historical data. Don't worry about harming your data; there are no permanent segments.As you can see, the blue line denotes All Visitors, the orange line denotes New Visitors, and the green line is Returning Visitors. And the same segments are shown in the data below the graph. In addition, if you click on any other reports, such as Content or Goal Conversions, you'll be analyzing the same segments there as well. " link in the left navigation. Or you can go directly to the "Create a New Advanced Segment" page where you build your custom segment.this video to learn how it works, or read How do I create an Advanced Segment .
How does a segment help me? using filtered profiles to isolate segments of traffic. Setting up roughly 10 profiles and implementing a filter on each was a bit of a process, but a very handy one for testing theories and identifying specific segment behavior. Now, with Advanced Segmentation, you can do all this in a few mouseclicks, and without creating additional profiles. One technique for getting the most out of segments is to use them to test potential goals or campaigns. For instance, you can segment traffic to one page or even a funnel of pages leading to a potential goal page, and then look at all the metrics that brought traffic to that page, including new vs. returning visitors, incoming traffic sources, keywords, geographic locations, browser types, and more. Another segment you can create is one for branded keywords - ones that include your company name or core competency - to get a holistic sense of your business's web presence over time.
Another technique is to create simple segments and compare them, such as an organic search segment vs. a paid search segment to see what keywords you may want to buy, or which ones are bringing lots of high value organic traffic that you can drop from your pay-per-click keyword list.
Get specific!
Here's another simple, specific segment example. Call it "Engaged Visits" and segment as follows:
users who stayed on the site for longer than 30 seconds AND had more than 2 pageviews Here it is:
It's a simple segment which shows visitors who are engaged with the site, and not just clicking in and leaving. By analyzing these users you're able to see the keywords, traffic sources and geographic locations that bring engaged visits, as well as the content that they're interested in and the site searches they do. These visitors are, or will turn into, loyal, returning visits, an important segment for your business, especially in a down economy. If you are observant about what this segment is doing on your site, you can design for them, and keep them coming back. simplification of multi-variable analysis, including geographic, demographic and browsing behavior, Advanced Segmentation is a powerful and easy to use tool and we think a large segment of you will find it really, really useful AND easy to use AND fun to use OR illuminating. :-)Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team
