It Slices, It Dices . . Google Analytics Advanced Segments!

This post is part of an ongoing series about getting the most out of Google Analytics. If you’d like to start with the basics, read Intro to Google Analytics or Understanding your Audience through Analytics. Or, check out all of My Posts on Google Analytics.

Don’t be dismayed by the naming, Google Analytics advanced segments are really easy to use! They’re a simple way to segment your data and get more out of the reports you already use. A lot of people miss that they’re there (or think that Advanced means that they’re only for advanced users). Take a look at a few examples and you’ll see how easy and powerful this feature is.

On most reports in Google Analytics, you’ll see a button for Advanced Segments right under the title of the report. Just click that button and you’ll see a list of check boxes.

These are segments that Google Analytics gives you by default that can be applied to different reports. For example, you can take a chart of average visit duration and segment it into New Visitors and Returning Visitors, and see an interesting comparison on the engagement of your repeat traffic versus new traffic.

Or if you’re looking at page load times, you can segment them into all visits and mobile device visits, which can be useful for mobile optimization.

Another useful way to use Advanced Segments for mobile optimization is to look at your report of top content and segment into mobile traffic versus all traffic. You might see some pages have a much higher bounce rate for mobile devices than users on a full computer. Maybe those pages need some tweaks to make the experience better for mobile visitors.

The Advanced Segments that are there for you by default are:

All visits
New visitors
Returning visitors
Paid search traffic
Non-paid search traffic
Search traffic
Direct traffic
Referral traffic
Visits with conversions
Visits with transactions
Mobile traffic
Tablet traffic
Non-bounce visits

You can use up to 4 segments at once. The combinations are endless, but it doesn’t take any more effort than clicking a check box on and off. So, step out of your box and see how you can use advanced segments on one of your favorite reports.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alissa Ruehl

Alissa Ruehl has been using Google Analytics since the first weeks it came out as a Google product. Through consulting, webinars, and conferences, she has helped hundreds of people at a variety of organizations and companies navigate Google Analytics and use it to refine their online marketing and website effectiveness. She currently uses her analysis skills as a senior user researcher on the Blackbaud products side, but she loves re-immersing herself the world of website analytics for her monthly Google Analytics blog posts. The only thing Alissa likes talking about more than data is food, but that’s a whole other blog.