Christian Moist

Advanced Segments in Google Analytics

Recently, a new feature was implemented to all of my Google Analytics accounts. Advanced Segmenting is still in the beta stage, but it's there, none-the-less, thanks in part to Googles analytics evangelist, Avinash Kaushik. Out of the box, Advanced Segmenting supplies several 'standard' segments, including new and returning visitors, paid and non-paid visitors, search, referral and direct traffic, as well as traffic with conversions. These are great to get you started, but the option is also available to create your own segment, which is where the fun begins.

I've found it handy to do things like divide paid traffic into specific channels, such as paid keywords and CSE traffic, using referral path as a dimension. This seems to work well, as these sites normally wouldn't send traffic to my sites, unless I've hired them to do so. Another idea is correlating specific dimensions to site goals.

The drag and drop Advanced Segment Creator is very simple to use. You're able to select from many dimensions and many metrics and use 'and' and 'or' logic.

Google slates this addition as an "enterprise-class feature". I tend to agree and think that steps like this will bring Google closer and closer to solutions like Omniture. Go Google!

Labels: Analytics, Marketing

Posted by Christian on Nov 9, 2008 at 6:51 PM | Permalink 1 comments