Google officially announced upgrades to Google Analytics today via their blog here. The impressive list of new features and the timing of the announcement should be very interesting to marketers considering upgrading or choosing another web analytics solution. Basically, Google is offering some very compelling reasons to stick with what’s working…at a great price point! ($0).
A brief summary of enhancements being added in the coming weeks, which will be available to all Google Analytics users…is outlined below. The full list of new features includes: custom reporting, advanced segmentation, motion charts, as well as integration with AdSense, and a beta API.
New Google Analytics Features:
Advanced Segmentation: This enhancement enables a user to analyze subsets of site traffic based on data variables and visitor segements, such as Paid traffic or Visits with Conversions. (Custom segments can be created using a drag-and drop interface). The segments you create can also be compared to historical data or to segment preformance in side-by-side reports, as well.
Custom Reporting: This allows a user to create, save, and edit reports with custom variables viewable on the axes of graphs. The customization also allows tabbed sub reports to be created that can show related data for a specific variable.
Motion Charts: This is advanced visualization feature adds multi-dimensionsal analysis to most reports (not sure which reports would not be applicable). Using specific metrics for each axis, along with bubble size and color, a user can analyze how data points interact and change over time. By comparing metrics over time, this allows a marketer to view relationships that might not be evident in traditional reports.
The video below gives a great introduction to the Motion Chart (my personal favorite) feature available in the upgraded Google Analytics solution.
These new enterprise-level enhancements should satisfy many of the needs of more sophisticated marketers and create more actionable data to drive online marketing in 2009. I’ll be checking the discussion forum here to gauge what users think as these enhancements roll-out over the next few weeks and months.
Seminars are currently offered in two areas: AdWords and Analytics. AdWords Seminars are designed to teach you how to manage your AdWords account more effectively by covering topics from best practices on account setup to bidding and campaign management strategies. Analytics Seminars will help you better leverage the insights found in your Analytics report by covering topics such as setup tips, best practices, and analysis techniques. Seminar leaders will use in-depth course materials, hands-on exercises and valuable tips from their years of managing AdWords and Analytics accounts to teach you how to achieve your goals.