Custom Reports in Google Analytics

Customised reports help us to concentrate data and summarise it in a way that helps us to analyse the data we are really interested in. Stop using the reports you find by default, and start configuring Google Analytics reports with the desired metrics.

Let’s start: Google Analytics has its interface with standard reports structured in the following categories:

1. Real-Time report reflects the real-time data of a Web page. For example, we can know the number of users on our website at this time.
2. Audience, reports data on users: Recurring users vs. new users, users per device, city, sex…
3. Acquisition, allows us to know where the traffic from our website comes from, as well as the results of the campaigns Tagged, Adwords and social media.
4. Behavior, with this report we can know the most visited pages of our website and everything related to it: loading speed of the site, searches on the site, events…
5. Conversions, is the most relevant report if you have an ecommerce, because it reflects the data on multichannel funnels, targets and e-commerce.

As we see, with these reports we obtain a large volume of data but do we need to know all this data? Probably not. It is for this reason that in Digital Menta We recommend you to generate Personalized Reports in Google Analytics that are going to save us time and we will be able to know that information that really contributes value to us. To establish the metrics and dimensions that really interest you in your day to day, identify the objective and who will use the information, this will allow you to define the format and data you need.

Once the report is made, daily, weekly or monthly you can export the data in Excel or PDF and work with them as you consider.

How to create a custom Google Analytics report step by step

As we have commented, the personalized reports provide a great autonomy. To Create Them, we entered our Google Analytics account, in the section Personalization-> custom Reports and click on + New Custom Report.

As we see in the picture, the report is structured in the following way:

1. Title of the report. We recommend you to put a title as descriptive as possible so that it is easy for you to quickly identify the report. For example, “Ecommerce Transactions Report”.

2. Name Report tab. We can create multiple tabs to segment the data and each tab can have a report type: browser, single table, or site-by-page chart.

3. Type of report. Google Analytics allows us to view the data in 3 different ways:
   • Browser, is a standard report in which we see a graph and the data structured in a table. By default, it shows the first dimension and we can add secondary dimensions.
   • Single Table, is a report in which we only obtain data, without graphics, and it shows them in rows. In this report, we look at all the dimensions we have chosen.
   • Chart of visits by location, shows the data in a map by countries and cities according to the geographical location that we have used. The visitor data are indicated by colors.

4. Groups of metrics. In the group of metrics we select the data that we want to see in the report, that will go according to the type of business.  Imagine an ecommerce, we can create a results report with two groups of metrics:

• E-commerce, to measure income, average order value and quantity of products purchased. To do this, select the following metrics:
  • Quantity of Products purchased
  • Unique Purchases
  • Income
  • Revenue per User
  • Percentage of e-commerce conversions
  • Average order Value
• Users, with the following metrics:
  • Sessions
  • Users
  • New Users
  • % of new sessions
  • Average time on the page
  • Rebounds

5. Breakdown of dimensions. In this section, we select the dimensions that we want to know. Continuing with the previous example, in the case of my ecommerce I want to cross the previously commented metrics with users by country, city and device.

In the following image, we look at the case study discussed with the type of Explorer report:

6. It is optional, and it helps us to focus the analysis on a particular aspect, for example, to know the data for a specific target page.
7. Views. It is optional, we can choose which views the custom report will be applied to.

And once all these aspects have been established, we already have the custom report!

Following the example discussed above, the data that would report to us for the type of the file explorer.

As we see in the report in the boxes indicated, we can change or combine data:

• Date: Allows you to select the period you want to analyze.
• Add a segment: In case you want to focus the data even more.
• At the top, we observed marked “Users”, in this case we see the metrics of users established in the commented example. To see the “e-commerce” metrics, we would just have to click on the tab.
• In the graph above, we can combine sessions with another of the user metrics set in the example.
• Finally, we see the primary dimension that we can combine with secondary dimensions.

Finally, you can share your report with another user by entering your e-mail, as long as you have access to the property and you can save and export the report in Excel, CSV, Google spreadsheet or PDF to work in the most comfortable way possible.

And now it’s your turn! Would you like to create a custom report in Google Analytics?