A Strategist’s Favorite Measurements in Google Analytics

Marissa Dilione - February 12, 2021

As a Client Strategist, I find myself spending 50% of my time in Google Analytics analyzing the data to identify additional opportunities for my clients. There is so much to review and there is always something to learn from each unique metric. Below are a few of my favorite measurements that I look for when diving in.

New vs Returning Visitors

This comparison tool allows you to understand the level of new traffic visiting your site vs. repeat guests’ volume. Depending on your business’s objective to either grow your prospective audience, maintain your existing audience or both, this report helps summarize this info quickly. You can find this in two ways within the platform, depending on your preference.

1. Audience>Overview – this displays as a pie graph to visualize the differentiation in the volume of each audience.
2. Audience>Behavior>New vs. Returning – this displays in more of a table format with other metrics segmented per audience.

Devices

I love the device breakdown available in Google Analytics because you can use it to optimize paid advertising campaigns and gain insight into your website’s user experience within these different environments. For example, suppose you notice more conversions are being made on mobile. In that case, this is an excellent opportunity to ensure your paid ads are primarily shown on this device by making the appropriate bid adjustments. If conversions are lacking on mobile, this could indicate that your user experience may need to be enhanced. This can be found within Analytics by navigating to Audience>Mobile>Overview.

Top Content

The All Pages report is my third favorite report to analyze in GA. This is where you can see a breakdown of all website pages and how they resonate with your audience in terms of Sessions, Average Session Duration, and Bounce Rate. The All Pages Report helps gauge what blog pages are getting the most traffic or what main pages may need to be optimized further for SEO or UX. You can find this report under the Behavior>Site Content>All Pages.

If you find navigating Google Analytics is proving to be a bit challenging to identify your data trends, please let us know.