Tutorial: Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics, Part 2: Conversion Segments

MoreVisibility - September 6, 2011

About a week and a half ago, we blogged about the new Multi-Channel Funnels reporting suite in the new version of Google Analytics. If you didn’t catch it last time, read that blog post first before continuing with this blog post.

Today, we’re going to kick it up a few notches and showcase one of the two powerful, advanced features of this amazing new functionality known as Conversion Segments. Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics, by itself, is fantastic. Therefore, what would you call Multi-Channel Funnels, given the fact that you can apply default or customize conversion segments for in-depth insights, analysis, and outcomes? Super-fantastic? Hyper-awesome?

Get ready to come up with some hyphenated-adjectives.

Applying Conversion Segments to your Multi-Channel Funnels Reports

In our last blog post, we showed you how Multi-Channel Funnels work, as well as what assists, paths, and time lag were and how they are incorporated into this new reporting section.

Like all data that you see in your Google Analytics account, you are viewing the entire set of collected conversion and Multi-Channel Funnel data when you log-in to your account and click over to this section. Just like you would apply an advanced segment in a standard Google Analytics report to extract valuable insights and perform great analysis, you can apply the equivalent of the Multi-Channel Funnels report section, which are known as Conversion Segments.

At the top of all reports in Multi-Channel Funnels, you’ll see the following Conversion Segments drop-down button as shown in this image:

Upon clicking on the Conversion Segments button, you’ll find nine default conversion segments and check boxes next to each one, which allow you to compare up to four conversion segments simultaneously (just like you can compare up to four advanced segments in the standard Google Analytics reports):

For those of you familiar with advanced segments, you’ll recognize the next screen-shot, which shows a comparison between three conversion segments (First Interaction is Paid Advertising; First Interaction is Direct; and First Interaction is Organic Search):

You can always “un-compare” the conversion segments and view conversion data for all traffic by re-tracing your steps and leaving only All Conversions selected (look at the screen-shot from two images ago).

Creating a New Conversion Segment

On the right-hand side of the drop-down table that appears when you click on the Conversion Segments button, you see a large space underneath a heading of User-Defined Segments. This will be the place where you can come to access and apply any Custom Conversion Segments that you’ve created. In this same area, notice the Create New Conversion Segment link, in blue. You’ll want to click on this link to do exactly what it says.

Again, if you’ve ever created a custom advanced segment, the following procedure should be very familiar to you. With a Custom Conversion Segment, you define the rules for what Google Analytics should show you, when applied within Multi-Channel Funnels.

First, give your Conversion Segment a name. Then, you’ll have to answer some questions about how you want your conversion data to appear. Before we cover that, refer to this next screen-shot to follow along:

After giving your Conversion Segment a name, indicate whether your segment will include (keep) or exclude (remove) the data based upon the rules that you’re going to create. Then select the conversion path type that this segment will be applied to (you can choose from types such as Any Interaction, First Interaction, Conversion Value, and more). After that, select the dimension that you’d like this conversion segment to be integrated with (several dimensions are available, like Source, Medium, Keyword, Campaign, Display URL, and others).

Following that, choose a criteria (Will this segment start with something? Will it end with something? Will it match a regular expression?). Next, select a frequency (Example: did this occur more than 1 time? Did this happen less than 5 times? Most of the time you’ll leave this to say “Greater Than 0 Times”, but you can get creative if you wish).

For the majority of the Custom Conversion Segments you create, you’ll stop here, but there will be times where you’ll want to add conditional “or / and” statements to add inclusion criteria to your new segment.

When you’re finished, hit Save Segment at the bottom of this table. You’ll see your new conversion segment in action, as it compares to all of your conversion traffic (Side Note: 13% of my conversions include keywords containing the word “the”. How insightful is that?).

That pretty much covers our tutorial on Conversion Segments within Multi-Channel Funnels, but keep checking our blog regularly, as we still have another great, in-depth tutorial of another feature built within Multi-Channel Funnels to review.

In the meantime, log-in to your Google Analytics account and start interacting with Conversion Segments today!