What is a metric in google analytics? There are a lot of metrics on Google Analytics. Understanding them all is not effective, but understanding some of the most important ones is.
What is a Metric in Google Analytics?
Dimensions and segments in GA help you drill down on data after you have identified important metrics.
When working with Google Analytics it is likely that you will see the term “Metric” being used throughout the interface.
Understanding what a metric is in Google Analytics can help give an entire new meaning to the data you are looking at and how you apply your action plan to increase revenue or reduce costs.
Google Analytics is a powerful marketing tool that allows us to track, analyze and optimize the traffic to our websites. In order to take full advantage of it, we need to learn how to calculate metrics, use dimensions and create segments.
Metrics are the most important factor in Google Analytics, as they are what define our goals and allow us to follow their progress.
Metrics are individual elements that combine to create a report.
What is a metric in google analytics?
When you look at a report in Google Analytics, you’re seeing a combination of metrics and dimensions. Metrics are individual elements that combine to create a report.
For example, when you view the “Users” report in the Audience section of Analytics, each number displayed is considered a metric. The entire report itself is made up of two metrics: New Users and Users.
Each metric represents a type of data that you receive from your site or app.
Metrics can be simple numbers or figures, but they can also be percentages, averages, or the sum of other numbers – for example Users is an aggregate calculation that combines New Users and Returning Users (Total Users = New + Returning).
There are three different types of measurements in Google Analytics.
There are three different types of measurements in Google Analytics:
- Dimensions: A dimension is a descriptive characteristic that you want to measure, such as page or source/medium. Each row of data in the report is a unique combination of values for the dimensions described on the left-hand side.
- Metrics: A metric is an individual element that can be analyzed, such as visitors or bounces. Each column represents a metric (a number), and every report shows at least one metric column. Typically, each row of data has multiple metrics on it. For example, if you look at Users by Browser in the Acquisition section, you’ll see rows with unique values for the Browser dimension and columns for Users (a number) and percentage (%) of total users for each browser type.
- Segments: A segment is a subset of sessions or users who perform certain actions on your site when visiting it or who have specific characteristics (such as being from a particular city). This option allows you to compare two groups within your overall audience and find out what they do differently so that you can cater more to people who aren’t taking action or spending money on your website.
Metrics can be simple numbers or figures, but they can also be percentages, averages, or the sum of other numbers.
What is a metric in google analytics?
- Metrics are the basic building blocks of reports.
- They fall into two categories: simple and calculated.
- Simple metrics are just numbers or figures, while calculated metrics are percentages, averages, or the sum of other numbers.
Some examples of a metric include:
- Total sessions (simple)
- Average session duration (calculated)
- Percentage new sessions (calculated)
Each metric represents a type of data that you receive from your site and it is measured at a specific point in time.
What is a metric in google analytics?
Metrics are the quantitative measurements of users and their behavior on your site. Each metric represents a type of data that you receive from your site and it is measured at a specific point in time.
You can view each metric individually, or in combination with other metrics. The standard Google Analytics reports are built using metrics, so all of the data in the reports corresponds to a specific metric type.
You can also use metrics to create your own custom reports.
Google Analytics provides a set of default metrics for all web properties. You can also create your own custom metrics to build customized reports.
You can view metrics individually or you can use multiple metrics on each report.
How metrics differ from dimensions
Metrics are individual elements that can be combined to create a report. Think of metrics as the details you want to measure about your website and its visitors. Metrics in Google Analytics fall into one of three different categories:
Simple Metrics – Simple metrics are just that, simple numbers or figures. For example, Pageviews is a simple metric because it does not require any calculation beyond simply counting the number of pages viewed on your site during the reporting period.
Calculated Metrics – Calculated metrics use other metrics in their calculations. For example, Transactions per Session (which divides Transactions by Sessions) is a calculated metric that uses the metrics Transactions and Sessions.
This type of metric is especially useful when you want to simplify complex data into something more easily digestible or quickly understood.
Currency Metric – Currency metrics are also calculated metrics but they represent monetary values rather than quantities or averages. For example, Revenue (which totals all transaction amounts) is a currency metric.
Metrics are numerical quantities that are tracked by the analytics platform and displayed in reports to show the activity of your website.
What is a metric in google analytics?
Metrics are numerical quantities that are tracked by the analytics platform and displayed in reports to show the activity of your website.
Metrics are used to help you understand your website’s performance, and because they’re data-based, they can be quantified and compared to other time periods or against goals.
A good example of a metric is pageviews. If you have 100 pageviews on one day, those 100 pageviews are a metric for that day.
If you had 75 pageviews the previous day, now you know that you had 25 more pageviews this day than on the previous day.
Conclusion
What is a metric in google analytics?
It depends what you mean by “metric”. If you mean the generic definition of a measurement, like an average, this is not possible.
The analytics dashboard in GA is aimed at helping people to understand large amounts of data, so your reporting can be more meaningful. However, if you are referring to dimensions and segments, then yes, there are metrics available within GA.
Now that you understand the three types of Google Analytics measurement, you’re able to analyze and interpret GA data to find more about your website’s traffic.
The more time you invest into understanding your analytics and tracking down the information you need, the more value you get out of GA.
The key is knowing what type of measurements are available (dimensions, metrics, and segments), which are relevant to your website, then setting up the correct tracking to gather them.
