Most Google analytics reports follow the same concept: The top part shows you your data on a given time-line and on the bottom you see the same data broken down into different dimensions. But until now there was no way to see on the same graphic, just how these different segments behaved over time. That’s where advanced segments come in.
The setup
Google Analytics comes with a few predefined segments that can be applied to reports, such as “new visitors”, “returning visitors” or “direct traffic” and “referral traffic”. But to unleash the full power of advanced segments you must create your own segments.
Similar to the setup of custom reports it is a rather easy process. From a list of dimensions (what you will mostly use here) and metrics, you simply pick one, drag it into its spot in the user interface and define the desired condition. Google makes it easy for you because the drop down menu is pre-populated with data that fits your report.
One of the segments I created for this exercise is called “visit with more than 4 page views”. The definition is: Page depth is greater than 4. Another example would be: “Country matches exactly Canada”. Nothing scary, but the possibilities are endless.
The creation of advanced segments is a rather easy thing to do.
Segments applied
Applying these segments to a report is straight forward as well. You can apply a custom segment in the top right corner of each report. Simply click the pull-down menu “All visits” and check off the predefined segments or your custom segments.
The nice part is that you can apply these custom segments to your custom reports. And you can drill down your custom dimensions.
In my example, I want to look at the quality of visits in some recent visitor increase and compare it between selected countries. As long as you select only one segment, Google does not only show the two segments on the time-line, but calculates also the percentage for each dimension.
Our example compares the segment "Viewed more than 4 pages" with all visitors and you can quickly see that the visitor spike did not bring in any quality links...
Endless combinations
Think about other combinations: by creating several country specific segments (users from Canada, users from France and users from United States) and applying them to the "Visitor - Depth of Visit" report, you can quickly see which country brings you more quality vists.
Custom reports and advanced segments are providing a tool-box for endless combinations. Since every dimension is available to define the conditions for segments, you can now see in the darkest corners of your visitor data. Almost scary. Probably fun. Definitely useful.