Google Analytics 101: Flows

This is the third part in our Google Analytics 101 series. This introductory series will help novice Google Analytics users learn how to set up and view goals, funnels and flows.

Intro to Google Analytics Flows

The flow report is one of the newer reports available in Google Analytics. At its basics, the flow report is a path analysis report and provides greater detail than the Navigation Summary and Funnel Visualization reports in Google Analytics.

There are two ways to view flow reports:

Goal Flow Report

The first method is viewing a flow report in terms of a goal funnel that has already been created.  After creating a goal funnel, the flow report can be accessed here: Conversions > Goals > Goal Flow.

The Goal Flow report will show the user flow through the steps in your funnel, and allows you to view multiple paths, visitor detours, backtracking, entrances, and exits.

Visitor Flow Report

The second way to view a flow report is to access the report so that it contains all the data in your Google Analytics account. This is accessible here: Audience > Visitors Flow.

The basic Visitor Flow view can be daunting with all the data it contains. You will probably want to refine the report by dimensions (sources, events, demographics, etc..), and by segments (either default or custom). Additionally, you can adjust the Level of Detail to view more or fewer connections in the report.

When viewing the report, right-click on each “node” or page/goal step to access multiple options you can dig into, including:

• Highlight traffic through here: Highlights the all the connections through the entire flow made by that traffic segment. To remove the highlight, click the node again, then click Clear highlighting.

• View only this segment (dimension nodes only): Only displays the traffic from that dimension/segment. Use the browser button or the breadcrumb to go back.

• Explore traffic through here: Shows all connections to and from the node. In this mode, you can add additional steps in the paths before and after the node. Use the browser button or the breadcrumb to go back.

• Group details: Displays the components, like individual pages or events, that are grouped together in that node. Also breaks out the top metrics for individual items.

Flow reports can take some learning, but they are worth it! Once you learn how to navigate the flow report with ease, it will provide you a great resource to understand the paths your visitors take.  We hope this has helped!

Google Analytics 101 – Funnels

This is the second part in our Google Analytics 101 series. This introductory series will help novice Google Analytics users learn how to set up and view goals, funnels and flows.

Intro to Google Analytics Funnels

When setting up a URL destination goal in Google Analytics, you have the option to create a funnel. A funnel is a series of pages you expect your site visitor  to visit before completing your goal.

By creating a funnel, you can analyze problems that may occur before a user reaches the goal. For example, you can see where visitors are departing the site in the course of your shopping cart checkout process.

Let’s say you have a checkout path that looks like this:

* Step 1:  /viewcart.html

* Step 2: /register.html

* Step 3:  /shipping.html

* Step 4:  /checkout.html

* Goal/Success page:   /thankyou.html

Here are the steps you would take to create a funnel for this checkout process:

1. Create a URL destination goal (see Goals 101 ), using the page a user sees after they purchase an item.  For this example, this it the “/thankyou.html” page.
2. Turn the funnel option on.
3. Enter the URLs along a path to goal completion that you would like to include in this funnel.  You can give each URL a descriptive name which will appear in goal funnel reports. Do not include the final Goal URL as that was entered in as the destination goal previously. There is an option to make each step Required. In most cases this is not needed. If you choose to make a step not required, then visitors can bypass this page and will still be measured as completing the funnel.
4. Click “Verify this Goal” which will help you identify if the goal is set up correctly. If there is no data, then you may have a typo in your URL.
5. Click “Create Goal”

Funnels are not applied retroactively, so you will need to wait until Google Analytics compiles data to view funnel reports in in Google Analytics.

With the funnel set up and data flowing, you now have access to basic funnel reporting:

• In the Goals dashboard, you can access the “Funnel Visualization” report. This report shows each step you created. In each step, you can see who entered and exited at each step, and how many users from the previous step made it into the next step.

We hope you have found this basic introduction to Google Analytics funnels helpful! Next in this series, we will go over the basics of Google Analytics Flow report.