The ROI Revolution BlogUnderstanding Google Analytics' Data Over Time ReportNovember 1, 2006
The Analysis Options icon provides access to: That's actually the entirety of the article that deals with Analysis Options. That's it. There's nothing more. Which is unfortunate, because it's such a downright effective tool. I get a lot of questions about each Analysis Option, so I'm going to spend some time over the next couple weeks detailing each individual report. To start with, we'll go over Data Over Time. Contrary to the explanation given by Google, Data Over Time does more than display values "for the selected page" over time. You can also use it to measure visitor segments, campaign conversion rates, average revenue, and product performance, all over a customized period of time. This is very useful for trending, and for a quick at-a-glance view of your site's performance over the days and months. So let's say I'm interested in finding out how a specific product line has performed over the year to date. I can browse to my E-Commerce Analysis > Product Merchandising > Product Categories report and get a list of all product categories. At the top of my list is my top product line, Cheddar, followed by Brie, Feta, Mozzarella, Fondue, and Gruyère:
For those of you not in the know when it comes to cheese, Gruyère is a hard cheese commonly used as a fondue ingredient. In the case of my online cheese store, we used to have a prominent navigation option for Gruyère alone. But we reorganized a bit back in March, and just consolidated Gruyère into the Fondue section. Only die-hard cheese connoisseurs will even know what Gruyère is, so why not put it into a category that might garner more interest? Everyone knows what fondue is, right? We kept Gruyère as a category for internal tracking purposes, though, and that's what displays in the E-Commerce Analysis reports. Now, to get a quick graphical representation of how each category is performing, I've set the Date Range to 2006. I can click the Analysis Options button for a specific product line and choose Data Over Time. I'm really interested to see how our navigational reorganization has affected sales of Gruyère:
You can see that the graph represents "Items," or Items Sold, for the entire year. Each month is represented independently. According to the graph, total items sold decreased sharply for March, and has held steady at a very reduced rate ever since. If I wanted to see transactions, revenue, or average price and quantity, I can just choose that option from the dropdown. Here we've got both revenue and transactions, side by side:
It looks like everything has decreased. It isn't only the total items sold. By cross-referencing this data with some other reports in Google Analytics, I discover that total visits to the Fondue section of the site has increased slightly, but is still lower, overall, than my previous visit count for Fondue + Gruyère. It's probably a pretty safe bet that my removal of the Gruyère option from the navigation, which occurred at the beginning of March, has drastically decreased total sales of Gruyère cheese. Apparently those folks who really want their Gruyère come to the site and then leave when they can't find what they're craving. Behold, the power of cheese! Hopefully this has opened up the possibilities of the Data Over Time option. Think of it as a way to get over-time data for a specific entry in your data set. If you have any questions about how to use it, or about specific applications, drop a line or leave a comment. Google Analytics for Online Advertisers Permalink | Comments ( 7 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 ) Filed under: Analytics Posted by Mark Curtis, Paid Search Team Leader at 1:10 PM CommentsRobbin Steif said: Michael - this is one of your best pieces. Maybe I just love "how to," especially the kind that I can turn around and use within seconds. Robbin Michael Harrison said: Hey Robbin. Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the article. I'll be posting in detail on each of the Analysis Options over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for more of the same. Rolf said: Only thing that matters me, is where can I get to order that special Cheese? alex said: Hi Mike, thanks for using this option as a subject of discussion for your article. I myself have been using this analysis option for some time now, but it is hard to rely on this particular option when it takes over five minutes to display the data or when it even times out without displaying any data at all, is it only me or some one else out there is experiencing a similar problem. Otherwise I agree it is one of GA's most powerful analysis features. Michael Harrison said: @alex: We'll occasionally get a long delay with profiles that are dealing with a huge amount of data. Naturally, the larger the data sample, the longer it will take to process and display. You may find that creating mini-profiles for specific segments--just ppc traffic, or just data for transactions--will decrease your wait. @Rolf: Sadly, cheesemongr.com is not a real site. Otherwise, I'd spend all my money there. I get mine online from Kenny's , and I always love visiting Ashe County Cheese when I'm out in the mountains. Just don't try to buy your gouda here. :) Oz Designs said: Thanks very much for sharing Michael. I found your article very interestign. Regards Darryl Al said: Well written article. I can definately use some of this information for my GA. Post Your Comments |
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While the Google Analytics Help Center is, for the most part, well-written and comprehensive, I've gotten a lot of questions in the past about the Analysis Options feature. In case you're unfamiliar (and if you are, you're really missing out... this little 
button is one of the most powerful features of Google Analytics), I'll quote from the 
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