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May 23, 2007
Hallelujah! The Best New Google Analytics Feature
The new Google Analytics interface has so many great new features that using it is almost like a treasure hunt - you never know what you'll discover next!
Personally, my favorite new feature so far is the email functionality. I don't know about you, but I don't look into Google Analytics nearly as often as I'd really like to (let's keep that between us, though, ok?).
Apparently I'm not alone. According to a Jupiter report, "Key Performance Indicators - Using Analytics to Drive Action", a stunningly large percentage of companies don't bother to distribute analytic reports to the people within the company who can use them!
Less then 20% of the companies surveyed distribute analytics data to merchandising departments for review on a regular basis, and only 53% of marketing teams review analytics data. But surely the executives pay attention to the analytics data?
Actually, only 41% of executives review web analytics data.
And that is why the new email function is my favorite. You can use the little 'email' button found under the title of the report, and there you will find 3 tabs: Send Now, Schedule, or Add to Existing.
You can send a 1-time email with the "Send Now" tab. You have four format choices for the report: PDF, XML, CSV, or TSV.
The option to send emails as a PDF is new, and super-neat since you finally get the images from the reports, too! Now it is easier then ever to send a report to a colleague or client without having to cut and paste or send a spreadsheet that is sometimes a little hard to explain.
With the "Schedule" tab you can schedule re-occurring emails. There are 4 possible time intervals:
- Daily (sent each morning),
- Weekly (sent each Monday),
- Monthly (sent first day of each month),
- Quarterly (sent first day of each quarter)
There are a few reports that I check on a regular basis, so I just added them to the email schedule and now the reports show up in my email box like magic.
The "Add to Existing" tab allows you to see what reports are being sent on a reoccurring basis already, and lets you add other reports as you need to.
Now that the new interface has been rolled out to everybody, what is your favorite part of the new interface?
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