Today Google announced more than forty new dimensions and metrics available in the Google analytics API. We are pleased to also announce the release of Analytics Canvas V1.5, that has full access to all of them.
We’ll be looking into the different metrics in more detail- but here’s our take on what we think is most interesting in these new data sets:
Offsite Social Activity
One of the key enhancements is that the data from the analytics social data hub is now available. The interesting aspect of this data is that it is not data about visits to your site but about people talking about, bookmarking, or linking back to your site. Want to see when your site is mentioned on Digg, bookmarked in Delicious, or saved on Pocket? Now that data is in Google analytics- and through the API, can be in your Analytics Canvas generated dashboards and reports.
These new dimensions and metrics do take a bit of getting used to- they are not visit based. In fact, if you try to use the Visit metric with a social activity dimension you’ll get an error. Because there wasn’t a visit- this is activity that is happening on other social websites, and being collected and delivered to you via the social hub. Which is, if you think about it, an interesting new capability- and by having the data available in the API, makes understanding what interactions are happening around your site and by extension your brand in a much wider way.
Mobile APP tracking
Of particular interest to mobile application developers using or thinking about using the Google Analytics SDK for iOS and android, now the App view and exception metrics are available. So if you are building apps, you can use Google analytics to collect lots of data, and the API to pull that into your reporting/backend systems for analyzing user behavior.
Mobile device information
Back in June, we blogged on how Google changed how it tracked its operating system dimension for mobile visits– suddenly, iPad and iPhone were gone, replaced by IOS.
Well, they are back- and better than ever, now you can track the exact model of the phone where it should be, on dedicated dimensions- you will have all the detail you need, if you want to know exactly which phones are visiting.
Plus more dimensions in the areas of site speed, and user timing- giving you full access to everything in Analytics Canvas via the API.
Result? Coming up on almost 500 dimensions and metrics available.
Looking at all the dimensions and metrics is impressive- Google has a complete interactive list that lets you select a dimension or metric, and shows you which other dimensions and metrics are compatible, to help you form queries.
Google Analytics has been evolving quickly over the last year, and Google’s obvious commitment to the API, and to delivering new data sets and sources through it means that it provides a compelling platform for enterprise analytics. With Analytics Canvas, it is possible to tap into that data, automate it, and report on it in entirely new ways.
To try the new dimensions and metrics out for yourself, sign up for a free trial. Or contact us to have us help you deliver an end to end solution.