What is Real-Time in Google Analytics?

Google Analytics (GA) has changed the world of tracking for millions of websites owners and marketers alike. GA has always given powerful insights on data/performance from the past. Now there is something new to benefit from – the Real-Time data, available on the new version of Google Analytics and for administrator access.

Real-Time starts tracking data automatically for any page that has the Google Analytics code. No changes to the tracking codes are required. It shows data with only 60 seconds delay. This Real-Time feature tracks immediate impact of the visits on your site or specific pages of your campaigns. Real-time tracking allows analytics users/owners to see what their web traffic is doing while on their website.

Benefits of using Real-Time in Google Analytics

Using the Real-Time feature marketers can now see where the site traffic is coming from, the path this traffic followed to get there and the actions taken on the site at that instant.

The Real-Time data covers three dimensions:

• Location: Provides information about geographic location of the visitor.
• Traffic Source- Showcases information about visitor’s source.
• Content- Displays information about the pages the visitor is visiting.

This feature gives access to real-time stats on:

• Visitors
• Percentage of New & Returning Visitors
• Pageviews
• Traffic Sources (referrals, direct, campaigns etc)
• Active Pages

Here are a few major advantages for marketers:

• This feature helps one understand the impact of a new campaign in real-time. When a new campaign is launched, it’s a huge benefit if we can understand the performance immediately rather than waiting for a day or more. Real-Time reports tell you in seconds if you are getting the desired performance or not.
• The real-time data helps in understanding the popularity of particular content on the site in real time. This information can be used to optimize placement of the content, or publicize the content to create buzz and optimize ad revenue.
• It helps provides visitors information by location in real-time, i.e. a geographic breakdown of where the visitors are coming from is provided.
• Another useful application of real-time is the measurement of the immediate impact of social media. Whenever a new blog post or a tweet is up, we can now see the immediate impact to the site traffic. This also helps in knowing when visits from the tweet or blogs dropped, hence giving you opportunity to reengage with your audience.
• This data provides information on the most popular pages in real-time so marketers can optimize the ads on that particular page & generate more ad revenue.

However we need to keep in mind that the Real Time reports are not filtered. Even if a profile filter is applied, the real-time data is not filtered.

Accessing Real-Time data in new Google Analytics

So how does one gain access to this great new feature?

Sign into your GA account. Make sure it is the ‘new version’. If you have multiple accounts, select the one you want to view Real-Time data for. In the ‘Home’ tab, click on ‘REAL-TIME (BETA)’ button in the drop down menu to the left. You should now have access to GA’s real-time data.

Happy analyzing!

It seems the interest for analytics in the software vendors community increases more and more, according to the requests I get by email. I believe in actionable metrics, so I decided to act and publish an updated version of the Analytics miniBible for Software Vendors.

No matter if you got the chance or not to download the first release, here are some changes and highlights in this analytics eBook for software vendors.

Switching to async tracking

When Google Analytics first introduced asynchronous tracking, a lot of people reacted as being one of the biggest improvements in web analytics in ages. The new tracking technology offers better accuracy and affects less (close to zero) the loading time of websites.

The Analytics MiniBible for Software Vendors offers step by step support on how to switch all your tracking needs to the new asynchronous technology.

To be honest more and more software vendors our company works with don’t track downloads and, what is more exciting, “downloaders”. So, I went to my favorites dev geeks in our team, Alex and Serban, and asked them to help me find out a really-really easy way on how to track downloads and “downloaders”.

This method is specially created for all those website where there is a download button which just starts the download and nothing else. Yes, we do recommend having “Thank You for Downloading” pages which are very easy to track (just place the standard Google Analytics tracking code on the pages), but for those of you who don’t intend to do that I’ve come out with this neat 4 step tutorial on how to do it.

Step 1: Adding some code

Just add the following code between <head> and </head> on all your pages from the website where the download can be initiated.

<script type=”text/javascript”> function setIframe() {var avIframe = document.getElementById(‘av_iframe’).innerHTML = ‘<iframe src =”/software_download.html” style=”border:none;width:1px;height:1px;” marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>’;} </script>

Most of you are already accustomed with URL address shortening services. You know, those websites which make your URLs short and ugly so you can post them on Twitter, Facebook or just send them to a friend. The thing is you never know where these links end up and how much traffic they drive. For me, working in web analytics, not knowing something like this is itching like hell, so I have decided to find a solution to it.

Tackling the problem

What I did is create a special GreaseMonkey script for Firefox (you need to have GreaseMonkey installed), which offers the possibility of adding Google Analytics variables in order to easily track all the users clicking on the short URL you are just about to generate. Here is how the the new http://is.gd homepage will look like after you install the script.

One of the favorite’s expressions between us, analytics ninja wannabees, is “Actionable Data”. Yes, we like this phrase a lot and we use it every time we have the occasion. It gives meaning to our work and it’s a great hook to get CEOs, CTOs and marketing departments to listen to what we might have to say.

What is “Actionable Data” and how do you track it?

Unfortunately, the answer is not as easy as I would like it to be. With the help of Avinash Kaushik I got access the other week to the new Segmentation feature in Google Analytics (GA). I played with it a full weekend, doing advanced segments, but when I got to show it to my colleagues on Monday, all I was able to share were very neat tips and tricks. And I got the following remark from: “Wow, really cool… but how does it help us”?

So, this is what Actionable Data is for me: data that helps me improve my website. Before looking at data, I first ask myself: What do I need help with? Is the conversion number to small? Am I spending too much money on AdWords? Should I invite more bloggers to try our products and if yes, which ones?

Download free e-book: "Analytics miniBible for Software Vendors"

Google Analytics is a great tool, but when you use it frequently, it shows some glitches. Having many profiles, trying to access certain type of data can be sometimes pretty difficult.

Here are 4 scripts that can enhance your Google Analytics Experience. They work with GreaseMonkey, which is a really cool plugin for Firefox, which allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.

1. Show 100 by Lunametrics. Helps you automatically show all your profiles from the website profile list in Google Analytics.
2. Google Analytics Report Enhancer by RoiRevolution. Brings up tens of new reports in Google Analytics. It also calculates for you “True Time on Site”, which is the average time spent on site, excluding all bounces.
3. Google Analytics Downloader by Juice Analytics. Adds a highly valuable button to your keywords and referrers reports, stating who sent you unusual traffic. Really great info can be brought out of it.
4. Cleaner Profile Switching by Erik Vold. With this simple script, when you select a new profile to view, you will see the same report you were just on, but it will be for the new profile which you selected. Also, if you wish to compare reports from two profiles, there is an option to view the new profile in a separate tab. Update: Erik Vold has created a Firefox plugin out of the  Cleaner Profile Switching GreaseMonkey Script, for easier management of the tool.