How to Create Google Analytics Custom Reports for Ecommerce

Описание: Google Analytics custom reports offer us an advanced view of our marketing data. But limitations in the system means that custom reports are not always easy or intuitive to create.

To learn more about Google Analytics Custom reports, check out Analytics Course - https://goo.gl/9GnLyk

Because of the way the data structure works in Google Analytics, the system has a habit of limiting of our reporting options. It's not a "if you can dream it, you can do it" type of reporting system.

It's more of a "sometimes, you can actually get the system do work how you intend it" type of reporting system.

Creating a custom ecommerce report

In this video we'll walk through how to build a custom report. Specifically, we'll look at custom Google Analytics ecommerce reports.

I'll explain how dimensions and metrics factor into custom reports, and we'll also look at how to work around some of the limitations of custom reports.

Then, we will use the Google Analytics Dimension and Metrics Explorer to help us solve a common ecommerce reporting problem.

Google Analytics custom reports for ecommerce
One of our Analytics Course students sent us a question about custom reports. He asked us to help him figure out how to put all his most important ecommerce data into one report.

What's the challenge we are facing? We need to develop a Google Analytics custom report that includes the following metrics and dimensions:

revenue, quantity of product, the product purchased, and ecommerce conversion rate.

Let's see if we can put together a report that includes all this information.

Google Analytics Custom Reports

To solve our problem we need to start by looking at how Google Analytics custom reports work.

Custom reports exist to help you tie together two or more metrics and dimensions from the stock reports.

For example, let's say you want to merge traffic data, landing page info and conversion rates.

It's difficult to see all this data together in a standard Google Analytics report.But, you can use a custom report to compare all this data in one report.
Here's my warning to you: Not everything you can dream is something you can do in custom reports.

Custom reports sound great, but they have many limitations.

The limitations are the result of how Google Analytics collects data.
Data collection can happen at the hit level, the session level, or the user level.

Because each of these data points is tracked differently, they don't all work together.

This means that not every metric and dimension can be compared to each other.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's explain metrics and dimensions.

What are a metrics and dimensions?

Dimensions
A dimension is row of data in Google Analytics. The dimension is the label that you see on the left hand side of your screen in your Google Analytics reports.

Dimensions = rows of data

Metrics

The metric is the column in your Google Analytics reports. Basically, metrics are the numbers that go into your reports.

Metrics = columns of data (aka the numbers)

Not all dimensions and metrics work together
Like we started to discuss earlier, not all metrics and dimensions work together.

Google states that you can only compare "Valid Combinations" of data.

It’s easy to have problems finding "valid" combinations. Our Analytics Course student Helgi ran into this very problem while trying to create his custom eccomerce report.

Customizing Google Analytics Ecommerce Reports
Now that we understand the roadblocks we face, let's get back to building our ecommerce report.

We'll use the Google Analytics Store Demo account to try to build our report.

As I add metrics to my custom report, my options become limited.
I can add product quantity and product revenue. But I can't add in the ecommerce conversion rate.

If I remove the product dimension, I can add ecommerce conversion rate to my report. But I can't put product and ecommerce conversion rate together in the same report.

There is a reason these metrics and dimensions won't work together. A product is not a dimension that has an associated conversion rate.

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