Google Analytics Features I'd Like To See #1

[netmeg]

- In some cases it only seems to be reporting around 60% of the actual traffic. Not sure how or why that is happening, but we host 250 sites here, and have all the actual logfiles and several analyzers running, and we remove all the bots and our own traffic, and it STILL shows as way low in some cases. Examples available upon request.

- How about a general repository for us to share filters? I'm thinking of something along the lines of the way Google offers widgets and gadgets and whatnot for iGoogle and Desktop. I've created some and gone out and found some out there that did things I didn't even realize were possible; why re-invent the wheel?

- I find the breadcrumb navigation somewhat lacking. There's a lot of times where I'm digging down deep to the keyword level, and I want to go back just one step, and I end up back about four levels, or worse yet, where I started.

- Much more help on setting up to track other types of campaigns (MSN and Yahoo PPC, online campaigns, offline campaigns)

- For those of us who are working with clients (as opposed to just our own accounts) it would be really great to be able to set up some kind of a demo account with some demo stats (or have one available) to show to clients. To be honest, they'd rather have me show them the benefits step by step with an account that looks like their traffic and their sample products than sit through your presentation. I can't show one client another's data, and they just don't seem to get how useful and important this information is unless they can see it and click on it and I can explain it in terms of their business.

Ok, that's for starters. I have more.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

New week, same message, heheh.

What I said above: still true. :)

The Advertiser Feedback Report goes out in about nine hours, so please feel free to add your suggestions here.

This week, though, I am not holding my breath like I did last week. (Only until I passed out, fortunately.)

AWA

[netmeg]

Why not put a link to the Google Analytics URL Builder INSIDE one's GA accounts, so it's not buried in the help files and one doesn't have to go looking for it whenever they need to build an URL for a non-Google campaign?

Talking about this one here:

[google.com...]

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Hahahaha!

When I saw this thread back at the top of the page (which, pathetic though it may seem, actually gave me a little thrill) the first word that popped into my mind was 'netmeg!'

Thanks netmeg!

Any other thoughts (from any member, not just netmeg, of course) are welcome - and will be put into this week's Advertiser Feedback Report, which will be sent about 12 to 14 hours from now.

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Still a ton of room in the GA feature requests section of the report - which goes out in about three to four hours.

I'll check back at least one more time before I hit 'send'.

Thanks in advance. ;)

AWA

[smallcompany]

I may be doing some repetition, but here are a few of my suggestions:

- to have GA's complete solution for outgoing click tracking, automated version, not the one where you have to wrap each link separately.
- goal tracking to work with files like PHP scripts that are used, for example, to maintain outgoing links. Right now I cannot put JavaScript code into my PHP script.
- web server log reading and reporting. Off-line, online, whatever is easier for GA. Enriching GA's analytic capability with the few more things from the server log would be great (bots, user agents, 404s, 403s, etc).

Make it full-featured webmaster tool, not just a marketer one.

[netmeg]

I sure wish someone could come up with a (fairly easy) way to do ecommerce tracking for sites where you have to go offsite for payment processing (such as Paypal) and then return for the thank you page - AND keep the values. Don't want to do it with goals. Want ecommerce. WANT.

Also, a former client called me wondering why there was no data in her GA account after a whole year (guess she doesn't check that often, and not being a client anymore, I wasn't checking either) I placed the code again for her and it works like a charm now, so I can only assume she had an extra line break or something in there. But whenever she checked in her GA account, it said it was tracking properly and collecting data.

There should be some way to accurately detect whether or not the entire code is there and is *really* collecting data.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Many thanks smallcompany and netmeg - both of your posts are now quoted in the report.

Still about six hour till the report goes out, and additional thoughts are most welcome - from any and all.

I'll check back later on. :)

Thanks,

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

My apology that I forgot to bring this thread back to the top of the page this week, for my usual reminder.

The Advertiser Feedback Report will go out very shortly - but I will happily include any and all GA feedback added here next week.

Thanks in advance. ;)

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Well, I already have some very clear Google Analytics feedback from netmeg from another thread - but will happily include any feedback posted in this thread in the next 3 hours or so in this week's Advertiser Feedback Report.

Best - and thanks. ;)

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

What I said in the previous three messages?

Still true. ;)

AWA

[netmeg]

I'd kinda like to know why my Analytics AdSense impressions are consistently 33% (YTD) fewer than the impressions reported in my AdSense console. What's weirder is that talking to one or two other people, they're seeing the exact same thing, almost to the same percentage.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

I'd kinda like to know why...

netmeg, I've just emailed a colleague about this to see what I can learn. And it's already in the report.

I'll be back at least one more time before I send the report - probably at least three to four hours from now. I'm just saying. In case anyone is wondering if there is time to post their feature request.

AWA

[netmeg]

You know, I could probably convince my clients to spend a whole lot more on the Content Network if I were able to actually see how specific site placements were performing. I can see them in the AdWords reports, of course, but would really like to have them in Analytics too.

[Seb7]

Where we have Conv Rate, Cost/Conv, & Conversions columns. What would really be helpful would be a total conversion value column put next to the Cost.

Money spent against money earned could then be easily seen.

I'm constantly using reports to get this figure out.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Very glad to see this thread getting active again.

The latest posts have now been included in the Advertiser Feedback Report which goes out in about 28 hours - meaning there is still plenty of time for additions.

Thanks!

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Just a quick heads up - to bring this back to the top of the page.

The report goes out in about 5 to 7 hours.

Thanks!

AWA

[chewy]

Wow - I sure hope AWA's still monitoring this thread and passing it on to the next-door Analytics colleague.

(and thanks NetMeg for getting this going and for providing enough meaty content to keep the G-Team interested!)

Here's one of my Features I'd Like to See COME BACK...

When tracking conversions, I used to be able to select the "conversions" tab and then click on the % conversions and have all converting keywords or sources float to the top (sorting in descending order with those that were non-zero at the top of the list).

This was excellent and I realize I got spoiled when it stopped working.

the workaround is a real pain -- requiring a hand download of all traffic, paging through it 500 keywords at a time...

Please fix this bug!

Thanks,

-C

For background -- back on Oct 25 this (similar) suggestion was made:

I'd really like to see the export functions actually export all of the data from the report being viewed (not just the data range that's on screen at the time).

If you have a report that has 50,000 rows in it, you've have to be mad to sit and do 100 exports.

[chewy]

...replying to my own note just above - the Analytics situation reported above by myself is now fixed - this is great - (and perhaps a coincidence - but then again they say there are no coincidences...)

Just by the way - thanks Google for a great product - and thanks WebmasterWorld for a great forum.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Wow - I sure hope AWA's still monitoring this thread and passing it on to the next-door Analytics colleague.

I am indeed. Starting to finalize the report right now, in fact. There is a always a special section earmarked for feedback from this thread.

(Speaking of which, there are maybe five hours till I send the report, so lots of time for more feedback.)

One difference between now and then, though, is that my colleague has moved to an even bigger role within the GA team, and sits in a different building now. :)

By the way - this is why he has not been able to post as GAA (GoogleAnalticsAdvisor) in the forum for some time, as his tasks have multiplied in number and intensity. He and I will try to collaborate, though, to get a new GAA into action.

(and thanks NetMeg for getting this going and for providing enough meaty content to keep the G-Team interested!)

netmeg has my thanks too, right along with yours. chewy.

...replying to my own note just above - the Analytics situation reported above by myself is now fixed - this is great - (and perhaps a coincidence - but then again they say there are no coincidences...)

I can claim no credit here. Unless I've started making middle of the night phone calls in my sleep again. :)

Then again, a lot of folks at Google read this forum regularly...

Just by the way - thanks Google for a great product [...]

Glad you find it useful. The price is pretty good, too, from what I understand. :) It's nice to hear this from time to time - so thanks!

[...] and thanks WebmasterWorld for a great forum.

Agreed!

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

It's Thursday evening, which can only mean it's time for me to bring this thread to the top of the page one more time. ;)

The Advertiser Feedback Report goes out in about 4 to 5 hours from now, and I'll happily include any posts that turn up before then.

I'll check back just before I send it.

Thanks,

AWA

[netmeg]

I don't understand why, when I'm looking at Traffic Sources and then Goal Completios, we don't have actual numbers for goal completions, just percentages. Would rather have numbers.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Thanks a ton, netmeg.

You've saved this section of the report from going out with the None this week text that was there until moments ago. :)

I am much happier now. ;)

AWA

[netmeg]

No problem, I always have something to complain about, it's just a question of when I get here to type it in.

Here's one - or maybe it's here somewhere and I don't know where.

I make heavy use of the Export to PDF ability in GA, to send nice pretty reports to my clients, who love them. However, some of my custom reports really work better in landscape mode than portrait. I wish there was an extra step in the export to PDF option that would let me specify whether I want the report to come out landscape or portrait.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Thanks once again netmeg - for the sole addition to this thread so far this week. :)

The report will go out in about 14 hours from the time I write this - so there is still plenty of time for anyone interested in having their voice heard in the hallways of Google to weigh in with their requests for GA.

Thanks in advance,

AWA

[AdWordsAdvisor]

A quick note to say again what I always say. ;)

The Advertiser Feedback report will go out in about 4 to 5 hours - and any new GA feature requests will happily be included.

I'll check back just before sending.

Thanks!

AWA

[chewy]

a way to use the back key to get back one / multiple levels without loosing the parameters entered.

a way to definitively filter paid from non-paid search in such a way that you can do real queries.

a way to do regex / boolean type queries without having to know regex.

an official google guide to using greasemonkey to automate frequent queries / reports / profiles.

the removal of the silly captcha from the emailing of reports.

more people like AWA!

[AdWordsAdvisor]

[...] more people like AWA!

Hahaha! I like that one! Thanks chewy, I'll print your post and take it to my next performance review. :)

All (yes, including the last one!) are now in the report.

Thanks a ton. ;)

AWA

[netmeg]

This is not so much AdWords related as AdSense related, but it's definitely Analytics related, and I'm getting bounced around - AdSense won't give me an answer because they say it's an Analytics issue and there's no support for it, and Analytics won't give me an answer because THEY say I have to go to AdSense! (that shouldn't happen, btw)

I have an AdSense account, and AdWords account (of my own) and an Analytics account, all under the same Google account, and all linked.

Because my accountant yelled at me again this year, I had to finally open a new AdSense account in my company name. (AdWords is already in my company name)

I want to UNLINK my old AdSense account from my Analytics, and LINK my new AdSense account.

That would leave me with AdWords and Analytics under Account1 and AdSense Account2.

Can this be done? I realize I'd be losing my existing AdSense analytics, and I'm fine with that. But do not wish to lose several years worth of the *other* analytics data, such as visits, pageviews, referring sources, etc.

This can't be all that unique of a situation, and if it really hasn't happened before, I'll bet it will happen again, and there should be some kind of a migration.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Duly noted, netmeg - and passed along to colleagues in the GA and AS realms.

There is still plenty of time for further additions to this thread, as the Advertiser Feedback Report will be sent in rough 6 to 7 hours from the time I post.

I'll check back a time or to before I hit "send" - and include any late breaking posts.

AWA

[netmeg]

We were idly talking on twitter the other day, and the subject came up (I think it was under the hashtags #worstsemmistakes, heh) that it'd be nice if you could have a setting where you'd get a quick email if one of your account or profiles suddenly stopped acquiring data. One of my clients just let me know they hadn't gotten any data for like eight months - turns out she'd accidentally put an extra <br> in the footer and broken the code. I don't monitor that account, so I had no idea till she emailed me asking why she'd suddenly stopped seeing anything, and she was pretty disturbed to realize there was no getting it now.

Also, if we ever get that MCC for Analytics (hint hint) add to the capabilities that in addition to being able to copy filters to accounts, I'd also like to be able to copy custom reports to multiple accounts.