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Underutilized Reports In Google Analytics

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Google Analytics is a very powerful platform with loads of information that can be extremely valuable for all companies; however, not many companies utilize all that the platform has to offer. 

Assisted Conversions Report

  • Assisted conversions are Google’s measure of any interaction, other than the final click, that leads to a consumer converting on a website. 
  • Assisted conversions count each time a channel initiated or assisted with a goal completion.
  • This is important to measure because it shows the value each channel in the funnel and how each channel affects the other.
  • It is also important to understand the buyer’s journey:
    • An average consumer doesn’t see 1 google paid search ad and convert right away.
    • They need to go through various touch points before making the final decision to convert.
    • That’s why showing how each channel assisted in a conversion is important to see how and why you should be running a multi-channel marketing strategy.
      • All channels work together to drive an overall successful strategy

Top Conversions Report

  • Top conversions report shows the top conversion paths that are taken the most by users.
  • These top conversion paths can be organized by conversion value or conversions.
    • For example, the path most users take that drove overall most conversion value could be first through a paid search ad, then an organic search result, and lastly clicking through a paid social ads (Facebook or Instagram).
  • This report is valuable to view so you can see what paths are most often taken in the user’s journey as well as showing where each channel falls in these paths.
  • The path that drives the highest conversion value could have the Paid Search channel as the introducer (as mentioned in the example above) and the Paid Social channel as the last thing users see before converting.

Model Comparison Tool

  • This tool is very valuable in comparing different attribution models. 
  • There are 7 default attribution models in Google Analytics you can analyze with this tool: Last interaction, last non-direct click, last google ads click, first interaction, linear, time decay, and position-based.
  • Google Ads typically uses Last Click attribution, whereas Google Analytics uses Non-Direct Last Click.
  • This is also a great tool to be able to explain the value your channel brings to the table in different parts of the user journey.
  • For example, when comparing Last Interaction against First Interaction for the Paid Search channel, you can see First Interaction drove almost 39% more conversion value. This shows that channel is a great brand introducer and plays a vital part in starting that buyer’s journey (see screenshot below). 

  • You can then further look into that First Interaction attribution model to see what campaigns within the Paid Search channel are actually driving the revenue. As you can see in the screenshot below, when comparing last interaction against first interaction, the Non-Branded campaigns drive way more conversion value in first interaction than last. Knowing this information can help you decide where to allocate more budget to help drive overall revenue. Just because you’re not seeing direct revenue from Last Interaction attribution (Last Click) in Google Ads, doesn’t mean those campaigns aren’t contributing to the overall success.
    • You can even look down to the keyword or search query level to get more granular

Time Lag Report

  • The Time Lag Report shows you the time period it takes a user to make a conversion.
  • It’s the number of days it took from the first interaction to the conversion.
  • You can set your look-back window from 1 to 90 days.
  • Showing how long it generally takes a user to convert is valuable to your business because it can help you decide if remarketing ads would be useful or not.
  • For example, if 99% of users convert the day they see your ad, then you probably wouldn’t need to run remarketing ads because it wouldn’t affect much performance-wise; however, if 60% of users converted within the first day seeing your ad, and over 30% of users convert within 12-30 days it could be worth creating remarketing ads with that look-back window to re-engage the buyer to then convert.