Sarah's Favorite Things: Custom GA Reports And Segments For AdWords Traffic
Peanut butter and jelly. Chocolate and marshmallows. Tequila and lime. Google Analytics and Google Adwords. In the colorful and delicious world of food (and data) pairings, some just stick out above the rest. And so it goes with GA and AdWords. In my time here at LunaMetrics, I’ve been lucky enough to learn a bunch of new tricks in GA for helping me to better analyze and understand how AdWords campaigns perform after the click. So on today’s show, I’d like to talk about a few of Sarah’s Favorite Things, namely, the go-to advanced segments and custom reports that I use to quickly parse and separate data for easier digestion.
Now, I’ve already discussed how you can link the Google AdWords and Analytics together, which I’d highly recommend you do first before reading further. Oh, and while you’re at it, I’ll also ask that you read a great post by Dorcas Alexander on when you need to use a segment or a filter in analytics. I’ll wait here.
Back already? Hope you’re not exhausted yet!
As I was saying, there are some advanced segments and custom reports that I use time and time again. And today, I’m giving them all away for FREE. Yes, that’s right. And you get a report! And you get a segment!! We all get reports and segments!!!
Alright, alright, calm down yinz.
Honestly, I WISH that these segments were that exciting (and we all were getting cars/vacations), but while they may not compare to the level of insanity that an episode of Oprah’s Favorite Things can create, I’d like to think that these reports will make your AdWords management life just a little easier.
Advanced segment for branded terms
Super simple, folks. If you need to quickly look at how your brand vs. non-brand keywords are performing, then download this segment and save it to your accounts. I don’t have to tell you how important your brand is and how different it can perform compared to non-brand keywords. This segment can be easily adjusted to exclude brand traffic as well; simply change the first rule to exclude your Branded traffic. When you select both segments, BOOM, Brand and Non-Brand easily laid out for comparison.
Dan Wilkerson created the handy Regexinator for people who want to do some simple regex lists (perfect if you already have some commonly misspelled brand terms). Use that, or get familiar with Regular Expressions in general with this regular expression lesson book.
GA report that neatly itemizes AdWords data by network (Search, Content, Search Partners)
When you need a round up AdWords performance by network then this report is for you. This is perfect for a quick and dirty comparison of Search, Display and Search Partners are performing. I use this report to client-side report summaries as well as a tool to quickly see performance at the click/cost and engagement level. Download the Adwords Network Custom Report.
GA report on keywords by match type
There are probably a few other fancy ways you can get this data using secondary dimensions or pivot tables or whatever else, but I find that this report is the most straightforward. It’s exactly what I need, when I need it, with just one click. Simplify your life and download the Match Type Custom Report.
Advanced segment to track sitelink-only traffic
Hopefully sitelinks are your #1 ad extension in use in your account. If so, you know that with some recent updates through Enhanced Campaigns, we have even better insight into how they perform on the AdWords side (dashboard). This is great, right? What I still feel is lacking on the GA side for AdWords is better reporting on individual sitelink traffic. If you’ve tagged your sitelinks with a parameter that can make it easy to filter in GA (read Brittany Baeslack’s post about Sitelink tagging), then you can create a quick segment that will show how your sitelink traffic performs. Apply this segment in the AdWords Traffic report.
If you are looking at the Content >> All Pages report, then be sure to add “Source/Medium” as “google/cpc” to filter the AdWords traffic.
There you have it! A few of my go-to advanced segments and custom reports for a quick morning of analysis. What are some of your Favorite Things (Segments, Reports, Dimensions)? Share in the comments below!
