The new Google Analytics Intelligence Reports are a pretty big step for the free analytics tool. I have had a couple days to mess around with them and have to say it’s a lot better than I was expecting. I assumed it would be VERY high level…you know…too high level to even do anything with the information. But the intelligence reports actually show you, based on particular metrics of your choosing, which sources of traffic, campaigns and even regions of the country have seen substantial increases or decreases daily, weekly or monthly. What I especially like about this feature thus far is that it comes with stock reports already in the profile. They are pretty basic in that the “threshold” for an alert is based on a 50% increase or decrease in visits. But right off the bat I am already armed with some information to begin further analysis. Below is an example. You’ll notice in the screenshot below that our client has seen a 500% increase in GoalValue from Texas and California. This tells us that, for some reason or another, our audience in these 2 states are buying more. We can now work with the client to see what’s going on in these markets and possibly target them specifically with unique messaging, offers, etc.
Also, notice below that Visits from Yahoo Search have dropped 43%. This could be due to a variety of reasons….decreased budgets, Ad CTRs falling, etc. But now I have a specific issue that I need to look into.
Some additional aspects of this feature are that you can view them daily, weekly or monthly. And you can even create a specific ‘segment’ for a metric/dimension that you want to monitor individually. It will also tell you which pages in your site are seeing increased bounced rates, lower pageviews, etc so that you can pinpoint some pitfalls within your site that you should rectify.
All in all, this feature of GA alleviates the need to manually create and generate trend reports and gives you the info you need to actually make adjustments to campaigns, internal site structure, etc. Point is…you can actually use this info 
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Nick DiPietro is a search specialist at Media Two Interactive. Nick is a Google Certified AdWords specialist that works closely with clients to make sure every penny spent in PPC drives the most conversions possible. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks John for the helpful information! So often, analytics is seen as an afterthought as you’re launching a campaign. So much time is put into the concepting and strategy, buying and trafficking, that analytics can be overlooked. If you’re not establishing your KPIs and setting up tools like these BEFORE the campaign starts, then you’re doing a real injustice to the client and the performance of the campaign. So again, thanks for giving analytics some love!
Thanks for the info. This will be a good tool to use for site design/redesign projects.
Great to hear about these improvements to Google Analytics from the person who taught me how to use GA in the first place. I must admit, I love GA – love the charts, numbers, etc. After working hard on either a social media project, a Web site redesign, a site launch, etc., it’s really exciting to SEE the impact in the GA reports. The more information we can get, the better. These changes will help us do an even better job pinpointing what we’re doing right and what we need to rethink.
This data and understanding how to use it is a must for anyone managing a national account. Nice call outs for everyone to consider.