How to Create Custom Reports in Google Analytics
Google Analytics offers robust reporting with options to customize reports for every need. Pulling performance data in GA can seem like a complex task to those unfamiliar with the interface. At Four15 Digital, we’ve simplified the process by creating custom reports for repetitive tasks and important details that we view often. This is extremely helpful at speeding up analysis, cutting down time lost to rebuilding reports ad hoc.
For example, if you needed to get transaction and revenue data for a particular set of campaigns on a daily basis, you can set up a flat table custom report for you to easily populate this data. If you wanted a report to show you the number of page sign ups on your website over the past 14 days, you can set up an explorer custom report to give you this data with a line graph for you to visualize the data over the past 14 days. Custom reports are a very useful tool for anyone in Marketing, from Analysts to CMO’s.
The best part is that these reports can be built in Google Analytics in a few simple steps!
Step 1: Log into Google Analytics and Select Your Property
Log into Google Analytics and select the property you’d like to access.
Step 2: Click Through the Customization Tab to Select Custom Reports
On the left-hand side of the interface you will see a tab labeled Customization – click through this option and select Custom Reports:
Select + New Custom Report:
Step 3: Create a Report Title and Report Tab Title
Select a report title that will help you to easily identify what dimensions and metrics this report contains and for which channel. For example, if you were creating a custom report to look at daily performance metrics for the paid search channel, an ideal report title would be Paid Search Daily Performance Metrics:
You can also customize each report tab title in your custom report. Select a title that will help you to identify what data the report tab contains. One name example would be Daily Revenue:
Step 4: Select Report Type
Choose the report type that meets your needs, from one of three options: Explorer, Flat Table and Map Overlay:
The Explorer report type is the default report type. You can learn more about the custom report types here.
Step 5: Select Report Dimensions and Metrics
Google Analytics offers many metrics and dimensions for you to customize your report according to what is important to you. You must add at least one dimension and at least one metric for your report to successfully generate:
Step 6: Add Custom Filters to Your Custom Report
Google Analytics gives you the flexibility to select from various filters, whether you want to only see data for certain campaigns, ad groups, geographical regions and more. Select your custom filters to ensure your custom report will only show data that meets your filter requirements:
Step 7: Select Your Report View
You can create a custom report for multiple Google Analytics views or for only one view. Select the view you would like to pull data for in your custom report:
Save your custom report to generate the data you’ve set up for your custom report. Once you save the report you can download the data via PDF, Google Sheets, Excel XLSX or CSV.
In addition to starting a new report, if you have a standard report that you use with customization, you can also create a custom report based on almost any standard report. Simple access the report, then in the top right of Google Analytics click on the “Edit” button. This brings up the custom report builder, pre-populated with all of the data from the report you were viewing. Simply customize the fields to your liking and click “Save” at the bottom of the page to save your new report.
Google Analytics custom reports can be created from scratch or by modifying existing pre-built reports. With our tips and instructions you can create reports to meet all sorts of reporting needs!
