Google Analytics Announces Updated Reports, More API Tools & New Analytics Academy At Annual Summit

A number of announcements were made at the Google Analytics Summit this week, including updated reports, more API tools, the integration of BigQuery into Google Analytics Premium and new educational initiatives.

According to Google Analytics, users will have access to user segmentation, cohort analysis, sequence segments, and segment templates by the end of this year (a majority of users have access now). Google Analytics is also releasing a “fully refreshed” UI.

The company offered a “sneak preview” of the new Google Analytics Acquisition reports that provide insight on, “How you acquire users, their behavior on your site after acquisition, and their conversion patterns.” Google says this new report will replace the “Traffic Sources” section on the left hand navigation, but did not give a release date.

The new Audience Report offers age, gender and interest categories as dimensions in Google Analytics, a new feature that Google says will help Analytics users:

Find out who your site visitors are and gain a better understanding of who your most valuable (highest converting) audiences are so you can effectively reach your best prospects on the Google Display Network.

Google Tag Manager now has an auto-event tracking feature, allowing users to, “Listen for events on the page without adding any custom code, and then fire data to Google Analytics or other tags.” Google Analytics also announced that it is releasing a Google Tag Manager Service Level Agreement for Premium customers during Q4 of this year.

For app developers and marketers, Google Analytics has launched a Google Play report. Initially previewed at Google’s I/O conference earlier this year, Google Analytics confirmed this new report is the first time and “only way” to see the Google Play acquisition funnel in a single report.

Other updates announced at the Google Analytics Summit include: Google Analytics Enterprise API, a tool that helps large companies “set up and configure” new accounts; and the integration of BigQuery data into Google Analytics Premium; and instructor led analytics courses via the newly launched Analytics Academy, along with more educational resources that can be accessed from the education button in the Google Analytics menu bar.