The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate that you have an understanding of the basics in Google Analytics. Please answer each of the following questions below. Some answers require that you paste a screenshot into this document. If you do not know how to take a screenshot on your computer, use a search engine to search for “screen shot TYPE OF COMPUTER (e.g., “MAC”). All questions ask you to use the data from the Google Merchandise Store.

Note: This is an individual assignment. You should not work with anyone else in your class on this assignment. You should feel free to use Google to figure out how to complete these tasks. Consult the Analytics Academy training videos… or use Google search to find advice online. Part of the learning process for web analytics is learning to find resources to support you in new tasks.

1. In February 2020, how many total sessions did the Google Store have? What was the proportion of new vs. returning users? How do these numbers compare to February 2016? Paste in a screenshot of the line graph showing a comparison of the daily number of sessions in Feb. 2020 compared to Feb. 2016.
(1)Total sessions of Feb 2020: 60,646
the proportion of new and users is 92.58% and 20.47%, respectively.

(2)Comparison between Feb. 2016 and Feb. 2020
 In terms of sessions, the number of new users is 44,351 (Feb. 2020) v.s 49,473 (Feb. 2016), translated into a 10.35% drop;
 In terms of sessions, the number of returning users is 16,925 (Feb. 2020) v.s 14,944 (Feb. 2016), translated into a 9.04% increase.

 In terms of total sessions, it is 60,646 (Feb. 2020) v.s 64,417 (Feb. 2016), translated into a drop of 5.85%.

(3)the line graph showing a comparison of the daily number of sessions in Feb. 2020 compared to Feb. 2016. (see screenshot below)

2. What were the top three specific sources of traffic for the Google Store in all of 2017? Using the default channel grouping, calculate what percent of total sessions that came from social in 2017. In your opinion, which channel of traffic was the most valuable in 2017? How did you arrive at this decision?
(1)In 2017, the top three sources of traffic by revenue, in descending order, are gdeals.googleplex.com>mall.googleplex.com>(direct). (see screenshot below)

(2) In 2017, the percent of sessions of ‘social’ channel by default channel grouping is 11.78%. (See screenshot below)

(3) )I think the most valuable channel of traffic in 2017 is ‘referral’. Three metrics– e-commerce conversion rate (9.81%), transactions (15,621) and revenue ($2,996,752.58) –are helpful in decision making. (see screenshot below)
The e-commerce conversion rate is 9.81%, which is about 4 times the average;

The number of transaction is 15,621, which is about 61.92% of total transactions;

Referral generated the revenue, which accounted for 63.16% of total;

Based on the metrics above, referral is in a leading position as it manages to convert audience and bring in a good sum of revenue.

3. You are meeting with the webmaster, and you want to give her advice about which pages need some improvements in order to improve user experience. Looking just at data from January and February of 2020, what three pages are you most concerned about? Why? What analyses led you to this opinion? (Conduct at least three distinct analyses)
(1) Regarding Jan and Feb. 2020: Under Behavior>Site Content>Landing pages report, except for order-confirmed page, there are three pages that are about product display as revealed by the URL, but they oddly have high bounce rate. Product display pages should not have had such surprisingly high numbers. If there is, customers cease to view our products and show disinterests. Webmaster could advise to improve the page layout, and highlight details of engagement, hopefully, such improvements could direct them to continue view journey until they make purchase.

(2) Regarding Jan and Feb. 2020: Under Behavior>Site Content>Exit pages report, there are three pages (/home, /google+redesign/shop+by+brand/youtube, /google+redesign/new) in joint consideration of the exit rates. Their exit rates are particularly high (/home: 41.49%, and /google+redesign/shop+by+brand/youtube: 45.87% in particular). the /home page has surprisingly high exits. It could suggest the homepage lacks some outstanding layout, problematic loading that makes audience quit halfway, and misdirection from our referral sites.

(3) Regarding Jan and Feb. 2020: Under Behavior>Site Content>All page report, there are three pages which have only 1 page views. I will advise the webmaster that the pages are the least appealing to viewers. Alternatively, I think the URL address may lead viewers to blank pages, or the pages have tech glitch.

4. What is segmentation in Google Analytics and why is it important? Give an example of how (a) user segmentation can be used and an example of how (b) behavior segmentation can be used to better understand your site traffic.
(1) segment is a subset of data sorted by certain criteria. Segmentation is helpful because web analysts have to analyze data from different perspectives and understand a group of viewers from different angles. Segments defined by metrics such as page viewing time, gender, device, location, etc. offer multiple standpoints to understand viewers and their behaviors. Segmentation is a systematic tool in looking at massive and disorganized data.
(2) User segmentation: I create and apply new segments (demographic-region-America and Europe) to distinguish visitors in terms of source of traffic (Acquisition>All Traffic>Channels). I observe that in ‘organic search’, the number of users from Europe surpasses that from America. Additionally, visitors from Europe have a higher bounce rate than those from America. It could mean our contents are more appealing to Europeans. But at the same time, Europeans’ high bounce rate suggests that they are not quite engaging with our site contents. Therefore, improvement can be made regarding engagement with European viewers.

(3) Behavior segmentation: I apply new and returning user segments to distinguish the behavior of visitor groups. I notice that in ‘organic search’ (Acquisition>All Traffic>Channels), new users have higher number of sessions than returning users, but they have shorter avg. session duration and higher bounce rate than returning users. It suggests that in “organic search” we may create something engaging and compelling to help retain the new users so that they could be directed to continue their visit.

5. Create segments to compare site visitors that arrive via Facebook compared to visitors that arrive from YouTube. Note: We did not do this in the recitation exercise. You’ll want to search the Internet to find a way to complete this task. Describe how you created these segments and include a screenshot showing how you defined each segment. Looking at data for all of 2018: Do more users arrive via Facebook or via YouTube? Are there any demographic differences between these two segments?

(1)Create new segments (shown in screenshot below in order), respectively: define the time period “ Jan 1-Dec 31, 2018” , click on ‘add segment’, and click on ‘+new segment’. Among the demographic dimensions choose criteria ‘18-24’ and ‘female’.Rename such segment as ‘college-aged women’ and save. Then the‘college-aged women’ segment will appear on dashboard.
Repeat the process for college-aged men. Then ‘college-aged men’ segment will appear on dashboard as well.

Click “+new segment”

Check box “18-24” and “female” or “male”, and define the whole condition–college-aged women/men

New segment ‘college-aged women’ created and shown

(2) The number of users that arrive via Youtube and Facebook: turn to the social channel (Acquisition>All traffic>Channels>Social), Youtube generated 95,223 users while Facebook generated 3,080 users. Youtube had more users than Facebook.

(3) Demographic difference regarding Facebook and Youtube (Acquisition>All traffic>Channels>Social): apply the new created segments (college-aged women and college-aged men).
 In the channel of Youtube, college-aged women are far less than college-aged men in the metric of new users. The same phenomenon is observed in the channel of Facebook.
 College-aged men prefer to visit our page website via Youtube than Facebook, and have a much longer session if they arrive at our website via Youtube.
 Via Facebook and Youtueb, two segment groups tend to have close bounce rate. Women have a slightly higher bounce rate than men.
 Both segment groups tend to have higher pages/sessions via Facebook than via Youtube.
 In general, Youtube is more appealing to users than Facebook as evidenced in the number of users and new users.