The Google Analytics Audience report is a fast growing section within Google Analytics. The audience reports aim to give as much insight into who your users are and what context they interact with your site from.
In our previous post, we covered the first 5 reports within the Audience section of Google Analytics. In this article we will focus on who your users are and how these reports can be used to enhance your site and marketing. The reports we will be focusing on:
- Demographics
- Interests
- Geo
Demographic Report
The demographic report gives an insight into the age and gender of the current users of your website. You are also able to get a break down of their online interested based on their online travel and purchasing history.
Before you are able to view the data for Demographics or Interest report you need to enable to features within Google Analytics. First you need to:
- Enable Advertising Report Features for your property
- Enable the Demographics and Interest Reports for the view
This will then allow Google to collect the relevant data. Though it should be noted the demographic and interest data will only be subset of your users. Not a full representation of all traffic to your website. It is still worthwhile enabling the feature, as it will give a snapshot into the activity and users of your site.
Understanding the age and demographic data on your site can be used to help determine the kind of content and messaging used within the site.
For example, if you are an ecommerce site, attracting a high volume of men of a certain age group. Who then purchase products at a higher rate than the site average, you could increase your marketing to target more of this high-value user type.
Using the gender and age demographic along with the interest report, more below, can help fine tune this high-value audience targeting even further.
Interests (Affinity Categories, In-Market Segments, Other Categories) Report
Interests report gives insight into the kinds of interests groups your users have an affinity with. These groups are again only based on a subset of your users, but still very worth using.
The kinds of groups defined in this report: Sports & Fitness/Health & Fitness, Lifestyles & Hobbies/Green Living Enthusiasts and Cooking Enthusiasts to list a few.
As mentioned above, where this becomes hugely beneficial is when it is used together with the Age & Gender information to create very targeted segments. These segments can then be used in remarketing campaigns as well as more lead-generation campaigns targeting high-value users.
The report could also be used to eliminate ad spend on low-value user groups. For example, on an ecommerce site, you could look for audience groups with low conversion and visitations numbers and exclude these audiences from seeing your ads.
It could also help identify areas in your site that need more tailed messaging to engage certain audiences and user type.
Geo (Language & Location) Report
The Geo report gives a break-down of what languages your users are using to view your site. Along with the location from which they are browsing your content. This information is crucial in evaluating whether the traffic you are acquiring is properly engaging with your site and brand.
You may be getting a large portion of traffic from a certain country. Which could highlight an opportunity for more targeted marketing and business for your business and site from that country.
It may also highlight areas requiring attention, ie if you are targeting audiences from Australia but getting a lot more traffic from other countries. In this case it could highlight the need for a change in the business targeting strategy.
These reports used in isolation are helpful in giving an indication of how your site is performing with your target audiences. However, when these reports are used together, they create a really powerful tool. Allowing for more customized targeting of your site messaging and marketing campaigns. As well as give clear insights into areas requiring improvement and growth.
This post is part of a series, see the previous post – What is Google Analytics Audience Report Part 1
Another post covering the next section of the Google Analytics Audience report is coming. With more ideas on how this report can be used to improve business outcomes. Stay tuned.
