Top 9 Google Analytics Metrics for Marketers to Track

Google Analytics conveniently offers a free version where you can still create custom and automated reports. Yet, it also provides a pricing structure where they offer other paid plans for marketers who need more features.

Google Analytics reporting is an important stage of executing your marketing strategies when improving customer engagement on a client’s website, delivering desired conversion results and understanding target audience habits.

For instance, you cannot maintain or improve your performance without knowing and keeping track of what is working or not working. However, before doing anything with Google Analytics, you first need to know the metrics which you want to track in this tool.

If you don’t know where to begin with GA reporting, here are two great report templates to get you started:

• GA dashboard;
• GA report.

The following are some of the most important Google Analytics metrics to track, optimize and use these metrics to reach the goals you have set up for your brand and website. You will find these metrics under categories such as:

Audience: This metric provides information about your users' location, device categories, and demographics.

• Acquisition: The acquisition metric shows you where your audience is coming from.
• Behavior: The behavior metric tells you what the audience does on your website. It shows how much time users spend on your site.
• Conversions: Conversions show you the conversion rate; it tells you if your visitors are converting and if they are completing the actions you set as conversions within the app. E.g this can be customers checking out on an ecommerce site.

1. Pageviews

A pageview is a metric that measures the performance of your client’s website over a specific period. It refers to the number of times a page is viewed; the count increases whenever a user loads a page. A pageview is the total number of user visits; it can be a different user loading the page or the same user hitting the same page multiple times.

Unique pageviews, on the other hand, is the number of visitors per session. No matter how many times a user loads the page in one season, that counts as one visit in unique page views. 

Moreover, the pageviews are always higher than the unique page views, as unique views count for unique visitors.

2. Average Time on Page

Average time on page is a web analytics metric that estimates the average amount of time users spend on one of your client’s site pages.

Low duration times could indicate and give you insight that:

• Your content is not relevant and doesn't provide enough value;
• Your formatting is complex and difficult to follow;
• Your CTAs aren’t compelling enough to capture the user’s intention.

To improve these numbers, it is recommended to research your client’s target audience; ask that audience what they want to see; experiment with different CTA’s.

3. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate tells you the percentage of visitors who leave a website page immediately after landing, without moving on to another page.

Bounce rate is one of the most important marketing KPIs because it can show you if your funnel has serious flaws that need to be addressed or if your content completely misses the mark when it comes to user expectations.

Tracking your bounce rate is essential for a couple of reasons:

• A high bounce rate means your client’s visitors are not seeing what they are searching for or are not interested and leave. You may need to improve your marketing campaign, look at keywords and traffic sources, and make it more relevant. Your efforts may even lead to higher organic search traffic. 
• If the bounce rate is high, it should alarm you. It’s also an indication for you to improve the content of your website to make them more attractive. People will stay on your client’s site longer if they find the information they are looking for, and the information you provide is also good quality. 
• Bounce rates can teach you how users interact with specific pages on your client's website. You can use this information to guide your further content creation process.

4. Traffic sources

You can find traffic sources under the Acquisition section in Google Analytics. Traffic is the most vital metric to track, as, without traffic, you can't reach any of your goals. It is crucial to know where most of your traffic is coming from. There are different ways people can reach your websites, such as organic traffic, direct hits, referrals, ads, or social media.

• Direct traffic refers to visitors who arrive at a website by typing in the URL or using a bookmark.
• Referral traffic refers to traffic from other websites—for example, blogs, banners, affiliate links, etc. 
• Organic traffic refers to visitors from search engines—for example, Bing or Google. 
• Paid traffic refers to visitors who arrive from paid search advertising—for example, PPC or Google Ads. 
• Other campaigns include email, social media, or direct campaigns. 

5. Users

The user metric under the Audience category tells you how many users interact with your website. It keeps track of all types of users’ data, such as active users, new users, and returning users. You not only want to attract new users but also want to keep the returning users interested.

The user metric is worth tracking because it shows you how many people visited your client’s site for the first time during a given time. This metric indicates the success of your campaigns and specifically how well you generated new users.

The returning users metric shows how many people returned to your client’s website.

A high number of returning users may indicate that people are interested in the content you publish for your client.

6. Sessions

When a user interacts with your client's website, this is referred to as a session.

Sessions show your users' experience while they stay on your website as it tracks all of the users’ activities on your website until they leave. If the same user returns after 24 hours, it will be counted as a second session in Google Analytics.

Marketing agencies benefit from website session tracking because:

• It enables them to identify and analyze user behavior and habits;
• It identifies why users leave the client's website;
• It enables them to track, analyze and optimize the user journey.
• The KPI lets them see what works in their PPC, SEO, and other marketing initiatives.

Note: Page per session refers to the average number of pages visited in a whole session, while the Average session duration shows you the average time visitors spend on your webpage.

7. Average page load time

Average page load time is an important metric for user engagement; you do not want your visitors to leave your site if it takes too much time to load. Side speed can be improved by looking at the factors causing the delay and fixing them.

Tracking site speed is especially important for SEO specialists because:

• Aids in determining whether the website should be optimized for a specific browser or a mobile device;
• Offers helpful insights for specific web pages;
• A slow-loading page affects other KPIs such as bounce rate, user experience, and, essentially, revenue;
• Assists marketers in assessing which pages lack speed and need to be optimized.

8. Conversions

The conversion rate on a website indicates whether or not a user completed the action you or your client desired. It is always expressed as a percentage, with a higher percentage indicating a successful campaign.

Some conversion stats in the marketing agency industry :

• The average paid search conversion rate is 6.6%;
• The average email conversion rate is 2.3%;
• The average organic search conversion rate is 2.3%;
• The average referral conversion rate is 3.6%.

Conversion is one of the most important metrics to track. It is closely related to your goals, as it is an action that you have set up as a goal you want to reach. No matter your goal, if the users are not converting and your conversation rate is low, then you need to change something. 

You should track this KPI because:

• It gives you insights into the effectiveness of your campaign messaging;
• It lets you assess historical data and predict potential sales and revenue growths - whether you are consistently hitting your goal conversion rate or not;
• It demonstrates how successfully you are driving desired actions on your client’s site.

9. Goal Completion Rate

The first step you take is when you set up your goals, and then all the steps you have taken in between are to ensure you reach those goals. Thereby, goals are the most important metrics you track, so after careful consideration and understanding your objective, set your goals. 

The difference between conversions and goal completion is that goal completion is all about all completed elements that define your desired results. In contrast, conversion is just about completed actions by site visitors.

Tracking your goal completion is necessary because|;

• ​​A high goal completion rate shows that your campaign inspires your target audience to act.
• It reveals information about the quality of your marketing efforts and messages.
• A high lead-to-win rate means your campaign generates high-quality leads for your sales team.
• Your sales funnel's success can be measured.

Bottom Line

Google Analytics has over 500 metrics and KPIs. Yet, neither tracking nor measuring all of them is necessary. It’s more about your identifying your goals and finding the right KPIs that best evaluate the success of your efforts.

The list of top 10 metrics provided above includes only the most important ones your marketing agency should consider tracking.

If you want to track these KPIs easily and with zero effort, we’ve got a modern and powerful tool - Whatagraph. It will present these KPIs accurately and in real-time and will not waste any of your precious resources. Try Whatagraph for free today!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a “dimension” in Google Analytics?

Dimensions are the attributes that are used to describe the metrics. Dimensions are the characteristics of your visitors, while metrics are measurable numbers. In Google Analytics reports, dimensions are expressed by non-numerical values in rows.

What four scope levels are available for dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics?

The four scope levels for dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics are product level, hit level, session level, and user level.