Google Analytics Upgrade: AdSense Reporting, Visualization Tools, & More

A day after announcing a slight touch up, Google Analytics is rolling out what it calls a “significant upgrade” to its feature set. The new tools include AdSense integration, “Motion Charts,” advanced segmentation, an API, custom reports and an updated user interface to highlight these new tools better. Google is calling this an “enterprise class” upgrade, but the new reporting tools will be free and available to all Google Analytics users.

“We’re taking things that were expensive and difficult, and making them free and easy to use,” says Brett Crosby, Group Manager for Google Analytics.

Online publishers may be most interested in the AdSense integration tools coming to Google Analytics. After linking an AdSense and Analytics account, you’ll be able to see AdSense data including:

• total revenue, impressions, clicks, and click-through ratio
• revenue per day, per hour, etc.
• revenue per page (what pages are most profitable)
• revenue per referral (what other sites bring you profitable traffic)

Here are a couple screenshots from Google’s videos on the new features (see below for link):

During our call this morning, we asked why AdSense itself doesn’t also offer this data without requiring the need for also using Google Analytics to get it. We’re waiting for a reply from Google’s AdSense team and will let you know what we learn. Update: A Google spokesperson says, “We can’t comment on any future AdSense developments or features.”

Motion Charts is a visualization tool lets you see and interact with analytics data in five dimensions, a capability made possible by Google’s purchase of Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software in March, 2007.

The Google Analytics API, which is currently in private beta, will open up analytics data for developers to export and use however they want. Advanced segmentation allows users to dig deeper into subsets of traffic, such as “visits with conversions,” or create their own segment types. Custom reporting lets users create their own comparisons of metrics.

Google has created a series of videos showing how some of these new tools work.

Crosby says the new features will be rolled out in coming weeks to Google Analytics users, who may see some new features earlier than others. The AdSense integration, he warns, may take longer to roll out than the other new tools.

More discussion at Techmeme.