With the latest Google Analytics experience, you can examine your data in new ways, without the limitations of pre-defined reports. Discover how to use the features and navigate the interface of Google Analytics 4 properties.

In this module, you’ll learn:

What’s new with reporting and analysis
How to navigate the new reporting interface
About some of the different techniques available in the Analysis tool
How to find what you need with the search tool

The next generation of reporting and analysis

Reporting and analysis are complementary areas in the latest Google Analytics experience. They’re designed to provide actionable insights into your website and app data, so you can explore data and insights at the level you need, from technical analysis to high-level reporting.

If you’re using a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property for the first time, the interface might look similar to Universal Analytics (UA) properties at first glance. But there are some key differences — let’s explore some of them below.

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How reporting and analysis work in Universal Analytics properties

Historically, Google Analytics organized your data into predefined reports, designed to reveal valuable insights. As more features became available in Analytics over time, more and more new reports became available to cover these new use cases, until there were dozens of available reports.

If you’ve used Analytics in the past, you may have noticed that you can customize these predefined reports to an extent with Custom Reports. But if the information you’re looking for isn’t available in any of the existing reports, you may have difficulty finding the insight you’re looking for.

Answer key questions with reporting in GA4 properties

In GA4 properties, reporting is simplified. Instead of a very long list of predefined reports that try to cover every use case, a handful of overview reports each cover a single insight about your business in a summary card, like „What are your user demographics?“

If you want to go deeper, you can drill into a more comprehensive report by selecting the link at the bottom of each summary card. This experience gives you more flexibility and can provide you with deeper insights.

Explore your data with Analysis in GA4 properties

If you’re looking for insights that the reports don’t cover, the Analysis feature gives you more customizable ways to analyze your data. With Analysis, you can drag and drop the dimensions and metrics you’re interested in. You can also quickly and easily filter, segment, sort, and refactor your data to home in on the insights you care about.

Once you’ve discovered interesting data sets, you can export them as Google Analytics segments or audiences. You can share your analyses with stakeholders throughout your organization and beyond. You can also export the data for use in other tools.

Note

In the latest Google Analytics experience, both reporting and the Analysis tool use machine learning to make your data more meaningful, accessible, and actionable.

Check your knowledge

What are two things you can do with the Analysis tool in GA4 properties?

Select the best answers.

Get to know reporting in Google Analytics 4 properties

Summary reports

You’ll find many different reports listed on the left side of the Analytics interface. These reports can show you information about your users, like how they found your business and how they’re engaging with it. Each report shows a high-level snapshot of these insights using summary cards.

If you want to go deeper into a particular topic, you can explore a more comprehensive report by selecting the link at the bottom of each summary card.

The Realtime report

With the Realtime report, you can monitor activity as it happens. This report shows you events that took place between five seconds and 30 minutes ago.

The card-based layout is designed to quickly answer important questions about how your users are currently interacting with your business. Each card represents a stage in the marketing funnel. In this report you can:

See different segments of users side by side to compare how they’re performing in real time
Easily create a new segment that you can also use in other reports

Get to know the Analysis techniques

Looking to go deeper? Analysis lets you easily configure and switch between a number of powerful techniques to better understand your data. These techniques include:

Exploration
Funnel analysis
Path analysis
Segment overlap
User explorer
Cohort analysis

Let’s take a closer look.

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Exploration

The Exploration technique allows you to visualize your data with flexibility and ease. To conduct an ad hoc analysis, just drag and drop the variables you’re interested in onto a canvas to see instant visualizations of your data. Don’t see the variable you’re looking for? Select the plus icon to view the full list of dimensions and metrics you can use.

This tool presents your data in a cross-tab layout, where you can arrange the rows and columns as you like and add the metrics you’re most interested in. You can also apply different visualization styles, including bar charts, pie charts, line charts, scatter plots, and maps.

If you spot a significant data point, right-click on that data point to easily create an audience or segment from it and use it in other analyses. If you use the line chart visualization, you’ll see an automatic feature enabled called anomaly detection. This feature uses machine learning to identify outliers in your data according to your parameters.

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Funnel analysis

Funnel analysis lets you visualize the steps your users take toward a key task or conversion. This tool helps you identify sequences of key events and understand how your users navigate these steps. You’ll be able to see where users enter your funnels, as well as where they drop off.

You can use this information to improve your site or app and reduce inefficient or abandoned customer journeys. You can also easily create audiences of users based on where they enter or exit the funnels you define.

With this tool, you can define up to 10 steps in your funnels, up from five steps in UA properties‘ Custom Funnels. Plus, you can now analyze both closed funnels (where users must enter at the beginning of the funnel) and open funnels (where users can enter the funnel at any point).

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Path analysis

Path analysis lets you understand how people progress from one stage in the customer journey to the next.

Like funnel analysis, path analysis explores the steps users take through your site or app. But while funnels only analyze a single, predefined path, path analysis is free-flowing and can follow any number of undefined paths, even ones you weren’t aware of or didn’t intend. For example, it could uncover looping behavior, which may indicate users becoming stuck.

Plus, you can define paths using either a starting point or an ending point. This helps you understand how users got to a certain step on their journey and shows you what they did after.

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Get to know the Analysis hub

The Analysis hub is the main landing page for Analysis. It shows previously created analyses and templates for new analyses. It also allows you to create new analyses from scratch. You can start with a blank canvas or use the templates for each of the techniques outlined above. You can also see analyses that other users have shared with you.

Analyses are private by default. If you’re the creator, only you can view and edit them unless you choose to share.

Find what you need with the search tool

Select each panel to learn more.

Search for instant answers

Search for reports, admin pages, or insights

Start typing the name of a report or a keyword related to a report. Enter the dimensions or metrics you’re interested in to get a list of reports that include them. For example, if you start typing “conversions,” you’ll see reports related to conversions.

You can also search for more specific data, like “mobile users during the last week.”

In addition, you can query for comparative date ranges. For example, „new users last month compared to last year“ returns reports with the new users metric for the previous month (e.g., September 1-30), compared with the same month a year ago.

Search for account or property configuration

Search help content

Key takeaways

Reporting in GA4 properties is simple: A handful of overview reports each cover a single insight about your business, with the option to learn more by selecting the link at the bottom of each summary card.

Use the Analysis tool to drill even deeper into your data. The different Analysis techniques allow you to home in on the specific insights you care about and export custom data sets.

Use the search box at the top of your Analytics account to find what you need.

Resources

To learn more about reporting, analysis, and search in GA4 properties, select the links below.

Show what you know

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Which of the following descriptions isn’t true about the features and interface of Google Analytics 4 properties?

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Google Analytics 4 Properties

Get to Know Google Analytics 4 Properties

The next generation of reporting and analysis

Note

Check your knowledge

Get to know reporting in Google Analytics 4 properties

Summary reports

The Realtime report

Get to know the Analysis techniques

Get to know the Analysis hub

Find what you need with the search tool

Key takeaways

Resources

Show what you know

Share your feedback!