Google Analytics Has New Benchmarking Reports for Businesses
Over the next couple of weeks, Google will introduce a new set of benchmarking reports in Google Analytics that will provide some useful information about how well they compare with others in their specified industry. The catch is that it’s only available for users who have agreed to opt in and share their data anonymously with Google.
The new reports pull in industry data and engagement metrics that will cover 1,600 industries, 1,250 markets, and seven-size buckets to provide businesses insight on how well their site ranks among others in their specific industry competitors.
How Are These Benchmarking Reports Valuable?
By allowing businesses to compare their data with others, it can provide valuable context, providing the right information companies need to make more meaningful targeting decisions and tap into new industry trends.
Getting Started
To access these benchmarking reports, just go to Audience > Benchmarking in the left column (under the Reporting section). It’s still going to take a few weeks to fully roll out to everyone who has enabled so you may not see it just yet. If you haven’t enabled to share data anonymously to Google, but you would like to start in order to start receiving these new reports, just follow these instructions:
1. Go to your Google Analytics admin and click in “Account Settings”
2. Under “Data Sharing Settings,” make sure you have “Anonymously with Google and other” checked
3. Click “Save” and there you go! You will no have access to this great data!
What’s in These Benchmarking Reports?
Under the “Audience” tab and under “Benchmarking,” you’ll see that you can set reports in three different dimensions: Channels, Location, and Devices
In the top bar of the Reporting area, you can choose your industry vertical – you can select from a broad category or slim it down to a specific sub category depending on what you want to see.You can choose to filter these results by country/region and size by daily sessions (how many sessions your website gets in one day).
After setting up your filters, you will be able to see the how many web properties are contributing to the data you see. This number is located at the top right corner of the report area.
Finally, you can choose a date range or adjust what data you would like to plot in a graph.
The insights businesses receive from these new benchmark reports will let them know where they stand in comparison to others who are a similar industry and size. Follow the instructions to set up your Google Analytics Benchmarking Reports to see how your website measures against those in your industry.