## Google Analytics 4 Audience Building and Segmentation 🔹 *parent* [course index] ▫️ *prev* [topic], *next* [topic], *related* [topic] ### Overview Via [LinkedIn Learning](https://www.linkedin.com/learning/google-analytics-ga4-audience-building-and-segmentation "https://www.linkedin.com/learning/google-analytics-ga4-audience-building-and-segmentation") > If you work in digital marketing, knowing your audience—and how effectively you’re reaching them—is vital to your success. With Google Analytics, you have a powerful tool to segment users and leverage that data to take insightful actions. In this course, Samantha Barnes shows you how to build audiences, funnels, user paths, segments, and data integrations with Google Analytics. Samantha goes hands-on with the tools, discussing topics like user-based data, how to customize that data in advanced segments, and how to take the advanced reporting explorations to another level by building Google Analytics audiences. As Samantha shows, once you know your audience, you can more effectively target high-value customers, deliver ads at the right time, and discover trends that lead to successful conversions. ### Introduction to User Analysis in Google Analytics Analytics are tracked through Users, Audiences, Segments, and Sessions. User, Segmentation, Audience Building are specific tools used for different purposes. **Users** - Scope segmentation - Users have 3 event types - session\_start - page\_view - user\_engagement - Users aren't necessarily people - Cookies are random ids that websites set to traffic - Cookies are browser based - Persistent - remains when you return to the site - could have more than one traffic source - Dividing into subsets helps understand audiences, and audiences are the end-product. **Audience Tools** **Comparisons Tool** - right hand side  - Used to learn about segments of the audience - These can't be saved and won't be there when you log back in - Good for use at the beginning of data analysis - Example: Build Comparison (right column) - Include: promotion\_name, Dimension values: act responsible - AND Include: Age, Dimension values: 18-24 - AND Include: Device Category, Dimension values: mobile **Exploration Tool** - left hand side - Creates custom reports you can share - If you already know certain things about your audience and have specific questions - Comparisons and explorations are more actionable than Comparisons tool - There are existing segments that you can modify (US, Direct Traffic, Paid Traffic, Mobile) - You can collect dynamic audience data and use this.  **Segmentation** - finding target audience and user personas (countries or even real time data for a specific user). - Admin > Property > Default Reporting Identity - User-ID and device (default) or device only options - You can also integrate offline and online data via uploading CSVs with customer data (`user_id` and `crm_stage` are common properties in CSV). - When importing data you want to map the values of the uploaded data to a Data Type in Google analytics. ## Using the Audience Tool in Google Analytics 4 ### How dimensions and events build audiences Information is in the form of dimensions - Parameters sent with Events - Acquisitions, Engagement, Monetization - We want to build hypothesis and begin to "tell a story" about our audience through events. Events - Life Cycle > Engagement > Events: Main Events report - Event names might be: page\_view, select\_item, promotions, specific collection actions - Rather than create custom events, try to use what is already tracking - What is being used most often? Each Event has different parameters. - Think about which you would like to use to tell the story about your specific segmentation of users. ### Leveraging Templates - Configure > Audiences > Build a new audience - Suggested audiences: Demographics, Technology, Acquisition - Each selection can then be fine-tuned by filling out certain information  - You can create a template based upon users age, or the first campaign that they engaged with. The `user_aquire`  property can return information who first showed up through a campaign even if they've returned differently. ### Conditions and Membership - Configure > Demographic > Audiences - Currently Active audiences - Users can be apart of multiple audiences - Click options on each Audience to view configuration (i.e. City: San Francisco) - Audiences can be _stacked_ and _dynamic_ - Searched for... or City exactly matches... - Certain segmentations like Cities should use OR instead of AND because you can't come from two cities at once. - Audiences are NOT retroactive, users can only become part of an audience after it has been created. - Best to create a lot of audiences at first, even if you don't end up using them. - Sharing is easy and anyone on a team can use created audiences. ### Scoping and Exclusions - Configure > Demographics > Audiences - Scope icon (two people)   - _Across all sessions_, _Within the same session_, _Within the same event_ - _Across all sessions -_ could be a purchase that happened with the same user across multiple sessions - _Within the same session_ - requires the users to be logged into the same device.  - _Within the same event -_ You can also set **Sequences** with additional parameters like "indirectly followed by" or "is directly followed by". ### Duration - Conditions based on time - Audiences > Create Custom Audience  - `page_view`  `page_location contains /clearance`  - users will be included when they visit this page, but will removed if they don't return again. This captures return audience within a timeframe (i.e., 30 days). - _Temporarily exclude_ helps exclude users within the membership window (_n_ days), but not outside of that. - _Permanently excluse_ \- excludes even outside of the membership window. ### Predictive audience membership and predictive audiences - Reports snapshot - overview - Life Cycle > Monetization > Ecommerce purchases - Within Exploration Tool > Segment variables (US, Direct Traffic, paid traffic), you can click an existing variable and get "predictive" options to add. ## Customizing and Reporting on Audiences and Segments ### How to enhance segmentation with events and dimensions Engagement > Events > Event Name - Some Custom events may appear here after you've collected enough data However, implementation is generally done with Google Tag Manager.  - Audiences > Build a new audience > create custom option > Events > [option]  You can use this to set something like finding users who have opened a notification at least 3 times in a week, and then create a Trigger for that audience: | | | | --- | --- | | <br> | <br> | You can use this to monitor specific conversions. ### How to implement user properties in GA4 User > Demographics > Demographics overview - Any time you see users scoped as a description of a dimension, those are user properties. Configure > Custom Definitions - This can show custom information being collected as well as other dimensions.  - The 'Scope' column will show if it's a User property rather than an Event  - Naming definitions by something easy to understand or looking for existing definitions helps others understand a definition so that it doesn't need to be documented. ### Report on audiences and segments The area where you find Audiences is also an interactive list that can generate short reports based on user data. Each item will provide data which can be changed with options. - Once one has been changed, I can then use this in Reports > Add Comparison without having to recreate the audience data I want. - This can also be used to filter audiences. ### Applying audiences beyond the GA4 interface Integrations with Google Ads can help you remarket to a specific segment.  You must have edit and admin abilities for Analytics and Google Ads. - Admin > Google Ads Linking - Shows links that have already been created - Data Settings > Data Collection > Enable Google Signals Data Collection - 'Advanced Settings to Allow Ads Personalization' - option will allow you collect additional information from users who are signed in. This is not automatically turned on. - This will notify users of cookies with a pop up. ## The Advanced Analysis Reports in GA4 ### Segmenting users within the Advanced Analysis tool **Advanced Analysis reports** - Explorations > Free Form - Creates a default report, but you can change properties and views. - Tab Settings > Free Form lets you choose type of report style - Adding (`+`) Segments allows custom conditions (scope and users)  - Example - event scroll past 90% of page - Change a Row to a Column - Add a Row for Audience name > filter specific cities - Filter > Regex option to combine two cities with OR instead of AND. ### Exploring segments based on user funnels in GA4 **Funnel Explorations** - Explorations > Funnel Explorations Technique > Funnel Explorations > Standard/Trended - **Standard** - steps are shown in tradition way - **Trended** - all steps are combined This can be used to find out information about actions that immediately follow one another: Promotion clicked > Added to cart > Purchased - You can add Elapsed time to find out how long a conversion took. - Helps rule out users that didn't first click a promotion before purchasing. ### Exploring segments based on the user journey Pathing diagrams can show user journeys. Instead of choosing specific touchpoints and steps, you choose waypoint or nodes: Starting point > step 1 > step 2 You can also use this to figure out what users do instead of an action you've anticipated. -  - Did they leave the site?  - Go to another page?  - What was the volume of users? You can also use the backwards use of path to trace where the audience came from.  - Click 'Start Over' - Set 'Ending Point' first ### Exploring segments based on segment overlap and cohorts Using Technique: Cohort Exploration can give you data based upon time like weeks (week1, week 2) and specific date ranges. - How many people came back the next week? - Isolate only users who came back You can use this in conjunction with other tools to find overlapping feature of your audience.  <hr class="references"> ### References [^1]: lastname, first (year). *Name of video* [link to resource]