Google Analytics is finally jumping into mobile data metrics. Google recently launched "Mobile App Analytics" as a part of its Analytics web app suite. Analytics is already used by almost a fourth of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 online retailers and more than half of its “Second 500.” With Mobile App Analytics, businesses can now measure the amount of mobile involvement their websites see from daily use, special campaigns, in-app traffic, and specific mobile platforms.
With the growing popularity of mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, it’s increasingly important for businesses to be “mobile-ready.” As your potential customers migrate from personal computers to tablets and other devices, they will begin to interact with your website differently. They will expect different levels of accessibility and functionality that complement newer technologies.
With Google Analytics’ new features and mobile-friendly design, you can not only make your website more accessible to these new devices, but also track users’ behavior and dig up new, highly actionable data every step of the way.
The Basics: Finding Your Mobile Visitors
Mobile Analytics tracking adds a new submenu to your Google Analytics dashboard. “Mobile” can be found on the left-hand menu bar, under “Technology.” Opening this submenu gives you two options: Overview and Devices.
From there, notice that your dashboard looks more or less identical to your main Audience Overview — because it actually is the same. Mobile Overview gives you a look at your total traffic with two options below the graph under Mobile: “Yes” and “No.” This is a simple metric that determines whether or not a visitor is on a non-PC device when they access your web page.
To plot either or both metrics on your overview, tick the checkmark boxes next to Yes and No, then select “Plot Rows” above. Your data graph will change to reflect mobile users versus traditional computer users, giving you a visual reference for how mobile affects your company’s web traffic. You can also explore data using Custom Reports and Goals you’ve established for typical traffic: Mobile traffic can be tracked just as thoroughly as any other traffic source.
Powerful Data: Locating Your Mobile Visitors and Their Devices
The Devices tab is where the power of Google Analytics really shines with its new Mobile metrics. The Devices dashboard will show you only your mobile visitors. Under the overall traffic graph, you can break these numbers down to see where these mobile visitors came from. Are they visiting your business’s site from their iPads? Their cellphones?
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