- [Pavel] Hi, guys, this is Pavel for measureschool.com,
and today we're going to talk about segmentation.
You may already know what this will be about,
but anyway, I will start from the very basic.
If this is the first time you heard about segmentation,
you've been working with aggregated data.
It means that all of the reports you were looking on
were containing the blend of all traffic sources,
all device types, such as desktop, mobile, tablet,
all countries, or all product bought, and so on, and so on.
Segmentation is the technique in Google Analytics
allowing us to create set of conditions
by which we create a segment,
and then we apply it on the data
so we see just a smaller data set
which allows us to create insights
or to be able to see insights.
Let me show you how it works.
The default segment in Google Analytics
is called All Users.
This is what we described as aggregated data,
and if you want to add another segment
and compare it with the default one,
there's a button for it, the gray one, Add Segment.
Right now, I will just show you
what will happen with the data once we apply the segment,
and then we will show how to build segment from the scratch.
So if you click on that Add Segment,
you should see something similar as I do,
which is the list
of predefined segments in Google Analytics
which you can start to use instantly.
So I will select this one,
which is segment based on the device category
containing desktop, which is desktop traffic.
That's, I guess, it's quite clear,
and if I click right now on Apply,
what is happening that the view
you were used to has changed a bit?
It means that we see two lines
comparing two segments we have,
which in this case is all users and desktop users.
All the numbers we see
are also split on two parts, comparing the segments,
and if I will go to any of the reports
where we also see the table,
we will also see that also all the lines telling us
the absolute or the percentage numbers
are also split in two.
So this is what segmentation will do.
Take it just as an example
what will happen with the data
so we know that once you see more than one line,
it means that you applied the segment.
I will right now go back to that previous screen.
I'll minimize the left tab and remove the segment,
and let's show how to build a segment from the scratch.
I will click again here on Add Segment,
and then clicking here on the right about the New Segment,
which will show us another window
where we can create a segment,
and right now we have two options how to create a segment.
First of them is by using that predefined tabs
where we have plenty of dimensions names
where we can type any value and we will create a segment.
So for example, if I will go here to Demographics one
and click on the Age and wait for a couple of seconds,
I can see that the segment of users
who are between 18 and 24 is 10% of users,
which is about 6,000 something.
So this is one of the options,
for example, when it comes to operating system.
There is a quantifier.
There's plenty of them, actually,
either exact match or containing, starting, ending,
matching a regular expression, and so on and so forth.
So I will start with that basic one,
which is operating system containing,
for example, Macintosh.
I will take it from a suggestion,
and again, if I will wait for a second,
I can see how huge that segment is.
This is 28% of users.
If I would name it right now,
and I'm suggested to use reasonable name,
not segment one, segment two, and so on,
but try to name it somehow that once you save it,
if you will then see its name,
you will instantly know
how this segment is probably defined.
So for this one, I would name it as a Macintosh segment.
Mainly what I would like to show you is the technique
how to build it completely from the scratch,
which means going into Advanced Conditions
or into Advanced section and using conditions.
This is, actually, most of the time
faster option to creating a segment.
How to do that?
First of all, we have to select
whether we want to base our segments
on the sessions or the users.
The difference is very simple.
If we select on the user,
we are looking on the longer time frame
of interactions of one user,
whereas session is just a strictly defined session,
or it's a shorter period of time.
So hope you all know what's the difference
between a user and session.
So let's show just simple example.
We can either include or exclude conditions we have,
and then what we have to do is to select dimension
based on which we want to create a segment.
So I will show just a very simple segment
of the desktop traffic
which we already applied in the first example,
but now we'll show how to build that.
So the dimension name is Device Category.
Again, we have quite a lot of quantifiers we can use,
so I will leave here as contains.
If we click here and wait for a second,
the suggester should show us, okay, we have three options.
I click on desktop, wait for a second,
then I can see it's about 68 to 67% of users,
which is 40K users.
Again, reasonable name
is always good to have, so sorry,
Desktop traffic for this video.
If I will click right now on the Save button
and wait for a second,
you can see that also that segment appeared here,
and right now I can go through any of the report I have
and both of that segments will be applied.
If for any reason you'd like not to see the default segment,
it's very easy to remove that
just by clicking on that small button
and clicking here on Remove.
Then you'll see, again, only one line.
So that was a very simple example of how to build a segment.
Let's show advanced options.
So I will click here and then clicking on Edit
and try to show you what other options we have.
You've probably observed on that right side
that we have logical operations OR and AND.
As you probably know, how it would work,
if we would use OR, it would basically widen the segment
because if any of those conditions is met
then the user or session is included in the segment.
So just to show you that, for example,
let's use Source/Medium, which contains,
and let's use something from this,
for example, google/cpc.
Right now we can see we have about 67% of users,
and if I add one more condition here,
yeah, there's a bit more of them.
So just proving that OR works like a segment widener,
whereas if I will remove that
and add there AND logical operator
and use the same dimension which is Source/Medium
containing google/cpc, it will narrow the segment,
which will be significantly lower, I guess.
Yeah, almost, or 900 users.
So hope you know what's the difference in how to use it.
You might see here another button, Add Filter.
How that works?
It's basically the same as using AND operator.
So we are capable to create one condition here,
and if you want to add another one,
we can either use that AND button
or adding here, Add Filter,
and if I will use that same dimension,
which is Source/Medium
containing google/cpc, we should start seeing
that similar, yeah, 888 users.
How to use that?
Sometimes you might want to, for example,
create a condition which we had using OR logical operator.
So for the first time,
you want to widen that by two conditions
and you want any of them being met,
and then you want to narrow that by logical AND operator,
so just remember that by using another Add Filter,
it works like a logical AND operator.
So this is the simple example of segmentation.
You probably know that if you would use
quite a lot of AND operators,
you'll be able to narrow the segments up to one user,
so it's not very useful,
but just to show you that it works this way.
So if I would right now widen it, for example,
for the country containing United Kingdom,
we should see significantly less.
Yeah, just 1,600,
and if I would add another condition where, for example,
browser is Chrome, let's say,
yeah, something like this,
and another condition could be,
for example, operating system.
Right now, I'm just showing you the possibilities,
what it can do with the data.
So if this is Windows,
yeah, I only see 500,
so if I would do another, another, another,
and I would probably segment it
to just one or just couple of users,
so this is possible to do.
What is worth remembering when doing segmentation
is that if you compare, sorry,
if you compare two segments,
you should try to avoid the segment overlap.
It basically means that if I have this segment definition,
which is only sessions coming
from the desktop device category,
if I would save it right now
and compare it with that segment of all users,
here Apply, the segment overlap means
that basically all of the desktop traffic segments
is also included in all users.
So when comparing those two segment,
there is not much to compare
since there's a huge overlap between the segments
and all of the desktop users
are also included in all users,
so there's a huge distortion,
and when creating segments and comparing them,
we should try to create segments which are contradictory.
It means that one user is only in one segment.
There are some exceptions where you want to include
one user in both segments,
but there's very, very few of them,
so this is just rule of thumb how to work with segmentation.
Another important thing to remember
is that once you create a segment and save it,
you don't have to create it
from the scratch for the second time.
So as you can see, I right now created
that specific segment, Desktop traffic - video,
and right now I see it in predefined segments.
So I just have to click on it if I want to use it again
and apply to segment and go into data.
What is important to remember
is that the segments you create
in your Google Analytics account
is something only you can see.
So if you create it here,
your colleague having access to same account can see that,
whereas there is a nice feature, you can share a segment.
So if you would click here on the Actions
and click on the Share,
and you would send this link to your colleague
or someone you'd like to share a segment with.
If another person would click on that,
he or she can easily import that segment to GA
and start working with that.
This is very handy, specifically,
if you create a bit more complicated segment.
So that was still quite a basic part
of how to create a segment.
Right now, I would like to show you
how to use advanced option,
so let's start again from the scratch
and by clicking here on New Segment.
We were previously in that Conditions,
but right now we'll go to Sequences,
and again, by its name,
you might already know what this will be about.
It's pretty much the same as in the case of Conditions,
but right now we also can create particular steps
for which we want to segment our users,
which is a great, great feature.
Let me show you how it works.
So again, we can either include or exclude users
or sessions, any of it.
Then we can select something which is called Sequence start,
and we have two options here.
The first of them is any user interaction
or first user interaction.
Any user interaction means that if we select specifically,
or it can also work for our sessions,
but it's mostly used for the users.
So if we select the any user interaction,
and let's assume the user
was visiting our website for the whole month,
any user interaction means
that if we select here a condition,
it will be included if that condition happened
at any time of that, for example, 30 days.
If we select first user interaction,
it will include only the users
for which that condition is met as their first interaction.
So let me show you how it works,
very similarly as in the previous case.
So for example, let's have a look
on the user interactions where they, for example,
came for a very specific keyword.
For example, if you start a new campaign
for a particular keyword
and you want to bring a lot of users to our website,
so let's assume that was our case.
We only want to see all of the users
who for the first time during that period we have
came through the keyword hoodies,
and for some reason, right now,
(laughs) that part is not working,
showing me how huge the segment is,
and then I want to see how many of them made it,
for example, to basket.
The option I have here
is another consisting of two possibilities.
Either the condition is followed by
or immediately followed by.
Is followed by means that the condition I will select here
can happen at any time after meeting this condition
or the step I'm defining here has to occur
immediately after meeting this condition.
So for example, I want to see all of the users
who for the first time came through the keyword hoodies
and then made it to checkout,
which will be defined as
page containing basket.
If I would save it right now, made it to basket,
I should start seeing what was the volume of those users.
(laughs) That's quite funny
that there was exactly one user
who came through that hoodie keyword
and then made it to basket,
so also for as an example that it's possible
to create a segment of exactly one user.
Anyway, if I will go back right now to that edit part,
I guess you know what I mean.
What are the possibilities of using sequences segments?
So right now, I guess you already agree with me
how powerful that technique, segmentation,
is in Google Analytics.
So just to give you a few examples of what to compare,
for example, desktop and mobile traffic,
to see what's the difference with the trend line,
for example, for desktop and mobile traffic.
I will just show you a very simple example here.
I will cancel these two segments
and compare that desktop traffic segments we had
with mobile traffic only.
I should have it somewhere here.
Okay, here it is, and look at it.
By comparing those two segments,
we can see that, for example,
desktop traffic has quite strong seasonality
comparing to the working days and the week days,
whereas mobile one is pretty much flat.
So this is just a very simple example
of what you can start doing
once you start applying segments on your data,
not looking on aggregated ones.
So this is also something I would start with,
comparing desktop and mobile traffic.
Then if you have multinational business or websites,
try to compare various countries.
You might be surprised what differences you'll find.
For example, another segment for worth comparison
is your frequent visitors,
which would be the visitors who visited your website,
for example, for five times during that period of time,
and start to try to look for what are these users
in terms of what are the traffic sources
they are coming from,
what is the content they consume on your website,
what do they buy, if you're in e-commerce,
and so on and so forth?
Another segment worth comparing would be,
for example, of users who viewed checkout
but didn't convert, very easy to do.
So I'm sure you can name thousands of such segments,
so start using them.
It's, I said, very powerful technique.
The last thing I want to show you
is the beauty of using the Google's ecosystem,
and it means that any segment
you create in Google Analytics,
you can push to Google Ads
and start running campaigns for a particular segment
you created in Google Analytics,
which is great, great, great feature.
How to do that?
I don't have sufficient permissions
to do that for Google Merchandise Store account,
so I will right now go to that step
to my Google Analytics account to show you how to do that.
It's very simple.
First thing necessary to do
is to have linked your Google Ads account
and your Google Analytics account.
You do that by going to Admin section
then to Google Ads Linking and link it here.
As you can see, I already have
my Google Ads account linked here,
but how to do that from the scratch?
Just by clicking here,
and in order to do that, it's worth remembering
you have to have edit permissions on the GA property
and also admin access on the Google Analytics account.
If you have that, that Google Ads account
will automatically appear here,
so we just tick the checkbox, click Continue,
and that's all you have to do
when it comes to linking Google Ads and Google Analytics.
So I have it already done,
and then right now how to import
a segment from Google Analytics.
So I will go to my account,
go into the segments,
and creating or using any of the segments
I already have created.
So, example, excluding returning customer.
That was one of segments I created here.
How to do that?
Just by clicking on Actions then Build Audience,
and you'll be redirected back to Admin section
where you can push that audience
to your Google Ads account.
So by going here, I just click on the Next step,
then there is an audience destination,
which means to which Google Ads account should I push,
or I want to push that segment.
It's possible to link more than one
Google Ads account to one Google Analytics account,
so if you have linked more of them,
you should see more of them here.
I only have one, so if I click right now here
and enable that, in the couple of minutes,
I should start seeing that segment
of users I created.
I should start seeing that in Google Ads
and start running campaigns.
As far as I know, for most of the search
and display ads campaigns,
it's possible to use any segment
you create in Google Analytics.
So that was it, guys. That was about segmentation.
Hope you agree with me
that it's super powerful technique in Google Analytics,
and I hope you all will start using that.
So hope you enjoyed it, and see you next time.
- All right, thanks, Pavel,
for this great explanation on advanced segments
inside of Google Analytics.
If you wanna see another advanced video
on some advanced techniques inside of Google Analytics,
you should check out this video right over there
where Pavel's going to explain to you
attribution modeling inside of Google Analytics
so you know where your users are coming from
and how Google actually interprets that inside of Analytics.
Now, with that, from everybody here
at MeasureSchool, happy measuring.