Are you looking to understand what scope levels available for dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics?
Knowing the scope levels is crucial for accurate data analysis and interpretation.
In Google Analytics, there are four scope levels: Hit, Session, User, and Product.
Each scope level determines the level at which dimensions and metrics are applied in your reports.
When you create a report, you can choose which scope level to apply to your dimensions and metrics.
The scope level you choose will affect the data that is included in your report.
For example, if you choose Hit-level scope, your report will include data for each individual interaction a user has with your website or app.
On the other hand, if you choose User-level scope, your report will include data for each unique user that interacts with your website or app.
Understanding the scope levels for dimensions and metrics is important because it helps you to create more accurate and meaningful reports.
By choosing the right scope level for your dimensions and metrics, you can ensure that you are analyzing the data at the appropriate level and drawing the correct conclusions from your data.
What Scope Levels Available for Dimensions and Metrics?
When working with dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics, it’s important to understand the different scope levels that are available.
Each scope level determines the level of analysis for a particular dimension or metric, and can impact the accuracy and usefulness of your reports.
Hit-Level
The hit-level scope is the most granular level of analysis in Google Analytics.
It applies to individual interactions or hits on your website, such as pageviews, events, or ecommerce transactions.
This means that any dimensions or metrics with a hit-level scope will be recorded for each individual hit.
Session-Level
The session-level scope applies to data that is recorded for an entire session on your website.
This includes all hits that occur during a single session, and can provide valuable insights into user behavior over time.
Dimensions and metrics with a session-level scope will be recorded once per session.
User-Level
The user-level scope applies to data that is recorded for individual users on your website.
This can include information such as demographics, behavior, and acquisition data.
Dimensions and metrics with a user-level scope will be recorded once per user.
Product-Level
The product-level scope applies specifically to ecommerce data, and refers to data that is recorded for individual products.
This can include information such as product name, SKU, and price.
Dimensions and metrics with a product-level scope will be recorded once per product.
It’s important to note that not all dimensions and metrics will have the same scope level.
In most cases, it only makes sense to combine dimensions and metrics that share the same scope.
This can help ensure that your reports are accurate and meaningful, and can provide valuable insights into user behavior on your website.
Dimensions in Detail
Dimensions in Google Analytics are attributes of your data that help you understand the characteristics of your users.
They are like categories that your users fall into.
Here are some common dimensions in Google Analytics:
- Country: This dimension shows the country where your users are located.
- Device Category: This dimension shows the type of device (desktop, mobile, or tablet) that your users are using to access your website.
- Source/Medium: This dimension shows the source and medium of your traffic.
- For example, if a user came to your site from a Google search, the source would be “google” and the medium would be “organic”.
- Page: This dimension shows the URL of the page that the user visited.
Dimensions can have different scope levels: Hit, Session, or User.
The scope level determines how the dimension is applied to your data.
- Hit-level Dimensions: These dimensions are applied to individual interactions or hits on your website, such as pageviews, events, or e-commerce transactions.
- Hit-level dimensions have the most granular level of analysis in Google Analytics.
- Session-level Dimensions: These dimensions are applied to a session, which is a group of interactions that occur on your website within a given time frame.
- Session-level dimensions can help you understand the behavior of your users during a session.
- User-level Dimensions: These dimensions are applied to a user, who is a unique individual who visits your website.
- User-level dimensions can help you understand the behavior of your users over time.
It’s important to note that dimensions can only have one scope level.
Therefore, it’s important to align dimensions on the same scope level to avoid mismatched reports.
Understanding the scope level of your dimensions can help you analyze your data more effectively and gain insights into the behavior of your users.
Metrics In Context
When you’re working with Google Analytics, it’s important to understand the different scope levels for dimensions and metrics.
Each dimension and metric has a specific scope, which determines how it can be used and combined with other dimensions and metrics.
In this section, we’ll take a closer look at the different scope levels and how they impact your analysis.
User-Level Metrics
User-level metrics are associated with individual users, and can be used to analyze user behavior over time.
These metrics are available for all dimensions and can be combined with any other user-level metric.
Examples of user-level metrics include:
- Users: The total number of users who visited your site during the selected time period.
- New Users: The number of users who visited your site for the first time during the selected time period.
- Sessions per User: The average number of sessions per user during the selected time period.
Session-Level Metrics
Session-level metrics are associated with individual sessions, and can be used to analyze session behavior over time.
These metrics are available for all dimensions, and can be combined with any other session-level metric.
Examples of session-level metrics include:
- Sessions: The total number of sessions on your site during the selected time period.
- Bounce Rate: The percentage of sessions that resulted in a single pageview.
- Pages per Session: The average number of pages viewed per session.
Hit-Level Metrics
Hit-level metrics are associated with individual hits, and can be used to analyze hit behavior over time.
These metrics are available for all dimensions, and can be combined with any other hit-level metric.
Examples of hit-level metrics include:
- Pageviews:The total number of pageviews on your site during the selected time period.
- Time on Page: The average amount of time users spend on a particular page.
- Event Value: The total value of all events during the selected time period.
Product-Level Metrics
Product-level metrics are associated with individual products, and can be used to analyze product performance over time.
These metrics are available for product-level dimensions only, and can be combined with any other product-level metric.
Examples of product-level metrics include:
- Product Revenue: The total revenue generated by a particular product during the selected time period.
- Product Quantity: The total number of units sold for a particular product during the selected time period.
- Product Refund Amount: The total amount refunded for a particular product during the selected time period.
Understanding the different scope levels for dimensions and metrics is essential for effective analysis in Google Analytics.
By using the right combination of dimensions and metrics, you can gain valuable insights into user behavior and optimize your site for better performance.
Implementation Considerations
When implementing custom dimensions and metrics, it’s important to consider the scope level at which they will be applied.
Here are some key considerations to keep in mind:
1. Choose The Right Scope Level
As mentioned earlier, there are four scope levels available for dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics: Hit, Session, User, and Product.
Each scope level has its own unique characteristics and use cases.
Therefore, it’s important to choose the right scope level based on your specific reporting needs.
For example, if you want to track user behavior across multiple sessions, you should use a User-level custom dimension.
On the other hand, if you want to track product-specific information, such as SKU or category, you should use a Product-level custom dimension.
2. Avoid Mixing Scope Levels
It’s important to note that you should avoid mixing scope levels when creating custom dimensions and metrics.
This is because dimensions and metrics can only have one scope level at a time.
If you mix scope levels, your reports may be inaccurate or misleading.
For example, if you create a custom dimension with Hit-level scope and a custom metric with User-level scope, they cannot be combined in a single report.
Instead, you should ensure that your custom dimensions and metrics have the same scope level.
3. Limit the Number of Custom Dimensions and Metrics
While custom dimensions and metrics can be extremely useful for tracking specific data, it’s important to limit the number of custom dimensions and metrics you create.
This is because each custom dimension and metric you create adds extra processing time to your reports, which can slow down your overall website performance.
Therefore, it’s recommended that you only create custom dimensions and metrics that are essential to your reporting needs.
Additionally, you should regularly review your custom dimensions and metrics to ensure that they are still necessary and relevant.
By keeping these implementation considerations in mind, you can create custom dimensions and metrics that accurately track the data you need without negatively impacting your website performance.
Advanced Applications
Once you have a good understanding of the four scope levels for dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics, you can start to use them to gain more insights into your website or app’s performance.
Here are a few advanced applications of scope levels:
Custom Reports
Custom reports are a powerful tool that allows you to create your own reports in Google Analytics.
By using custom dimensions and metrics with different scope levels, you can create reports that are tailored to your specific needs.
For example, you could create a custom report that shows the number of sessions and pageviews for each user ID, which would require a user-level custom dimension.
Segmentation
Segmentation is another powerful tool that allows you to analyze your data in more detail.
By using different scope levels for your segments, you can create more advanced segments that are based on user behavior.
For example, you could create a segment that includes users who have made a purchase in the last 30 days, which would require a hit-level custom dimension.
Attribution Modeling
Attribution modeling is the process of assigning credit to different marketing channels for a conversion.
By using different scope levels for your dimensions and metrics, you can create more accurate attribution models.
For example, you could use a session-level custom dimension to track the marketing channel that drove the initial visit, and a hit-level custom dimension to track the marketing channel that drove the final conversion.
In conclusion, understanding the different scope levels for dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics is crucial for accurate data analysis and interpretation.
By using different scope levels in your custom reports, segmentation, and attribution modeling, you can gain more insights into your website or app’s performance.
Key Takeaways
When it comes to analyzing data in Google Analytics, it’s important to understand the different scope levels available for dimensions and metrics.
Here are the key takeaways to keep in mind:
- There are four scope levels in Google Analytics: Hit, Session, User, and Product.
- Hit-level scope is the most granular level of analysis in Google Analytics.
- It applies to individual interactions or hits on your website, such as pageviews, events, or ecommerce transactions.
- Session-level scope applies to a single session or visit to your website.
- This means that any data collected during a session, such as the number of pages viewed or the duration of the session, will have session-level scope.
- User-level scope applies to an individual user or visitor to your website.
- This means that any data collected about a user, such as their location or device type, will have user-level scope.
- Product-level scope applies to the product for which it has been set in Enhanced E-commerce only.
- This means that the value is applied to a specific product rather than to the entire hit, session, or user.
It’s important to keep in mind that each dimension and metric has a scope, and you can’t combine dimensions and metrics of different scopes.
For example, Sessions is a session-based metric so it can only be used with session-level dimensions like Source or City.
You cannot combine Sessions with a hit-level dimension like Page.
Understanding the different scope levels available for dimensions and metrics is essential for accurately analyzing your data in Google Analytics.
By keeping these key takeaways in mind, you can ensure that you’re using the right dimensions and metrics for the scope level you’re analyzing.