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    4. Can you arrange Google Analytics source/medium traffic by percentage change?

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    Can you arrange Google Analytics source/medium traffic by percentage change?

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    • VanguardCommunications
      VanguardCommunications last edited by

      I'm doing a year to year traffic audit for a client.  I would like to analyze Google Analytics source/medium traffic by percent change.   Is there a way to do this?  Do I have to create a custom variable?

      9BH70RO

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • KristinaKledzik
        KristinaKledzik last edited by

        As most people here have said, the best way is to just do this work outside of GA. Custom variables have to track current site performance, so I don't believe there's a way to build a custom variable that looks at data as it's been recorded in GA in the past.

        There are a lot of ways you can put the data together, but when I usually do is use Google's Compare option as you select the time period you're looking at. When you export the data to Excel, Google will create a separate row for every time period, like this:

        Source / Medium   |     Date Range                              |     Sessions     .....

        google / organic      |     Jan 13, 2015 - Feb 22, 2015     |     278,834   ...

        google / organic      |     Jan 13, 2014 - Feb 22, 2014     |     247,424   ...

        You can combine those into one row fairly easily with VLookup, as Ray suggested, or by creating a Pivot Table, where Source / Medium is the Row Label, Date Range is the Column Label, and Sessions (or whatever metric(s) you're interested in) is the Values.

        If you've created a Pivot Table, copy those values over to a new sheet, and calculate the percent change in each row, just like Ray said.

        Hope this helps!

        Kristina

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • DonnaDuncan
          DonnaDuncan @Ray-pp last edited by

          If I'm understanding you correctly, I think you're going to have the same problem with channels. Google changed their reporting structure in July 2013.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Ray-pp
            Ray-pp last edited by

            That would be effective if the Source/Medium was consistent between both years. You might have better luck with Channels for this method (less variation between years), but Source/Mediums are probably going to vary between years. I.e. 2013 includes a Source/Medium that no longer exists in 2014, so the data would not align neatly.

            DonnaDuncan 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • MonicaOConnor
              MonicaOConnor last edited by

              You don't have to run a VLookup necessarily. You can align the data side by side and do a simple division formula to calculate the percentage of change. Just copy and paste the data into two columns, and use the IMSUB to find the difference, then divide for a percentage.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Ray-pp
                Ray-pp last edited by

                Hi VC,

                Unfortunately, I do not think there is a default reporting option to sort a compared Source/Medium report by % changed. Absolute change is available (although sometimes doesn't sort properly) and may give you a good idea of the traffic differences - Absolute change may even be better since it could identify a low %, but high traffic change.

                To find exactly what you're looking for I suggest:

                • Export the Source/Medium data for 2014
                • Export the Source/Medium data for 2013
                • Run a VLOOKUP function in Microsoft Excel to have a single table with 2014/2013 data

                Now, you can calculate percentages, absolute values, and sort/filter the data as you see fit. Google Analytics provides a lot of the necessary data analysis tools, but it doesn't replace the power of MS Excel :)....yet.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                • Hutch42
                  Hutch42 last edited by

                  The easiest way to do this is to export the data and work with it outside of Google Analytics. I reccomend using http://www.nextanalytics.com/ to automatically export data from GA into excel.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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