GA4 Explorations and Audience Insights

Key terms and definitions from GA4 Explorations lecture notes, covering the interface, data types, and specific analysis techniques.

GA4 Explorations

A free, fast, and flexible user-centric analysis tool for Google Analytics 4 customers designed to help explore, discover, compare, and act on data.

Variables

A subset of data, attributes, and measurements that make up an analysis, including segments, dimensions, and metrics.

Segments

A subset of data representing a small group, such as users from a particular city or users who purchased a product.

Dimensions

A particular feature or attribute of data, such as City (e.g., "Paris") or Country, typically organized into rows.

Metrics

Quantitative measurements or information expressed in numbers, such as the total number of sessions that began on a site or app, typically organized into columns.

Tab Settings Panel

The interface area that allows users to choose an analysis technique and configure settings for the current analysis tab.

Visualizations

Options to change the appearance of an analysis technique, such as displaying data as a table, pie chart, or line graph.

Filters

Controls used to focus on specific data by limiting the analysis to a subset of dimensions, metrics, or both.

Visual Segmentation

The process of creating a GA4 segment or audience on-the-fly by selecting a specific subset or section of data in the analysis canvas.

Google Signals

A feature that must be enabled to access demographic data (age, gender, interests) and perform cross-device analytics.

Free Form Exploration

A flexible exploration technique often used with visualizations like Donut Charts to analyze audience composition, acquisition channels, or top purchased items.

Funnel Analysis

An exploration technique used to understand the path to conversion and identify key sticky points or drop-off points in a user journey.

Cohort Analysis

An exploration technique that reviews the stickiness and loyalty of an audience over a chosen time period, based on a specific re-engagement event.

Segment Overlap Analysis

An exploration technique used to identify platform overlap (app vs. web), device overlap, or the intersection between different buyer groups and marketing channels.

Return Criteria

An event picked in a Cohort Analysis to identify the specific behavior that constitutes re-engagement or a repeat visit.

Breakdown

A configuration option used to split data by a chosen dimension, such as first-touch medium, to see its impact on a funnel or audience composition.

Values

The section in the configuration settings where metrics are dragged and dropped to be measured in the analysis.

User-ID

A feature used alongside Google Signals to enable cross-device (x-device) analytics between app and web environments.