In the last few months Google has released a brand new reporting feature in Analytics measuring ‘Session Quality’. Using similar machine learning, as with smart lists and smart goals, Analytics measures the quality of a session by giving it a score of 1-100 based on the proximity the user is to converting. A high quality score (50-100) would suggest that the user has engaged well with the website or is further down the conversion path than others. A low score indicates that the user hasn’t carried out the key indicators that would suggest they are likely to convert; low engagement, not enough time spent on site etc.
How can we benefit from this?
Segmentation
Previously, the only way to measure the quality of a visitor was by segmenting converting users from non-converting users. This beta now allows us to separate highly engaged but not converting visitors, from general visitors to your site. To segment this data you’ll need to do the following:
1. Log In to Analytics > Audience > Behaviour > Session Quality
2. You should see a similar layout to the following:
To segment, select the plus sign next to your highest quality sessions 51-100 then the symbol on which session quality score you would like to segment specifically.
3. The following pop up should appear:
Select any view, so that you can overlay over any analytics report and then create segment.
Creating this segment means that you have access to a deeper understanding of users’ path to conversion and gives an insight into which campaigns, channels or keywords drive a high quality session rate and what they’re then engaging with. You can then build out the low quality session behaviour into a segment to assist you in giving a clearer comparison.
There is also the option to build audiences from this feature which can by particularly useful for your remarketing campaigns, as you can exclude users that have been less engaged to improve campaign cost efficiency and conversion rates.
Google have made this feature available to accounts that track at least 1,000 ecommerce transactions per month. Get segmenting!