Custom Variables in Google Analytics
The new “_setCustomVar” method is a major upgrade of “_setVar” method that allowed advanced visitor segmentation. Now with this improved method we are not longer bound to “Visitors” rather we are now able to segment our analytics data based on “visitors”, “sessions” and “pages.”
The major difference between “_setVar” and “_setCustomVar” can be understood by the following chart:
To get most out of new custom variables method, it is recommended that you first understand how visitor interacts with your content/site over a period of time and how Google Analytics measures this. The point is made clear on the Google Code Site, under the heading “Overview”, I suggest you to read that passage first to clear up the concepts. A complete usage guide is also available there with complete examples and is good way to get started. Check out the article
Benefits of using “Custom Variables”:
- The very first and basic advantage lies in the categorization of content pages, even if the urls are do not include category information. This scenario is most used in content rich sites and blogs for SEO purposes to provide clean and short URLs to Search Engines. But this kind of practice creates difficulties for Web Analyst as he will not be able to analyze which areas of the site perform better/worse than other.
- Similarly using Custom Variables also allows us to analyze the interaction of single user, whether logged in or not, and how they make use of our site/content.
For practical example I recommend viewing the latest webinar recording on this topic, although the audio quality is very poor, but it contains very useful information. Also, if you can’t bear the audio long enough you can skip to the “Case Study” part, it starts from the 30th min of the webinar, although the rest of the webinar is very useful, but just in case you want to have an idea of the implementation, you should see the last 10 mins first.
