Whenever you set the dimensions and metrics to see in your Google Analytics reports, you have to set them accordingly. Here, you can’t just select a random dimension and metric combination and call it a day. A random dimension-metric combination is never viable and will yield no data on the results.
This is why you need to be specific about your dimension-metric combinations. For example, in the Google Analytics certification exam question above, selecting sessions and bounce rate is a wrong combination. This is because both sessions and bounce rates are metrics, knot dimensions. You cannot choose a combination of two dimensions or metrics to show in Google Analytics!
On the other hand, the device category, user type, and source are all dimensions, with toral events, average time on page, and sessions being metrics.
Understanding Scopes In Google Analytics
When it comes to the validity of various types of dimensions and metric combinations, the scopes play a major role. Here, scopes refer to certain categories of information that dimensions and metrics report on.
There are various primary scopes in Google Analytics. They are:
1. User Level Scopes
User-level scopes consist of dimensions and metrics which show the location from where users and customers are coming. Therefore, you can understand which factors send users to your website – whether it’s organic Google search or Google Ads.
Examples of dimension-metric combinations at the User level:
- User type/users: This shows what type of user and how many of them are entering your website.
- Session count/new users: This shows how many new users are there per session.
2. Session Level Scopes
All dimensions and metrics in Session level scopes deal with showing how long users and customers navigate your website. It also shows how many returning and new users are visiting the website – which counts as sessions.
Examples of dimension-metric combinations at the session level are:
- Landing page/Sessions: This shows how much time users spend after visiting the landing page.
- Source/Bounce Rate: This shows the bounce rate of users according to where they originate from.
- Campaign/Average Session Duration: This shows the session duration of users who clocked on to your ads to enter your website.
3. Event Or Hit Level Scopes
Whenever a user enters your website, they perform lots of actions. This includes clicking on various links on your web pages, making purchases, amd lots more. These events are also referred to s hits.
Some examples of hit/event level dimension/metric combinations are:
Page/pageview: This shows how many total pages have been navigated by users on their sessions.
Hostname/time on page: This shows how much time a single host (user/visitor) has spent on a particular web page.
Event category/total events: This combination reports on how many hits of a single type (eg. product purchases) have been made.
Metrics Attribution Models
All data that you see on your Google Analytics report is measured by means of various attribution models. These models basically act as the formula using which metrics get calculated and help understand how measurements are listed. These attribution models are:
1. Per Request
The per-request attribution model in Google Analytics provides aggregate values regarding all the pairings between dimensions and metrics. This attribute is pretty easy to generate since they are drawn out from each GIF request made individually.
Here, each request can be matched with a dimension or a metric. However, most of the values of such dimensions are available at request levels, where they remain persistent.
Some of the most widely used dimensions at this request level in Google Analytics are:
- Page URL: The page URL will show you the URL of each and every page on your website when you click to open them.
- Campaign: If the user enters the web page through a Google AdSense campaign, that campaign code persists along with every page that you visit on the website after the landing page.
- User Agent: This attribute deals with information regarding the browser and the device used by the user. This information is collected using website cookies – the requests to access you get on every website.
2. Page Value
The value of a page refers to how much value it generates for the users when they visit the page. Basically, it refers to the usefulness of your web pages for your visitors.
When it comes to websites, each page has a page value attribute assigned to them. This page value is measured as per the goals of the page and how many purchases have been made by users to reach that goal.
3. Site Search
Google Analytics has a special type of report known as a Site Search report. This report deals with showing you all conversion rates and the goal value of a keyword search on Google.
Here, the Site Search attributed deals with the various search keywords customers use to reach your pages and make purchases. Therefore, this is a pretty important attribute to check since your Google AdWords campaigns will depend on these search terms.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions):-
People interested in giving Google Analytics exams have asked other questions regarding what metric-dimension combination is not valid. Here are the answers to some of them:
Ans: In Google Analytics there are four types of scopes:
1. Product Scope
2. Session Scope
3. Hit Scope
4. User Scope
Ans: The four levels or stages in data analytics are:
1. Diagnostic Analytics
2. Descriptive Analytics
3. Prescriptive Analytics
4. Predictive Analytics
Ans: To generate reports in the most accurate manner, ensure that your metrics and dimensions belong to the same scope. If they are not of the same scope, they will not be able to generate reports that have accurate data.
Conclusion
When it comes to understanding what metric-dimension combination is not valid in Google Analytics reports, scopes play an important role. It’s because scopes determine which dimensions and metrics get combined together. This is why sessions/bounce rate is not a compatible dimension/metric combination.
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