Secondary Dimensions in Google Analytics in Details.

5 min readNov 15, 2020

Let’s Know more about Secondary Dimensions in GA.

The Journey with “Digital Analytics Minidegree” on CXL Institute is Continue and this is the 8th Post.

the instructor of the course is Chris Mercer is really good. Thanks, Mr. Mercer.

How to Use the Secondary Dimension

Okay, so hopefully I’ve got convinced you by now how awesome and necessary it’s to use the secondary dimension feature. Next is that the straightforward part, some way to denote the secondary dimension in reports.

This “how-to” is relatively short because it’s literally only 2 clicks or actions. In your reporting tab, take a look at one standard report provided, as an example the “Content-> Site Content -> All Pages” report. All you’d prefer to attempt to do is click the “Secondary Dimension” drop tab above the table of information, and input a dimension you’d wish to match the default dimension to.

Note that some reports, rather like the Overview reports, don’t include the Secondary Dimension feature, and you’re doing not see the menus.

That’s about it, and now you recognize the thanks to using the secondary dimension! Here are my top 5 dimension combinations for google analytics standard reports:

Traffic Source->All Traffic->Source/Medium(primary dimension) + Landing Page (secondary dimension)
This shows top content/landing pages in terms of top sources/mediums.

Traffic Sources->Search->Organic->Keyword(primary dimension) + Landing Page (secondary dimension)
This shows top content/landing pages in terms of top organic keyword searches including (not provided) keywords.

Audience->Behavior->New vs Returning->Visitor Type (primary dimension) + City (secondary dimension)
This shows top cities' visitors are coming from in terms of the latest and returning visitor traffic, also show the difference between various cities. Can explain potentially what new cities should be target markets.

Content->Events->Top Events-> Event Category(primary dimension) + Event Action (secondary dimension)
This is just far better because of seeing what specific events are working best, by showing both the category and event action. Most beneficial if you’ve many event tracking or if you track outgoing links.

Content->Site Content->All Pages->Page (primary dimension) + Visitor Type (secondary dimension)
Again, another critical report back to indicate top content but with relevancy what type of visitor. For sites with a “log in” feature, this might prove extra valuable because returning visitors likely will observe different a component of the placement versus current visitors, and content should be modified based on what form of the audience is viewing it.

I hope this was helpful as you begin analyzing your web analytics and improve your digital marketing! As always, be happy to attain bent on us to search out out more about what reasonably advanced web analytics services we provide or if you have any questions!

Add a secondary dimension to a report

To add a secondary dimension to a table:
Below the list of primary dimensions, click the Secondary dimension.
Browse the list of dimensions, or enter all or an element of the dimension name within the search box.
Click the dimension name.

How am I ready to use dimensions to answer a specific question?

When you click on a report, the first thing you’ll choose is which primary dimension you would like to drill into within a report. Google Analytics will always choose a default primary dimension for a report, but sometimes a singular primary dimension can provide a unique perspective on your data.

For example, for instance, you went into the Geo > Location report and drilled down by clicking on us.

This brings you to a report for US data, but the default primary dimension categorizes the data into “Regions” (AKA states).

When you take a glance at data with the Region's primary dimension, the states of California & NY will often appear to come back up with the foremost traffic to your website by the state — but wouldn’t you expect the foremost important states by population to possess the foremost sessions?

By choosing the Metro primary dimension instead, we see that the foremost traffic comes from the Philadelphia metro area as a full (including Philly, Southern NJ, and Delaware), quite any specific metro area in California or the large apple.

This can be really helpful if you’re located in an exceedingly very city near state borders since the full metro area is included, rather than having data split between multiple states.

Difference Between Metrics and Dimensions

On default, Google Analytics shows you a report with one dimension and a pair of metrics.

Dimensions are on default visible as rows in Google Analytics which is seen as a group of characteristics of a gaggle of tourists on your site. Three examples: landing page, device type, and language.

Metrics are the numbers that sometimes populate those rows. Time on site, bounce rate, and eCommerce conversion rate are some examples.

If you recognize the difference between both, it’s much easier to urge the larger picture of analyzing data.

I recommend to check out these 10 actionable tips to master metrics and dimensions additionally.

Why Use Secondary Dimensions

If you study only one dimension and many of various metrics, there isn’t any due to put your data in a deeper context than the first basic segmentation level.

Let’s take a look at an example below:

The data above confirmed the common bounce rate per traffic source and medium combination.

You can immediately see that the bounce rates are roughly varying between 70 and 80%. But what’s happening on a deeper level? Are specific segments performing better than others?

Using Secondary Dimensions

The feature is found within the information table. Click on the drop-down next to “Secondary Dimension” to figure out a list of accessible secondary dimensions for this report you’re on. See the image below to see where you’ll access it.

Please note in some reports you may not see an option for Secondary report because those reports don’t offer the selection to feature secondary dimension.

How do you revisit your default view?

See the image below, there’s an (X) next to the secondary dimension. Just click thereon (X) and you will be back to the default view of the primary dimension.

Thanks, CXL Institute.