As most online marketers and web designers would already know, Google Analytics can be an absolute treasure trove of invaluable information or a time sucking black hole of dead ends and dirty data.
Although many of us have a little bag of tricks for finding the data we need (a bag filled with custom reports, metrics comparisons and other analytics best practices), Google is preparing to make all of our lives just a little bit easier.
As reported in Adweek on October 20, Google is looking to add a bit of A.I into their next analytics update; Analytics Intelligence that is.
The new Google Analytics ‘Intelligence Engine’ will automatically work to find insights within your web traffic data that may have been overlooked. The new tool will have a couple of nifty built-in features but the real beauty in this beast is the fact that you can create customised alerts for each of the analytics accounts that you manage. The primary purpose of Google’s Intelligence Engine is to automatically unearth insights for web markers and designers. Sounds pretty exciting huh?
As you can see from the screenshot below (courtesy of flickr.com), Google have once again excelled in their penchant for creating slick, effective and efficient user interfaces. The design is in harmony with the current analytics interface and allows search engine marketers a quick snapshot of any pertinent analytical insights or pre-determined custom alerts.
But what does all of this mean?
It means that, in the not too distant future, when you open your analytics account you may be greeted with some juicy, perceptive and extremely relevant data to get your head into an analytical frame of mind. This is just another gift from Google. All you need to do in return is use the information provided in order to optimise your Google advertising campaigns. It’s a win-win for you and for Google.
But don’t be fooled by all the new bells and whistles coming soon to an Analytics account near you, automation can only ever get you so far. When it comes to data mining and online marketing, the real value of this upgrade will come from the statistical marketer behind the mouse. It is his/her job it is to decipher which insights are relevant to the client’s cause and which are just irrelevant, albeit interesting tidbits of information.
