How do I apply regex filters in the Google Analytics connector?

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  • letsdothis
    letsdothis Domo Employee
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    Important to note, if the above article is displaying emoji in the filters of Google Analytics, you just need to turn them off to properly view the article.

     

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Answers

  • letsdothis
    letsdothis Domo Employee

     

    A useful feature built into the Google Analytics connector is the ability to filter the data you import using Google’s own Filter API. Filters are short statements that you can apply within a Google Analytics Data Source that give you added flexibility to let you refine the data that’s imported.

     

    For example, let’s say you are interested in building a Current Visitors Count Data Source that displays the number of visitors currently on the contact page on your website. By default the Data Source will pull through the total number of visitors across the whole of the website you’re tracking with Google Analytics. However, applying the filter ga:pageTitle==Contact would allow you to refine this and import only the visitors currently on your page titled ‘Contact’ on your Data Source.

     

     

    BUILDING A FILTER STATEMENT: DIMENSIONS & METRICS

     

    anatomy-of-a-filter.png

     

     

    A filter statement consists of several elements that tell the Data Source exactly what data needs to be imported. At the heart of this statement are the dimensions or metrics that the Data Source is supposed to filter, such as the source of traffic or the URL of a specific page.

     

    Popular dimensions and metrics include:

     

     

    campaignmediumkeyword
    yearlanguageday
    sourcepageTitletransactions
    pagePathcountrybounceRate

     

     

    A full range of metrics and dimensions can be found at https://developers.google.com/ analytics/devguides/reporting/core/dimsmets. Almost all of these can be added and even combined within a filter statement to create a very specific set of data within a Data Source. 

     

     

     

    BUILDING A FILTER STATEMENT: OPERATORS

     

    Operators work with metrics to allow you to specify how your data should be manipulated. For example, if you’ve selected ‘city’ as the metric you’re interested in, do you want to include only data from a specific city, exclude data from a specific city, include only data from a specific list of cities, or display data from cities that contain a specific word? Operators let you take the basic ‘city’ data and do much more with it than simply showing it.

       

    OPERATORDESCRIPTIONEXAMPLE
    ==Equals, exact matchShow data for visitors who have visited your website exactly 8 times.ga:sessionCount==8
    !=Does not equal, does not matchShow visitor data for all sources apart from Google. ga:source!=google
    >Greater thanShow data for visitors who have visited your website over 9 times.ga:sessionCount>9
    <Less thanShow data for visitors who have visited your website fewer than 2 times.ga:sessionCount<2
    >=Greater than or equal toShow data for visitors who have visited your website 9 times or more.ga:sessionCount>=9
    ContainsShow data for any page whose URL contains the word ‘learn’.ga:pagePath=@learn
    Does not containga:pagePath!@404
    =~Contains a match for a regular expressionShow data for visitors from countries starting with ‘united’.ga:country=~united
    !~Does not start with, using regular expressionExclude data for visitors from countries starting with ‘united’.ga:country!~united

     

    Source: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/core/v3/reference#filterOperators

     

    BUILDING A FILTER STATEMENT: STRINGS & VALUES

     

    The final part of a filter statement to be aware of is the string or value. Set at the end, it lets you define a specific value for the metric you’re basing your filter on, for example an individual city, date, page title or traffic source. The string or value should match those available for the metric you’ve defined in the first part of the statement, i.e if your metric is ‘city’ you much choose the name of a city to filter or else you will trigger an error.

      COMBINING FILTERS

    Filters can also be combined using AND as well as OR logic to create a powerful tool for monitoring very specific elements of your business.

    The OR operator is defined using a comma (,). It takes precedence over the AND operator and may NOT be used to combine dimensions and metrics in the same expression.

    Example: Visitors using either Windows OR Macintosh operating systems: ga:operatingSystem== Windows,ga:operatingSystem==Macintosh

    The AND operator is defined using a semi-colon (;). It is preceded by the OR operator and CAN be used to combine dimensions and metrics in the same expression.

    Example: Country is United Kingdom AND the source is Facebook: ga:country==United%20 Kingdom;ga:browser==Facebook

     

    Source: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/core/v3/reference#combiningFilters

      EXAMPLE FILTERS

     

    Here are some example filters to get you started:

    

    FILTER SYNTAX 
    ga:source==twitter.comTraffic source is Twitter
    ga:keyword==googleReferring keyword is ‘google’
    ga:pageTitle==ContactTitle of page is ‘Contact’ (exact match)
    ga:pagePath=~contactURL of page contains ‘contact’ anywhere
    ga:country==United KingdomVisitor country is United Kingdom
    ga:country==United Kingdom;ga:city!=LondonCountry is United Kingdom and City is not London
    ga:eventCategory==DownloadReport,ga:eventCategory==DownloadCaseStudyShow all events with the category DownloadReport or DownloadCaseStudy
    ga:eventCategory==DownloadReport,ga:eventLabel!=ShareCaseStudyShow all events with the category Download but not Label ShareCaseStudy

     

     

    There are a number of useful resources that have been provided by Google to help explain the many other ways to get the most out of Google Analytics.  Please see the links below for additional information.

     

     

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    I work for Domo.
    **Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumbs up in the post that helped you.
    **Please mark the post that solves your problem as "Accepted Solution"
  • letsdothis
    letsdothis Domo Employee
    Answer ✓

    Important to note, if the above article is displaying emoji in the filters of Google Analytics, you just need to turn them off to properly view the article.

     

    Remove Emoji

    This is found in My Settings > Preferences > Display.

    -----
    I work for Domo.
    **Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumbs up in the post that helped you.
    **Please mark the post that solves your problem as "Accepted Solution"

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