This article describes the steps taken to build the Google Analytics Traffic Dashboard report with the Analytics Edge Core Add-in. It follows the approach described in the article Building a Marketing Dashboard in Excel. More
How To Guides (filter at right)
1 Welcome to Analytics Edge
Analytics Edge makes it easy to get your data into Microsoft Excel. You can place multiple queries anywhere in your workbook as this video explains. More
2 Help Resources Available
The Analytics Edge help site has plenty of resources available for learning and assistance with reporting. This video explains what is available and highlights the ‘account not found’ problem people experience when sharing workbooks. More
3 Reproducing Standard Reports
This video reviews the common problems that people have when trying to reproduce standard web reports in Microsoft Excel using Analytics Edge. More
4 Creating Custom Reports
Analytics Edge was designed to create the customized reports people need for their website or campaign tracking needs. This video explains the common errors you may run across and what you can do about them. More
5 Licenses and Updates
This video explains how Analytics Edge products are licensed and updated. It demonstrates how to identify updates available and how to install them. More
Error: 400 invalidParameter ids
This Google Analytics API error indicates that you are referencing an invalid view ID. The view ID is the number that appears beside the view in the Accounts wizard (Analytics Edge connector for Google Analytics), or in the Google Analytics web interface when you click on the account selector at the top. More
Error: 400 Selected dimensions and metrics cannot be queried together
This Google Analytics API error indicates that the metrics and dimensions being requested cannot be used together. This usually happens when you are creating a custom report, and you added a combination of fields that the API rejects. More
Error: 401 authError Authorization
This Google Analytics API error indicates that the security token for the account you are using has failed. Normally the security tokens are auto-renewed, but if you changed the account password or otherwise changed your security settings, the renewal can also fail. More
Error: 403 User does not have sufficient permissions for this advanced segment
This Google Analytics API error means that the selected advanced segment is not available to the account you are using. This usually happens when you share a report with a coworker. Advanced segments in Google Analytics are personal assets and are associated with your login account. More
Error: 403 User does not have sufficient permissions for this profile
This Google Analytics API error indicates that the account you are using cannot access the Google Analytics view (profile). This usually happens when the Google Analytics account owner removes your access (a typical agency problem). More
Error: 503 There was a temporary error
This Google Analytics API error indicates that there was a problem processing your query request. This can occur if you make too many bad queries in a short period of time, or if you use use up your quota for the day. In some cases, it may indicate that the server was too busy to process your request (usually for a very large query). More
Error: Account not found. Check Account wizard
This error usually occurs when you share workbooks with coworkers, or after a computer move or rebuild. Analytics Edge stores a reference to the account in the workbook, but the actual security tokens are stored on your computer. More
Error: Invalid/missing dates
This error usually occurs when the cells you referenced in a query have moved or the contents are changed. Analytics Edge connectors offer the ability to use cell references for the dates, but the references can get out of alignment if you add rows or columns in the worksheet, or if you renamed the worksheet. More
Google Analytics: API Filter Expressions
FAQ: do NOT encode the “ga:” in the field names of your expression!
Custom filter expressions can be used in the Google Analytics connectors, but there are a number of rules you must follow. This is documented in Google’s API Reference, but it is part of the old v3 API documentation, which could be removed at any time, so I have copied and embellished it here.
Google Analytics: Basic Reporting
This article gets you started with some simple Google Analytics reports with Analytics Edge. More
Google Analytics: Building a Cohort Analysis
This article explains how to build a cohort analysis report in Excel using the Analytics Edge free Google Analytics connector. Cohort Analysis lets you see how one group of people behaved differently from another. More
Google Analytics: Custom Dynamic Segments
One of the features of the Google Analytics connector is the ability to create a custom dynamic segment, which is really useful when you are sharing workbooks with others. Custom segments in Google Analytics are stored as personal assets — they are associated with the login account, not the Google Analytics account. Because of that, using one of your custom segments in a query means other people cannot run your query; they will get an error when they try to refresh the query. More
Google Analytics: Monthly PDF Report
This article describes some of the more advanced techniques used to create the Excel workbook Google Analytics Monthly PDF Report. More
Google Analytics: New vs Returning Report
Google Analytics provides a New vs Returning report to measure the pull of your site and the extent to which you are encouraging first time users to return. Making this report with Analytics Edge allows you to easily track these metrics the way you want to see. More
Google Analytics: Reports Limited To 25 Months?
If you find your Google Analytics reports won’t download any data beyond 25 months, chances are this is due to your data retention settings. By default, they are set to purge after 26 months.
To change this, go into your Google Analytics Admin settings for your account: Property Settings > Tracking Info > Data Retention.
How the Blog Cohort Analysis Macro Works
If you’re trying to use the free report Cohort Analysis for Blog Articles, but don’t have the same blog path, here’s a behind the scenes look at how the macro was made so you can adapt it to your own article path. More
Meaningful Metrics: New vs Returning Visitors in Google Analytics
“I want to increase the number of returning visitors.” Now you need a report to track your progress. This article will help you navigate Google Analytics to find the right data, and to produce a meaningful report using Analytics Edge. More
Multi-Source Waterfall Report
The wizard-based automation provided by the Analytics Edge Core Add-in for Excel makes it easy to combine data from multiple sources. This article explores how you can build a Waterfall Report that includes data from Google Webmaster Tools (now Google Search), Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics and an external database. More
Multi-View Google Analytics Queries
The Analytics Edge connector Google Analytics Pro supports multiple view queries when used in combination with The Analytics Edge Core Add-in. More
Reading Sitemaps to Get a Full Listing of Pages
When analyzing website traffic, there are times you might want a full listing of the website’s pages…even those that never get any traffic or impressions. Google Analytics and Google Search Console will only report on pages were there is data, so these unrecognized pages continue to be overlooked. This article shows how the Analytics Edge Core Add-in can read the website’s sitemap files to extract a full listing of pages. More
Recreating the Google Analytics User Explorer Report
With the [undocumented] addition of the Client ID dimension to the Google Analytics API, you can now use the Analytics Edge Core Add-in and Google Analytics Pro connector to recreate the User Explorer report in Google Analytics. More
Selecting a Date Range
In most Analytics Edge wizards, you can select a data range for your query. There are a large number of combinations possible, but here are the most common selections. More
Spam-Free Reporting With Dynamic Segments
Google Analytics has had a bit of a referral spam problem over the past year, and although you can install filters in your account to prevent most of it (see the Definitive Guide to Removing GA Spam), you can’t apply them retroactively. More
Tiny Wizards, Fonts And Big Screens
Analytics Edge products are being updated to support the newer high resolution monitors, but until all of the products get updated, some of the wizards may appear smaller than the rest of your applications. These hard-to-read wizards can be fixed if you change your Display Settings. More
Tracking Multiple Websites
If you have multiple websites that you manage, and struggle to keep an eye on all of them at once, here’s how to create a quick report to compare their day-to-day traffic at a glance. More
Unsampled Data From Google Analytics For Free
Google Analytics sampling can really mess up a custom Excel report! The Free Google Analytics Connector included with all Analytics Edge Add-ins has the ability to minimize sampling problems with large sites and long time frame queries. More
Using the Google Analytics Pro Save Filter Function
The Google Analytics Pro connector contains a Save Filter function that lets you copy view filters from one account to a number of others with ease. More
Year-Over-Year Comparison in One Query
Here’s a neat little technique you can use to get year-over-year comparisons in one query with the Google Analytics Pro connector from Analytics Edge. More
Year-Over-Year Reporting
If you are trying to build a Google Analytics report comparing one year to the previous one, you can use the Pivot operation to make charting easier. The trick is to choose your dimensions wisely. More