This article describes the steps I went through to build a working prototype; it is light on process and documentation because this is an educational article, not a technical how-to article. More
How To Guides (filter at right)
*Building the Google Analytics Traffic Dashboard
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
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
A Programmer’s Guide to Analytics Edge No-Code Macros
If you’ve written a few lines of script and aren’t afraid of words like “variables”, this guide will get you going quickly with Analytics Edge macros. Even if you’ve just played with a few Excel formulas, you might surprise yourself with how much you can do with Analytics Edge macros and how FAST it gets done! More
Active table in memory?
What is this green worksheet with the message “ANALYTICS EDGE – active table in memory…“? When you are editing a query or stepping through an Analytics Edge macro, a green worksheet (ᴁ Step Results) will appear. This temporary worksheet shows you what it is currently in memory — the results of the last function step — before you formally write it out to a worksheet.
Add-in: Call VBA From A Repeating Macro
Let’s say you have an Analytics Edge workbook that uses a Repeat Macro function to loop through several web properties, each writing to a separate worksheet. Since Analytics Edge doesn’t help you with worksheet formatting much, let’s say you whipped up a little VBA code to do it. How would you integrate that VBA code into the Analytics Edge macro? More
Add-in: Changing Dates in Multiple Queries
If you are build a report that includes multiple queries and you want to be able to change the dates of all the queries at once, there are a couple of ways you can get this done — with a little pre-planning, or a little hacking. More
Add-in: Hacking the Query Worksheet
The Analytics Edge Core Add-in allows you to place Quick Queries anywhere in your workbook, but all those queries can be edited in a single place: the ‘ᴁ Analytics Edge Queries’ worksheet. Caution is strongly recommended–make a backup of your workbook before you start! More
Calculating a Weighted Average (Average of Averages)
A common reporting challenge in Excel is merging sets of data, such as combining monthly numbers for a quarterly or annual total. Adding up simple metrics is obvious, but what do you do with things like the average position or conversion rate? [Hint: you should not average or total anything that is already an average or ratio] More
Constant Contact: Autoresponder Reporting
Constant Contact offers some simple reports on your autoresponder campaigns, but little detail is available. Even through the API, the data is difficult to extract, but it can be done. This article details how Analytics Edge makes it possible to monitor your email series to see who each message was sent to, which ones bounced, whether they were opened, and whether they clicked on a link.
Constant Contact: Click-Through Data
Downloading Constant Contact click-through data for multiple clients has never been easier than with Analytics Edge and the Constant Contact connector. This article describes the process in detail, so you can get the job done fast! More
Constant Contact: Click-Through Data Analysis
In a follow-up to Downloading Constant Contact Click-Through Data, this article shows how Analytics Edge can easily turn the raw downloaded data into meaningful analytics without a lot of work or confusing formulas. More
Constant Contact: Email Cohort Analysis
This article explains how to build a cohort analysis report in Excel using the Analytics Edge Core Add-in with the Constant Contact connector. Cohort Analysis lets you see how one group of subscribers behaves differently from another. More
Constant Contact: Getting Started With The Connector
To get started with Analytics Edge and the Constant Contact connector, you need to install and register an Analytics Edge add-in. Then the Constant Contact connector needs to be installed — it will automatically activate a 30 day trial for you. More
Constant Contact: Reporting Automation
With Analytics Edge, your reporting gets a whole lot easier with single-click refreshes, and you don’t lose any of the flexibility that makes Microsoft Excel so popular for Constant Contact analytics reporting. Here’s an example of one engagement that went from idea to “This is AMAZING!!” in 24 hours. More
Creating an Excel Dashboard Widget
Creating a dashboard in Excel can be quite simple –it’s really just a matter of downloading the right data and some easy formatting techniques. Layout is your challenge, but even that can be overcome.
Error: 400 AuthorizationError CUSTOMER_NOT_ACTIVE
This Google AdWords API error occurs when you try to query an old account that has not been active in over 15 months. The API will not permit queries to inactive accounts. This usually occurs in agencies with long account lists, some of which are old and no longer used. 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
Error: License issued to a different computer?
Analytics Edge is licensed by computer, so the add-in keeps track of the computer it is licensed for (even the free product is licensed). Sometimes a Windows Update or hardware change will mess up the license, and you will get an error saying “License issued to a different computer”. More
Formatting Notes
Once installed and registered, the Analytics Edge Add-in can be used to quickly refresh multiple queries in your workbook. Simply select a destination cell and make a query, then repeat. 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: Building a Multi-Site Report
With the Analytics Edge Core Add-in for Excel, you can easily build a multi-website report, quickly and without programming. This article and the attached sample workbook show how easy it can be. 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.
Google Analytics: Top Sources for Top Landing Pages
This video shows how easily multiple queries can be created and the results combined to produce a detailed report, in this case, grabbing the top sources for each of the top landing pages on your site. More
Google Search: Annual Reporting
Long-term reporting with Google Search Console data is fraught with challenges. This article discusses some of the unique problems time can create, and how Analytics Edge products can save you time while solving them. More
Google Search: Branded Versus Non-Branded
The filtering capability in Google Search Console is very restrictive (single phrase match), making it useless for separating branded from non-branded search terms in all but the simplest cases. Enter the Analytics Edge Core Add-in — a quick regular expression filter and your work is done. More
Google Search: Branded vs Non-Branded for Large Sites
If you manage several large websites, the Analytics Edge Core Add-in allows you to build an efficient template for separating branded and non-branded search queries from the Google Search connector. More
Google Search: Download All Your Page And Query Data
Downloading your Google Search Console data into Excel is easy with Analytics Edge. The Google Search Connector uses the API to pull down all of the query and page metrics — without the 1000 or 5000 row limit imposed by the web interface. More
Google Search: Eliminating Noise
As discussed in a companion blog article, while trying to create an annual report for my own websites, I discovered that Google Search data is full of ‘noise’ — data that actually makes it harder to make useful observations about trends. This article includes the workbook I used.
Google Search: Get 16 Months Of Search Data
The Google Search API now supports a full 16 months of historical data, but the only date-related field is ‘date’, so this is how to get all that data out in a meaningful way — in weekly or monthly buckets. The Google Search Connector from Analytics Edge provides a MultiQuery tab that does just what you need, and your appears in Excel in seconds! More
Google Search: Quick SEO Analysis
See how quickly the Analytics Edge Core Add-in can transform a pile of Google Search data into a spreadsheet of actionable information (video 7:17). More
Google Search: Trends Reporting
With the Analytics Edge Google Search connector, you can easily get week-to-week or month-to-month reporting in a single query. More
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
How To Add Row Numbers
There are times you want to see row numbers in your results — a cumulative count column starting at 1 and increasing down the column. A combination of two Analytics Edge macro functions makes this possible. More
How To Build a Report Using Fiscal Weeks
Building queries based on calendar periods is pretty straight forward, but when challenged to build a report using fiscal periods, the Analytics Edge cell references can to be used to get any fiscal period you need. The magic is figuring out a series of Excel formulas (or just manually entering them) for the fiscal dates. More
How to Schedule Email Delivery of Reports
The Analytics Edge Core Add-in allows you to fully automate the refresh and delivery of report by email on a schedule of your choosing. It involves several steps:
- setup your email server options
- create the report you want to send
- add a macro with a Save/Email PDF or Workbook command
- schedule the report to run
Incremental Report Updates
If your monthly report is regularly pulling down a full year’s worth of data, it is probably downloading 11 months of data that hasn’t changed. You can speed things up by doing an incremental update — just download the data you need. More
ISO Week Reporting
When a connector (API) does not offer the ability to make weekly reports based on international or ISO weeks (Monday to Sunday), you can use the Analytics Edge Core Add-in‘s Repeat Macro functionality to fill in the gap. More
Long-Tail Keyword Analysis (Advanced Example)
Long-tail keyword phrases are often made up of many different combinations of similar words, making it difficult to tell when there is a common topic of interest. This article walks through the creation of a keyword analysis report, based on weekly snippets of data from Google Search Console. More
MailChimp: Activity for the Latest Campaign
With the MailChimp Connector, Analytics Edge lets you automate more than just a data download – it lets you create a finished report that you can refresh with just a click. In this article, we’ll show how one click can get you a subscriber activity report for the most recent MailChimp campaign. More
Making a CTR versus Position Chart By Device
The Analytics Edge Core Add-in is perfect for doing a quick analysis of search engine ranking data. In this article, I show how to get a CTR versus Position chart by Devices — showing the difference for click-thorough-rate of desktop versus mobile. More
Manually Scheduling a Refresh
If you want to refresh a workbook more than once a day, or if you simply want to control the refreshes yourself, this article shows how the Analytics Edge Core Add-in and Standard Add-in interacts with the Windows Task Scheduler app. 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
Optional Connectors
Analytics Edge has a variety of connectors available. They can be installed, updated and uninstalled using the License wizard. When you add a paid connector, it automatically starts a 30-day free trial period. More
Problems With A Macro? How To Get Help
If you have problems developing a macro in Analytics Edge, I am here to help [support@analyticsedge.com]. Two things will make the process faster and more effective. 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
Reporting Multiple Google Analytics Segments
When you want to combine two or more queries, such as multiple Google Analytics segments, the Analytics Edge Core Add-in provides the tools to automate it. More
Running Macros from Buttons
The Analytics Edge Core Add-in can run a specific Analytics Edge macro from a button on your worksheet. More
Running Macros from VBA
With Analytics Edge Core Add-in, you can run an Analytics Edge macro (e.g. “MyMacro”) from Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), using code More
Running Queries from Buttons
With the Analytics Edge Core Add-in, it is now possible to run a specific Analytics Edge query from a button on your worksheet (the Analytics Edge Core Add-in must be installed). 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
Simple Google Search Console Query
See how quickly (20 seconds) you can get your Google Search Console data into Microsoft Excel using Analytics Edge products. (video 1:01) 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
Splitting a Column Into Multiple Rows
It may sound like a simple request, but splitting a column into rows is something you can’t do in Microsoft Excel without resorting to Visual Basic programming or using an add-in, like the Analytics Edge Core Add-in. More
Terminology
The Analytics Edge Core Add-in uses some common Microsoft Excel terminology, but the meanings are slightly different. 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
Upgrading from Basic Add-in to Core Add-in
If you have used the Analytics Edge Basic Add-in or Standard Add-in, and are moving up to the paid Analytics Edge Core Add-in, you will notice that things do not work the same way. More
Using Append to Worksheet
The Analytics Edge Core Add-in allows you to append the results of a query to the existing data in a worksheet. While the function is simple, there are some scenarios where you can experience problems. This article describes the problems you could experience and the solutions. More
Using Excel Tables With Analytics Edge
It may not be obvious, but the Analytics Edge add-ins support the use of Excel Tables (and linked PivotTables). Not sure what an Excel Table is? Chandoo.org has a good introductory article to this powerful Excel feature. More
Using Functions in Macros
The real power of the Analytics Edge Core Add-in are the other functions that let you sort, filter or pivot your data. You can convert text to dates, and dates to first-of-the-month. More
Using the Append Function
The Analytics Edge add-in lets you easily append data from one table to another, aligning the common columns but appending the new rows to the bottom. More
Using the Arrange Function
The Analytics Edge add-in for Microsoft Excel lets you easily rearrange or rename columns in your report. More
Using the Combine Function
The Analytics Edge add-in lets you easily combine data from two tables, aligning the common rows in key columns, and aggregating the cell values in other columns. More
Using the Compare Function
The Analytics Edge add-in lets you easily compare data from one table to another, calculating growth or change in numbers as well as time differences in dates. More
Using the Convert Function
The Convert Function of the Analytics Edge Core Add-in lets you convert text, numeric and date columns in a wide variety of ways. This article describes how it can be used in your Analytics Edge macros. More
Using the Duplicates Function
The Analytics Edge add-in for Microsoft Excel lets you easily combine rows with identical values in some of the columns. More
Using the Filter Function
The Analytics Edge add-in for Excel lets you easily filter data in a table. 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
Using the Group Function
The Group function in the Analytics Edge add-in lets you easily group or categorize data. It evaluates the values (text, numbers or dates) in a selected column, and adds a new column with group or category labels. The simple wizard interface gets the job done in seconds. More
Using the Match Function
The Analytics Edge add-in lets you keep or remove rows from one table if matching values exist in another. More
Using the Pivot Function
The Analytics Edge add-in for Excel lets you easily pivot data without the complexity of an Excel pivot table. More
Using the Read Worksheet Function
With the Analytics Edge add-in for Microsoft Excel, you can easily include data from existing worksheets in your automation macros. More
Using the Repeat Macro Function
The Repeat Macro function in the Analytics Edge Core Add-in lets you cycle through a list of items. More
Using the Run Macro Function
The Run Macro Function in the Analytics Edge Core Add-in lets you run other Analytics Edge macro or Excel VBA macros. This would typically be used to create a ‘master’ macro that runs through a specific sequence of other macros. With v7 of the Core Add-in, you can also trigger Excel VBA macros, which opens the door to running custom VBA code that does things Analytics Edge does not enable. More
Using the Update Function
The Analytics Edge add-in lets you easily update one table with values from matching rows of another table. More
Using Worksheet Values to Determine Reporting Period
This article explores how to use date values in your Excel workbook to drive Analytics Edge connector queries, opening the door to a more interactive reporting experience within Excel. More
Using [Range Names]
Report automation goes to a whole new level when you discover [range names] in the Analytics Edge Core Add-in! This capability is embedded throughout the product, and it allows you to grab values from your data to be used in subsequent functions, like filtering one query based on the result of another query. More
Write the Results into Excel
The Analytics Edge Core Add-in is holding your query results in memory, where you can easily manipulate it with other Analytics Edge functions. When you are ready, you will want to write the results into an Excel worksheet. 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