Calculated Metrics have been a long requested feature for Google Analytics. In this post, I will provide 25 use cases for calculated metrics, in addition to showing you how to use them.

What Are Calculated Metrics?

How Many Calculated Metrics Can I Make?Calculated metrics in Google Analytics are derived metrics from standard and/or custom metrics. Standard metrics are metrics that Google provides for you like Users, Sessions, and Pageviews. Custom Metrics are any other non-standard metric you create like Logins, Signups, or Video PlayTime. You can make any combination of standard metrics with or without custom metrics using standard arithmetic operators like multiplication, division, addition and subtraction to build calculated metrics.

The standard (free) version of Google Analytics allows for the creation of 5 calculated metrics per view. The Premium version comes with 50 calculated metrics per view. Calculated metrics limits do not take away from your quota of custom dimensions and metrics. You could have 5 custom metrics, 20 custom dimensions and 5 calculated metrics per view for standard Google Analytics or 200 Custom Metrics and 50 calculated metrics for Premium. Learn about properties, views (profiles) and accounts from Google.

Where Can I Use Calculated Metrics in Google Analytics?

Calculated metrics are available in custom reports, dashboard widgets, and through the API. At this time you will be unable to use any of your calculated metrics in any of the standard reports. Being able to use them in dashboards, with the ability to link the dashboard widgets to custom reports where they are used, should meet the majority of use cases you would need a calculated metric for.

How Can I Make A Calculated Metric?

Making a calculated metrics is one of the easiest processes in Google Analytics. The hardest part will be finding them in the Admin section. After that it’s super easy, especially if you are familiar with Google Tag Manager! It will feel very similar to selecting variables (macros).

Step 1: Open Calculated Metrics

Assuming you have ‘Edit’ permissions to your Google Analytics account, find your way by clicking Admin -> Views -> Calculated Metrics -> Click ‘New Calculated Metric’.

Step 2: Create a Calculated Metric

To create a calculated metric you will need to provide a name, generate an external name, select a formatting type and enter the formula for the calculation of your metric. The name, integer and formulas can be changed at any time and will work retroactively. If you make a mistake or need to rename it there are no negatives to doing so! This is such an important feature, as accidental user errors in either the calculation or the selection of formatting type can happen to the best of us Google has made it user friendly in that we can make mistakes and make as many updates as we need to correct them. The end result will have the metric calculated historically to whatever the current conditions are. Would it not be awesome if goals and goal funnels always worked like this! (Feature Request to Google) To create your metric populate these fields as follows:

Name – This should be descriptive and make sense to all users who have access to your data. Names that work usually contain the metrics that are being used or a description of what the average is. Examples: Pages / User, Downloads / Users, Blog Views per User or Avg. User Duration. External Name – This field will be populated when you enter a Name for your metric. You will not be able to modify this after metric creation. This is how you will query the metric through the Google Analytics API. As long as your original entry of the name of the metric is applicable, you should never have a need to change this. Formatting Type – You have a variety of formats to select from. Here are examples of how each will appear in Google Analytics. You can change these after creation. Integer – 4 Currency – $5.23 Time – 00:04:13 Float – 3.63 Percent – 72.34% Formula – Type a metric and you will be able to select it automatically in a dropdown if its available. You can use the following operators: +, -, /, *, () and any number including decimals. This will allow you to do all basic arithmetic calculations in addition to using parenthesis to group conditions and entering numbers for calculations. Minus operators are currently unsupported. An example of a formula could be: ( {{Users}} / {{Sessions}}) * 2.1 //Note the {{ and }} are added to your metric names automatically calculated-metric-settings.

25 Calculated Metrics for Google Analytics

With the customization and and flexibility that Google Analytics provides there are infinite possibilities for calculated metrics. The vast majority of calculated metrics that will be created will be for ratios, which simply divide two given metrics. This will especially be applicable for ratios using custom metrics. Using both custom metrics that you should be utilizing as well as predefined standard metrics I have come up with examples of calculated metrics you can create. Below are some of the most relevant examples:

Engagement Metrics:

Pages / User – Average number of pages viewed per user Calculation = {{Pageviews}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Float

– Average number of pages viewed per user Avg. User Duration – Average time spend on site per user Calculation = {{Session Duration}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Time

– Average time spend on site per user Signup Success Rate Calculation = {{Signup Success}} / {{Signup Submits}} Formatting Type = Percent Note: Signup and Success and Signup Submits are Custom Metrics you would need to implement. See this post for how to setup up custom metrics

Login Success Rate Calculation = {{Login Success}} / {{Login Submits}} Formatting Type = Percent Note: Login and Success and Login Submits are Custom Metrics you would need to implement. See this post for how to setup up custom metrics

Blog Views / User Calculation = {{Blog Views}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Float Note: Blog Views is a Custom Metric you would need to implement

Downloads / User Calculation = {{Downloads}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Float Note: Downloads is a Custom Metric you would need to implement

Lead Form Submission Rates (Contact Us or Lead Forms) Calculation = {{Form Submissions}} / {{Form Views}} Formatting Type = Percentage Note: Form Submissions and Form Views are Custom Metrics you would need to implement

(Contact Us or Lead Forms)

AdWords Metrics

Avg. Cost per Session – Average cost per session Calculation = {{Cost}} / {{Sessions}} Formatting Type = Currency

– Average cost per session Sessions / Clicks – Average sessions per clicks. Useful for monitoring tagging quality Calculation = {{Sessions}} / {{Clicks}} Formatting Type = Float

– Average sessions per clicks. Useful for monitoring tagging quality

Ecommerce Metrics

Revenue (No Shipping / Tax) – Revenue without shipping or tax Calculation = {{Revenue}} – {{Shipping}} – {{Tax}} Formatting Type = Currency

– Revenue without shipping or tax Avg. Order Value (No Shipping /Tax) – Average order value with shipping and tax removed Calculation = ({{Revenue}} – {{Shipping}} – {{Tax}}) / {{Transactions}} Formatting Type = Currency

– Average order value with shipping and tax removed Revenue per User – Average revenue per user Calculation = {{Revenue}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Currency

– Average revenue per user Revenue per Session – Average revenue per session Calculation = {{Revenue}} / {{Sessions}} Formatting Type = Currency

– Average revenue per session Custom Revenue – Used to perform currency conversion for custom currencies Calculation = {{Revenue}} * 1.33 Formatting Type = Currency

– Used to perform currency conversion for custom currencies

Event Metrics

Avg. Events Per Session – Average number of events per session Calculation = {{Total Events}} / {{Sessions}} Formatting Type = Float

– Average number of events per session Avg. Events Per User – Average number of events per user Calculation = {{Total Events}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Float

– Average number of events per user Total Events / Unique Events – Number of times events are repeated in a session Calculation = {{Total Events}} / {{Unique Events}} Formatting Type = Float

– Number of times events are repeated in a session Avg. Event Value Per Session – Average event value per session Calculation = {{Event Value}} / {{Sessions}} Formatting Type = Float

– Average event value per session Avg. Event Value per User – Average event value per user Calculation = {{Event Value}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Float

– Average event value per user

Video Metrics

Avg. User PlayTime – Average amount of video consumed per user Calculation = {{Video PlayTime}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Float Note: Video PlayTime is a Custom Metric you would need to implement

– Average amount of video consumed per user Avg. Session PlayTime – Average amount of video consumed per session Calculation = {{Video PlayTime}} / {{Sessions}} Formatting Type = Float Note: Video PlayTime is a Custom Metric you would need to implement

– Average amount of video consumed per session Video Completion Rate – Percentage of video completions per video start Calculation = {{Video Completes}} / {{Video Starts}} Formatting Type = Percentage Note: Video Starts and Completes are Custom Metrics you would need to implement

– Percentage of video completions per video start Video Views / User – Average number of pages viewed per user Calculation = {{Video Starts}} / {{Users}} Formatting Type = Float Note: Video Starts is a Custom Metric you would need to implement

– Average number of pages viewed per user Video Views / Session – Average number of pages viewed per user Calculation = {{Video Starts}} / {{Sessions}} Formatting Type = Float Note: Video Starts is a Custom Metric you would need to implement

– Average number of pages viewed per user Cost per Play – Average cost per video play Calculation = {{Cost}} / {{Video Starts}} Formatting Type = Float Note: Video Starts is a Custom Metric you would need to implement

– Average cost per video play

[btn class=”sm” href=”https://www.analyticspros.com/services/”]Learn More[/btn]

Some of the metrics above rely on Custom Metrics. If you have never created a Custom Metrics before, Google Analytics also has detailed documentation. The Google Analytics user base is just getting started with Calculated Metrics. I would love to hear some of your best metrics that you have created in the comments below. If you have any questions or need any help reach out in the comments or you can connect with me on Twitter.