Google Analytics Rolls Out Industry Benchmark Reports

“If you’ve ever wondered how your website is performing compared to the competition, our new Benchmarking reports in Google Analytics will help you find out.” – Google Analytics Team

That’s the announcement from the Google Analytics team, and it’s a game-changer for internet marketing. For the first time you can see how your online presence measures up to others in your industry.  This feature is rolling out to all users over the next few weeks.

Marketers can now compare their performance against 1600 industry categories and 1250 markets. There is even a heat map feature to highlight areas of strength, and where to make improvements. This heat map can help set priorities for allocating resources and managing budgets.

“The new Benchmarking reports display acquisition and engagement metrics — like sessions and bounce rate — by Channel, Location, or Device Category dimensions. To ensure total data transparency, the number of properties contributing to the benchmark is displayed once you choose the industry, market and size.” – Google Analytics team

The new benchmark reports are located in the “Audience” section of the reporting interface. There is a catch, to gain access to these industry benchmark reports you must first select “Share anonymously with Google and others.” Find this setting under Account Settings => Admin.