Having recently configured this for a client and for our own site, I thought I would walk you through how to set up automated email reports in the new-look Google Analytics as it has changed recently in terms of the user interface, and can be a bit tricky.
Also, if you are using email scheduling from the old Google Analytics, Google have hinted that they will be shutting off this feature later this year so it’s best to set up on their new system with the analytics which matter most to your site & business.
Setting up an Email Report
As you can see, once you’ve logged into a report in Google Analytics there is now an ’email’ option (with BETA next to it) in the main navigation bar underneath the name of the report – below are examples for ‘Visitors Overview’ and ‘All Traffic’.
No matter which report you are looking at you will still see these main navigation options, so if you want to be sent reports on Site Speed Page Timings you can do so.
Once you’ve found the report you wish to receive by email, click the email button to display this pop-up:
As you can see there are a number options for you to tailor the report to your preferences.
‘To’ field – add a recipient emails for who you want to receive reports. Separate each email with a comma.
Subject – give the report a name (important if you’re setting up multiple reports)
Attachments – select which format to receive the report in. CSV, TSV, TSV for Excel and PDF. If you are looking to manipulate the data into your own reporting formats then TSV/TSV for Excel would be best. If you are reviewing the data as is, then PDF format should do the trick.
Frequency – choose when to receive the email report from once, daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly.
Day of the week – what day you want to receive the report e.g. before your site review every Friday morning. Take a look at your time-zone in Google Analytics to make sure you are on the correct time-zone and so the report arrives in time.
In Advanced Options you can add a time limit to the report if its for a finite campaign.
The big white box is for you to add copy to the email if required. You need to input something to allow the report to be set up.
Then… hit SAVE.
You have now set up a scheduled email report.
It is also worth remembering that you can schedule email reports using advanced segments or comparing to a previous time period, you just have to generate the report before clicking the ’email’ button to schedule the send. The old Google Analytics reporting interface had a check-box to receive a week on week comparison. This is now generated by the date range function:
Google Analytics also offers the option to combine more than one reports. To do this, you simply need to set up a second report and then hit the ‘Add To Existing Email’ link and follow the instructions.
Amending Scheduled Reports
If you need to amend any scheduled reports, you can do so by clicking the orange ‘admin’ button on the right side of the navigation bar.
In the admin settings there is a link for ‘Scheduled Emails’. Here you will be able to view and edit the reports you have created.
That’s it. You now can save those vital reports in Google Analytics to be scheduled to your email to save the time having to go through your dashboard. Once set-up it keeps you across the key site metrics, and allowing more time to make those important changes to your strategy.
If there’s anything I haven’t covered here which you’re having trouble with then just drop a comment and we’ll endeavor to help.